Palatinate Elections: Election Blog Day 23

Originally published online in Palatinate Elections here:
http://www.palatinate.org.uk/blogs/palatinate-election-2010-blog-day-twenty-three-finally-a-monumental-gaffe/

Well, it couldn’t last forever. After a largely gaffe-free campaign so far (even the great Boris Johnson has been fairly quiet), the list of election gaffes is finally reaching a respectable length- and, although others have tried to steal the limelight, the biggest came from none other than the Prime Minister himself.

On a visit to Rochdale, Brown spent five minutes answering questions from Gillian Duffy, a local pensioner who asked him about Eastern European immigration and crime, among other issues. Once he was back in his car, he thought it was safe to vent a little, referring to their meeting as a “disaster” and his interrogator as “bigoted”- but his microphone was still on.


The technical term for such an event in the public relations industry is a “monumental cock-up”, and every politician on the campaign trail was soon aware of it. Having been played his own words live on BBC Radio 2 by Jeremy Vine, Brown was filmed with his head in his hands, and spent the rest of the day trying to limit the damage, apologising profusely- on air, when caught by journalists, in an open letter to Labour party activists and campaigners across the country, by phone to Mrs Duffy- and even, later, in person. Most of the afternoon was spent travelling back to Oldham and apologising personally to the woman in a 40-minute home visit, while senior Labour figures defended him and told the world he was “mortified” with himself.


Naturally, it’s fair to say that the other parties were a little less devastated with events in Rochdale. The Conservatives have been largely quiet on the subject- one Tory blogger suggested that they didn’t need to say anything, since the press would instead “bury” Brown’s chances for May 6th. The Lib Dems, meanwhile, responded only slightly more vocally, with Nick Clegg in Oxford claiming that it is not “bigoted” to discuss immigration issues, and though every politician says things in private that they would hate to see publicised, Brown will have to face the consequences. Brown had rightly apologised, and now “that’s that”.


Both parties may have had a point, too: the press have been dominated by the story. Most responses have been scathingly critical of the PM; tomorrow’s headlines, beginning to emerge at the time of writing, look to be similar; other observers have simply laughed at the moment where Mrs Duffy told the press that she preferred Tony Blair anyway. Whatever the immediate reaction, Labour’s subsequent drop in most of the polls by the end of the day showed that this is not a fiasco to be quickly dismissed. Labour will be hoping to shift the focus onto solid policy ahead of the final election debate tomorrow (Thursday) evening.


Incidentally, there was some policy discussion to mention as well. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne was at the Institute of Directors conference, staking his claim to run the economy while defending Tory spending plans against accusations of dishonesty. He proclaimed his vision for a “balanced” economy with a financial sector more interested in supporting it than “enslaving” it. At the same event, Lid Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable spoke about getting rid of bureaucracy and educating the workforce as ways to promote growth.

Meanwhile, David Cameron visited the Coca-Cola factory in Wakefield, endearing himself to the West Yorkshire workers by asking them what the secret recipe was. After the grilling they gave him on everything from benefits to foreign takeovers of British businesses, he’ll be hoping that hinting loudly to the press “that they hadn’t given him any yet” has assured his popularity in a region dominated by safe Labour seats (rumour has it that Cameron considered arriving in a tank for his own protection).


North of the border, today saw the Scottish National Party’s legal proceedings continue at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, as they attempted to prevent the Scottish broadcast of tomorrow’s leaders’ debate without an SNP participant. Despite fears that this could potentially disrupt the entire debate due to technical difficulties in preventing Scots from watching online, the nationalists had lost by lunchtime.


Today’s campaigning has been ultimately swamped by Brown’s off-camera, frustrated remarks, but there may still be more to come. Considering her new-found fame (including Facebook appreciation groups, which are always the key factor in judging notoriety), and amid speculation that she could sell her story, Gillian Duffy is now being represented by a PR firm and refusing to give further comment on today’s events. Whether or not this means she’ll be enjoying a supplement to her pension in the near future, time will tell. We’ll also see whether Thursday’s headline in The Sun holds true: “Gillian only popped out for a loaf. She came back with… BROWN TOAST.”