And finally, although I wouldn't for a second credit Sky news with the intelligence to do something like this deliberately, there really can be no doubt as to their (i.e. Rupert Murdoch's) political allegiance can there?

That's the press for you - apparently in the afternoon she had 40-50 journalists and support staff camped on her front lawn, and that's probably a low estimate.
It'll be interesting to see how its handled tonight - some have mentioned that it won't be referenced by the other leaders in an attempt to not be overly negative, and that instead it'll be the elephant in the room

It seems you were more right than you might have expected with your "inept" judgement:

I feel sorry for him. These were comments that he intended to make quietly in private and which got accidentally broadcast. Plenty of times at work I've uttered impolite things when the phone has rang whilst I'm in the middle of something, only to pick the phone up and behave pleasantly to the person on the other end.

 

Everyone behaves differently in private compared with publicly when you're having to deal with people all the time.

 

Labour aren't getting my vote mind you, but that's because of my MP's support for the Mandybill and has nothing to do with this gaffe. Of course, Brown is a tit for saying something like this whilst having a microphone strapped to him, but there you go!

"Everyone" isn't trying to get the people that they're talking to, to vote for them though.

 

I do feel sorry for him, and it has been blown out of proportion (which was inevitable), but that doesn't mean it was alright.

When I first heard of this I assumed it was done on purpose. I'm pretty sure that calling a bigot a bigot would appeal to the sort of people who are leaking from labour to the lib dems. Having heard it it sounds like (which doesn't mean it is) a genuine mistake. But they're polling up today so it's certainly done no harm.

I'd certainly consider switching back based on it if there weren't concrete things preventing me (iraq, mandybill etc.).

There was an interview on local radio (BRMB) with PR bloke Max Clifford earlier today about this.

 

Max Clifford said that by the end of next week she could have earned £250k from this by selling her story to the papers.

 

Gordon Brown can insult me all he likes in public if I could get that!!!

I so agree. when I watch the election debates, there are several times when I find myself disagreeing with Cameron and agreeing with Brown. However, this just makes me feel disappointed. Mainly because no matter how much sense Brown may talk on a certain issue (and don't get me wrong, I don't agree with all he says), Labour have pissed away any chance they had of getting my vote due to their shambolic handling of the Mandybill. A pity too. They did get my vote at the last two elections for instance and now they're fucked any chance they had of getting it over the miss-handling of one important bill..

Really? Even with that smile at the end?

The polls seem to place Brown quite clearly at the bottom (except, bizarrely the Channel 4 poll)

Why?

Because bigots should be called bigots. And any party which demonstrates that they can still recognise a bigot when they encounter one, while still recognising that calling the bigot a bigot in public would be politically unwise currently, would gain a degree of my confidence.

That's just a long winded way of saying "He's not an idiot"?
(Which most politicians, despite other flaws, are not, so not really anything significant)

I'm more inclined to go with Manthorp's perspective, although the whole thing seems a trifle not really worth this much fuss over.

Fair enough that you respect him for calling a bigot a bigot (although he did it behind her back rather than to her face, which would've been more honest), but would you still respect him for calling a spade a spade?

I don't think it's that at all. I think it's more like saying "he's not a cunt".

Well clearly saying it to her face would've been more honest. But in a country of bigots it wouldn't've been very politically astute.

There's having principles and then there's having the political instincts to be able to do anything with them (not that I'm suggesting he has much of the latter).

It's a funny one. I thought that Cameron was awful in it, yet a lot of polls have him down as the winner. This is despite him constantly trotting out the old "waste" cliché (which sounds good, but is just utterly unrealistic) and the fact that he was repeatedly accused of inheritance tax breaks for the rich (amongst other things) and which he just ignored and would not answer. Last week when accused of something incorrectly, he immediately and strenuously denied the accusation. The fact that he didn't this time around tells its own story about the truth of these allegations.

I thought Cameron was positively foamy. I was waiting for his head to turn form orange to bright white and then explode rather messily all over the shiny set.

That's what annoyed me about Cameron, that he didn't directly answer those important questions about inheritance tax. That said, the other two annoyed me by going into 'Paxman Mode' and repeatedly saying 'yes or no?' or 'answer the question David' when Cameron went on the defensive or ignored the point completely.