For you, Brown, ze election is over
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 The BBC reports that Gordon Brown has been caught on microphone describing a Labour voter he had just spoken to as a "bigoted woman". Not sure that she will be voting Labour again. Full story HERE.
Brown apologies for "bigot" blunder (Sky News)
The gaffe that could kill off Gordon Brown (Benedict Brogan)
What was really creepy was not that the PM called Gillian Duffy "bigoted", it was the fact that he had earlier told the 66-year-old widow, "You’re a very good woman". Then, as he left to walk back to the car, he said, "Very nice to meet you, very nice to meet you." Only when he was back in the car did he call her a "bigoted woman". Classy.
Note too how quick Brown was to blame someone else:
Brown to aide: "You should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?"
Aide: "I don't know, I didn't see her."
Brown: "Sue's I think. It's just ridiculous."
Ugh.
Simon Clark
It gets worse. Following his grovelling apology, delivered in person, Brown emerged from Mrs Duffy's house to say: "I misunderstood what she said. She has accepted that there was a misunderstanding and she has accepted my apology."
Misunderstanding? What was there to misunderstand?
"That was a disaster," Brown was heard to mutter after his original conversation with mild mannered Gillian Duffy.
No, Gordon, that was a very average meeting with a member of the general public. (Remember them?) A real disaster would be to find you still in No 10 after May 6.
Surely, after today's events, even hard core Labour voters will find it difficult to stomach that thought.
(Excuse me while I open a bottle of bubbly.)
Reader Comments (26)
It sounds as if she mentioned the ,shhhh.. you know the, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE word.
Actually I meant to say the IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII word tsk !
'Bigot'.
Definition:
Anyone holding views contrary to the speaker, current fashion, or the received wisdom of the hour, or foolish enough to express them in public.
See also: 'Little Englander', 'Racist', 'Homophobe', and 'Denier'.
(New Labour Dictionary of English)
@MartinV
Not forgetting mysogynist.
Mysogynist is modern Greek for "woman hater" and lets not forget that famous German word Schadenfreude.
"German pronunciation: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏ̯də]) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others."
Bye, bye Gordon lets hope Nick Clegg mucks up too.
I've only just heard this while driving - nearly had an accident I was laughing so much (although it would've been blamed on my ciggie). Bet the campaign organisers (actually, probably the entire Labour party) feel like throwing in the towel, with the exception of Jonah, of course, who will insist to the end that he's the right man for the job despite proving that, as was suspected, he has nothing but disdain for the average Labour voter whose concerns are shared by millions.
Bye, Gordon (good luck with that Communications Director job app).
This little gem really does show Gordon Brown up for what he is, doesn’t it? He really is a two-faced, low-down, cowardly Nasty Piece of Work. In a way, the beauty of the whole thing is that Mrs Duffy was so perfectly concerned-but-reasonable in all of her questions. No swearing. No ranting. No shouting. No personally-directed verbal attacks. Just simple questions wanting simple answers (which, inevitably, were not forthcoming). If anyone still doubted the sheer contempt and disregard with which senior politicians regard the “great unwashed public” this insight into our Prime Minister’s private view of voters must surely now have washed any of those doubts clean away. The idea that anyone with a functioning brain will still vote for Labour, and thus vote this arrogant pig back into power, after this, is just too terrible to contemplate ……..
Thanks, Dave A !
Actually, I was introduced to 'Schadenfreude' whilst still in my teens.
As I recall, it's what you feel when your good-looking mate fails to get off with the bird YOU rather fancied (but who seemed, mysteriously NOT to fancy you)
It's a nice feeling !
Hilarious! But dont be surprised if there's a new spin out tomorrow about how Gordon is hard of hearing since his rugby injury that injured his jaw.
And how Specialists have 'recently' discovered that its beginning to affect his ears as well and that how he thought that Mrs Duffy had called him a red.
Remember guys its spin doctors that win elections not the three stoogies.
Thats what they're paid millions to do, its their job, stupid.
I wonder who Mrs Duffy will 'really' vote for!!
@ann - on another blog someone amusingly suggested that the spin would be that he called her a "big-hearted" woman :) It would be totally par for the course for Labour to accuse everyone else of mis-hearing.
Or Joyce, Mrs Duffy will announce that she told Gordon that she was a 'big grafter' for charity, after which she'll be whisked off by limo to the Savoy for afternoon tea with Sarah post press conference!!
I have had a wee fantasy for several months. I always thought it was one of those unattainable dreams like finding out that Halle Berry was my no.1 fan. Did this fantasy take a step towards becoming a reality today? Will Gordon Brown have a 'Portillo moment'
A similar episode to Gordy's happened before the last elections in Ireland when the coalition leader, whose party professed to being the govt watchdog and thinking the mike was turned off, was heard saying to our ex PM 'I think we pulled that one off'.
After which his party was wiped out at the elections and he's now back at the day job.
But I still think Gordys gaffe was best for a laugh and that Mrs Duffy's innocent question about immigration might do more for the immigration problem than certain canditates putting themselves up for election!
Gordy should have stuck with Tony's spin doctors, this would never have happened.
Amazing is it not.
Most people appear to be blissfully unaware of the sinister side of Labours uncivil Liberties record and general ghastly penchant for control freakery.
