Journal - Civil War on Gallifrey

Although I am still under deep cover here with Gwen (in Avalon, with one of M's sisters, so I remember later, but I dare not say more), Merlin got a message through to me that the Timelords are erupting into civil war.  Apparently Prydon's sense of entitlement and injustice to their House pushed them into an untenable position.

Sally has been half-heartedly attempting to contact The Sastap all morning.  Apparently, they were in school together, so!  But so far, she has had no luck, and she will not explain her hesitation to continue the attempts.
She was able to pull up this video transmission of the High Council meeting though, and it's really something.  (Saffia looks great!)

The thing that I don't understand is why Abbot would have attempted to shoot the Lord President.  He knew that regeneration would be immanent, so what reason could he have?  I can only think of two: either the time it took the Lord President to regenerate was important to his purpose, or else it was a plot to begin with in some fashion that the Lord President was in on with Abbot, something to create a diversion and further animosity towards the Prydonian House.