A better effort. Just

Take two: Gordon did better in his interview with the BBC today than in his exchange with Nick Robinson last week. As I wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, Brown answered Robinson’s questions in the earlier exchange about people’s anxieties over the economy without a shred of apparent empathy or feeling for worried mortgage holders and aspiring home owners. Today, the PM tried hard – so hard – to show the emotional intelligence that you just knew his media handlers had been urging upon him.

So today it was different: deep breath: “I wake up in the morning thinking about how I can help those people who have mortgages or are looking for mortgages for the first time.” Back of the net! But wait: within 30 seconds, it was back to the litany of statistics and comparisons. “That’s why there are more people in employment than ever before….three million people…difficult situation worldwide….America,