The easiest job in political punditry is to laugh off Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

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It's still giving me the confidence to laugh off sneers about my middle-aged appearance, or - for that matter - to talk happily on the radio about my aging toenails.

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The Morley and Outwood MP attempted to laugh off his latest motoring offence, saying he had been going "too far, too fast" - one of his favourite attack lines against the coalition's budget cuts.

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Many people will laugh this off, chalk it up to those crazy Scots, and move on.

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So it heads off embarrassment by inviting its audience to laugh along with it.

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Now, off to Zumba so I can dance and laugh the stress of settling into a new home away!

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Of course I'm not denying that there are people in Harare who still support the ruling party who totally believe that headline, but the majority of people would laugh it off as a desperate measure - trying to fill in a void.

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However if liberals actually did laugh off his criticism because it came replete with copious references to science fiction and video games they were being unduly light hearted about important matters of philosophy and statecraft.

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For some people that helps them, it helps them to shrug off the thing, the character, as if it's an overcoat, and have a laugh and joke around, and that gives them a sense of ease when they put the coat back on again.

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