Peter Rhodes on Prescott, punches and what to do with a runaway bus

A bus with 30 passengers aboard “got into difficulty” on an icy road in Nottingham and began a slow-speed slide on the ice. A group of students spontaneously put their shoulders to the bus, halted it and thus prevented it losing control, to a round of applause from passers-by. One witness described the students' action as “cute, wholesome and nice.” But the bus company took a dimmer view, urging people in such an incident to “keep a safe distance from a vehicle . . . no matter if their intention was to help.”

It's a dilemma. Were these kids heroes or simply lacking imagination? Did they not see in this mix of heavy machinery and frail flesh, the potential for student-pâté ? And what would we grown-ups do in a similar crisis? You know, I'd love to help but I haven't got my bus pass . . .

So farewell, John Prescott, the quick-punching, grammar-mangling former deputy prime minister, who has died aged 86. He was a stabilising force in a party riven between old socialists and New Labour. Whenever MPs drifted off into flights of fantasy or revolution, you could rely on Prescott to keep their feet firmly on terra cotta.

I met him a few times, memorably during an election campaign in Birmingham when he made a much-publicised gaffe. He wanted to make the point that this election was all about the future. To illustrate the point, John Prescott picked up a passing toddler and raised him shoulder-high. The toddler's father who resented his child being brandished as a political prop, objected noisily. To his credit, Prescott immediately recognised his error and apologised profusely, with charm and grace. You can tell a politician's calibre by his willingness, when in the wrong, to say sorry.

As for that unfortunate business when he decked a man who chucked an egg in his face, I never understand Prescott's critics. The attacker was much younger and fitter than the Labour icon and Prescott, a former boxer, retaliated in self-defence. End of.