Brown: I Can Haz Sympathy Vote, Ladeez?

Well, Barbara Ellen certainly thinks so, anyway:

Did anyone else feel that Brown had been handed the third-place rosette before he even took to the podium? That, even before Brown screwed up with Gillian Duffy, everything he said and did, was to an accompaniment of abuse, insults and gloating – with Brown, the equivalent of a bull, determinedly trying to keep on its feet, despite a baying media crowd, and a back full of pollsters' spears. A "Get Gordon" bloodlust, which, in the end, was so obvious as to be foolish. After all, attack a guy often enough (for everything, for nothing) and it just may backfire and ignite the sympathy vote.

But, it appears, only with the distaff side:

I don't know a single person who's been asked their opinion for a poll. However, I do know quite a few people, many of them women, none of them ragingly partisan, who are quietly disgusted by the way Brown has been treated during this election.

Say what..? Did I miss something? Has he been pelted with eggs, or harangued by students?

Nope. After all, he has a security team to handle the latter. So what has he faced? Just questions from members of the public, whom he then sneers at and belittles when he thinks they can't hear him.

But apparently and unbelievably, for a certain type of female, this is unbearable:

"Even if it's time for him not to be prime minister, he seems like a decent man, and it's too much," said one woman. "Would Cameron or Clegg have done any better with his hand, I doubt it," sniffed another.

Oh, my giddy aunt!!

Always, at times such as these, the female vote ("the Mumsnet factor") is discussed as if it were a pink, fluffy silly thing – with women needing to be courted, flattered and directed, or – bubbleheads that we are – we may go mad and vote for someone because he is wearing a shiny tie. A reductionist view that is as untrue as it is insulting.

Reading the above, is it any wonder? You see a man who has been purely the architect of his own downfall and say 'Awww, they are SO MEAN!' like some bubble-headed California Valley girl...

In truth, most women are clever and pragmatic creatures, perfectly capable of assessing the core issues and thinking for themselves.

Well, not based on your own admissions in this article, Babs!

But it's a mistake to assume that she speaks for all women. She speaks for that (thankfully) rare species, Journalistus islingonii, and it's purely the yummy mummy, ladies-who-lunch demographic who are likely to be suckered into believing that Gordon deserves their vote because all the popular boys have been flushing his head down the toilet.

At least, I hope so....