It was too much to expect Gordon Brown to disown Hazel Blears over her damaging comments about Blackbird Leys.

But at least the Prime Minister gave the Oxford estate his full backing.

From that, we can interpret that he disagrees with the view of his Communities Secretary that because of planning mistakes, families "have struggled with higher-than-average levels of crime, vandalism, unemployment, unresponsive public services and poor-quality housing".

Ms Blears has sensibly kept a low profile after such an insensitive outburst, which upset many people on the Leys.

Mr Brown's intervention during his visit to Oxford yesterday has calmed the waters to some extent.

But we are sure that Leys residents would welcome the opportunity to show Ms Blears exactly what their community is about. We look forward to seeing her here soon although, on the evidence of her no comment' yesterday, that is unlikely.