I have just been interviewing the prime minister in Downing Street about his 10p tax rate U-turn. He insists that he had 'not been pushed around' and had stuck to his policy of scrapping the 10p tax rate. This, he said again and again and again, was the right long term policy for Britain.
Mr Brown said he had 'listened' to people's concerns about the impact on certain groups, particularly in more difficult economic times. He went on to make clear that the cost of the compensation package hinted at today would be substantially lower than £1bn. He accepted that not all those who've lost from the 10p tax rate cut would benefit. Not all losers, indeed most of them he believes, are anything like poor.
When I put it to him that Labour MPs might conclude that if they "pushed him hard enough he'd cave in", he denied that and insisted that he would stick to the other policy proposal which Labour whips have warned him he may lose - to extend detention without trial to 42 days.
I could sense his frustration about the position he now finds himself in. He still believes that his last Budget as chancellor was right and fair; that the number of poor people who lose has been exaggerated; that he's only made a minor change to his policy, costing a relatively small sum of money. And, finally, he is outraged at being lectured on poverty by the Conservative party.
Nevertheless, deep down, he must know that this political mess is largely of his own making.
Westminster is still echoing to the sound of screeching political tyres. The prime minister has performed a spectacular U-turn.
No, he has not restored the 10p tax rate.
No, he is not individually compensating every loser.
No, not everyone will benefit from the changes announced today.
But Gordon Brown had shouted down those who told him there were many, many losers from his last Budget as chancellor and those who told him he faced a real political crisis as a result.
Today he has admitted that they were right and been forced to promise backdated measures to help 60 to 65-year-olds, childless couples and the young who don't benefit from the full minimum wage.
So, yes, this is a U-turn forced by the threat of a Commons defeat.
This is a humiliation he will have hated.
However, before everyone starts to write the prime minister's obituary remember that the public care much less about U-turns than the political classes; voters care whether what's done is right or wrong, not whether it's different from what was promised before.
Gordon Brown looked freer at PMQs than I have ever seen him as he fiercely defended his anti-poverty credentials and attacked the Tories for their cheek in daring to take him on on this territory.
Tony Blair's U-turn to back a referendum on the EU constitution did him little damage. Gordon Brown's problem is that, unlike Blair, he does not have a reputation as a strong leader but as a ditherer who blinks in the face of defeat. In as much as this episode confirms that view, in voters' minds it will do him real harm.
In a significant government U-turn, the government is now promising to compensate those pensioners and young people who have lost money as a result of the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
In a written statement to the Commons, the chancellor makes clear that the Treasury will assess the average loss of pensioners aged between 60 and 64 and childless working people before announcing what he will do in his pre-Budget report this autumn. He also makes clear that whatever measures are taken will be backdated to the beginning of the tax year.
Well well. There's nothing like Prime Minister's Questions to focus the mind. Question One today is from Labour backbencher Louise Ellman who has told the whips that she will not support the Budget unless there is help for the 10p losers this financial year.
To ease the PM's pain, the chancellor will - any minute - be issuing a written statement which will, we're told, "flesh out" his promise to his MPs that he'll "revisit" the issue in the pre-Budget report and the Budget.
Watch this space.
