Duffy

Duffy. Not the gorgeous Welsh songstress and certainly not the Scottish lesbian Poet Laureate, Carol-Ann but Gillian, Gillian Duffy, widow, grandmother, sixty six year old Rochdale resident and salt of the earth. On Wednesday, accidentally, she encountered the Labour prime minister Gordon Brown during one of his pre-election walkabouts. She spoke to him in a pleasant, respectful manner and politely posed a couple of questions about immigration into the UK from eastern Europe.

Later, leaving that Rochdale suburb in his car with TV mike still attached, Gordon Brown was heard to describe Gillian Duffy as a "bigoted woman". There are questions to ask about how this recording ever emerged. Who broke trust with Brown? A BBC technician? A news editor? Shouldn't it all have remained discreetly private? After all, we know for sure that David Cameron and Nicholas Clegg would have equally condescending things to say about voters in the snug confines or their own official cars.

But getting back to the issue. Brown showed his true colours that day. The majority of the "host" population of the UK have questions to ask about immigrant waves and Mrs Duffy was only voicing what most people feel. It's not Gillian Duffy who is the bigot - it is in fact Gordon Brown himself - he of the high moral Presbyterian ground - who looks down on people like Gillian Duffy - the backbone of Labour's support. She is not a racist. She is an ordinary citizen. It's okay for Brown living the high life in London, jetting round the world - he doesn't have to live in fragmented neighbourhoods invaded by economic migrants.

I will vote Labour as I always have done next Thursday - even though I know that Labour have lost it. This is the party of health care for all, of quality public education, of libraries, of trade union comradeship and of welfare services - the party of the ordinary people. I couldn't vote for anyone else but with regard to Brown with his false smile and Presbyterian bigotry, I say do the right thing and resign next Friday - leaving the door open for a new New Labour headed by David Milliband, Andy Burnham or Alan Johnson. Just like Hull City Mr Brown - you're going down and you've let us down. The idea of England's parliament being led by the odious "Tory boy" - David Cameron, turns my stomach - and this is largely down to Gordon Brown's bumbling ineptitude. Labour's case could have been presented so much more convincingly.