General Elections 2010

[Go Native 70]

She did sound like your typical bigot to me but not good for a pollie to be caught saying somehting like that! Can see why I'm not a politician, if I'd got accosted by a stupid biatch like that my comments in the car would have been a little more colourful I'm sure

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I'd vote for ya GN!!

[big-will 7]

Sorry, but what exactly was "typically bigoted" about what this pensioner said?

[big-will 7]

Gordon Brown: You’re a very good woman, you’ve served the community all your life -

 

Gillian Duffy: I am, I’ve worked for the Rochdale council for 30 years…

 

Brown: Good. You deserve -

 

Duffy: And I work with children and handicapped children

 

Brown: Oh well working with children is so important isn’t it? Have you been at some of the children’s centres? –

 

Duffy: But what I can’t understand is why I am still being taxed at 66 years old because my husband’s died and I have some of his pension tagged onto my pension?

 

Brown: 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 but you may be eligible for the pension credit as well, you should check –

 

Duffy: No, no, I’m not, I’ve checked and checked and they said I’m not

 

Brown: Well you should check it again just to be sure, to be absolutely sure.

 

Duffy: Yes they’ve told me, I’ve been down to Rochdale council

 

Brown: And you know we’re linking pension to earnings in two years' time, we’ve got the winter allowance as you know which I hope is of benefit, two fifty -

 

Duffy: I agree with that, it’s very good, but every year I speak to people of my age and they say ‘Oh well, they’ll be knocking it off’

 

Brown: We’ve done bus passes as well, free presciptions -

 

Duffy: But how are you going to get us out of all this debt, Gordon?

 

Brown: We’ve got a deficit reduction plan, cut the debt by half over the next four years, we’ve got the plans that have been set out to do it - look, I was the person who came in and said -

 

Duffy: Look, the three main things that I had drummed in when I was a child was education, health service and looking after people who are vulnerable. There are too many people now who aren’t vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can’t get claim.

 

Brown: But they shouldn’t be doing that, there is no life for people on the dole anymore, if you’re unemployed you’ve got to go back to work. At six months –

 

Duffy: You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying you’re – but all these eastern Europeans coming in, where are they flocking from?

 

Brown: A million people come in from Europe, but a million British people have gone into Europe, you do know there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well. So education, health and helping people, that’s what I’m about.

 

Duffy: I hope you keep to it.

 

Brown: It’s been very good to meet you. And you’re wearing the right colour today! How many grandchildren do you have?

 

Duffy: Two.

 

Brown: What names are they?

 

Duffy: They’ve just come back from Australia where they’ve been stuck for ten days they couldn’t get back with this ash crisis.

 

Brown: They got through now?

 

Duffy: Yes.

 

Brown: We’ve been trying to get people back quickly. But are they going to university, is that the plan?

 

Duffy: I hope so. They’re only 12 and 10.

 

Brown: They’re only 12 and 10! But they’re doing well at school?

 

Duffy: Yes. Very good.

 

Brown: A good family. Good to see you.

 

Duffy: And the education system in Rochdale I will congratulate it

 

Brown: Good. Good to see you, take care.

 

[in car] That was a disaster. Should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?

 

Aide: I don’t know, I didn’t see.

 

Brown: Sue’s, I think. Just ridiculous.

 

Aide: Not sure if they’ll go with that one.

 

Brown: Oh they will.

 

Aide: What did she say?

 

Brown: Everything. She’s just this sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be a Labour voter. Ridiculous.

[big-will 7]

Transcript: Gillian Duffy's response to the Prime Minister's comments

 

RESPONSE 1

 

Reporter 1: We’re live at the moment, the Prime Minister is being interviewed by the BBC, what would you like to say to the Prime Minister?

 

Gillian Duffy: I’m not saying anything more to him.

 

Reporter 1: Are you disappointed?

 

GD: I’m very disappointed.

 

Reporter 2: Mrs Duffy you came here with some very specific questions about your pension. He responded positively to those, you thought?

 

GD: It was about tax being paid on pensions and about the national debt.

 

Reporter 2: We’ve heard the PM’s words in the Sky news [inaudible]. What is your instant reaction to that?

 

GD: Very upsetting. I’m very upset.

 

Reporter 1: Did you expect that from him?

