How 'Write' Was PM Gordon Brown ?

It is not often that I feel a pang of sympathy for dear 'ole Gordon, our esteemed prime minister but I did feel it stirring today.

He has, after all, been guilty of extreme arrogance and aloofness in the past but he does not deserve the bitter criticism he received from today's papers.

He was judged to be guilty of nothing more than sending a handwritten letter of sympathy to the mother of a serviceman killed in Afghanistan and misspelling the family name. It is a mistake similar to that any of us could make every time we write a letter - although how many of us bother to hand write letters nowadays?

Whatever your opinion on the rights and wrongs of our presence in Afghanistan, it should be remembered that it was not GB alone who sent us there. He is guilty of many acts of stupidity but I am prepared to believe that today's incident was nothing more than a blip in a genuinely heartfelt message of sympathy.

I am more surprised that the serviceman's mother did not take a moment to think before running to the Sun newspaper.

Let's place a full stop on this story!