Watching Gordon Brown in this, his latest predicament, I see no sign at all (apart from the well-named Mrs Duffy) of surprise among observers about the nature of the Prime Minister’s personality. Rather, there is confirmation of what we already knew.

There was first of all his bizarre response to being caught out – “I’m mortified by what was said” – as if someone else had said it. Then the exit from Chez Duffy, all smiles and using her first name, puffed-up with self-importance and declaring his loyal subject to be “delighted” with his apology. And of course the incident itself in the car: anyone who disagrees with him is a bigot, and why had his aides left him to be confronted by a member of the electorate: “I mean, how did that happen?” he muttered, “Ridiculous”.

In short, Mr Brown has a superiority complex, and always blames others.

But the problem is, an ounce of discernment could’ve told anyone this about Gordon Brown in 2002. Even the Labour Party knew he was a disaster. “Don’t let him out of the attic” said Frank Field to Tony Blair in 2006. I myself wrote in March 2007 that he would ‘unravel in public’. Even Minette Marrin – the most mild-mannered of women – was moved to describe him as a weirdo. Yet here he is, leading Labour into third place. How has this happened?

The biggest single reason why this hopelessly inept and sick man is in charge is that nobody ever voted him into the job: he took it as his right, based on one dinner in Highgate. The ghastly people with whom he surrounds himself then threatened and smeared anyone with the idea of standing against him. Gordon Brown is the Labour leader for the same reason that Al Capone was in charge of Chicago’s South Side after 1930.

He would’ve been ousted in 2008, had it not been for the opportunistic return of Lord Mandelson – the man who will work for anyone so long as there’s money, watches and power at the end of it. He and he alone steered Brown skillfully and cynically through the rocks upon which he should’ve foundered. He’s been propping him up ever since. So Mandy must take some blame for this situation too.

Then we have the media set. Through a combination of hero-worship, laziness (and at times sheer stupidity) they made him ‘our greatest ever Chancellor’, a title he never deserved. They fell hook, line and sinker for New Brown in 2007. And in recent months the Leftist press and various celebs have continued to fantasise about his ‘abilities’ – purely because he is the leader of their beloved Labour Party. The Guardian, The Independent, The Mirror (and the likes of Will Hutton and Eddie Izzard) must also look in their own mirrors this morning and mutter “Mea culpa”.

But let’s not ignore the mass of the electorate, those skilled casters of votes who said things like “I’d never noticed Nick Clegg before” as they made him their favourite for PM following just ninety minutes of TV blather. The sad truth is that 65 years after an intelligent nation ousted war leader Winston Churchill, the current crop of voters are gullible, distracted and half asleep. They are also – in tens of million of cases – dependent upon Gordon for a job. They wanted to believe, and denied the mountains of evidence to the contrary.

David Cameron must also accept his fair share of responsibility. In three years of PMQs he has never really landed a good punch on Brown, asking the same questions (to which he was never going to get an answer) over and over again. His colleagues must also fess up to the fact that (when Brown’s mental health and eyesight became an issue in September last year) they preferred the option of fighting the election against a wounded beast – and so kept quiet about what everyone in Whitehall and Westminster’s inner circles already knew. The Tories have tried to be too careful – and too clever – by half; and they have made a mess of things.

Andrew Marr’s natural bias also came to Gordon Brown’s aid late last year when, presented with the open goal of ‘anti-depressants’, Marr inexplicably chose to ask about prescription painkillers – thus enabling Brown to deny he took them, for the simple reason that he doesn’t. Andrew, being a very discreet chap, will take that one to his grave.

But the biggest shower of odium must be reserved for This Great Movement of Ours, the increasingly irrelevant, amoral, silly and spineless Labour Party. Faced with the tough choice of burying Brown after 2007, the MPs have funked it thrice. Miliband has been cynically disloyal when it suited him – and a coward to boot. Balls cares only that his route to power should survive. Harman hangs onto him (and my God, she was awful on the News last night) because the largely Brownite Whelan-Dromey-Unite axis is her one and only power base. Hold them all up to the light: not an ethical bone in sight.

This is the New Labour way: talk endlessly about taking tough decisions, but only take the easy ones – and do an immediate U-turn if anyone grumbles. Power, popularity, career and control: from Blair onwards, this is all the Government has ever cared about. It has brought our culture and our economy first to its knees – and then flat on its back, legs apart. Now they are destroying themselves using the same degenerate values. This is the only satisfaction we can take from the Dance of Death our political system is performing.

I’m off to see which tabloid has got the Duffy exclusive.