Be in no doubt that Brown's 'bigot moment' isn't just some campaign gaffe. It's a huge, unimaginably bad mistake, for two reasons.

First,there's the obvious fact that he was revealing his contempt for what the vast majority of voters think, and that his attempts to appear 'on your side' are such a fraud.

But worse, I think, is the hypocrisy of it - the fact that he had a seemingly pleasant conversation with Mrs Duffy, and then when he thought he was in private let rip. And then to make it worse, his apology consisted of saying that it was a private conversation, as if that somehow excused it, and missing the whole point that the impact is precisely because it revealed that Brown's private views are so different from those he espouses in public.

If Labour wasn't already doomed, this would be a game-changer. But it might seal the party's collapse into third.

I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't such a liar, and hadn't disgraced the office he now holds.