YOU know there is an election in the offing when the Prime Minister appears without his tie.

With millions of young votes potentially up for grabs, a casually-attired Tony Blair spent Saturday afternoon trying to persuade the nation's youth that he remains more hip than Howard.

In a scene reminiscent of a rock concert, an expectant and adoring audience fidgeted in their seats until Capital Radio DJ Margherita Taylor walked out with the Prime Minister and introduced "the main man" to the crowd.

Mr Blair clearly wished to show he was in tune with the younger generation by answering questions sent by e-mail, text and video message by members of the public.

At first, it went well. Mr Blair is at home answering unscripted questions.

He expertly dealt with potentially thorny issues such as the health service, asylum seekers, help for first-time buyers and Iraq.

However, as anyone approaching middle age knows, technology can be difficult to keep up with. As the PM answered one question, a new text message would flash up on the giant screen behind him, only to vanish before the interviewee had a chance to turn his head and read it.

As Mr Blair answered a question on asylum, a texter asked for his views on whether Souness should be sacked as manager of Newcastle - the audience laughed and the bemused Prime Minister spun in his seat like a pantomime hero looking for a baddie.

No sooner had he regained his composure, than a questioner e-mailed in a suggestion that he should stop bickering with Gordon Brown - the audience hissed and the Prime Minister, now clearly uneasy with the whole business, once more spun round like the only man in a room of 500 who wasn't in on the joke.

"I think whoever is in charge of this should give me a bit of help," he said. "You're all watching that, not listening to me."

He spent the next 30 minutes with his bare neck craned at an unfeasible angle keeping on eye on what was going on behind him.

From then on, he warmed to the occasion and the audience warmed to him. But he was giving nothing away on the date of the General Election: "I don't know and if I don't know no-one else does. People think that I actually do know and I'm just not telling them, which is such an unreasonable thing to think."

And with that, an uneasy Prime Minister left the stage so quickly delegates didn't even get time to give him the customary standing ovation.

As the audience filed out and the PA came back on, Robbie and Kylie sang what could have been Mr Blair's anthem for the day: Don't Mind Doing It For The Kids.