Credit Where It's Due

I can't say Gordon Brown has exactly impressed me in his five months as Prime Minister. In fact I can't think of one decent thing he's done.

But I have to admit to admiring his stand over his refusal to meet Robert Mugabe at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon. I don't actually know if it's the best tactic, and I'm certain that it won't have any effect on Mugabe or anything he does.

But I do get the impression that Brown is refusing to meet Mugabe on principle - because he genuinely thinks it's the right thing to do.

Usually these conferences are just full of diplomatic bollocks, meaning platitudes and souped-up communiques. So it's nice to see someone use a bit of honesty.

That said, it would have been even better had he not sent someone in his place. If he can't being himself to go, it's a bit much to expect Baroness Amos to go instead. This "summit" is only ever going to be a piss-up in any case; even Glewnys Kinnock described it as a "jamboree". It strikes me that Brown could have saved us a small fortune and not bothered sending anyone at all.

That would have had the added bonus of winding up the EU.