In the first Prime Ministers’ debate, the candidates were asked to answer a question on immigration:

Audience Questioner: Good evening. What key elements for a fair, workable immigration policy need to be put in place to actually make it work effectively?
Gordon Brown : You know, I’ve heard the concerns around the country. I’ve been listening to people. I know people feel there are pressures because of immigration. That’s why we want to control and manage immigration.

No wonder he bombed in the post-debate polls – voters already know not to believe a word they hear from Jonah’s lips…

UPDATE FLASHBACK II: On the 31st March, Brown said: “The question of who comes to Britain, and what they have to do to earn that privilege, is something that should be the subject of open and responsible debate. But how we conduct this debate is as important as the debate itself.”

On the Jeremy Vine show, Brown stressed that he wanted to discuss the issue with Mrs Duffy but, despite wanting an “open and reasonable debate,” couldn’t: “It was the view that she expressed that I was worried about but couldn’t respond to.” Couldn’t? Or didn’t want to?

Twenty minutes later Gordon begs for forgiveness.

Guido has reported before about Gordon’s pooled microphone difficulties. In order to attempt to control questioning, the Prime Mentalist only has one feed and today it seems he forgot it was turned on as he walked away from an event in Rochdale discussing what a “disaster” it was, and accused a Labour voting pensioner of being “bigoted woman“. Will she still be voting Labour now?

UPDATE I : Labour hacks are removing rosettes before “meeting” Gordon in faked up walkabouts. The first time Gordon meets a real voter it all goes horribly wrong. And he knows it, after telling Mrs Duffy that it was “very nice to see you“, Gordon told aides in the car and said: “You should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Sue’s I think. Everything she said – she’s just a bigoted woman.” Old loyal Sue Nye better duck.

UPDATE II :

Dan Hannan blogs…

“Knocking on a door in Basingstoke, I was greeted with a delighted cry of ‘Come in: I’m a Jehovah’s Witness.’ “

There was only one story that the Fawkes household cared about yesterday. Peppa Pig’s boycott of Yvette Cooper’s photo-op.  Can you blame Peppa? Yvette was in that auto-pilot soundbite mode thing she does, droning on that “the Conservative and Liberal Democrats would form a ‘Coalition of Cuts for Children’ that would put children in the frontline for spending cuts”. Yesterday the top-line from Labour was “only we can save your children”, it was so over the top it was unbelievable.

All obscured anyway by Peppa’s boycott of Yvette’s photo-op at a nursery. Labour’s press conference yesterday morning will be used in the future by media studies classes as a textbook case study on how not to handle the media.  Mandelson and Ed Ball’s exchanges with Adam Boulton, Andrew Neil and Nick Robinson were pretty bad tempered. The hacks were all trying to identify where Labour’s expected £30 billion of cuts were coming from, the issue which dominates front pages this morning following on from the IFS report accusing all parties of electoral dishonesty.

The backfiring Peppa photo-op is a metaphor for the Labour campaign, they can’t get traction on their new “Coalition for Cuts” dividing line because they themselves won’t credibly specify their own closet cuts agenda.  Peppa the Pig stood in for government spokesman on the Daily Politics and featured on Newsnight more than Yvette’s message. Peppa might be a fictional children’s character, but she is more credible than Yvette.

The spin has been that today’s Cameron heckler, Jonathan Bartley, was just an “ordinary dad“. Not quite. He is in fact the left-wing Christian pacifist activist who edits the Ekklesia blog and is a Guardian contributor. Hardly your average random passer-by.

Some of his outbursts show why he might not like Dave so much. He calls Jesus a socialist, which will come as a bit of a surprise to Tim Montgomerie, he rants daily against the Tories on his Twitter page, raging against orthodox religion and the monarchy.  With his track record of ranting online Guido is surprised Labour haven’t made him a candidate yet.