'Deepstate' to the rescue
A day after his dramatic resignation, Downing Street is doing its best to clear up the mess Sir Ivan Rogers caused for them.A replacement has been announced tonight.
Our new Ambassador to the EU in Brussels will be Sir Tim Barrow.He's a very experienced diplomat and a former UK Ambassador to Moscow.
It shows that Number 10 is desperate to close down this story after Sir Ivan clearly decided that he would not resign quietly.
His email didn't have to include allegations that Theresa May's Brexit plans were "muddled" and "ill-founded".
But it did.
So I get the sense that government is now trying to mount a fightback.
Whitehall sources tell me there has been some disappointment among Sir Ivan's former civil service colleagues that he chose to make himself a story.
Their view is that civil servants should operate below the radar.
And the well-known mantra "civil servants advise, ministers decide" was not always followed by Sir Ivan, I'm told.
So will the new man be any different?
Apparently, Sir Tim "knows everyone and everything" and is very well respected in the Foreign Office.
Crucially, he gets on well with Foreign Secretary (and Leave campaigner) Boris Johnson.
In fact, his nickname in the office is "Deepstate" - as he is so well embedded in diplomatic circles.
Sir Tim will start in Brussels very soon, which is a good thing for Theresa May, whose self-imposed March deadline for triggering our divorce is getting closer by the day.