 

GD: No. He’s an educated person, why has he come out with words like that? He’s going to lead this country and he’s calling an ordinary woman who’s just come up and asked him questions what most people would ask him – they’re not doing anything about the national debt and it’s going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this national debt and he’s calling me a bigot.

 

Reporter 2: You told me that you were a lifelong Labour supporter

 

GD: I am.

 

Reporter 2: And you have a postal vote ready to go in. Will you be sending that?

 

GD: No.

 

Reporter 1: You also told me earlier that you said when asked, will he stay in Number 10, you said hopefully he will.

 

GD: Yeah, well I’m not bothered whether he does or not now. I don’t think he will.

 

Reporter 1: Do you think he should meet more voters like you?

 

GD: I’m sure he should go out into the public and find out what’s going on with our lives.

 

Reporter 1: Do you think he understands enough about what’s going on

 

GD: No. They’re that much locked up there. [Takes phone call] Excuse me. Hello?

 

Reporter 1: I think you’re still live on television at the moment, but you can talk to two audiences at once if you like. Mrs Duffy obviously taking a call, perhaps somebody’s seeing her on television at the moment.

 

Reporter 2: Mrs Duffy, is that somebody calling to tell you you’re live on Sky News?

 

GD: No, it’s Lucy or someone.

 

Reporter 2: Let’s just if we can just for two minutes talk about why you were here in the first place. The Prime Minister’s been making great pains this week to get out and speak to people.

 

GD: Why has he come here to this place, why didn’t he go into Rochdale where a lot of people could have spoke to him in the town centre, why is he here?

 

Reporter 1: [inaudible]

 

GD: I should think so, nobody knew he was here did they? I was walking up the street and the police had the road cordoned off. So then I asked a policeman is that Gordon Brown and he said, yes, up there, so I came up and I thought well I’ll ask him what is he going to do about the national debt?

 

Reporter 2: And when he responded to you, before he got in the car and said what he said, what was your reaction to the way in which he had dealt with your complaints?

 

GD: Well I thought he was understanding but he wasn’t was he? Way he’s come out with the comments in the car?

 

Reporter 1: What did you think about his character before this event?

 

GD: I only met him for two minutes didn’t I? Three minutes, four minutes was that interview. His character on TV, well, he hadn’t really enthralled me with his speeches but I liked Blair, I liked Tony Blair.

 

Reporter 2: Why do you think Gordon Brown said what he said?

 

GD: I don’t know. You tell me. You saw me talking to him.

 

Reporter 2: Is that what you expect of a politician, of a Prime Minister?

 

GD: No. No. No I don’t.

 

Reporter 2: Before today, what was your view of Gordon Brown as a man and as a politician?

 

GD: I can’t tell you as a man. As a politician, when he was Chancellor he did very good things for this country, but now it’s all gone to pot, everything. And you’ve got to sort it out else your grandchildren, your children will be paying for all this debt.

 

Reporter 1: Mrs Duffy would you just hear again exactly what he said now, I think we’re going to listen to what the Prime Minister said about you once he’d stopped talking to you.

 

Reporter 2: Clearly this was something that you yourself are going to take into the voting booth, clearly this is something that’s going to shape your view of the Labout Party as a view. If you had the opportunity to speak to Gordon Brown now, what would you say to him?

 

GD: I don’t think I’d like to speak to him. I can tell you that now. I don’t think I’d like to speak to him at all.

 

Reporter 2: Do you want an apology from Gordon Brown?

 

GD: Well. Do you think I need an apology off him?

 

Reporter 2: I think that’s for you to say.

 

GD: Well I think so, yeah.

 

Reporter 2: Would you like a personal apology from the Prime Minister.

 

GD: No not personal. I don’t want to speak to him again really. Just give an apology. I want to know why them comments I said there why I was called a bigot. That’s all.

 

RESPONSE 2

 

GD: I don’t think I’ll vote now. It’s a postal vote and I don’t have to send it in now.

 

Reporter A: I think we’re probably going to want to speak to you on camera if possible. Are you happy to do so?

 

GD: No, not really. I’m not answering – I’m not going to do anything now. He’s just absolutely – well, it’s shut me down completely. Very upsetting that.

 

Reporter A: Because I spoke to you immediately after the exchange and you seemed happy with the answers that he’d given you.

