Gordon Brown "bigot" silliness

Puppycow said:
Very good point. Even if you think she's bigoted, he still comes off badly for the reasons you state.
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That is the huge problem I agree.
Even though we have no doubt most politicians probably say exactly the same things the moment they are out of earshot (or think they are out of earshot), it's going to play badly simply because he is the one who got caught.

And I think it's actually a shame - for a brief moment we have had a glimpse of what Gordon Brown really thinks.

He thinks that:

  • His appearances should be better stage managed - This is hardly a surprise
  • He was angry he had been put in front of a non-sympathetic member of the public shortly before the third electoral debate - Again hardly a surprise - I'm sure most politicians would have had the same reaction
  • He wants to know who set up the encounter - Again perfectly understandable
I'm not being pro-Gordon Brown here as I believe this would have been an identical conversation any of the leaders would have had with an aide after an encounter like that. Hardly a 'disaster' as Brown put it, but a piece of not particulalry great organisation or research by someone on his team at a fairly crucial time.

Now of course all these things go on behind the scene but there is a sort of myth that they don't, so this will play badly for Gordon Brown, even though I'm sure Cameron and Clegg slept uneasily knowing how easy this scenario could have been for any of them to have fallen into.
(And I have to agree with previous posters that it seems amazing he would make this mistake bearing in mind how often it must be drilled into them not to ever do this, but I guess everyone can get distracted at the wrong moment)

But for me I thought it was interesting and quite heartening to know that, completely unguarded, Brown honestly though that someone having such an opinion to East-European mmigration was bigoted.
It made me like him more (and I had no intention of voting for Brown).

It's a shame he will pay a big price for being the one caught having the backstage conversations that in reality they all have.

(I think he should have played it like Bartlett in The West Wing and pretended he knew it was on and really meant to do it.)

The whole immigration thing is a bit weird though - when Nick Griffin was on Question Time all the majority of the public seemed to want to see was Griffin's racist views torn apart.
Yet now all the parties have to come across as anti-immigration to appease all the people who seem to think their local area is going downhill because of all those damn Poles coming over here taking our jobs.

Ironically, one way or the other Immigration may end up being the most central issue of this election.
 
Darat said:
I think that is why a lot of the politicians are not knifing Brown over this - I am sure they are now all wondering if some journalist has a recording of some of their "off mic" comments.
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"There but for the grace of Gord..."

:)
 
Rochedale crime statistics

Seems to be a high crime area. Higher than the English average. Could that be affecting her worldview?

Are bigots like this lady bigots because they are evil people or because they see things around them like a high rate of crime and attribute it, perhaps mistakenly, to immigrants? Perhaps there have also been some high profile crimes in the area perpetrated by immigrants?
 
Ashles said:
But for me I thought it was interesting and quite heartening to know that, completely unguarded, Brown honestly though that someone having such an opinion to East-European mmigration was bigoted.
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Actually, that too. And there's nothing on earth would induce me to vote Labour.

Rolfe.
 
Puppycow said:
Rochedale crime statistics

Seems to be a high crime area. Higher than the English average. Could that be affecting her worldview?

Are bigots like this lady bigots because they are evil people or because they see things around them like a high rate of crime and attribute it, perhaps mistakenly, to immigrants? Perhaps there have also been some high profile crimes in the area perpetrated by immigrants?
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It's going to play differently in different areas though. Here. we have one Asian family who own a local shop - but they were born only about 40 miles away and speak the local dialect - and one Afro-Caribbean lady who runs a tea room (and has the car number plate N1 GRA!). Unsurprisingly, this isn't an issue.

Then we have a pretty large number of English immigrants. All very upper-class with big posh houses. This is an issue. If there's any bigotry round here, it's anti-English. I just point out that these people all have Scottish children, where's your problem?

But there's no doubt the sentiment exists. It's not about crime rates or jobs, it's about feeling you're becoming outnumbered in your own country. And the way to deal with it is with tact and good counter-arguments, not name-calling.

Rolfe.
 
It seems to me that this is a classic case of the press hounding a politician for behaving like a human being. If we hold our politicians to impossible standards of behaviour, we'll end up hounding all the honest ones out of office, and being left with insincere phonies who are good at covering up their gaffes, along with anything else unsavoury that the populace really need to know about.

Hang on, did I phrase that in the future tense?

Dave
 
This was her specific comment/question:

GD: You can't say anything about the immigrants. All these eastern Europeans what [sic] are coming in - where are they flocking from?
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Maybe he should simply have replied.

"Well, Eastern Europe of course. Duh! The answer's in the question."


I note that despite all the Eastern Europeans "flocking" over here and taking everyone's jobs, her family still have enough money somehow to fly the grandkids to Australia and back.

Wouldn't it be amusing if they were going to visit relatives. Who had emigrated to Australia.


Of course now she is holed up with a PR company who knows how nutty the next stage of this could get.
 
Politicians have to expect people coming to them with views they find abhorrent or at the very least do not agree with. Does anyone take seriously the typical stage-managed affair with sympathetic questioners? The mark of a decent politician is taking those people on and having the grace not to compain if something doesn't go their way. A bit more humility, a bit less hubris would be nice.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Politicians have to expect people coming to them with views they find abhorrent or at the very least do not agree with. Does anyone take seriously the typical stage-managed affair with sympathetic questioners? The mark of a decent politician is taking those people on and having the grace not to compain if something doesn't go their way. A bit more humility, a bit less hubris would be nice.
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This.

Rolfe.
 
Do we know where she went this morning? (I didn't like that look of smugness on her face to be honest).

Let's just hope she's spending the day at her sister's discussing Eccles cakes and knitting. What's the betting that her "Sister" is a PR person or a Sun reporter.
 
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Reginald said:
Do we know where she went this morning? (I didn't like that look of smugness on her face to be honest).

Let's just hope she's spending the day at her sister's discussing Eccles cakes and knitting. What's the betting that her "Sister" is a PR person or a Sun reporter.
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Oh they have a fairly good idea where she is:

Mrs Duffy has not made any public comment since Mr Brown's visit although it is reported she is being advised by a public relations firm
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PR companies - dontcha just hate 'em?
 
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