The prime minster, as people who have met him so often remark, is much more relaxed "off stage." His short speech to the regional press parliamentary lobby was - in the main - witty and nicely delivered. His walkabout among diners beforehand was also notable for the easy way he managed conversations.
Ed Curran, editor-in-chief at the Belfast Telegraph, was particularly delighted. His talk with Gordon Brown just before going into lunch at the House of Commons evidently produced a good page lead. But he was not alone in enjoying Brown's company. There were many comments about how he seemed not to be showing any signs of stress.
He took only two questions, though I had a feeling that he would have happily accepted more. They were, sadly, rather predictable ones about the Labour party funding row, as Press Gazette reported.
Regional political correspondents, who are rarely called to speak at press conferences, were getting their chance at least to put questions of natiopnal significance to the prime minister. He handled them well, as you would expect.
What was disappointing was that he wasn't taxed specifically about matters directly affecting the state of the regional press. Though Russell Whitehair, the Newspaper Society president, used part of his speech to warn of the possible threat to regional papers posed by the BBC's proposed network of local websites, I would have liked to have heard what Brown might have said in response.
Doubtless Whitehair, who sat next to Brown, did not waste the opportunity for a bit of lobbying. But there are other problems facing regionals too, most notably the decision by some local councils to reconsider whether to continue placing public sector advertising in local papers. Many hundreds of thousands of pounds of ad revenue are therefore endangered.
That said, the lunch was probably valuable for the prime minister. I imagine a good few editors were impressed with his sang froid.
