My response to Brown's "bigot" gaffe

Discussion across the nation yesterday was dominated by Gordon Brown's latest blunder. Unaware that his mic was still active, he branded Gillian Duffy, an elederly working class Northerner "a bigoted woman". He bowled both the media and his opposition a six with that one.

Some are saying this will cost Brown the election. Others are saying that's a pretty hefty prediction. I think that the gaffe in and of itself won't cost Brown. It's what the comments reveal about Brown and New Labour that will cost him.

1) People have long thought that David Cameron, whilst charismatic and personable on screen, becomes snobbish and prejudiced against the lower classes when the cameras stop rolling. Just Wednesday morning, Labour branded this the Tories' "camera on, camera off" tactic. But now we've seen this is true of Gordon Brown. Not his Etonian rival.

2) Gordon Brown dismissed an elderly, working class, Northern woman who has voted Labour all her life. Gillian Duffy is a typical, core Labour voter. She represents everything Labour is meant to stand for, everything it was founded on. She represents who the party is made up of and who it used to be led by. Brown's comments have shown that Labour is no longer "the people's party". It's not the party it once was, nor the party it is desperately trying to convince us it is. Brown and Labour don't care about people. They only care about staying in power.

The issues Mrs Duffy raised were clearly not ones that Gordon Brown has close to his heart. But they are ones that the Liberal Democrats hold close to their hearts:

IMMIGRATION: Lib Dems want to make sure immigrants go where their services are needed, and don't make it difficult for locals to get jobs. Lib Dems want a UK Border Force to make it harder for illegal immigrants to get in, and want to round up illegal immigrants who are committing crimes or scrounging. Lib Dems want to deal practically with the mass amount of immigrants Labour and the Tories have let in by having an amnesty by those who have been here for 10 years working, speak good English and want to be part of the system.

TUITION FEES: One of the Lib Dems most dearly held policies is the total scrapping of university tuition fees in 6 years, and we have a clear plan for this.

BENEFIT SCROUNGERS: Lib Dems want to make sure people never spend more than 90 days out of work, a better pledge than Labour's 6 months; and want to make sure people aren't getting benefits they don't deserve.

This incident has shown that the Liberal Democrats are the only party who stand for and with the people. The Conservatives, despite my earlier comments about Cameron, still favour the rich. And it's clear from this incident that Labour no longer favour the common man. Only the Liberal Democrats really care about the average person in the UK today.