When, as deputy prime minister, John Prescott punched a protester during the general election campaign in 2001 it nearly ruined his career. I remember it well because I was a political correspondent at Westminster at the time. I was on the Conservative leader William Hague’s battle bus. We journos covering the Tory end of the story could only watch the news in envy as our colleagues covering the Labour campaign witnessed Mr Prescott getting into a sensational spot of bother during a visit to Rhyl in north Wales. Prescott, who had been criticised for using two Jaguar cars, went from “Two Jags” to “Two Jabs” in the ensuing row. The headlines were priceless. He reacted instinctively, he later explained, because in the split second he was hit by an egg he thought the protester was really going to hurt him. I couldn’t help but think of “Two Jabs” when I saw footage going viral on the internet of Pope Francis slapping away the hand of a woman who reached out and grabbed him during a walkabout at the Vatican. People do react instinctively when they are grabbed by a stranger. Self-preservation kicks in. Public figures must live with the fear they might be set upon at any moment. But all that being so, it did occur to me that the Pope missed a golden PR opportunity. In that split second, had he been able to organise himself better, he might have used the incident to demonstrate to the world that God always responds positively to any demonstration of faith: