Tally Oh!

Interesting developments over in England where the governing Labour Party, damaged by former Prime Minister Tony Blair's acquiescence to George W. Bush's duplicitiously conceived and clumsily executed Iraq War, now finds itself potentially dropping to third place in the upcoming election behind the anti-charismatic PM Gordon Brown.

While Tory leader David Cameron has been preparing for Downing Street by rebuilding his party's image in a kinder, gentler fashion (he's maybe slightly to the right of Obama) and poised to win, both Cameron and Brown have been upstaged in Britain's first televised Prime Minister election debates by Nick Clegg, telegenic leader of the smaller Liberal-Democratic Party. Clegg has been compared to Obama in that he's both something of a breathe of fresh air as well as offering a third way between or besides the other two parties.

The polls currently have the Conservatives in the lead, followed by the Liberal Dems and Labour trailing. But what just happened today could be the deathblow to Labour hopes of retaining control of even a coalition government, as Gordon Brown committed one the all-time worst campaign gaffes in that country. Brown was doing some rare campaigning amongst the electorate, had a conversation with an older woman last name Duffy, and was caught on mic disparaging her as a bigot as he got into his car (transcript via Andrew Sullivan's blog):

Duffy: We had it drummed in when I was a child with mine … it was education, health service and looking after the people who are vulnerable. But there's too many people now who are vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can't get claim, can't get it.

Brown: But they shouldn't be doing that, there is no life on the dole for people any more. If you are unemployed you've got to go back to work. It's six months.

Duffy: You can't say anything about the immigrants because you're saying that you're … but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?

Later, as he was leaving

Brown: Very good to meet you, and you're wearing the right colour today. Ha, ha, ha: How many grandchildren do you have?

Duffy: Two. They've just got back from Australia where they got stuck for 10 days. They couldn't get back with this ash crisis.

Brown: We've been trying to get people back quickly. Are they going to university. Is that the plan?

Duffy: I hope so. They're only 12 and 10.

Brown: Are they're doing well at school? [pats Duffy on the back] A good family, good to see you. It's very nice to see you.

In the car

Brown: That was a disaster. Well I just ... should never have put me in that woman. Whose idea was that?

And since they're doing American-style debates, why not American-style YouTube gaffe documentation:



Welcome to our world, Gordon Brown.