Brown Blair returns to Trimdon to back Brown
(and Sedgefield MP) the touch of the old Blair magic that Labour needs?
He was certainly more tanned than he used to be when he was spending more of his time in County Durham.
In fact if it wasn't for that, and some other signs of age, you could have been forgiven for thinking we'd slipped back in time.
Tony Blair, Trimdon Labour Club, John Burton, all very 2001 and 2005.
Of course his party won both those elections and .
They hope the ex-PM can win back some of the New Labour supporters who may be tempted to vote Tory, and banish any thoughts that David Cameron is the "Heir to Blair".
But of course Tony Blair's past may also be his weakness as a campaigner.
Labour needs to show it has a future and not just a history - new fresh ideas, and not just a record from the past.
And of course Tony Blair's involvement in the Iraq war is divisive.
Supposedly, this won't be the last we see of the former PM as rumour .
History would say he's a winner, and in a tight election, that's why Labour may calculate he could make a difference.
Don't expect a poll surge just yet though.
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During my day off yesterday I was astonished to login to find the Durham North MP Kevan Jones as one of the trending topics.
Those usually revolve around some celebrity scandal, not County Durham's MPs, and actually in this case that wasn't wide of the mark.
Because big as Mr Jones is in Stanley and Chester-le-Street, it was .
I know from personal experience that the Durham North MP is a pretty robust character.
I've had a few on-screen clashes with him over the years, and on one occasion he even told me to shut up (many have thought it, he had the courage to say it).
He has a reputation in his own party and beyond as a bit of a bruiser. But on this occasion he seems to have met his match.
took place in a Ö÷²¥´óÐã Affairs Select Committee a few weeks ago (though strangely they seem to have taken a while to hit the headlines).
You've probably seen the coverage but just in case you haven't, he accused her of a "deathly silence" on the resettlement of Gurkhas despite her high profile support for the former soldiers last year.
Ms Lumley chose yesterday to fight back, calling Mr Jones' comments a "smear" and Twitter duly went mad in her support.
Hundreds and hundreds of tweets were generated about him - none I saw were complimentary, and many used some pretty unparliamentary language.
So rather wisely, he chose to beat a hasty retreat and ..
Clearly there's some people who you can afford to take on, but Ms Lumley isn't one of them!
I'm Richard Moss, the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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