Leadership through advocacy for one's honest views instead of populist tightrope walking would be a great thing. Today Brown might have said, "Well, I shouldn't have been quite so painfully courteous to that lady but let's be honest, she obsesses over immigration and crime, and people who are like that invariably turn out to be bigots. I must apologise for misleading the lady before the media broadcast what I really thought of her." Or maybe, "Clearly I insulted the good lady right after being pleasant with her. She is no bigot, it was really wrong of me and I won't go around slagging off the electorate in future. Maybe she won't forgive me but I hope the public at large believes me when I say I am embarrassed by my behaviour today." The former represents honesty and the latter diplomatic contrition, both admirable traits he doesn't have, as are any number of social skills. Instead, having included among his remarks a muttered cuss at Sue, he complained that the media hadn't been kind by broadcasting the asides and apologised "if" he had upset anyone. He is a really unpleasant type of windbag but so ridiculous he might just garner a sympathy vote or two. The current Prime Minister is not a leader or an advocate albeit he is certainly a politician.