Unedifying, mawkish, Blairite Diana-ism

Friends express their sympathy for the bereaved in private, with quiet gestures of love and kindness. A rival may offer a brief, civilised, formal acknowledgement and offer to postpone proceedings unless a substitute comes on in the missing person's stead, as is the custom in Parliament. When a sworn enemy makes a great show both of public emotion and of unilaterally suspending hostilities to their own considerable advantage, the response from the mawkish will be 'Aw!' and from the suspicious, the raised eyebrow of not necessarily ungenerous scepticism. From the cynic, it is a snort of scorn. Put me down as a cynic.

At Gordon Brown's request, the House adjourned out of respect for Mr Cameron, suspending Prime Minister's Questions. No one in Westminster wanted to question this out loud, but, in private, many were unhappy about it. I think they were right to be. [...]

(Reminiscing on being with Blair in Afghanistan) Standing beside Hamid Karzai, soon to become the country's president, Mr Blair gave a press conference in a vast, freezing building called the "humanitarian hangar". Before he said anything about Afghanistan, or the war, he launched into an emotional tribute to his chancellor, Gordon Brown, whose 10-day-old daughter, Jennifer, had just died.

It led the television news in Britain, of course, and no doubt it came across very well. Mr Blair is an outstanding public presenter of emotion. But I cannot tell you how weird it was to hear him speak in this way that night in Bagram.

There we were in a country which had been torn apart by war for a generation. Hundreds of thousands of children had died in that time – by violence, or from hunger or disease. Mr Blair was in the presence of men who were risking their lives in fulfilment of his policy. Why was one sad death, of someone in a much richer, safer country, being privileged?

[...] Perhaps Mr Brown captured the public mood. Most unpolitical people I have spoken to felt pleased that party conflict was set aside and a sense of proportion about what matters in life was displayed. But to me, however genuine the personal sympathy, the scene felt false and the proportion askew. [...] when Mr Blair shared his grief at Jennifer Brown's death, he could not have avoided thinking that he particularly needed to display his compassion because Mr Brown was well known to be his rival.

By the same token, Mr Brown is painfully conscious that he has less of a reputation for normal human emotion than does his opponent, Mr Cameron. So his actions on Wednesday gave him the chance to correct that impression. His sympathy for Mr Cameron's loss will have been real*, but there will also have been that element of calculation.

Given that this calculation is unavoidable, the emotionally literate response, surely, is reticence. A private letter of sympathy should be written and, perhaps, announced, so that people are aware of the gesture; and that should be that.

* I can only say that Charles Moore is a nicer person than I am.

When I heard that Brown had cancelled PMQs in what he knew was the worst week yet of the worst premiership of modern times, my response was unprintable. I laughed out loud at his brazen cynicism.

Not trying to outrun Blair in the People's Princess Stakes, Gordon, surely? Save your breath, you bastard. We're have the measure of you now and nothing you can do will change that. The game's up.

How does it go again? There is nothing you could say to me now that I would ever believe.