About to get on my camel... STOP... Unless I get a signal where I'm going, the posts will halt for a while... STOP... Some readers may be thinking (to quote Blackadder) yes... please.... STOP.

Men are useless, right? Things run more smoothly when women are left in charge, allowed to get on with running the country without encumbrance... especially of course in the middle of summer when people are heading abroad in droves because there's nothing much happening.

Harriet Harman has been talking to Isabel Oakeshott of the Sunday Times and telling her that men cannot be trusted to run organisations on their own. With the hopeless Mr Brown on holiday, she is determined to prove that she can be just as hopeless. The consolation for this ridiculous experiment (Harriet is boss!) is that she is unlikely to have to make any tough decisions during that time and so there is little chance that she can really screw things up.

"I love it, I'm absolutely loving it," she says. "I really love pretending to be important. It's a kind of lifestyle thing, I guess. Once a gal has a great job, a house, a family, endless shoes and designer handbags, then there is only one thing that she's left kinda wanting: Status. And that, girls and boys is what I have right now. Status... I am the most important woman in the United Kingdom. And did I mention that I am loving it?"

Mzzz. Harman went on to describe how she had been waiting all her life for this moment. "I think in fact that the country has been waiting all its life for this moment, Isabel. Remember that the British people have never known a woman to be in such a position of power... Oh, I know that they go on about this Maggie Thatcher woman. But let us not forget: she was a Tory and probably not a real woman to boot. And anyway even if she was a real woman, she got where she was in spite of being a woman. Whereas, I got to where I am precisely because I am a woman. Do you see the difference?"

When asked whether she intended to hand power back to Mr Brown when he came back from his holidays, she responded: "Isabel, I totally understand where you're heading with this question. The country is crying out for me to kind of hang around and lead the country to Utopia - and preferably on horseback, I wouldn't be surprised. But let me once again be straight: I am not seeking and I have never sought to be Prime Minister and nor do I intend to seek that office. But I can say this, that never again will it just be boys running the show. I am convinced that every big organisation needs women at the top."

"For as they say, Isabel... behind every useless man, there is a totally useless woman. And I believe that we have that balance just right at the moment. Or at least we will have, after the recess when the useless Gordon is back and I'm kind of effectively acting as the Prime Minister in Chief... if you catch my drift."