It really was the weirdest thing, writes Shirley Tart. We couldn’t take our eyes off Gillian Duffy’s front door for the 40 minutes Gordon Brown was behind it.

And then, having never smiled at all for 10 years, he appeared with that very strange smile lurking across his face the whole time he was explaining that he had apologised and Mrs Duffy had accepted his apology.

Beating himself further with verbal wet willow, Mr Brown went on to regret his comments into the forgotten microphone that Gillian Duffy was a bigot (not to mention blaming somebody called Sue for arranging the meeting) and the whole thing was a disaster, ridiculous in fact.

But there is actually a much wider and more worrying issue here.

What happened yesterday, confirmed how controlled and controlling politicians have become.

Those 76 rules around the leader debates, the third of which is tonight, show that all too clearly.

Whatever happened to the days when men were men (and women of course were gutsy women) and if they got accosted at the hustings, they entered into the argument with gusto.

I mean if a Prime Minister can get so sweaty and grim because an elderly lady touched a sensitive spot and raised issues he didn’t want to talk about, where exactly have we arrived?

I’ll tell you something – this lot would never survive a good old evening being heckled in a village hall.

Nowadays, you have to walk on eggshells round their egos, heavies protect them as though we’re in a police state, indeed ordinary voters are intimidated by those who think they are rather grand but actually have damn all to be grand about.

And whoever it is, apologising because you’ve been caught out is never the same as saying sorry because you are. Go on then, spot the difference here!