Brown's 'Prescott' moment?

TheStone

It's not so much whether she was a bigot or not (I didn't think so), but the way he was so
nice to her face and then bad mouthed her as soon as he was in private.

What made it worse was that she was a Labour voter and left fairly happy after her chat.

I'm sure they all do it, but Brown has been caught.

I might feel a bit sorry for him, but he's head of a govt that now monitor nearly everything
we do. Email, internet, cctv, ID cards etc. Live by the sword ....

rf6

I can't see why she's biggoted. She brought up immigration as an issue, she didn't come out with any racist BS. God forbid politicians should actually discuss issues or policies!

He's a politician, so we already know he's a lying two faced git. But for once he's caught out.

Brilliant.

@carrock - love that daily mash, think i'll be looking at that again!

SteveR_100Milers

Smokin Joe wrote:

So someone who expresses concerns about immigration is a bigot? Then count me as one, along with many millions more.

It is the attempt to stifle any debate on the subject that drives people to the BNP. Brown is a stupid prat. As for his record on the economy, voting for him to pull us out of recession is like getting sick and going to Dr Harold Shipman for a cure.

Tow questions spring to mind, where is the evidence that Brown was solely responsible for the recession? Do yo know what the major cause was?
If you look at the period when Brown was chancellor, you might see a period of unprecedented growth in many of the economic KPIs, whether some of these shold have been allowed such free reign such as access to personal credit is debatable - but remember a Tory government would prefer to exercise even less control over what you and bank agree between you, this 'freedom' was one of the fundanmetal tenets of the Thatcher era. State intervention has traditionally been the preserve of the socialist movement.
secondly, what factual evidence do you have that any other leader or party would have got to a similar situation, and indeed any evidence that they can somehow also find a magic cure? You might not like the man, but a kangaroo court isn't the answer.

Mettan

Great tele, and a good performance:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ ... 649174.stm

Political gold, hehe

Smokin Joe

Steve, no one knows what anyone else would have done because they weren't in charge. Gordon was, as chancellor and PM. He has made some disasterous mistakes - selling off gold reserves when the price was at rock bottom and borrowing to fund spending even when we were booming an tax revenue was at record levels for two - He has been a disaster and will be out on his ear on May 6th.

We all know what the cure is, though no one has the courage to say it. It is the same as the cure you or I would need if we were in debt we couldn't afford, cut spending and try and raise your income (by raising tax in HMG's case). There isn't a cuddly answer, despite what people like to imagine.

SteveR_100Milers

Smokin Joe wrote:

Steve, no one knows what anyone else would have done because they weren't in charge. Gordon was, as chancellor and PM. He has made some disasterous mistakes - selling off gold reserves when the price was at rock bottom and borrowing to fund spending even when we were booming an tax revenue was at record levels for two - He has been a disaster and will be out on his ear on May 6th.

We all know what the cure is, though no one has the courage to say it. It is the same as the cure you or I would need if we were in debt we couldn't afford, cut spending and try and raise your income (by raising tax in HMG's case). There isn't a cuddly answer, despite what people like to imagine.

Agreed, but then to balance the argument remember who sold our North Sea oil reserves? That's been biting our arses for some time now. I am not trying to necessarily defend Brown, I really don't rate him as a leader and would gladly see someone else take his place. My view is that I do not believe that Cameron, or indeed Clegg can offer anything significantly different, and you are right - the recession was primarily born of our own greed, how you can blame someone else for lending you money when you cannot afford it is frankly ridiculous. Unsurprisingly, we now all have to pay for that stupidity, the irony is that many of the anti-Brown views would seem to support a more left wing interventionist policy, one where the govt will control the banks more than they have done to prevent people from getting into trouble in the first place. I know that's a gross over-simplification, but is fundamentally the case I think.

The whole election process seems to hinging on the personalities of the various leaders possibly more than actual policy - in which case Brown has little chance of securing a 2nd term, and to be honest I partly hope this happens so that a more inclusive less arrogant more engaging leader of the labour party can emerge. But from where.....

Le Commentateur

The gaff was more like classic Alan Partridge than puncher Prescott.

verloren

It's worth remembering that Brown claimed to have ended the cycle of boom and bust, so the fact that we've had a bust shows that it's either his fault (presumably he decided to stop ending it), or he was incorrect to the point of hallucination. Neither is exactly a recommendation.

TheDrunkMonk

I'm generally worried that all future elections are going to be won and lost on this drivel. It's already turning into some kind of Big Brotheresque popularity contest. "Nasty Gordon has been caught slagging off bigots in the diary room."

