“Foot in Mouth Disease” and the Pommy General Election

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

UK PM says sorry for calling voter ‘bigoted’

REUTERS | 7:06AM - Thursday, 29 April 2010


GORDON BROWN: The British PM has had a bad case of foot
in mouth and has apologised for calling a voter “bigoted”.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised in person for describing a voter as "a bigoted woman" in an embarrassing gaffe before next week's parliamentary election.

A campaign stop to meet locals in a northern English town backfired when Brown let slip the unguarded comment about grandmother Gillian Duffy, a supporter of his own Labour Party. It was picked up by a microphone on his lapel as he was driven away in his car after meeting her.

Labour, in power for 13 years but trailing in opinion polls, had already been on the defensive after opposition parties said the Greek financial crisis was an example of what could happen if Britain's record budget deficit was not tackled.

Brown later visited Duffy in her own home to apologise, saying he was mortified by what had happened.

"Sometimes you do make mistakes and you use wrong words, and once you've used that word and you've made a mistake, you should withdraw it and say profound apologies, and that's what I've done," he said, after spending more than 30 minutes in the grandmother's modest home in the town of Rochdale.

Brown was shown on television with his head in his hands as the comments were replayed to him during a BBC interview.

The furore over a rare unscripted moment in a highly choreographed campaign may undermine his attempts to reclaim lost ground on Thursday (Friday, NZT) in the last of three televised leaders' debates, which will focus on the economy.

Labour, which has narrowed the Conservatives' lead in opinion polls in recent months, had high hopes for this week's campaigning. So far Brown's performances in the TV debates — which have dominated campaigning — have not drawn plaudits.

"A politician in a stronger position could recover from this. What we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position ... I don't think it's a good idea to call voters bigots," said Andrew Russell, a politics lecturer at Manchester University.

The pensioner had asked Brown how he would tackle the country's record deficit, as well as other issues ranging from east European immigration to university fees and pensions.

Brown's gaffe could reinforce public perceptions of a leader lacking in social skills and prone to outbursts of temper.

However, some TV pundits and voters were more sympathetic.

"For me, I've got more respect for him. Let's be honest, we all meet people who we think are a moron, we don't like them," said accountant Nigel Howcutt, 29, in Watford, north of London.

GREEK MELTDOWN

Bookmakers widened their odds against Labour winning a majority to 46-1 after Brown's gaffe, from 30-1 before.

"There's no doubt in what the punters are saying: Brown has royally messed up this time," said Mike Robb, a spokesman for online betting company Betfair.

Opinion polls on Wednesday continued to point to a hung parliament, in which no one party wins an overall majority. But they showed the Conservatives and Labour had regained some ground from the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party in British politics, who have enjoyed a strong ratings boost since the first TV leaders' debate and turned the contest into a three-horse race.

Much of Wednesday's campaigning had been focussed on the economy and the record budget deficit.

Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, told Reuters all the big parties were agreed on the need to cut government borrowing, warning that failing to do so risked Greek-style financial chaos.

Greece, which saw its debt downgraded to junk status by rating agency Standard & Poor's on Tuesday, is currently in talks with the IMF and the European Union on getting a 45 billion euro bail-out package to prevent a sovereign default.

Greece's budget deficit last year stood at 13.6 percent of GDP, compared to a British deficit running at over 11 percent.

Labour Business Minister Peter Mandelson said that likening Britain to Greece was "frankly ridiculous."

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron said that while there were many differences between the two countries, Britain should take note of Greece's troubles.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/3636615/UK-PM-calls-voter-bigoted

[ballasted moth]

 A rare moment of truth from a socialist politician admitting they have total contempt for theie own voters who they view as inferior to themselves
Remember Clark calling Maori wreckers and haters

[ballasted moth]

 The irony is the woman is a bigot

Politician Apologies For Speaking The Truth

[ssweetpea]

I wondered when someone would realise that.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

A rare moment of truth from a socialist politician admitting they have total contempt for theie own voters who they view as inferior to themselves
Remember Clark calling Maori wreckers and haters

Jonkey just hasn't been caught out yet.

ALL politicians make snide comments like that.

You should know BallastedMoth, considering that you are a politician yourself!

[guest49]

The irony is the woman is a bigot

Politician Apologies For Speaking The Truth

Whats bigoted about her saying there are too many east europeans descending on Britain? 

