bigotgate

Well, Gordon Brown has called a Rochdale woman who was talking to him about too many eastern europeans coming into the country a bigot. And he has had to take nearly an hour out of his campaign timetable to apologise in the face of a media storm.

Here's a three basic lessons for anyone in the public eye when visiting a marginal constituency like Rochdale:

1. don't be rude to some one with whom the public will sympathise (you are not going to come out well against grey haired widows & grandmothers)
2. don't be rude to the electorate (especially to life long Labour supporters)
3. if you feel the need to rude, make sure any microphones are off

On the local front, there is little risk of any candidates making similar gaffes as they haven't appeared "on the knock" (apart from the early showing by the LibDem on 15th April).

But we did get a glossy election communication through the post today from Chris Leslie. Nice big picture of him in front of Greens Windmill, and the picture inside of him holding the baby near The Sage in Gateshead is confirmed to be him with his family. Interestingly, the other individual photo inside the leaflet is of Sarah rather than Gordon Brown. This seems a mite ungrateful given how Mr Leslie was selected and having a tag line of "putting local people first" on the front cover could both be a gift to opponents.

The leaflet has 3 key messages:

• education standards up
• crime down
• NHS improving

A positive message. Let's see how the leaders' debate on the BBC goes tomorrow.