I MAY still be suffering from sunstroke, following the recent heatwave, but you are about to read a column praising Gordon Brown.

Yes, that Gordon Brown – hapless leader, deserted by much of his despairing Cabinet and locked on an inescapable slide to political oblivion. A sub-prime minister. Now, I entirely agree Mr Brown is, in so many ways, the author of his party’s disastrous misfortunes which appear to make a General Election defeat a nailed-on certainty.

Yes, he is a hopeless communicator – stiff, unconvincing and unable to articulate the very real, and sensible, steps his Government is taking to fight back against recession.

Yes, as I wrote recently, he has a distasteful “dark side” – revealed by the Damian McBride affair, the attempted smearing of political opponents by his hand-picked No 10 aide. Yes, he came to power with no coherent political programme to move on from the Blair years – wasting the one, golden opportunity he had to breathe new life into Labour.

And, yes, he fully signed up to neo-liberal Tory economic policies – continuing the “light-touch” regulation of bankers and hedge funds that deepened the British recession when the global crash hit.

But, taking a deep breath, Mr Brown’s political obituary must not begin and end with his now-shattered dream of being a successful prime minister.

Just as a footballer’s legs eventually go, and a pop star runs out of tunes, so Mr Brown fatally ran out of drive and ideas in a job he could not master.

However, our memories should not be so short as to wipe out all recollections of his glory years, when he ran domestic policy as the most powerful Chancellor in history.

Mr Brown can justifiably claim, in his years at the Treasury, to have done more to improve Britain – and to help the poor – than any politician since the untouchable Attlee government.

If, as I believe, the country has better healthcare, better schools, less crime, fewer poor pensioners, fewer children in poverty and better housing estates than in 1997, then much of the credit is Mr Brown’s.

There is also a minimum wage, tax credits for low earners, both of which were opposed by Tony Blair, plus massively expanded childcare, Sure Start children’s centres and much more.

More recently, there was last autumn’s great bank rescue, which, briefly, showed Mr Brown back at the top of his game.

When we consider what he overcame – near-blind and living with the constant fear that he will lose all his sight – his career looks positively heroic.

So, much more for the political obituarists to include. Sadly, for Labour MPs, those obituarists are already tapping away.

FROM Hartlepool MP, to European Commissioner, to Business Secretary and a peerage... to Prime Minister?

No PM has led from the Lords since 1902, but everyone knows Lord Mandelson is now deputy prime minister in all but name – and saved Gordon Brown’s skin last week.

Under Labour rules, if Mr Brown is forced to quit by his unhappy party, or falls under a bus, the Cabinet chooses a temporary successor until a party election can be arranged.

They wouldn’t – they couldn’t – choose Lord M, the First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Council, as he is now known. Could they?