Today's Times reports on how the Conservatives have become experts in releasing bad news to coincide with other events likely to dominate the following day's newspapers.

While news of Barry Legg's departure as chief executive came on the evening that the government was facing a revolt on foundation hospitals, Dominic Cummings' resignation as Iain Duncan Smith's strategy director occurred on an evening when Estelle Morris was facing calls to resign as education secretary over the A Level regrading scandal.

When the Conservative leader unveiled his compromise policy on Section 28, journalists were briefed late on an afternoon when the news was being led by the discovery of a ricin poison factory in Manchester.

On the evening of February 14, while attention was focussed on the United Nations security council and weapons inspections in Iraq, Conservative press officers announced the sacking of Mark MacGregor, the party's chief executive, and Rick Nye, its research director.