Parachuted into the Department of Social Affairs by the Prime Minster when the previous Minister Cliff Lawton was abruptly sacked, Hugh Abbot is confused about his role in his new job... and just about everything else for that matter!

Hugh is constantly trying to figure out, with the help of his team, the conflicting messages and agendas within the cabinet. For example Policy Co-ordinator Malcolm Tucker tells him he has carte blanche, a fresh slate, the chance to take the department by the scruff of the neck and take it in a new direction... but also that he must put every single idea he is even considering through him!

Abbot owes his position to being a malleable flack-catching yes-man. But his vanity lets him believe he has been ear-marked for greater things.

Hugh's brief has grown in the last few months, and now he's looking after citizenship in addition to social affairs. This means he also has Ben Swain working for him as junior minister for immigration, but as Ben is a 'Nutter' he's not necessarily a safe pair of hands. So while Hugh's in Australia it is up to Ollie to make sure nothing goes wrong with Ben.

Angry, rude and decisive, Tucker is the Policy Co-ordinator (Enforcer) from Number Ten who's presence continually hangs over the department. He scares the hell out of Abbot and the rest of his team with his shouting, swearing and urgent demands.

Tucker thinks the PM's appointment of Abbot is probably a huge mistake... something he doesn't hide well. Split up from his partner, Tucker now lives for his work. His scorned ex is a ticking time-bomb though, apparently she is preparing her deadly diary for Channel Four's J'Accuse programme.

Tucker also has another problem... there was a time when no-one dared even breathe without Malcolm's say-so. The time of the 'Nutters' is fast approaching now though - can Tucker successfully jump ship in time?

Glenn Cullen is the Senior Special Advisor in the department - he's never worked anywhere else. Abbot regards him as 'his guy' - they go back a long way and are even slightly homoerotic in the degree to which their careers and lives are bound together.

Glenn very much senses that the whole department is living on borrowed time - and thus is quite insecure.

Cullen thinks of himself as a red hot advisor - he sees himself as the source of all good common sense and believes he instinctively knows how 'the man on the street' thinks. He isn't and he doesn't.

Glenn's known Hugh Abbot for years; he was the political agent for Hugh when Hugh first stood for Parliament. They stand or fall together. Ollie suspects Glenn has no life outside work. Certainly no sex life since his divorce. Still, there's always England Cricket on the wireless.

Recently Glenn has got very paranoid that he will soon be out of a job - Hugh's phone calls from Australia are now being answered by others in the department and none of the spin doctors are keeping him in the loop any more. Is he too old to play the game now?

Oliver Reeder, or Ollie, came straight out of Cambridge and into Government - he's never had a 'real' job.

Reeder thinks he knows what's going on but never does - he is far too theoretical to ever really understand the workings of PR and spin.

Reeder thinks he's cynical when he's not and isn't very good at playing the PR game. He also manages to put his foot in it regularly which never helps. Most of the department, especially Cullen, look at him with contempt but he still has his job because Abbot has somehow got the impression he can work miracles when his actions are really nothing more than fluke. That said, to give Ollie credit, it seems most of the ideas he comes up with are actually adopted so perhaps his approach does work after all.

Ollie used to go out with journalist Angela Heaney, which was useful for planting stories in the press. Everyone knows Ollie's now going out with Emma Messinger, who works for the opposition!

Civil Service Press Secretary Terri Coverly was appointed by Number Ten in a new drive to make Government operate more like a business. But now Tucker has decided she's rubbish and so the clock is ticking down to the time she's kicked out the door.

The Ex-press officer from Waitrose clearly has authority and nous but has to cave in to the Minister. She can often be heard saying: 'If that's what you want to do, who am I to stop you?'.

When appointed her brief was to 'think the unthinkable'. But now she is doing that the department are doing everything to make her stop. The poor Terri is often used by the department to break the difficult news stories despite the fact the mess she has to announce clearly wouldn't have happened if they'd listened to her.

Terri's now happy just as long as no one catches her not doing her job properly and she can get home early enough to see her husband.

Jamie is a Press Officer for Number 10. One of Malcolm's more psychotic lieutenants, Jamie hates the opposition. He hates the 'Nutters'. He hates the press. He even hates Communications! He loves Al Jolson though. Interestingly Jamie spent five years training to be a priest - the language he uses now certainly isn't very priest like!