 

GD: What did I say to be bigoted there? What was bigoted in that what I said? I just asked about national debt?

 

Reporter A: And you’ve been a Labour supporter all your life?

 

GD: Yeah.

 

Reporter A: Anymore?

 

GD: And my family before me. Everybody.

 

Reporter B: Mrs Duffy, what do you think of what Mr Brown has described you as?

 

GD: How would you react if somebody said that to you? Very upsetting.

 

Reporter B: And he’s given the impression that he was listening to what you had to say

 

GD: Nothing went through, did it?

 

Reporter C: You look genuinely quite shocked

 

GD: I am quite shocked. Very shocked.

 

BBC RADIO 2 APOLOGY

 

Gordon Brown: …Hurtful and I will apologise personally.

 

Jeremy Vine: Somebody has just handed me the tape let’s play it and see if we can hear it.

 

[TAPE PLAYS]

 

JV: That is what you said. Is she not allowed to express her view to you?

 

GB: Of course she’s allowed to express her view and I was saying that. The problem was that I was trying to deal with a question that she raised about immigration and I wasn’t given a chance to answer it because we had a whole mêlée of press around but of course I apologise if I have said anything that has been offensive and I would never put myself in a position where I would ever want to say anything like that about a woman I met. It was a question about immigration that really I think was annoying.

 

JV: And you’re blaming a member of your staff there, Sue?

 

GB: No I’m blaming myself and I blame myself for what is done but you’ve got to remember that this was me being helpful to the broadcasters, with my microphone on, rushing into the car because I had to get to another appointment and they’ve chosen to play my private conversation with the person who was in the car with me. I know these things can happen, I apologise profusely to the lady concerned, I don’t think she is that I think, it was just the view that she expressed that I was worried about that I couldn’t respond to.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

she mentioned immigrants.......people are sensitive now about that, silly bigot that she is!!

[big-will 7]

Yes, lets not talk about it.

 

Go to Rochdale and something like 20% of the population actually speak English as their first language!

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Poor GB, she likes Blair, everyone liked Blair cos he had a public personality...Brown doesn't he isn't comfortable in public and unfortunately to be a PM you've gotta be right in the public eye. That would never have happened to Blair cos he's too sleazy and aware of these things. Blair was clever, got out at the right time and left GB to pick up the pieces (and maybe mash a few up some more).

 

Reminds me of the Ron Atkinson affair, maybe GB can get a job with channel 5 as well

[big-will 7]

Strange thing was, the exchange wasn't even 'a disaster' at all really was it.

He just very quickly made it one with his comments with mike in the car.

Silly man.

 

Independent:

 

Quote:

But not used to conversing authentically in public, Brown assumed that his few minutes with Gillian Duffy was a disaster. The rest of us watched and thought he was doing well. He felt he was drowning because he was not entirely in control. Once one of the sharpest readers of politics, he cannot recognise any longer what is and is not a disaster, equating only total control of public situations as a success.

 

One of the reasons why he works on the assumption that success is catastrophic is partly because his self-confidence is gone. Most of the time he reads that his leadership is a disaster. Presumably he assumed that an exchange in which a Labour voter criticised his policies would be reported as a catastrophe.

[Go Native 70]

I'm having a big enough discussion about racism and xenophobia on another thread. I'll let you Brits debate your own immigration issues as I don't know enough about it.

 

On the whole though I find people who blame minorities in their country for some of the major issues faced by that country usually have nothing to back up their claims other than ignorance, fear and hatred. Things I feel are just some of the finer attributes of your 'typically bigoted' person

[big-will 7]

I don't know a huge amount to be honest, and next to nothing about Australia either, but ask most brits and it's a huge issue. Got to admit sometimes I am back in the UK and it feels more like I am in a different continent at times. Apart from the weather of course. In some places the 'minorities' are the ones you might not expect any more. Do you have towns there where English is the 3rd most spoken language?

There is a general feeling that it is totally out of control.

 

The town where this old dear lives

 

Quote:

a quarter of the town's primary school pupils last year spoke English as a foreign language, including every single one of the 453 children at Heybrook Primary.

 

And census figures show that while the white population is falling by 2.3 per cent a decade, the Asian population is doubling every 20 years. One church has reacted by offering services in Urdu and Punjabi.

