Leading article: Being Prezza

Of reinventions we have known, John Prescott's must have a claim to being among the most spectacular. One half of an oddly effective partnership with Tony Blair – the rough man to the smooth – he resigned as deputy prime minister when Mr Blair left Number Ten. He made an awkward apology to the party for an office affair and may be the only MP who has floored a protester with a knock-out punch and enhanced his popularity thereby.

Now energetically blogging, he has embraced the new media with a vengeance. As climate change rapporteur for the Council of Europe, he has a new mission and is about to take his message around the country's schools. There will be many MPs who ask what Prezza has that they do not – aside from a growl of a voice, a deceptively bluff manner and a couple of environmentally unfriendly Jags. The answer is that he has authenticity. The pity is that anyone who needs to ask probably doesn't get it.