BROWN'S SHAMBLES PERKS UP EVERYONE

He kept saying he would go round the country and listen to what people want, which is rather like your surly teenage son saying he will tidy his room – he has been around for years and he has never done it before, you’ve gone at him till you’re blue in the face and by now you’re past caring.

The Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who does actually look like somebody’s teenage son, came out of it all rather well.

Talking about being loyal to Gordon Brown, he seemed more engaging by the minute. Though he can often be dullness personified, he sounded perky and energised: nothing quite lifts the spirits like someone else’s political mistakes and one of the beauties of being Foreign Secretary is that, unlike being Chancellor or Home Secretary, nobody really cares what you do (because if it’s important, the Prime Minister will be doing it).

One is bound to say that at least as an entertainment, it is all rather jolly. Desmond Morris, student of animal behaviour, was asked why he had become a director of Oxford United football club: “It’s an excellent place to study postures of extreme elation and desolation,” he replied. He would have enjoyed Westminster this week.

Political pundits have a new spring in their step – there’s nothing quite so much fun as a government that’s becoming a shambles. John Major, in his worst of times, was at a reception on the 50th floor of Canary Wharf – one of his hosts took him to a window where you could look miles across London; “Terrific view, John,” he said, “on a clear day you can see a Tory voter.”

Gordon Brown’s not quite at that stage but he looks about as jolly as a low-paid worker suddenly smacked with extra income tax. Actually, a few puffs of big fat joint might relax him a bit but he’s just made that rather more illegal than it was last week.

The parallel with Hillary Clinton is a strong one – they are both serious people, both immersed in policy, both lacking in showmanship, both identified with previous regimes, both now looking old, tired and beaten.

But the parallel only goes so far – Hillary almost certainly is beaten, her time is up, her show appears to be over. Gordon’s show looks like a long day’s journey into night.

His backbenchers may be damned with him or damned without him. Having one unelected prime minister is a misfortune, having two would look like carelessness. Gordon has two years to go.

Things can only get better, as I believe the song goes.

Unless, of course, they get worse.