Blair vs Brown:

While Gordon Brown's safely tucked away in the heart of Africa, pledging £1billion in debt relief for the third world (nice one Gordon!), Tony's been taking (cautious) advantage.

In a speech in Kent yesterday, he praised his competitor, calling him the "most successful post-war chancellor" but then went on to insist that Labour's third term would be "Unremittingly New Labour" which will enrage Gordon and his supporters, as the chancellor is truly of the old guard.

And why is Gordon in Africa? Well, it looks hopeful: he's visiting AIDS-ravaged areas of Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa and attending a conference where he hopes to help beat out an agreement on a multilateral plan to write off the IMF and World Bank debts of some of the poorest countries in the world.

However, the pill has already been bittered by everyone's favourite thorn in the side, Claire Short. She says, rightly, that merely eradicating the debt won't solve much. What needs to happen is stability and an end to corruption and conflict in the affected countries. And that can't be done by holding conferences.

Here's an article about his visit.