Brown screws himself !

There but for the grace of a god go Cameron and Clegg. This whole election has been about the media waiting for the first banana skin.
Unlucky, Gordon, but there we are

i cant help feeling sorry for him.

I have just watched the complete interview. The questions she asked were nothing out of the ordinary and she got more out of him than any debate has done to date. What a genuine lady telling a politician of her very fair concerns.

His comments were dreadfully poor. He is a two faced liar - he always has been. Now the wider population can see him for what he really is.

I have a bottle of champagne on ice to say goodbye to Gordon.

and enter slick rick, what a choice.

"Big toed, I said big toed, Sue tell them, please!".

Just adds weight to the view that Mr Brown lashes out. Sure others have been caught out before, but this is very close to an election, plus it involves a woman - female vote?

Cheers,
OW

He has just arrived at her house now to apologise. What a dipstick.

quote:

I have just watched the complete interview. The questions she asked were nothing out of the ordinary and she got more out of him than any debate has done to date. What a genuine lady telling a politician of her very fair concerns.

So have I. Brown was right. This woman is an appalling bigot and saying so in the privacy of his car doesn't seem bad to me. Of course the fact that he was still miked up makes it a bit of a cock up.

Good strategy though if you're after the anti-Rochdale vote!

quote:

Originally posted by David Scott?:

quote:

I have just watched the complete interview. The questions she asked were nothing out of the ordinary and she got more out of him than any debate has done to date. What a genuine lady telling a politician of her very fair concerns.

So have I. Brown was right. This woman is an appalling bigot and saying so in the privacy of his car doesn't seem bad to me. Of course the fact that he was still miked up makes it a bit of a cock up.

Which part of the conversation? Transcript please.

David Scott, I don't know what part of the very short verbal exchange you heard, but I don't see anything bigoted in what she said, just a normal & very common concern about immigration that was extensively discussed in the TV debates in far more graphic terms.

The transcript of the conversation copy/pasted from the BBC......

Gillian Duffy: How are you going to get us out of all this debt, Gordon?
PM: Well, deficit reduction plan, cut the debt by half over the next four years, we've got the plans, they've been set out to do it. Look, I was the person who came in ...
GD: Three main things what I was drummed in when I was a child was education, health service and looking after people who are vulnerable.
PM: And that's what ...
GD: But there's too many people now who aren't vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can't get claim, can't get it.
PM: But they shouldn't be doing that. There's no life on the dole for people any more. If you're unemployed you've got to go back to work. It's six months ...
GD: 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?
PM: 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?

Mike,

You answered your own question.

She doesn't give Brown a chance to answer. She doesn't listen. She only wants to mouth off. As soon as it looks like he might have an answer to one point, it's out with the next one. Eastern Europeans don't just 'come' here they 'flock' here. Only the undeserving poor get benefits. Ooh, these Eastern Europeans - where do they come from?

She's a bigot. As she lives in country full of bigots with a press that promotes bigoted and prejudiced delusions as legitimate concerns it may not be altogether her fault. But she is a bigot.

I read it the same as you David. A definite undertone of immigrants to blame.

She mentioned immigrants, burn her. Lucky Brown didn't find her hidden memorabilia room while he was trying to save his sorry backside.

David Scott? - you don't see concentration of immigrants as an issue?

I actually don't really care about the conversation he had in the street with her - to give him credit, he actually handled it rather well.....

What I have a problem with - and what people have now seen/heard of the one eyed man - is his attitude once he thought he was in private....Miked up or not, it's irrelevant, it's quite clear they were his immediate true thoughts and no amount of cringing plastic post event apologies are going to change that, IMO.....Actually, as bad, was his lash out at his staff "Who's idea was that... I think it was Sue... Ridiculous"

He wants to be the gaffer - then he has to be accountable.....End of.

How Tony must be laughing his head off, GnT in hand, on a beach somewhere....

quote:

Originally posted by SC:
I actually don't really care about the conversation he had in the street with her - to give him credit, he actually handled it rather well.....

What I have a problem with - and what people have now seen/heard of the one eyed man - is his attitude once he thought he was in private....Miked up or not, it's irrelevant, it's quite clear they were his immediate true thoughts and no amount of cringing plastic post event apologies are going to change that, IMO.....

He wants to be the gaffer - then he has to be accountable.....End of.

How Tony must be laughing his head off, GnT in hand, on a beach somewhere....

Spot on. Dreadful leadership, true colours exposed.

Can we get real here David
She is just an ordinary pensioner, probably not well educated, not articulate & see's the world from her window (so to speak) But she had the balls to confront GB & I would guess it pumped up her adrenalin level & heart rate to do it. So clear measured articulation was not something I would expect in that situation.

NO WAY is she a bigot.