However if they get well and truly booted out because of a rude comment to an old lady.
That will do me fine ,so be it.
Whatever it takes.
I expect to hear Nick Clegg referring to his core voters as "a bunch of sandal-wearing, bearded, beer-swilling bastards.", shortly after which we shall here that Cameron described most Tory voters as, " plebs who couldn't tell the difference between a Chateau Lafite and a Tizer.".
"plebs who couldn't tell the difference between a Chateau Lafite and a Tizer"
Well, I can, Richard !
Tizer's the one with the screw top.............
(I think)
And it's got bubbles (like a spritzer).
"Most people appear to be blissfully unaware of the sinister side of Labours uncivil Liberties record and general ghastly penchant for control freakery."
Even when they ARE aware, Specky, many of them STILL insist on voting Red:
"We've always voted Labour round here."
"My Dad voted Labour, HIS Dad voted Labour, and HIS Dad afore 'im."
Etcetera, etcetera, etbloodycetera.
With this and similar attitudes from the Staunch Brigade, it's hardly surprising that the Lords of the World regard ALL of us as little better than cattle.
THAT's what makes me especially angry: that the Decent Many should have to suffer as a result of the mindless subservience of the Idiot Few.............
(Well, Idiot Less Many, at any rate)
What I find worrying about this whole shabby episode is how did the spin machine find out so quickly where Mrs. Duffy lived so Brown could deliver his grovelling apology not to mention the invasion of her privacy in her home by the press and the fact that she may not have wanted Gordon Brown to knock on her door? If it was me I would have shut the door in his face. Beware Big brother sure is watching you!
'THAT's what makes me especially angry: that the Decent Many should have to suffer as a result of the mindless subservience of the Idiot Few.............'
What an arrogant statement! People have fought and died for the right to vote and what makes you the superior person for voting Tory. If the majority of the population do not vote Tory as is almost certainly going to be the case, are they all stupid?
Attitudes like yours will only reinforce opinions of what the Tories and their supporters stand for. Snobs looking down their noses at everyone else.
@sylvia - and, although I suppose naturally, since the incident the focus has been on Brown, I was struck by the bewildered hurt of Mrs Duffy. A lifelong Labour supporter, who's lived a useful, quiet life, finds herself branded and dismissed as of no consequence by a man who she reasonably would expect to represent her interests. You really couldn't make it up.
Oh dear Gordon's fallen off his rocking horse and someone has stolen Michael Ps rattle. Just as he was predicting the outcome of GE as well...never mind Michael...there will be another one along soon.
Peter. My rattle is still safely in the cot and I still believe in a hung parliament with a Lib/Lab government. It may be that there will be a different leader than Brown but ultimately anything would be better than a Cameron lead government.
Since you think there will be another election soon yourself, obviously you also think the same as me but feel it will collapse in acrimony after a few months.
Maybe and maybe not but good to see we are agreed on a hung parliament...
Michael -
Kindly get off your Moral High Horse and calm down !
What I said of the Idiot Few could equally apply to Tories, Liberals - and anyone else who habitually votes for the party LABEL, rather than the POLICIES, and their obvious EFFECTS.
And yes, I'm perfectly aware of the millions who died for FREEDOM. That's my whole point !!
Our freedoms have been drastically curtailed over the past three elections in particular, although the process began a long time ago (and not just under Labour).
The freedoms of EVERYONE.
Apart, that is, from the freedom to continue voting for those who would enslave us even further.
And that DOES make me angry.
And it's happened largely because of a dumb minority who persist in living in a political fantasyland, and utterly refuse to believe the evidence in front of their eyes of what is being done to the country my parents gave their youth defending.
Against Tyranny.
Even in our phony democracy, everyone has the DUTY to THINK what they're doing before they vote (whomever they vote for).
THAT obligation has been cast upon all of us IMHO precisely because of the aforementioned sacrifice of our ancestors.
I FULLY support everyone's right to vote for whomever they please: Tory, Liberal, Labour, Communist, BNP, Nazi, Hamas, Democrat, or Klingon Warlord.
All I ask is that they know WHAT they're voting for in terms of philosophy and policies, and WHY.
I do NOT support the 'freedom' of the speak-your-weight machine to whirr into some temporary activity just because - once every five years - someone drops a penny in its slot.
The freedom to be a robot is no freedom at all.
And that applies as much to Tory Robots as the others.
Or do you disagree with that, too ?
As to:
"what makes you the superior person for voting Tory ?"
What makes you imagine that I AM 'voting Tory' (or that I have in quite a long while) ?
But what DOES make ME and MANY OTHERS on this site 'superior' is that we are no longer willing to have our historical allegiances taken for granted.
By anyone.
'Nuff said ?
(Now I can get of MY Moral High Horse - and calm down, too)
Well said Martin, I second that.
Anyone with even half sight can see that Labour's diktat has embellished an underclass of welfare robots who think their masters have their welfare at heart, when in fact they have molded them into dedicated clones for the sole purpose of keeping themselves in power.
Cheers, Ann.
Michael P. When I said "never mind Michael...there will be another one along soon" I was not referring to another GE, but another bus (it's an old saying). The buses will be waiting to take Gordon and his gang out of Downing Street, while other buses all over the country, will be running old Labour supporters to the nearest ferry port (please God).