“The Thick Of It” special had a junior minister who went on TV only to be reduced to a blinking quivering mess by the fictional forceful line of questioning. If only instead of being so craven they were like that in reality, Guido thought to himself.

Yesterday Ed Ball’s made fantasy reality. His blink rate per minute went hyper when Andrew Neil asked him about inflation. Why is it lower everywhere else in the Western industrialised world? Ball’s smile turned into a stutter, the blink rate doubled, the smile thinned under further pressure. Blinking desperately, Balls is reduced to stroking Neil’s ego. No excuses left, even Paddy Ashdown manages to put the boot in with a “Blair won’t go until the economy goes bad” crack.

See GuyNews.TV for the extract.