Last night, I had a dream about the next election. The Labour battle bus was engulfed by an avalanche on polling day, the Tories had a landslide victory, the ineluctably unelectable Ann Widdecombe ...

So it was encouraging to find John Prescott disarmed and in talkative mood as we chatted in a lounge at the back of Labour’s Battle Bus. Unlike his last election campaign, when he punched a ...