Cherie Blair and John Prescott publicly washing, spinning and hanging out to dry the dirty linen of the Brown-Blair relationship.

BBC: Levy's timing unpleasant for Brown

But by washing too much dirty linen in public, Mohammed risks a backlash from the old guard of his father's court.

ECONOMIST: Morocco

But if dirty linen is washed in public, then the flow of other information that helps national security might slow down.

BBC: Analysis: A question of secret courts

"The banjo was something I really liked, but when the guitar came along, to me that was my first love in music, " he recalled in Dirty Linen magazine in 1995.

WSJ: Folk Musician Doc Watson Dies

It avoided a saga that would have dragged on for weeks, potentially - not so much washing the party's dirty linen in public as opening a Chinese laundry on the steps of the Senedd.

BBC: State of Play 2 - Plaid Cymru

More dirty linen tumbled out.

FORBES: OutFront