I have heard report after report about Gordon Brown’s comment that a woman was “bigoted” in an open-mike moment, a gaffe that supposedly might cost him his job.
You know what I have not heard? Even once? Some kind of reportage on what the woman may have said or done that made Brown think she is bigoted! Not ONCE!!! MSNBC, CNN: do your fucking JOBS why doncha? I might entirely agree with Brown! Or I might want him thrown out! As things stand now, I have NO IDEA what to think!
Here’s a link to the story with a transcript. I don’t get it. Maybe you have to be British to understand.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/gillian-duffy-woman-calle_n_555807.html
She said something about Eastern European immigrants. I heard it on the news last night, but I was watching Canadian news, not the crap you guys try to pass off as news.
bottom line, whilst it was possible or even probable from the context that what the woman in question was saying reflected a bigoted viewpoint, what she actually said was not particularly objectionable or even out of line with his own parties immigration policies.
I know a lot of people are saying that this is a storm in a tea cup and it won’t effect the outcome. I disagree, I think the Labour parties chance of winning a clear majority just sunk.
A pretty large proportion of the Labour base holds dear a vaguely defined and ill informed suspicion that immigration is behind all of their woes. Lots more believe slightly more reasonably that whilst immigration is generally a good thing, there are a lot of problems with the way that it has been administered in the UK. Many of these people are currently agonising over the choice between Labour and Lib Dems and Gordon has just called them all bigoted by proxy a week before the election.
I can sympathise with the pressure that the guy was under, and I can sympathise with the fact that hearing the same narrow minded comments about immigration all day, every day on the campaign trail can get you down, it was a very human outburst (it was even a somewhat forgiveable mic mistake, after all he was driving away from the scene in his car at the time), but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an absolute disaster for his campaign at this point.
Labour likely will still form part of a coalition government, but I don’t think Brown will be our Prime minister after the dust has settled. I also think that the apology was very badly judged and executed, but I think the guy was doomed regardless.
<looks at Gillian Duffy>
<looks at average Teabagger>
<looks at Gillian Duffy>
<looks at average Teabagger>
<looks at Gillian Duffy>
<looks at average Teabagger>
UK, Can we trade you bigots? 
We’ve got plenty of our own, thanks.
Nah, people who complain that
–1) the gummint doesn’t do enough for them, and
–2) the gummint taxes and spends too much
are pretty much the same all over.
Regarding the specific objection in the OP, I saw this on MSNBC this morning and they did show the clip of the woman saying what she said to Brown, a couple times within the span of about half an hour. They even subtitled it. So, I guess you had bad luck and kept seeing just the Brown rant part.
I don’t know about CNN.
Woman: You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying that you’re… all these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?
Gordon Brown: A million people come from Europe but a million people, British people, have gone into Europe. You do know that there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well?
That was the part of the conversation his comment was pertaining to. While it wasn’t overt or anything, my grandmother looks like a sweet old lady but shes also a bigot.
She doesn’t come across as bigoted. Gordon Brown, on the other hand, comes across as a duplicitous prick pretty much all the time. In lieu of further evidence, I’m going to assume that Brown was just being an arsehole.
You were listening to the wrong MSNBC shows then; I saw it there last night.
ISTM that the televised news media IS doing its job (earning money for shareholders by selling advertising time).
I’m usually one of the first people to see racism in stuff, but I’m just not seeing it there. I suppose “flocking” is a bit insulting.
Possibly. I watcjhed a lot of MSNBC and some CNN, never saw any accounts of what the woman said, and I was curious to know, I would have noticed. Information on what the woman said was NOTABLY absent on all the reports I watched, it was enough to annoy me.
From, what, 3% to 2%?
(Those are the odds the betting markets had btw)
Disgracefully short-sighted comment from Gordon Brown.
/runs.
My take was simply the fact that she started to say something bigoted, but then stopped herself. Also, it’s not like “Them niggers are stealing our jobs” is really any less bigoted than “Those African Americans are stealing our jobs.” Just because you’ve trained yourself not to say a certain word doesn’t mean you aren’t just as bigoted.
As for the lady in question: I haven’t the foggiest. But I do find it comforting that calling someone bigoted is a such a big offense over there. Over here, it seems that calling someone racist gets you lots of news coverage, and thus helps you keep your job.
The bigotry Brown was talking about was her criticizing Eastern European immigrants.
THe following remarks are not to be employed on the SDMB - 'Flocking", “flock you”, “get flocked”, “flock off and die”, and variants.
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Shodan
Well flock.