John Prescott's battle (mini) bus breezes into Sunderland
I found John Prescott in typically feisty form at Labour's Northern Conference in Sunderland.
Mind you, his battle bus seems to have shrunk. It's now a battle mini bus - an indicator perhaps of the limited resources Labour have available for this General Election campaign!
Size isn't everything of course, it's what you do with it that counts. So the Prescott Express will arrive in town accompanied by the theme tune to Rocky.
And although no punches were thrown in our interview, believe me John Prescott - as ever - is larger than life.
He's also still an unrepentant advocate of regional government - despite that .
He thinks his mistake was not to offer an assembly with greater powers - but he's convinced - as in Scotland and Wales - that voters who weren't keen will eventually come round to the idea.
Let me know what you make of that!
In any case, Mr Prescott admits this bus tour will be tougher than in previous elections.
Labour know they have to fight for every vote even if there's been some encouragement in the polls in the last month.
The Conference in Sunderland was about maintaining that momentum, and in his speech to delegates, David Miliband kept up the pressure on the Conservatives over Lord Ashcroft's tax status.
In particular, he was keen to talk about William Hague's dealings with the Tories' Deputy Chairman and donor.
Labour clearly think attacks over Ashcroft will pay dividends, and for the moment one of the most effective Tory campaigners - Mr Hague - does at least does seem to have been silenced.
Whether voters are taking much notice we'll have to see.
- but the former Deputy PM told me he'd recently had Barack Obama speak just before him, so it was nothing to shout about.
I also talked to Prezza about his incessant tweeting.
I'm talking of course. I am one of his followers on the social networking site, but it's hard to keep up with the number of comments he posts.
He is mad keen on it, and told me that unsuspectingly helped him prove his commitment to tweeting.
One of his followers asked him to stitch in a mention of coconuts during Jon's interview to prove he did look at the tweets sent to him.
He duly obliged with a rather tortuous analogy, comparing life as a politician to being in a coconut shy.
His correspondent duly tweeted after the programme to say he'd passed the test!
The Moss Week:
Reading: by Christopher Isherwood. Terrific novel set in 1930s Berlin. Arthur Norris is a bewigged and rather sinister presence in a book which also chronicles the rise of the Nazis.
Watching: Mad Men on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳4. Admen in 1960s New York. Apparently viewing figures for the series are barely measurable but it's the best thing on TV.
Clicking on: Twitter - what else? Don't try me with the Prescott test, but if you want to follow me, .
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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