Does Gordon Brown have Tourette's? Or some form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? I'm wondering because I watched him give a speech yesterday on TV, and as he was speaking, he kept touching the top corner of his notes with his left hand every few seconds. To the layman, it might have looked as if he was straightening his notes, but to those of us in the know, it screamed tic. He also does that thing with the muscles in his lower jaw when he completes a sentence. He's in his fifties now, and the severity of any Tourette's will be much reduced, but it would be interesting to ask anyone who knew him when he was younger whether he had more noticable tics.
Not that it makes any difference to his Prime Ministerial ambitions. Barring any cock-ups of biblical proportions between now and when Mr Blair finally goes, Mr Brown will be our next Prime Minister. Whether he can win a fourth term for Labour is another matter entirely.