Flying Scotsman - on Gordon Brown's campaign train

I had the pleasure of travelling back on the same train as Gordon Brown, even though on the platform at Gillingham he twice declined my offer to have a word with us.

Mr Brown wasn't in first class (there wasn't a first class), just in a carriage that was specially cordoned off, or gordoned off.

And did the ticket inspector ask the PM to show a ticket?

"I'm not even to allowed to think about it," the inspector told me a few minutes ago.

(You'll recall how Cherie Blair was once fined for not having a train ticket - surely not something Mr and Mrs Brown would ever do.)

This reminds me of a good story that the Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron told at his party's spring conference a few weeks ago about Shirley Williams travelling on a train one day.

As the inspector approached, Lady Williams reached into her handbag for her ticket.

"No, no need," said the inspector, "I know who you are."

"But I need my ticket to see where I'm going," the notoriously absent-minded Lady Williams explained.