As for two faced... he is a politician, so he's unlikely to start a fist fight with the woman in the street (where is Prescott?) I would have thought being caught on microphone blaming the country's woes on immigrants would be more hypocritical, but he seems to have remained consistently on the light side of the Force.

If you want to heckle someone for being two-faced, I think you'll find that Cameron is now the champion of the nation's underprivileged, low income pensioners and all fluffy animals (except foxes and badgers of course, set the bloody dogs 'em, I say, what, snort.)

Ben6899

Le Commentateur wrote:

The gaff was more like classic Alan Partridge than puncher Prescott.

Dan! Dan! Dan! Dan!

oldwelshman

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

Smokin Joe wrote:

Steve, no one knows what anyone else would have done because they weren't in charge. Gordon was, as chancellor and PM. He has made some disasterous mistakes - selling off gold reserves when the price was at rock bottom and borrowing to fund spending even when we were booming an tax revenue was at record levels for two - He has been a disaster and will be out on his ear on May 6th.

We all know what the cure is, though no one has the courage to say it. It is the same as the cure you or I would need if we were in debt we couldn't afford, cut spending and try and raise your income (by raising tax in HMG's case). There isn't a cuddly answer, despite what people like to imagine.

Agreed, but then to balance the argument remember who sold our North Sea oil reserves? That's been biting our arses for some time now. I am not trying to necessarily defend Brown, I really don't rate him as a leader and would gladly see someone else take his place. My view is that I do not believe that Cameron, or indeed Clegg can offer anything significantly different, and you are right - the recession was primarily born of our own greed, how you can blame someone else for lending you money when you cannot afford it is frankly ridiculous. Unsurprisingly, we now all have to pay for that stupidity, the irony is that many of the anti-Brown views would seem to support a more left wing interventionist policy, one where the govt will control the banks more than they have done to prevent people from getting into trouble in the first place. I know that's a gross over-simplification, but is fundamentally the case I think.

The whole election process seems to hinging on the personalities of the various leaders possibly more than actual policy - in which case Brown has little chance of securing a 2nd term, and to be honest I partly hope this happens so that a more inclusive less arrogant more engaging leader of the labour party can emerge. But from where.....[/quote

+1
Why is the media so obsessed about making this more of a presidential election than what it really is, a general election.
Seems that the media are more interested in selling tabloids and gaining viwers on stories about the leaders rather than questioning all the parties manifestos to give the general pubilic more information to make a formed decisiona on who they will vote for.
Some of the reasons I have heard from people on who they will vote for and why are ludicrous and have no reason.
eg "because the sun says Cameron is better" !!
"Brown did not look good on tv"!!
Because the papers say Brown caused the recession"!!
Personally I think we may end up with what we deserve if so many people are so shallow they cannot form any opinion based on the parties manifestos and are guded more by the media !!

fast as fupp

rf6 wrote:

I can't see why she's biggoted. She brought up immigration as an issue, she didn't come out with any racist BS. God forbid politicians should actually discuss issues or policies!

He's a politician, so we already know he's a lying two faced git. But for once he's caught out.

Brilliant.

@carrock - love that daily mash, think i'll be looking at that again!

not bigoted?

"these eastern europeans' FFS! twenty or thirty years ago it was 'these n******* "or "those p****" before that it was the jews- the targets of racists differ but the language is the same
brown should never apologised to the rancid old bat

rick_chasey

fast as fupp wrote:

rf6 wrote:

I can't see why she's biggoted. She brought up immigration as an issue, she didn't come out with any racist BS. God forbid politicians should actually discuss issues or policies!

He's a politician, so we already know he's a lying two faced git. But for once he's caught out.

Brilliant.

@carrock - love that daily mash, think i'll be looking at that again!

not bigoted?

"these eastern europeans' FFS! twenty or thirty years ago it was 'these n******* "or "those p****" before that it was the jews- the targets of racists differ but the language is the same
brown should never apologised to the rancid old bat

She knows they're eastern Europeans, but not where they're from apparantly.

Was she using a more polite term because she was on telly? We can only speculate....

seanoconn

Brown is naturally a grumpy, stern kind of bloke and smiley smiley just dosen't work for him, its painful to watch. I'm sure he'd be more popular if he stopped pretending to be something he's not. No surprise an mp being two faced but to do it on microphone, 8 days from the election is suicide. Idiot.

bikey2009

"brown should never apologised to the rancid old bat"

Are you being agest :?

carrock

Can you imagine boris johnson on the campaign trail- he'd still upset everybody, but at least it would be amusing....

berliner

Could have been worse

"Oooh me bo11ocks are itchy"


or..........................

rick_chasey

berliner wrote:

Could have been worse

"Oooh me bo11ocks are itchy"


or..........................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEt6waYqeSs

Mettan

The British General Election for 2010 has been decided by an elderly lady from Rochdale..... who only went out to buy a loaf of bread - who'd have thought it - nail, and coffin comes to mind.

millymoose

We have had unprecedented growth and tax receipts throughout this Labour administration - up to the global recession - but instead of saving something Broon has only managed to make more and more people reliant on the state handing out tax credits etc etc and has been responsible for a huge explosion in public spending and government debt meaning there was nothing in the tank for when the economy hit the buffers!

