Meet Gordon

An 'accident' in South Africa with the Prime Minister's plane saw the emergence of a new Prime Minister.

Exit Mr Brown, the dour Scot with a fetish for statistics, enter Gordon, the pink-shirt wearing 'voice of authoirty' on all matters under the sun.

If his interview on Sunday, wherin he touched on all areas of major policy, was a shot across Blair's bows - then his performance yesterday was a 'coup d'etat' though Blair will have to wait a while to find out how successful it has been.

Our good friend Recess Monkey is positively chewing the carpet on this issue, suggesting that Brown could take on the leadership of the Labour Party whilst Blair stays as PM till the next election.

Problem is, whilst Brown can happily spew out statistics and give forth on all matters economic, he is unlikely to be able to keep it up when he is talking about things that people actually know a bit about and have an opinion.

I forsee an increasingly bold Brown being rejected by the voters for being presumptious. This in turn will increase his impatience to get the top job, which will rile Blair, leading to more of that famous friction. A victory in the vote yesterday - but a whole world of trouble lies ahead.

Developing......