Gordon Brown's trip to Washington is the act of a desperate leader

Gordon Brown must be beaming after this address to Congress, but for the rest of us back in dear old blighty, he is likely to end up looking even more irrelevant. It's a long time since November, and few people here care about the Obama Presidency now. They are more worried about their mortgages, jobs and pensions.

And as far as the Obama administration is concerned, Brown is a lame duck Prime Minister. Why should they bother giving time and attention to a leader who has only 14 months left in office?

Gordon's Brown's situation is best summed up by Tom Baldwin:

Not only was Mr Brown unable to light the rhetorical fires that blazed here when his predecessor spoke six years ago, it is that he also matters less than Mr Blair, who was needed by George Bush to validate the Iraq war. The Prime Minister now, by contrast, is not so much needed as plain needy.