Peppa Pig is a firm favourite in our house, but could now be on the list of proscribed viewing for Gordon Brown's children. The cheeky cartoon character, who charms kids and big kids alike in 180 countries, likes nothing better than jumping in muddy puddles and she certainly muddies the water for Labour this week when her appearance at the launch of the party’s family manifesto is cancelled at short notice.

While it was a minor irritant for Labour, and good copy for the papers (according to the Daily Telegraph she didn’t attend because ‘she is unquestionably from a long line of well-bred, well-fed Conservatives’), it is nothing compared to the storm to come. As gaffes go, Gordon Brown’s foot in mouth incident when referring to Gillian Duffy is as public as they come. Whether you view it as a ‘game changer’ or not, hearing the prime minister label a lifelong supporter of his own party a bigot is unedifying and Mr Brown rightly apologised promptly.

The week starts brightly for the prime minister, who earns himself two standing ovations from delegates at the Royal College of Nursing congress in Bournemouth on Monday (26 April). He pays tribute to nurses and their ‘amazing works of care and mercy’ and pledges to protect NHS pensions.

The speech coincides with the launch of Labour’s health manifesto, which reiterates many of the themes the party has already laid out. However, interestingly it pledges capital spending would be ‘refocused’ on primary and community care, while GPs would take on care management responsibilities, designing and purchasing packages of care that meet patients’ needs. Does the latter hint at some form of practice-based commissioning/ payment by results hybrid?

On Tuesday (27 April) it is Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s turn to go see nurse. On his way to three standing ovations, he tells the RCN Congress that a Lib Dem government would give frontline staff control over their ward or unit budgets. He pledges to save money by capping chief executives’ pay, rather than that of nurses, and target small pay rises (of up to £400 per person) at the lowest-paid staff.

Presumably when David Cameron clocks that his speaker’s ticket is allocating him third billing, he decides to send shadow health Andrew Lansley instead. RCN general secretary and chief executive Peter Carter says it was ‘no way a slur on nurses’ that Mr Cameron (who addressed the Congress the previous year) is the only one of the three main parties’ leaders not to turn up. Yet he still manages to sound like a man who bought an Elvis in Vegas DVD from the market only to find it is actually a dodgy impersonator in Blackpool puffing his way through The wonder of you.

Mr Lansley receives no standing ovation, though he does score points when he talks of reducing bureaucracy and giving nurses greater responsibility. And the nurses welcome his pledge to introduce a one-year preceptorship for all nursing graduates to end the ‘outrageous’ situation where some qualified nurses fail to get a job.

The centre point of the week is again the leaders’ debate on Thursday (29), which focuses on the economy. And for all the talk of new politics over the past few weeks, this one has some very ‘old politics’ messages.

This is particularly true of the clashes between Mr Cameron and Mr Brown over when and how to begin to recover the deficit. The Tory and Labour leaders’ contrasting economic doctrines are laid bare as Mr Cameron essentially calls for a roll-back of the state – cut now, put more money in people’s pockets and hope they spend it to revive the economy – and Mr Brown’s stateism – prop up public services, keep people employed and hope this allows the wider economy some time to recover before you go after the big efficiency savings.

The NHS is mentioned twice, both times in answer to the first question – can you be honest about spending cuts? (Presumably this is a reference to Bank of England governor Mervyn King’s reported claim that the cuts that will have to be inflicted by the next government will leave such scars that the party would be unelectable for a generation).

Mr Brown says there will be cuts in departments other than the NHS and commits to maintaining frontline services. He attacks the Conservative policy of finding £6bn in efficiency savings this year. Mr Cameron says the £6bn represents £1 in every £100 the government spends – quickly relating those cuts to preventing the 7% pay rise received by senior NHS managers in 2008/09.

So, less than a week to go and a Bank Holiday weekend beckons. We’re taking the kids to see Peppa Pig on stage on Monday. No doubt she will rib Daddy Pig about the size of his tummy and urge him to get some exercise. Whatever her political allegiances, her health policy is firmly in favour of illness prevention.