Push off, Prezza

There was a time when John Prescott was quite endearing - words and phrases like 'numpty', 'heart in the right place' and 'bit of a buffoon' sprung to mind.

This was based largely on the fact that he seemed to have survived the tornado that was, and perhaps still is, New Labour. A bastion of the old left menacing through the Whitehall corridors as D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better' echoed following electoral success in 1997.

My Dad saw the TV news when he punched someone in the run up to the 2001 general elections, and said 'good on him.'

My Mum would be sympathetic when people ripped into another bumbling display at the dispatch box, claiming 'Well, at least he's stuck to what he believed in.'

Of course, the last few months have shown that Prescott has done nothing of the sort - and the fact he is still clinging on not only infuriates me, but offends me too.

First of all there was his fling with a certain Miss Temple. Fair enough, he put his hands up to it straight away - or at least once he realised it was going to come out, whether he liked it or not.

Then we started to see the real Prescott, in my opinion. Not the class warrior people often described him as, but the desperate clinger-on to the trappings of power which he loved so much.

The nickname 'Two Jags' is used in jest, but it shows what Prescott really is. He's no more a bastion of the Left than I am a signed-up member of the Cristiano Ronaldo fan club.

When his departmental responsibilities went by the wayside, he somehow kept the perks of the job, such as Dorneywood. For what exactly? Playing croquet on an away day! An away-day to discuss what? What does he do now?

Then came the ultimate proof that Prescott was no more a class warrior than Ken Livingstone a lover of 4x4 vehicles. The whole debacle with Philip Anschutz, the US tycoon who wants Britain's first super casino, proves that.

Spending time holidaying with a man who is banking on laws being changed to deliver his plans? Playing cowboy and receiving expensive presents? And then Prescott has the nerve to say he has no influence over what will happen because it's not his department!

He's the deputy prime minister! If he doesn't wield some sort of influence in Government, then what is he there for? And did Mr Anschutz realise Prescott had no such power on this one? Are we really supposed to believe that he just did it so they could discuss the old slave trade?

Prescott seems to assume that people at large are thick. Either that or he no longer thinks they matter. He's the one in office, he's the one who will decide if he has done anything wrong.

He is behaving in a manner which suggests he may well have once been a socialist fighting the class war, but has been dazzled by power, and like a kid in a sweetshop, keeps seeing things, grabbing them, and shouting 'mine, all mine.'

Be it secretaries, freebies, or official perks.

So why is he still there? Charles Clarke did make some mistakes at the Home Office, but a lot of it was largely because he didn't know everything that was going on in a department facing the largest number of new pressures seen anywhere.

What happened to him? He got the boot. Why didn't John Prescott get the boot when his regional assemblies plan for the North collapsed in such emphatic fashion? Surely that was a failing too?

But no, Prescott, in the eyes of the great, good and greedy in the Labour Party has a vital role to play in keeping New Labour in power, as it is seen he acts as a conductor for the old left in the party.

Can you imagine a CEO of a major corporation employing a trade unionist as his right-hand man to keep the workers on board?

Perhaps it worked at first, but with Prescott it only works for as long as the image he projects of himself remains in place.

Recent weeks have shown the mask has slipped. He's an embarrassment to the country. Stick his name in Google News and watch the news sites around the world delivering their opinions on him.

Are we really supposed to believe that the old Labourites who've 'tolerated' New Labour while still clinging to their left-wing views still believe they have a friend at the top in Prescott?

Was it ever true in the first place? Would Everton fans allow a merger with Liverpool so they could become the new Manchester United - but only as long as they a bluenose as assistant manager?

Of course not. And if the Westminister rumour mill is accurate, most knew what Prescott was about long before the last rockers. Shame on them.

If he had a purpose to serve in the first place, he'd have served it by now. But he didn't, doesn't and won't again.

Time to go John, time to go.