Laurel and Hardy to the rescue!

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL and John Prescott joined forces today to issue a rallying cry for Labour activists to get behind Gordon Brown, but not to stab him in the back.

The two, sworn enemies of Brown when he was Chancellor, demanded unity from MPs and party members in a New Statesman article published today, with Campbell all over the airwaves delivering his message.

All well and good, apart from the fact that Alastair is probably less trusted than any politician, even the Prime Minister, with his preachy holier-than-thou attitude sure to wind up more people than it wins over.

This is the man who bullied, badgered and brow-beat the press into adopting his message and his alone, ostracizing, humiliating and smearing anyone who got in his way.

Derek Draper and Alastair Campbell. Wow! Gordon must really have meant what he said about ushering in a new kind of politics...

• Campbell and Prescott's article
• July 1998: Draper caught out in cash-for-access scandal