It is gratifying to see how successful that video has been – it is probably the most successful British political YouTube video of all time (there are about 4 different versions of it doing the rounds, including a viral one formatted for mobile phones). To put it in perspective, that one YouTube video has been seen more than all of the Downing Street YouTube channel’s output combined.

Guido would like to remind you how Paxman and Michael White et al sneered about it. Who had the better judgement about what people really wanted to know about Gordon? They wanted to know for themselves – did he really pick his nose? In the end even BBC News reported it, though they described it as “alleged evidence on the internet”. The video has also been seen around the world on various conventional TV broadcast news shows. Canal Plus in France has a late night equivalent to Newsnight, where the prettier female equivalent to Paxman was in fits of laughter that the English would make someone like Gordon, who would do that in public, Prime Minister. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched it. Why is it so popular? Because we like to laugh at our rulers, that is a very healthy thing – unlike eating your bogies…