The best publicity Brown is ever likely to get

Brown is very lucky to have a friend in Piers Morgan. He did him a great service in the ITV interview tonight – and while it would have made CoffeeHousers nauseous (if they watched it), it will be the best television the PM will get this year and probably ever. Mark my words: the Labour Party will not produce anything that shows Brown in such a sympathetic light. It was powerful, I’d say, because it was not party political propaganda: Morgan genuinely likes Brown and did his utmost to project the human side of him.

Those hours of coaching from Alastair Campbell paid off. He kept smiling in a credible way – telling anecdotes in exactly the way that he does, in private, when he’s trying to charm people. It’s often said that Brown is a charmer when he can be bothered to find the ‘on’ switch, and he found it tonight.