 

Statistics produced in 2006 counted 16,000 people of Pakistani origin in Rochdale, one in 12 of the population, along with 3,100 Bangladeshis and another 8,000 nonwhites. On top of that there were another 5,000 eastern Europeans and other non-British whites. Now, asylum seekers have been arriving in large numbers too.

 

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I could see that public meet n greets like that are not his thing. Like I said Blair had the personality and charm to wheedle his way out of situations like that, but Brown doesn't. If Blair is the cool guy at the back of the class (not that I think he is/was, just for political comparison), Brown is the speccy nerdy guy at the front. Brown has done his homework but when publicly questioned by the teacher he starts to get all antsy and jumbles his words, whereas Blair hasn't done it but is confident enough to talk his way out it

[thursday 1]

Bit weird that old biddie Gilly asked "All those Eastern Europenas, where are they coming from?" Well, Esatern Europe. And then she completely forgot about that when interviewed.

[Go Native 70]

I wonder if she is representative of the intelligentsia of the UK?

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Oh yes definitely.

 

But come on, she's a granny from Rochdale!

[grungy-gonads 54]

Just watched that 3rd debate, actually quite interesting.

All smarmy, just different levels

 

"Mr Brown kept shaking his head and threw occasional, unfathomable smiles. His cadaverous complexion acquired a blueish tinge. Refrigerated Stilton."

 

 

I think all that Lib Dem bloke can do is say "here they go again". Oh what a clever boy.

Oh and "I strongly agree with you", "you are absolutely right" to the dudes in the audience.

[brit-gob 9]

It's got to take a special kind of person to be a politician, really. How they can stand there straight faced and spout all that endless bullshit. It's amazing really. I wonder if it spills over into their personal lives too.

[IIIII 2]

This is funny

 

Brown's ears are amazing. I think they're made out of sausages. And he still can't smile properly, which is hardly surprisinggiven his ongoing luck allergy. Following the overblown 'bigotgate' media piss-fight, which saw him force-fed fistfuls of shame, it was vaguely impressive to see him standing at a podium instead of screaming on a ledge. Just as Cameron likes to shoehorn the "change" meme into every sentence (or rather did, before Cleggmania flared up), so Brown mentioned "the same old Conservative Party" so many times he began to sound like a novelty anti-Tory talking keyring.

[rach 1]

Many Brits on here voting?

I am.

 

--

 

YouGov/The Sun

Cameron 41% Clegg 32% Brown 25%

 

ComRes/ITV

Cameron 35% Clegg 33% Brown 26%

 

Angus Reid

Cameron 37% Clegg 30% Brown 23%

 

MailOnline (latest figures)

Cameron 42% Clegg 46% Brown 12%

 

Populus/Times

Cameron 38% Clegg 38% Brown 25%

 

Guardian

Cameron 35% Clegg 27% Brown 29%

 

Sky News poll of polls

Cameron 38% Clegg 32% Brown 26%

[scouser 4]

Smegg came across badly I though. Just stood there in the middle saying the others were just trying to claim points which is exactly what he was doing with his repeated comments. First time I had actually heard him, wasn't impressed.

 

Brown just comes across as a grumpy dude who isn't particularly, for want of a better word, 'nice'.

 

Doing something about ridiculous inheritance tax is important I think.

[thursday 1]

Brown is just a nasty bastard. All those bullying allegations seem to be the truth.

[Mantas 3]

Originally Posted By: Go Native

On the whole though I find people who blame minorities in their country for some of the major issues faced by that country usually have nothing to back up their claims other than ignorance, fear and hatred. Things I feel are just some of the finer attributes of your 'typically bigoted' person

Oh no...Not the Aussies in Niseko thing again..

[RobBright 35]

Originally Posted By: Go Native

On the whole though I find people who blame minorities in their country for some of the major issues faced by that country usually have nothing to back up their claims other than ignorance, fear and hatred. Things I feel are just some of the finer attributes of your 'typically bigoted' person

And the ones that do have good claims?

[klingon 10]

Shhhh, don't suggest such things!

[DumbStick 13]

I don't know much about them all but Brown isn't a particularly likeable character generally is he? He has never actually been 'voted in' has he, just took over from Blair?