So Gordon is phoning voters at random. Desperate? Surely not!

Apparently, "he likes to keep in touch with voters who take the trouble to contact him." As reported by the BBC, a letter or e-mail would be chosen at random, a response prepared and then Mr Brown would call. Let's just look at that carefully. A letter is chosen, by an aide presumably. A response is prepared, also presumably by an aide. Then Gordon calls, so that people feel that he is personally concerned about them.

Can he not see the problem with this? Can he not see that this demonstrates his complete and utter separation from normal people? And can he not realise that the job of PM inevitably requires that he be separate? The man is running a country with near 60 million people in it - of course he can't have an individual connection with each and every one of them. If he can't realise that, he shouldn't be in the job. And if his advisors seriously think that this will work, they should be out of a job, too.

Tell you what, Gordon - email me from a numberten.gov.uk address or the like and I'll reply with my phone number. Someone needs to talk sense to you.


(Oh - and if Prime Minister's Questions are PMQs, what does that make a Prime Minister's Telephone call? Sorry Gordon, I can't talk right now .... try again in a week or so)

Is it just me, or ... ?

... has the country changed its collective mind suddenly?

For the last ten years, politics has been just one of those subjects that we don't discuss. After all, for everyone who thought that New Labour were a bunch of deceptive money-grabbing empire-building tax-and-spenders, there would be a few people who thought they were just "misunderstood" and that if we only gave them one more chance, they might actually start running the country competently. Such as actually helping the poor, for example, rather than just manipulating the numbers to make it look like they were. So then you would get into an argument with these people, which is all very un-English and to be avoided. So over the last ten years, I've learnt to bite my lip when outside my own home, and not mention politics.

But suddenly, the subject seems to have become "allowed" again. People bring it up voluntarily. It doesn't even prompt an argument any more, and for a simple reason - no-one seems willing to stand up for Gordon. We all just stand around agreeing that the Government is hopeless and we need a new one. And I think I know why.

Blair had a certain something - even though I (personally) couldn't stand the man, regarded him as a bare-faced liar, and disagreed with most of his policies, I could see that he was good at being a Prime Minister. He kind of looked the part, somehow. Gordon ... well ... just doesn't. He looks uncomfortable. He looks like the class swot who's just been left in charge by the teacher. And I think that may be the root cause. We didn't choose him, we didn't vote for him, but (and this is the crucial bit) he doesn't look like the sort of PM we would have chosen. Somehow, he is not Prime Ministerial enough.

In addition, just to add the icing on the cake, the decisions he made over ten years as Chancellor have now come home to roost. So the whole New Labour project is all falling apart and he can't even blame someone else.

So, basically, he's got everything going against him. Looks like the next General Election will be 1 May 2010 - and not a day earlier.