From tThe Independant;

Mrs Duffy seized the opportunity to challenge Mr Brown over the national debt, and the Labour candidate Simon Danczuk ushered her over to meet the Prime Minister. Mrs Duffy began by telling him she was "absolutely ashamed of saying I'm Labour", and went on to complain about the scale of the deficit, taxes paid by pensioners and university tuition fees. In passing, she also mentioned "all these eastern Europeans" heading for Britain.

[nitpicker1]

 

 I loved it when he was telling his minders off for giving him "that woman" while he was getting into his car.

 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I betcha the number of East Europeans who have moved to the UK is miniscule compared with the total number of Poms who have moved to other countries.

In fact, I would bet the total number of Poms who have moved to other countries would totally outstrip (by many times) the total number of ALL other nationalities who have moved to the UK.

Therefore....the old Pot & Kettle analogy comes to mind when I hear Poms whinging about immigrants to their country! 

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

They hate the voters because they know they are all stupid as the poor sheep going to the slaughterhouse.

Who in there right mind wants their country to be invaded by millions of foreigner,s while a lot of their. own countrymen are unemployed.
Then there's all those stealing gypsies trained from kids to rob you blind...

Name calling will fix this who's a bloody  bigots

[guest49]

I betcha the number of East Europeans who have moved to the UK is miniscule compared with the total number of Poms who have moved to other countries.

In fact, I would bet the total number of Poms who have moved to other countries would totally outstrip (by many times) the total number of ALL other nationalities who have moved to the UK.

Therefore....the old Pot & Kettle analogy comes to mind when I hear Poms whinging about immigrants to their country! 

I'm sure it does!

With the possible exception of Australia, I would venture to suggest that the bulk of the poms emigrating wern't criminals though, unlike a goodly proportion of the east europeans, who have taken over the crime scene in England.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

They may not have been criminals, but they still took diseases with them which decimated indigenous people in the countries those poms moved to.

They also stole huge amounts of land from those indigenous people.

The poms also exploited the natural resources in most countries they moved to.

I would say that although there were benefits, there was also a whole lot of negative outcomes from poms moving to other parts of the world.

Hence the “Pot & Kettle” analogy! 

[guest49]

Hey!  An innovation!

Lets move up to the twenty-first century when countries such as England are already overpopulated - unlike the world was when those large numbers of her people emigrated.
Then perhaps we could compare apples with apples, instead of pots being compared with kettles

[Crusader]

It is a sad day for our entire human race when one has to publicly apologise for speaking their opinion from what would thought to be private area. It seems to me that PC hasn't gone mad it has gone of the FUCKEN RAILS!

[guest49]

It is a sad day for our entire human race when one has to publicly apologise for speaking their opinion

A politician should be very wary at any time about expressing a private opinion.  It has always been thus.

[Crusader]

Politicians are people too not robots with no human emotion. I would rather have a politician that weren't afraid to express their own thoughts than some idiot robot who only stated carefully guarded comments in fear of offending wet blankets.
I think the biggest mistake he made was apologising to that woman. He stated his opinion so now we all know what he really thinks. Apologising just made it look like a desperate PR stunt.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

The plot thickens in the Pommy General Election.

It would appear there is going to be now clear result and a hung parliament will result.

Oh well....it IS after all on the other side of the world, so should we care? 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Crusader]

I saw all those whinging poms on the news that turned up too late to vote. Should have turned up earlier.

[Maurice]

The evidence now is that the Conservatives have become unelectable. If they can't win power after 18 years in the wilderness, they never will.

My prediction: If Clegg has any brains he will make electoral reform (ie MMP) a requirement of any coalition. The Tories won't have a bar of it and will write their own obituary as a result.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Maurice]

The Tories main problem is that, unlike National who have the loony ACT Party, there is no obvious coalition for the tired old centre right in the UK.

Under Proportional Representation, right wing parties will arise, but are more likely to be racist, white supremacy goons like the Nazinal Front or, even worse, the totally nutty Libertarians.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

even worse, the totally nutty Libertarians.

I wouldn't worry to much about the totally nutty Libertarianz (NZ-spelling).

We have what is probably the purest form of proportional representation in NZ, yet the Libertarianz not only got their arses kicked by the GREENS (nine seats in Parliament to nil), but they even got less votes than Social Credit AND a duo of comedians who were only standing for Parliament as a piss-take. Hence the reason why I wouldn't worry about the loony Libertarianz....they are losers who will never achieve anything!

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Anyway....this cartoon is so brilliant, I'm going to repost it on this second page of the thread....