UK Election 2010

[Phony Moderate]

Gordon....Gordon....Gordon....

[afleitch]

Gordon....Gordon....Gordon....

Unfortunate.

To be fair who hasn't had those thoughts (or even those words) after meeting some voters on the street and trying to reason (or fathom) with their point of view or their opinion.

[Јas]

Oh dear...

[Verily]

Well, anyone who thought Brown could survive this election as Labour leader should be changing their minds about now.

[Meeker]

Well this is a circus.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

I genuinely feel horrible for him, I hope others do too. The poor guy has been climbing the mountain since he was born, a true politico, and a heavyweight by any count, but just born way too late. Despite doing everything he felt he should have, it's all crumbling now. Poor guy.

[Phony Moderate]

Brown should have said something like this on the Radio 2 Show:

"I stand by my comments, and my only regret is that i didn't say those words directly to her".

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Brown should have said something like this on the Radio 2 Show:

"I stand by my comments, and my only regret is that i didn't say those words directly to her".

Yeah that'll teach her won't it?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Shouldn't be an issue (everyone vents from time to time) but it will be because of the media. Unfortunate, but that's how things work these days.

On the relatively bright side (for him) the last debate is tomorrow, which ought to push this off headlines pretty quickly.

[minionofmidas]

In all seriousness, something along the lines of "while the comments were never intended for the public and the choice of the term 'bigoted' is somewhat unfortunate, I stand by their content and have nothing to apologize about" would probably play better with the relevant sections of the public, actually.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In all seriousness, something along the lines of "while the comments were never intended for the public and the choice of the term 'bigoted' is somewhat unfortunate, I stand by their content and have nothing to apologize about" would probably play better with the relevant sections of the public, actually.

Nah, the media would just report that as 'arrogant Brown refuses to apologise' or something like that.

[minionofmidas]

That's why I said 'relevant sections'.

[afleitch]

Transcript:

Gillian Duffy: My family have voted Labour all their life. My father, even when he was in his teens, he went to Free Trade Hall to sing the Red Flag. And now I’m absolutely ashamed of saying I’m Labour.

Gordon Brown: Now you mustn’t be, because what we’ve done, we’ve improved the health service, we’re financing more police, neighbourhood policing, we’re getting better schools, and we’re coming through a very, very difficult world recession. You know what my views are. I’m for fairness, for hard working families. I want to make sure … I told these guys across there, ‘look, if you commit a crime you’re going to be punished’ ... and you better stop …

GD: Well, I have to say I don’t think it’s happening in Rochdale. People are being let off.
GB: There’s a bit more policing than there was but obviously we have got to do better in the future with neighbourhood policing, but neighbourhood policing is the key to it. You’re a very good, er, woman, you’ve served the community all your life.

GD: I have I’ve worked for the Rochdale Council for 30 years.

GB: You deserve …

GD: And I worked with children and handicapped children.

GB: Well I think working with children is so important isn’t it, so important.

GD: The thing what I can’t understand is why I am still being taxed, a 66-year-old, because my husband’s died and I have some of his pension tagged on to my pension.

GB: Well we’re raising the threshold at which people start paying tax as pensioners but yes if you’ve got an occupational pension you may have to pay some tax. Now you maybe eligible for the pension credit as well …

GD: No, I’m not, I’ve checked and checked and they said they can’t do it.

GB: Well, you should look at it again just to be sure. Absolutely sure. And you know we’re linking the pension to earnings in two years time. We’ve got the winter allowance, as you know, which I hope is a benefit.

GD: I agree with that. It’s very good. But every year I talk to people my age and they say they'll be knocking it off, it will be going. It will be.

GB: We’re linking the pension to earnings in two years time. We’ve got the winter allowance, as you know, which I hope is a benefit, the winter allowance…

GD: I agree with that, it’s very good but every year I talk to people my age and they say they’ll be knocking it off. It will be going, it will be.

GB: We're keeping it. We have done the bus passes, we have done the free eye tests, free prescriptions…

GD: How are you going to get us out of all this debt, Gordon?

GB: We’ve got a deficit reduction plan to cut the debt by half over the four years. We’ve got the plans that have been set out to do it. Look, I was the person who came in and tried…

GD: There were three things that were drummed in to me when I was a child: education, health service and looking after people who are vulnerable.

GB: That’s what I…

GD: There’s too many people now who aren’t vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable who can’t claim, can’t get it.

GB: But, they shouldn’t be doing that. There’s no life on the dole for people anymore. If you are unemployed you’ve got to go back to work. In six months…

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

GB: A million people come from Europe but a million have gone into Europe. You do know that there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well. Look, come back to you’re initial principles. Helping people; that’s what we’re in the business of doing. A decent health service; that’s really important. And education. Now, these are the things that we have tried to do. We are going to maintain the schools so that we can make sure that people have that chance to go on. We are going to maintain the health service so that…

GD: What are you going to do about students who are coming in now and all this that you’ve had to pay? You’ve scrapped that, Gordon.

