Our lonely PM's glowering grimace doesn't lend itself easily to sympathy, but it would take a heart as hard as granite (or Granita, even) not to feel for Gordon Brown's plight. Having spent ten years waiting for the top job, in just ten months of Brownism Labour finds itself rudderless, mauled in the local elections and turfed out of City Hall.

Yesterday was Brown's first appearance in Parliament since last week's calamities, and he was welcomed back by a series of taunts and jeers from the preening Tory ranks. David Cameron stuck his Doc Martins in particularly hard, describing his Labour rival as visionless and saying of him: "he's got nothing to sell and he's useless at selling it."

Brown retorted with a variation on that theme, claiming the Conservative Party "has got absolutely nothing to offer the people of this country" - an assertion rather belied by the wash of blue rosettes that fluttered across large parts of England last week. Brown plans to announce a fresh series of policy initiatives in the coming weeks, yet despite ministers sticking close to him, some 55% of Labour voters are convinced the party would be better served by a younger, fresher leader.

We're struggling to find a moiety of good news for our beleaguered PM. Hope, as ever, comes from the direction of Madam Tussauds. Having earlier decided he was too obscure to merit a waxwork, the popular attraction has now decided to hold a public vote on whether Brown's hangdog expression should be immortalised: you can vote here on their website. The ballot closes on 13th May, and Londonist genuinely hopes Gordon succeeds - it might be the only election he has a hope of winning.

Image courtesy of Rob Inh00d's Flickrstream