In just a few days there is to be a general election in the UK.
The current Prime Minister, and leader of the Labour Party, has made a hilarious gaffe during an election stop: after meeting a member of the public, he subsequently forgot he was mic’d up and described her as bigoted, and expressed annoyance that he’d had to speak to her (story).
Feel free to post any thoughts on this incident, but the things that interest me are:
What effect it might have on Labour’s re-election
What effect it might have had if he’d said “bigoted old woman” or better, “bigoted old bitch”.
Will Labour regret not booting Brown when they had the chance?
I thought what hurt him the most was what a pussy he was afterwards about it. Going to her house and apoligizing. Should have said, “Yes she a bigot and that’s why I don’t want her vote and shit.”
I really was delighted to hear that the PM thought that she is a bigot. That’s the way that she came across to me in her brief remarks.
Shame on him though for thinking he shouldn’t have to deal with folks with such objectionable views in public. And he did go a little far by going to her home. A public apology worded in a truthful way would have been fine.
What does her age have to do with it? And since he didn’t use an expletive to insult her, what is the point of your question?
(This did make the national news in the USA, by the way.)
The reason I ask is that on hearing the news story I thought the PM was lucky in some respects.
If I were talking to someone in apparent privacy about something that annoyed me, I might well pepper it with minor expletives; I think many people would.
(“Bitch” was just the first thing that came out while I was typing, but I just mean <an expletive>)
But if he had in this situation, it could have destroyed Labour’s chances completely. Just one off the cuff comment, and it could have been over.
As for why I mentioned “old”, well, if it offended you then that’s kind of what I was getting at.
He described her gender and character but not her age…but while “bigoted old woman” is no worse (or better) than “bigoted woman”, it sure wouldn’t have gone down that way.
I was watching it on BBC. The statements he made after coming out of her house were priceless. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another politician apologize as much as that in such a short period of time with such insincerity for such a harmless remark. It will be interesting to see the polls after this one.
Yeah, I’m surprised at the apparent controversy. Is merely calling someone “bigoted” such a big deal that it demands such lengthy apology? I actually found it kind of charming that he said it, in a way, and am disappointed to see him fall to such pieces backpedalling.
(Disclaimer: As an ignorant American, I know absolutely nothing about Britain, British politics, British culture, etc.)
I don’t blame him, I thought she WAS a bigot, and I’m more than happy to have a PM who dislikes them (genuinely, in private) rather than just giving face time to minorities.
Brown is an interesting and almost tragic figure. A cross between Hamlet and Mr Bean.
He wanted nothing more from life than to be PM. He worked and schemed to get there every waking moment and when he achieved it he turned out to be really, really crap.
Since becoming PM he has become Sideshow Bob. If there is a rake to step on and bang yourself in the face Brown’s feet taking him unerringly there.
The remarks themselves were innocuous and no adult is going to care that he made them in what he thought was a private conversation. He even says them in a sort of reflective manner - it’s not like a vituperative put-down. The grovelling apology, though, was just horrible to witness. I said on the other thread that in an ideal world he should have just stood his ground and given a diplomatic version of ‘I don’t give a fuck what bigots, or anyone else, thinks of me - I’m here to run this country’ , but that’s obviously never going to happen in modern media politics.
The worst part of it, from labour’s point of view, is just the incompetence of it all. Why is he so ruffled by the encounter? The woman (Mrs Duffy) is a bigot IMO, but she’s speaking in a perfectly reasonable fashion, and Brown’s even answering her without too much problem. It’s not like she’s completely wrong-footed him, Thatcher-Belgrano style. He then gets in his car declaring it a ‘disaster’ and why did he have to speak to that woman. Baffling.
I don’t get the outrage. Don’t people know by now that what a politician says/does in public is totally different than what he says/does in private? Of course he’s going to be nice to your face but then, if he disagrees, cut you up in what he thinks is private. Hell, most normal people do that, not just politicians. Acting like you’re shocked about it is just stupid and makes you look naive.
What exactly was it that she said that was bigoted? Is any mention of immigration now reasonable grounds to suspect somebody of being a bigot? Perhaps it was the northern accent? We all know those people vote BNP!
The fact of the matter is for fairly obvious reasons large populations of immigrants flock to ex-mill and mining towns, places where services are already underfunded and jobs are scarce, but housing and living expenses are cheap (that’s why they move there). The effect is services get stretched to breaking point, there’s increased competition for what little jobs there are, there’s downward pressure on wages as Eastern Europeans are happy to take jobs at lower rates of pay, racial tensions rise, people start voting for political parties promising “British jobs for British people”, i.e. the BNP, and rioting ensues (see Oldham, for instance, another ex-mill town with similar problems).
Combine this with the fact that many of these towns have been virtually forgotten since the Thatcher years, allowed to rot, whilst more and more tax money is funneled into London and the south east. Of course people living in these towns are going to be asking about what’s to be done to curb immigration. That doesn’t make you a bigot, it makes you a human who recognises the insanity of having so many first-generation immigrants descend onto particular towns whilst others are left untouched (for a good example, see Bolton when compared to Wigan: neighbouring towns that couldn’t be more different in the number of first-generation immigrants living there).
Brown’s response to the question about immigration shows just how little he understands of the problem. We’ve sent a million people out onto the continent too. Really Gordon? I find it incredibly hard to believe that a million underskilled and undereducated Britons have flocked to the continent in search of work in the same way that underskilled and undereducated Eastern Europeans have flocked to ex-mill and mining towns in the north of England.
And the reason they’re working as cleaners is … because they have no English language skills to actually successfully work in higher skilled jobs, i.e. as good as underskilled, or they’re willing to take an “easy” job as they only intend to be here for a relatively short period. They’re still competing with indigenous workers and depressing wages: on average an Eastern European earns 12.5% less than an average worker for doing the same job, with most of them working in low paid employment:
Tell me: if you’re an employer, do you prefer the slightly better educated Eastern Europeans who are willing to work for 12.5% less on average (and not aware of the protections British law offers workers—many of these workers are being exploited shamelessly by unscrupulous employers), or indigenous workers?
I’d have been far more impressed with the reporters thronging outside this woman’s door if they’d actually made the effort to ascertain whether she was bigoted in her views about “those East Europeans”.
ps. It could have been worse…he could have stuck one on her, John Prescott style.