Sketch: Maybe the Prime Minister had jet lag, or maybe he just couldn�t make up his mind when to take time out from being an international statesman to get down and dirty attacking Alex Salmond.
Maybe the Prime Minister had jet lag, or maybe he just couldn't make up his mind when to take time out from being an international statesman to get down and dirty attacking Alex Salmond.
Whatever, somewhere between DC and Dundee he ended up with a curious hybrid of a speech to Labour's Scottish conference, which ended up being littered with "clap lines" that failed to produce much in the way of applause.
He got either 17 or 19 standing ovations from Washington's political elite, according to interpretation. In the Caird Hall yesterday, where Deep Purple once got 19 ovations in the seventies, Gordon Brown achieved just two: one when he came on and another when he finished that lasted barely 90 seconds even when he brought Sarah on to help pad it out. Neither was participated in by the contingent of postal workers who had been shunted out of their original front-row seats. A row of blokes in white T-shirts saying "Keep the Post Public" was not what the minders wanted on camera, especially as they were making a point of refusing to join in the clapping.
The now obligatory video sequence that precedes leaders' speeches began with the street riots of the Thatcher era and ended with endorsements from global giants President Obamas and, er, Alan Sugar, with scenes of those Washington ovations to get everyone in the mood.
That didn't quite work, not least because a huge space that has held crowds of 3000 in the past simply does not buzz when it's barely one-sixth full and there are noticeable gaps in the stalls.
The faithful passed up repeated opportunities to burst spontaneously into applause, falling silent when he promised to support anything constructive that the Calman Commission comes up with, and then only really getting into its stride when the PM began putting the boot into the FM.
That's the problem, really. Gordon Brown can bestride the world like a colossus, but when he gets home his troops only really want him to put the boot into Alex Salmond. Several bursts of applause greeted his Nat-bashing, but when he turned his fire on the Tories? Not a cheep.