For example, Jamie once said to Ollie: "You take the piss out of Al Jolson again and I will remove your iPod from its tiny nano-sheath and push it up your c**k. Then I'll put some speakers up your arse and put it on to shuffle with my f**king fist. Then, every time I hear something that I don't like - which will be every time that something comes on - I will skip to the next track by crushing your balls."

Julius is the 'Blue Skies' Special Advisor to the Prime Minister and Number 10. Unfortunately for Malcolm and most of the Cabinet, Nicholson's continual stream of radical reforms tend to get approved because Julius has the ear of the PM.

Malcolm thought he'd dealt with Nicholson once and for all but he then turned up charged with realising the PM's Legacy Project.

Malcom and team are often very rude to Julius - they've got to the stage where they don't even try to hide the fact they're attempting to undermine his reform attempts.

Following the departure of the PM, Julius is now finding he is in no mans land. He seems fairly content staying out of the bear pit though - that might not be possible for much longer though following the revelations he has been leaking immigration data.

Ben Swain is the useless Junior Minister for Immigration. He's even more useless than Abbot!

Swain is now part of Hugh's Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, but not necessarily a loyal part. You see Swain is a key member of Tom's 'Nutter' faction and is thus more interested in jockeying for power than following the departmental line. Outwardly big, brash and confident, inwardly a small mammal in the path of oncoming traffic.

Swain was recently mauled in an interview with Jeremy Paxman and thus is in Malcolm's bad books at the moment. More recently still he's found himself isolated after being sucked into one of Tucker's plans and stupidly revealing that he was looking to challenge Tom to become party leader.

Robyn Murdoch is the Senior Press Officer for Hugh's Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship.

Robyn is universally acknowledged within the department to be the worst Civil Servant in her grade. It's not the gaffes so much as the attitude, and not the work itself so much as getting her to do it in the first place!

Nick Hanway is the 'Enforcer' for Tom Davis, the prospective party leader. He's a hard-nosed backbench MP who's been working for Davis for the past year.

Nick knows his moment is approaching. When the moment comes for the PM to pick up his P45, Nick's colours will be firmly pinned to to Tom's 'Nutter' mast. He hopes he'll become Tom's media campaign manager.

Angela is the Junior Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail. She's often to be found in the Ministry being fed 'spin' by Malcolm's team.

Angela used to date Ollie however she has now got over the whole 'Ollie thing'. New boyfriend Leo has a lot to do with that, of course, but there's also been the challenge of moving from the Evening Standard over to a 'proper daily'. Still the same old contacts though, and Ollie's still in her book. No point in losing a good contact, even if he is rubbish at the commitment thing!

Angela may be re-assessing having Ollie in her contact book following Ollie's bad leads during the leadership battle.

Adam Kenyon is the Night Editor at the Mail. There are two types of person that become night editor: young journalists that are heading places editorially-speaking, and washed-up hacks that will never get anywhere. Adam's pretty sure he's still in the first category, but one can never be certain.

Ollie accidentally sent Adam and his team off on a number of wild goose chases and, as a result, Adam now hates his guts. He will no doubt be looking for ways to get revenge.

Clare Ballentine is the Chair of the Select Committee for Social Affairs and Citizenship. She's tough, no nonsense and has a lot of admirers; which is another way of saying there's a lot of male MPs who have the hots for her! If only she stopped giving them such a hard time in the Select Committee hearings!

When it was proposed that Clare become the new leader of the party she was forced to reveal a secret - she's addicted to online poker.

Lawton was the Minister for Social Affairs before Hugh took over. Malcolm Tucker reportedly had a lump in his throat when he wrote Cliff Lawton's resignation letter. "For personal reasons" would sound best he thought.

As a consequence, Cliff has the most personal of reasons to dislike Malcolm intensely. Despite 'getting the sack' he still thinks he could make a difference, but it's not easy to make any kind of difference from the back benches!

Dan Miller is a former Junior Minister. Talented, well-liked and politically canny, Dan has managed to perfect the art of the strategic resignation. This left him in a perfect position to step up to challenge Tom for the leadership of the party, however he seems to have done a deal to let Tom become the leader.

'Un-flappable' and 'smooth' would be two good words to describe Miller.