From our Washington correspondent:

Little-known political speech writer Bob "The" Builder was recruited by Senator Barack Obama to craft his eloquent speech, following Obama's victory in the US Presidential Elections last night.

This fact only emerged when it was realised that Bob's catchphrase '[Can we fix it] - yes we CAN!' had inadvertently been left in the final draft of the speech - not just once, but several times, in what may prove to be an embarrassing mistake that may come to haunt Mr Obama in the future.

- now compare and contrast:

Bob was later tracked down by our London correspondent in a pub in Chiswick, drowning his sorrows in Fuller's Best. He was reluctant to be interviewed about the gaffe, but did observe, in a somewhat incoherent way, that he hoped American elation wouldn't turn to ashes the way it has for the UK, many years on from Tony's triumphant election speech.