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Gordon Brown routinely telephones voters at home to talk about Labour policy, Downing Street has confirmed. Press reports said the prime minister asked the No 10 switchboard to put him through to people who had written or e-mailed with concerns. PR Week claimed it was part of a new campaign to generate positive "word of mouth" about Mr Brown. But No 10 said he had always called voters personally - and denied claims he had telephoned one man at 6am. A Downing Street official said: "The PM takes a great interest in correspondence that comes in. "He likes to keep in touch with voters who take the trouble to contact him." Early riser It is not unusual for senior politicians to call voters at home, although the practice tends to be restricted to election campaigns. According to PR Week, which has run a number of stories from "Downing Street insiders" in recent months, Mr Brown's strategy chief Stephen Carter came up with the idea as part of an effort to "humanise" him. A letter or e-mail would be chosen at random, a response prepared and then Mr Brown would call, the magazine quoted an insider as saying. It claims the tactic backfired once when Mr Brown, a well-known early riser, called a member of the public at 6am. The recipient was, fortunately, a shift worker who happened to be up. The story has been firmly denied by Downing Street. The revelation comes as a new poll suggests Labour's popularity with voters is lower than during Michael Foot's leadership in the early 1980s. The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph puts Labour on 23% - 24 points behind the Conservatives on 47%. The Liberal Democrats are on 18 points.
Yes, but you could actually call him a "slack jawed mealy mouthed moron" on the blower. There has to be some satisfaction in that.
I don't know but I would guess that some flunky makes the initial call to prepare the way.
