Quite.
Seriously, I thought his defence on the Anschutz questions was reasonably convincing.
The eighteen minute (by my watch) unedited interview on Today this morning admirably answered the question "what is the BBC for?".
It also answered the question: "What is John Prescott for?". The answer is, apparently: 'To spend weekends in the USA finding out how cowboys live to see whether it is the same as when he watched Western movies as a lad'.
Though he may have trouble convincing taxpayers that they should pay for him to do this, I can quite accept that a "fact finding" visit was a better way of spending a weekend than sitting round the pool in a hotel. Having said that, we all know about "fact finding" visits. It would be interesting to know how long John Prescott spent in substantive discussions with farmers that weekend (as he mentioned). Or did he just chat to them over drinks at a barbecue?
All this, though, is going a little beyond the normal level of inspection of a minister's role.
It does seem that John Prescott remains Deputy Prime Minister because he has transcended the normal level of public perception of a public figure and has now entered the area of being a "national treasure" or at least, a "national institution".
We all find him so amusing that it would be a shame to lose all this entertainment if he returns to the back benches.
Michael Heseltine was never half as much fun as this.
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Let's be honest: the man is a complete oaf. I can only imagine that he has some dirt on Blair, otherwise why is he allowed to stay around? The thought of this lard ball laying members of his private office is more than most of us can stomach. Blair is either no longer on planet Earth, and therefore unable to appreciate the damage that Lard Ball is doing to what remains of New Labour or is living in fear of this brainless monster. Or both. Perhaps Tone could clue us in on this one.
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