GB: Which one?

GD: To help students who want to go to university.

GB: What, tuition fees?

GD: Yes.

GB: Yeah, but we’ve got 40…

GD: I’m thinking about my grandchildren here.

GB: I know but…

GD: What will they have to pay to get into university?

GB: You’ve got 40 per cent of young people now going to university and on balance, if you get a degree and you earn twice as much after you get the degree then you’ve got to pay something back as a contribution. But there are grants for your grandchildren, there are grants, more grants than ever before. You know more young people are going to university than ever before and for the first year the majority of people going to university are women, so there’s big opportunities for women. So, education, health and helping people; that's what I’m about, that’s what I’m about.

It’s been very good to meet you, very good to meet you and you’re wearing the right colour today.

[Laughter]

GB: How many grandchildren do you have?

GD: Two.

GB: Two. What names are they?

GD: They’ve just come back from Australia where they’ve been stuck for nine or ten days with this ash crisis.

GB: But, they’ve got through now?

GD: Yeah, yeah, they’re all back.

GB: Yeah, you know we’ve been trying to get people back quickly. But are they going to go to university, is that the plan?

GD: Well, I hope so, they’re only 12 and 10.

GB: Oh they're only 12 and 10. But they're doing well at school?

GD: Yeah, yeah, very good.

GB: A good family. Good to see you.

GD: And the education system in Rochdale, I will congratulate it.

GB: Good, good. And it’s very nice to see you. Take care.

GB: Thanks take care [shaking hands]. Good to see you all, good to see you, thanks very much [waving at crowd].

[GB gets into car with aide]

GB: That was a disaster.

Aide: Why what did she say?

GB: Well just… They should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?

Aide: I don’t know I didn’t see her

GB: That’s Sue I think. It’s just ridiculous

Aide: They’re pictures … I’m not sure they’ll go with that one will they?

GB: They will go with it

Aide: What did she say?

GB: Oh everything. She was just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour …. ridiculous.

_____________________

This is the first time I had the chance to see the whole exchange. I had thought it was just about immigration (hence the 'bigoted' part) but it was much more than this. I'm starting to think this matters a great deal.

[You kip if you want to...]

I know it's pretty subjective, but the woman was quite bigoted.

[afleitch]

I know it's pretty subjective, but the woman was quite bigoted.

How? Based on her asking about immigration? Perhaps she thought she'd get a sympathetic ear from Mr 'British Jobs For British Workers'

[The Mikado]

All these Eastern Europeans coming in, where they flocking from?

Eastern Europe, obviously.

[You kip if you want to...]

I know it's pretty subjective, but the woman was quite bigoted.

How? Based on her asking about immigration? Perhaps she thought she'd get a sympathetic ear from Mr 'British Jobs For British Workers'

Well yeah. He even told her that there are also Brits moving to Europe for work, so it's about even. Her problem was that they're Eastern European...

[Silent Hunter]

Well, he's human. At least he's apologised.

A gaffe of the first order that, but I suspect pretty much everyone who is switching from Labour have already gone and most of the rest won't care.

[You kip if you want to...]

Well, he's human. At least he's apologised.

Like the Tory media really care.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

I know it's pretty subjective, but the woman was quite bigoted.

How so?

[Silent Hunter]

Brown actually said off-mic that she "used to be Labour". Judging by the tone of the conversation (she identifies as Labour at the beginning, but never mentions it again), you'd have reason to think that.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Brown actually said off-mic that she "used to be Labour".

It's more the 'said she used to'... there's a tendency for people on radio phone-ins and the like to claim that they have 'voted Labour all my life' when in reality they've never supported the Party and are just using that claim as a launch-pad for criticism. Assumptions and interpretations often flow from opening remarks.

Or at least, that's my guess; it isn't as though what actually happened matters much.

[Psychic Octopus]

Ouch.

[afleitch]

Brown actually said off-mic that she "used to be Labour".

It's more the 'said she used to'... there's a tendency for people on radio phone-ins and the like to claim that they have 'voted Labour all my life' when in reality they've never supported the Party and are just using that claim as a launch-pad for criticism. Assumptions and interpretations often flow from opening remarks.

Or at least, that's my guess; it isn't as though what actually happened matters much.

She's no 'plant'...and I've had enough cups of tea off old ladies to know that

[Filuwaúrdjan]

She's no 'plant'...and I've had enough cups of tea off old ladies to know that

Oh, I don't think she is either. But certain phrases result in an instant from certain people.