The Same Old Gordon Brown

Watching Andrew Marr's interview with Gordon Brown was a frustrating experience. Marr barely laid a glove on him, and in some ways* it was an impressive performance by Brown, who was able to stonewall Marr at every turn. Whenever he was asked anything about MP expenses he just battered Marr with a list of what he, and he alone, had proposed to reform the system. "It's me who has proposed," he kept saying. Me, me, me. Not Cameron, Not Clegg, me.

Whenever Marr interrupted him he blurted out "hold on, hold on", and Marr stopped and let him continue. "You've known me for twenty years, Andrew," he said at one stage. And then, "you've got to give us credit...". Marr asked him about a lavender list of people he might appoint to the House of Lords, which Brown bizarrely interpreted as Marr suggesting that Brown might actually put himself in the House of Lords. The look on Marr's face was a picture.

The only new thing to come out of the interview was an apparent openness to the idea of electoral reform in the form of AV+.

Towards the end he came out with this pearl. "The Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP..." Nicely done.

Asked if he would step down if Cabinet ministers came to him and asked him to, he said "No". Marr suggested that instead, he would turn the pearl revolver onto them. Marr then asked him if he would hold a reshuffle after the "slaughter". Brown said that that it was wrong of the BBC to presume an election result.

He finished by saying that is any member of the Royal Family wanted to attend the D Day commemorations, he would make it possible. He appeared to hint that it was Buckingham Palace's decision that no one would be attending. That may prove to have been a big mistake.

In recent interviews, Brown has given the impression of being almost clinically depressed. This was not the case in this interview. He came out fighting, although I doubt whether many voters will have been swayed by what he said. It was the same old Gordon Brown.

* Impressive in terms of stonewalling and by comparison with some other interviews he has done of late. Just thought I'd clarify that, after some of the comments!