52% of UK GDP is now as a result of the government and we now have a situation where we have to economise meaning a further shrinking of our economy.

As Dennis Healy might have said - 'what a silly billy'

OffTheBackAdam

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7604011/General-Election-2010-Returning-officers-who-delay-vote-face-5000-fines.html
Yep, Brown didn't cause the recession (We can point fingers at the socialist leanings in the Clinton administration for kick starting that, combined with various financial institutions recognising a quick buck when they see it), but he's made the UK's position far worse.
Thankfully, we aren't in the Euro, so our financial state isn't as parlous as Greece's.

Jez mon

fast as fupp wrote:

rf6 wrote:

I can't see why she's biggoted. She brought up immigration as an issue, she didn't come out with any racist BS. God forbid politicians should actually discuss issues or policies!

He's a politician, so we already know he's a lying two faced git. But for once he's caught out.

Brilliant.

@carrock - love that daily mash, think i'll be looking at that again!

not bigoted?

"these eastern europeans' FFS! twenty or thirty years ago it was 'these n******* "or "those p****" before that it was the jews- the targets of racists differ but the language is the same
brown should never apologised to the rancid old bat

Lets be honest though, whether or not she was bigoted is not really the point now, the point is, a question on immigration has got Brown extremely hot under the collar. Like it or not, immigration is a huge deal for many people, most of whom aren't racist, the longer the issue is ignored, the more those people turn to extreme parties like the BNP.

Points like yours, are why most politicians steer a mile clear of anything to do with immigration, because sooner or later they'll say something which the media will jump on with cries of racist!

Now, I consider myself to be fairly non-racist! BUT immigration has reached a level where it needs to be talked about and immigration from the newer EU member states (or those eastern Europeans) has distorted the job market somewhat. This is a problem which needs to be addressed, or at least admitted, so we can attempt to avoid it happening again.

beverick

So the PM calling a member of the public a bigot ends up with an inference that they're racist.

Good grief.

Bob

Tom Butcher

fast as fupp wrote:

not bigoted?

"these eastern europeans' FFS! twenty or thirty years ago it was 'these n******* "or "those p****" before that it was the jews- the targets of racists differ but the language is the same
brown should never apologised to the rancid old bat

Don't put words in her mouth - she raised the issue of Eastern European immigration into the UK - nothing more.

Av it

A cautionary tale, by holding views which dont strictly conform to the required level of liberalism you may be banned. there is no place for white trash in a comment on immigration.

Cressers

I did wonder why two yellow jackets werre stationed in front of her house. To keep the media away from her or to keep her away from the media? And I wonder about the NuLab damage limitation squad that seemed to have 'invited' themselves into her house, how genuine was the invitation or did they decide to put the squeeze on a non-media-savvy pensioner?

pottssteve

At least he didn't punch her!

Pross

verloren wrote:

Kind of - it just highlights that bigotry is largely a value term. For example, I am 100% positive in my belief that adults shouldn't have sexual relations with pre-teens, and I will listen to no argument from anyone that tries to say otherwise, because they are categorically wrong.

I'm going to argue otherwise and give you a chance to change your mind and stop being a bigot

Surely your belief should be that no-one should have sexual relations with pre-teens rather than just adults?

rick_chasey

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... n-european

The slow, sad realisation that the political culture in the UK is such that no politician has any choice but to grovel to the bigots. Because standing up and explaining to them instead that immigrants make a massive contribution to the economy, let alone that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of nationality, citizenship or contribution, would be political suicide.

verloren

Pross wrote:

verloren wrote:

Kind of - it just highlights that bigotry is largely a value term. For example, I am 100% positive in my belief that adults shouldn't have sexual relations with pre-teens, and I will listen to no argument from anyone that tries to say otherwise, because they are categorically wrong.

I'm going to argue otherwise and give you a chance to change your mind and stop being a bigot

Surely your belief should be that no-one should have sexual relations with pre-teens rather than just adults?

I was trying to narrow it down sufficiently to avoid pedantic argument (not from you, I hasten to add) about the line between, say, a 15.9 yo and a 16yo. But you're right, there's room for me to be even more bigoted!