Yesterday’s spat between Brown and Mrs Duffy is classic. In the discussion between the two the irony is that I thought Brown had actually managed to talk Gillian Duffy round. She'd said she was planning to vote Labour at the end of their conversation and was satisfied with the prime minister's answers.
He'd inquired about her family, told her he was pleased to see her, chatted about her grandchildren and even said that she had a "good family". So, what was Mrs Duffy's sin that allowed the PM to describe her as a "bigoted woman" once he thought he was out of ear-shot in the privacy of his own car?
She asked him how he planned to reduce the deficit; she asked him about her grandchildren's chances of going to university and how they'd pay for it; and she raised the question of immigration from Eastern Europe and what that could mean for jobs in her area.
In other words, not trivial, not irrelevant, but core political issues.
All smiles to her face and behind her back really what her thought. Did he then think, “I have misaligned the woman I should apologise”, I don’t think so. He later apologised because he was still ‘miked up’. If no mic was on he would have carried on and nobody would be wise to his real thoughts. In my mind he still thinks she is bigoted.
Hence the lying politician. Say what the public want you to say, but think differently and of course act differently. Apologise after, if necessary.
Mrs Duffy and people like her are core to Labour staving off a meltdown at this election. There is a good chance that Labour supporters may feel tempted to return the contempt with which Gordon Brown appears to have treated one voter.
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