Gillian Duffy

Brown's bad day

When everyone looks back on this day of the British general election campaign, no-one will be happy with the outcome.

On one hand, there is a working-class pensioner; a lifelong Labour supporter who took the opportunity to confront the prime minister on genuine concerns for her and her family. 

When told - in an unguarded moment caught on a radio microphone - he had later described her as a "bigoted woman", Gillian Duffy looked shattered, as if the wind had been knocked out of her. 

She genuinely could not understand what she had said that he would think was bigoted.

Then there was Gordon Brown, the British prime minister.