Gordon Brown was a great Chancellor of the Exchequer able to keep his charismatic friend and rival Tony Blair in check. Sadly Gordon dreamt he was made for better things, he should be the PM.

Sometimes we should never try to fulfil our most cherished ambitions because they have a bad habit of turning into nightmares. Gordon has everything he ever wanted and like a kid at Christmas who discovers that he isn't all that good at Scalextric racing he is not enjoying himself.

Gordon probably dreams of halcyon days as a Finance minister with nothing to worry about except budgets and the odd banking collapse. Dead soldiers, european treaties, election dates, floods, lost data these are all things his old mucker Tony would have looked after.

The lesson for all of us is to remember that walking a tightrope looks easy until you try it.