Desperation.

Is it just Mr Smith or does the visit by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah to patients evacuated from the fire damaged Royal Marsden Hospital in London this morning smack of political desperation?

This is the type of activity that used to be undertaken by the British Royals at a respectable distance in time terms from the tragedy happening. But PM Brown is on the scene less than twenty four hours after the event.

He better be careful or he could become known as the Kate Adie of British politics.