Laura Kuenssberg

He's very affable.

People like getting their selfies.

He's got a great kind of charisma about him.

And that's a talent for a politician.

And he's a very instinctive politician.

We've got no idea if he's going to have the second bit, being capable, competent, all the rest.

If you speak to people who worked with him in government when he was Culture Secretary, Health Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, back under the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,

he gets pretty mixed reviews, I've got to say.

We know he's got more experience now, having been the mayor of Greater Manchester.

But what another source said to me yesterday is, look, he's going to have to translate that instinct

for being a very natural politician and making people feel good, and I'm paraphrasing, very quickly to having a serious, disciplined team that's actually ready to get things done and to make the government competent.

But there's a sort of thought experiment, if you like, just to refer back to the conversation that I was having with someone this morning, is if things are really difficult and the government doesn't really do a very effective job and things continue to go wrong, but you have a leader who can make people feel more cheerful

Does that change things?

Is that better?

Maybe it is.

On the other hand, maybe the bomber jacket and the gazelles, after five minutes, when things are just as hard and the government's just as ineffective, actually, any of that sizzle and excitement that you saw at the Ashton Football Club yesterday, that's going to fly away.

And it's massive.

I know, but I could talk about this all day.

I could talk about this all day.

I could talk about it all week.