I MAY still be suffering from sunstroke, following the recent heatwave, but you are about to read a column praising Gordon Brown.

Yes, that Gordon Brown – hapless leader, deserted by much of his despairing Cabinet and locked on an inescapable slide to political oblivion. A sub-prime minister.

Now, I entirely agree Mr Brown is, in so many ways, the author of his party’s disastrous misfortunes which, departing minister Jane Kennedy told us, threaten the very “future of the party”.

Yes, he is a hopeless communicator - stiff, unconvincing and unable to articulate the very real, and sensible, steps his government is taking to fight back against recession.

Yes, as I wrote last week, he has a distasteful “dark side” - revealed by the Damian McBride affair, the attempted smearing of political opponents by his hand-picked No.10 aide.

Yes, he came to power with no coherent political programme to move on from the Blair years - wasting the one, golden opportunity he had to breathe new life into Labour.

And, yes, he fully signed up to neo-liberal Tory economic policies - continuing the ‘light-touch’ regulation of bankers and hedge funds that deepened the British recession when the global crash hit.

But, taking a deep breathe, Mr Brown’s political obituary must not begin and end with his now-shattered dream of being a successful prime minister.

Just as a footballer’s legs eventually go, and a pop star runs out of tunes, so Mr Brown fatally ran out of ideas in a job he could not master.

However, he can justifiably claim, in his years at the Treasury, to have done more to improve Britain - and to help the poor - than any politician since the untouchable Attlee government.