Dear Dairy:

Had Gordon Brown overnight at Camp David. Britain’s Prime Ministers are known for their wit and he is certainly no exception. That guy is a hoot! He was snapping them off one after the other, and he never broke character once. ‘Never in your country’s history have more crucial times been met by less competent leadership;’ ‘Any association with you is political hara-kari not merely for foreign leaders but, most acutely, for members of your own party;' ‘You are one of the few leaders in history for whom a child sex scandal might be a good PR move;’ and ‘What’s so bloody funny?’

I told him Tony was pretty good-natured about having cap-gun fights, building forts and watching scary movies in our sleeping bags at these Camp David sleepovers; he said these were merely some of many respects in which his relationship with me would differ from that of his predecessor. He went to bed in the guest room and I watched ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’ alone; it gave me bad dreams.

He’s still learning the ropes, though. He called Afghanistan the front line, and called the ‘War on Terror’ the ‘War on Crime.’ I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes when he gets bawled out by his Vice-Prime Minister!

GWB