Gaffe turns focus back on personalities

GORDON BROWN’S description of a voter he had just spoken to as a “bigoted woman” is the first big gaffe of the general election campaign – and potentially the most damaging one.

When John Prescott thumped an egg-throwing protester during the 2001 election campaign, the public sympathised with him. But voters are unlikely to take such a charitable view of Brown’s unguarded comments.

They lay him open to the damaging charge of saying one thing when the cameras are on him – and another one when they are off.