I can't say I rush to watch or listen to Gordon Brown being interviewed. Britain's prime minister tries to win a debate by boring the interviewer, never mind the audience. Great slabs of dull dialogue, delivered in a monotone voice, don't make great listening at breakfast time.

So I only listened to part of his 17 minute interview with Evan Davies on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. Davies valiantly tried to keep the interview on track, pleading "please don't" when Brown was about to repeat a long, long answer about the Government's bank rescue.

But the really interesting bit was when Brown insisted that his oft-repeated claim to have ended economic boom and bust hadn't proved mistaken. Not a bit of it: this recession is a global crisis, said Brown. So that's all right then. I'm sure the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs this winter will feel a lot better that the prime minister thinks that the boom and bust cycle remains vanquished despite the fact we're now in recession.

Why do politicians insist on these rhetorical games? Who do they think they're kidding? I still think Labour deserves some credit for the longest period of economic growth for decades, but the Government wins no friends for insisting that black is white.