As per others in this string, GB screwed it up.
If he can't take the heat or handle a poor old pensioner, what chance do we all have if he has to defend UK position in a more serious world confrontation

Move over Brown, your past your sell by date.

I used to live in an area which had a pretty equal mix of white, asian and afro caribbean residents. Some of the young men - of every background could be a bit prickly and defensive - but apart from that things were fine. After 9/11 a few Asian women were beaten up for wearing the veil in a white dominated area up the road, but nothing like that happened where I lived.

I now live in a part of the country which has almost no ethnic minorities apart from seasonal labourers. People here are pretty prejudiced on the whole and share Ms Duffy's 'legitimate concerns' about immigration. I've seen other - incomplete - evidence that concern about immigration is greatest in areas with fewest immigrants and that the BNP tend to do better in areas where asian and white people live largely in separate estates than in areas where they're integrated. Makes sense. And if by concentration of immigrants, you mean that some local authorities may be aggravating the situation through housing policies which create virtually segregated areas then I agree that is a concern. As the novelist Alasdair Gray said 'Man is the pie that bakes and eats itself and the recipe is separation'

I abhor the tabloid fuelled wave of prejudice against immigrants because it unnecessarily increases the amount of unhappiness in the world and is just another way of making a few rich people richer at the cost of doing lasting damage to our lives for years to come. There are clearly decisions that have to be made about immigration policy, but we can't make them without separating out the strands of economic and social impact/skills shortages/reciprocal freedoms afforded to British citizens who want to work abroad, etc, etc. If you do that, I'm not sure there's much wrong. What is happening instead is that politicians and press seek to smoosh the whole thing together in the one bowl and ladle on a big dollop of, fear, superstition and hatred. The politicians get elected, the newspaper owners get richer and we all lose out.

Well I wouldn't necessarily burn her and Brown was very careless to 'express' his honest veiw but I can't see how you read this other than as David did and no .......I don't see immigation as an issue.

I would suggest that it is a fairly well established fact now that there are less people coming into the country than are going to other countries.

Isolation seems to work both ways in my view and we are probably just as intolerant as 'they' might be cautious and so we both 'stick together'. In my view immigation, as always, is simply an excuse and a focus for discomfort about our own plight. There will always be people who abuse our societal trust from bankers to refugees. I am very happy to welcome those who might introduce me to new cultures and ways of life and enhance my perception and understanding of our world.

That is not to say I am uncritical but:
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? makes me far more suspicious of her than the 'immigrants'.

james

quote:

She is just an ordinary pensioner, probably not well educated, not articulate & see's the world from her window (so to speak) But she had the balls to confront GB & I would guess it pumped up her adrenalin level & heart rate to do it. So clear measured articulation was not something I would expect in that situation.

Mike,

I think you need to address your bigoted attitude towards older working class people. This woman does not seem to be inarticulate in the slightest. I thought she was pretty smart in fact. I see no reason to doubt her ability to say what she means.

Today I had my haircut by my Polish hairdresser (who does the best cut of anyone I know), went to Cote Brasserie for a lovely lunch served by a charming Hungarian girl and then had my car washed by the two enterprising Albanians who do a roaring trade just outside the village. I really like all these people whom provide superb service and I hope long may they stay on these shores - they put many "Brits" to shame.

This is not an issue though of immigration, this is about personal integrity of a man who has none. He has lied for years and today he was caught out big time. Eight days to go and this incident will be one he is remembered for, for years and years to come.

Lontano,

I'm not trying to change your mind about Brown - I can't imagine that I could. But why is it such a crime to have let off a (very) little steam like this after a very public conversation with someone who wouldn't let him get a word in edgeways? Haven't we all done something like it? Bad luck the mike was on and that's all there is to say. I would have thought.

Mashed...

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/...-brown-201004282688/

David, You seem to have classified her as a working class person, isn't class & race differentiation one of the foundations of bigotry.

And please don't insinuate that I am a bigot, you know didly sqwat about me.
If you did then that remark would be preposterous in the extreme.

-end of-

quote:

Originally posted by David Scott?:
Lontano,

I'm not trying to change your mind about Brown - I can't imagine that I could. But why is it such a crime to have let off a (very) little steam like this after a very public conversation with someone who wouldn't let him get a word in edgeways? Haven't we all done something like it? Bad luck the mike was on and that's all there is to say. I would have thought.

If he said she raised some very valid points (which she did) and I should try my best to answer them then fine. But he did not. After all one minute he was smiling, his arm around her, what a great pillar of the community type comments. 60 seconds later......

Brown is the master of talking over people anyway and could someone please tell him to stop trying to smile - it makes it all worse.

It was bad luck but underlying it all, it shows what many have believed for a while - a rude, finger pointing, bad tempered, weak unelected PM.

And she was a labour supporter.