He's finally been pushed. There is no way he would have jumped, certainly not of his own accord. He was, of course, allowed to go and make and the announcement himself - all the better to remove Brown from the taint of Hain's corruption accusations by not having his face anywhere near the story. After all, he did say that Hain was incompetent.

Peter Hain's statement - full of phrases such as that he quit to "clear his name", that he felt that he has "no alternative" - just supports this. He has to try and "clear his name" in order to have any chance of getting back into the Cabinet and he had "no alternative" but to resign because he wasn't given any.

This is being claimed by some the first blogging scalp, but I think that the first real blogging scalp is still to come. Although Guido may have may some good points and posts on this issue he, and no other blogger, have yet made the necessary impact and exposure to be able to truthfully claim to have won Hain's scalp.

This is the first ministerial resignation of Brown's premiership. I'm sure it won't be the last, especially as the Hain problem rumbles on, making Harman and Alexander become sitting on a more and more precarious ledge.

Peter Hain failed to declare £103,000 that he raised to pay for his failed deputy leadership bid to the Electoral Commission. Similar to Harriet Harman, yet with a far far far larger amount - but at least they are [or so he claims] made by people legally entitled to donate. A bit of a side-swipe at Harman?

Yet what is Hain's reaction? Of course it isn't to resign from the Cabinet. No New Labour politician would ever consider resigning on principle! Perish the thought. Hain, like the other NuLab ministers, would far rather make a weak apology, express his "regrets", but then blithely declare that it is his duty to remain in the government.

Rather than actually take the flack for their big big mistakes, New Labour minister very much seem to prefer to just mouth the word "sorry" and then feeling that now that they have "apologised" then they can just continue. And then they wonder why no-on trusts them any more.

Sources: BBC, The Guardian, The Times