Gordon unveils his 'new voice'

Brown's unenthusiastic praise for Blair today was a good first outing for his new voice. Yes, not only has the greasy graphite hair gone in favour of something softer and, er, clean, the harsh Scots croak has been toned down an octave, the sharp edges cut from the consonants and the vowels stretched to sound ...English.

He's clearly been worried enough about England's growing lack of patience with being governed by Scots to have employed a voice coach. And clearly stupid enough not to imagine that two recordings played back to back will demonstrate it. But that's NuLabour for you.

He hasn't given up chewing his nails down to ragged stumps, though, as far as I'm aware.