Margaret Thatcher had a word for it. "Frit" was her description of people of the spineless variety. So the Iron Lady wouldn't have hesitated to brand the current Prime Minister "Frit Tony" for his performance this week.

Frit for backing out of the television head-to-head with William Hague and Charles Kennedy during the coming election campaign, and frit for scuttling off to Northern Ireland and so missing the vote on banning fox-hunting on Wednesday.

The television decision was peculiarly badly handled by New Labour's usual standards of media-massaging.

After all, it was Mr Blair's right-hand-man Alastair Campbell who only a few weeks ago deliberately flagged up the chances of American-style TV debates taking place this time round.

Labour high command obviously banked on the not unprecedented prospect of Mr Hague's gang wrecking the plan all on its own.

Until last week, things were going swimmingly as Billy the Whizz played into New Labour's hands by demanding something the TV companies would never agree to. He was insisting on a different format where he and Mr Blair went head-to-head in one programme, Mr Hague would tackle the Liberal Democrat leader in another and it would be Blair-versus-Kennedy in the third.

But then came the Tory leader's surprise announcement on Sunday morning that he was dropping his demands and agreeing to the original debate format.

The Prime Minister was completely wrong-footed but rapidly decided to pull the plug completely.

A cowardly but tactically-wise decision. After all, if you reckon the election's in the bag, you don't go offering your desperate opponent a last-ditch opportunity on national TV to score a couple of goals in injury time.

'Hello, good morning and welcome from Darlington!" Sir David Frost will probably never utter that precise greeting again but he did last Sunday on the frosted lawns of the town's Blackwell Grange hotel.

Television's living legend was in Darlington to interview William Hague, Richmond presumably not grand enough for BBC1's Breakfast with Frost. I hear Sir David, pre-recording his cheery greeting at 8.30am on a bitterly cold morning, was frozen to bits out on the lawn.

But the BBC baronet made great play of how close he was standing to Mr Hague's North Yorkshire constituency and how near too was Tony Blair's seat of Sedgefield in County Durham.

Pity he couldn't mention the Rt Hon Member in whose constituency his bright yellow socks and moccasins were actually planted - Darlington's finest, Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

I hear William Hague's famed quick-wittedness has spread to young Simon Cawte, of Darlington-based Recognition PR that does press work for the region's Tories.

Simon this week had to organise a meeting between Conservative star Alan Duncan MP and Steven Thoburn, Sunderland's famous "metric martyr" who's up before the courts for selling fruit and veg only in pounds and ounces.

Mr Thoburn angrily told the Tory MP that fast-food giant McDonald's was not in the dock for selling food by the "quarter-pounder".

So quick as a flash, Simon whisked 'em down to the local McDonald's eatery for the photo-shot that made the pages of newspapers up and down our Euro-suspicious land.