So it was encouraging to find John Prescott disarmed and in talkative ... However he was down-to-earth in the flesh, laughing off the contretemps on the previous campaign, when he landed a jab ...

John Prescott remained locked in an unseemly cross ... chauvinist pig' and an 'inveterate macho man', Mr Prescott tried to laugh it off in the Commons. 'Macho? Moi?' he joked to MPs.