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Ear to the Ground

Gordon Brown Caught Kvetching About ‘Bigoted’ Voter

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Posted on Apr 28, 2010

After glad-handing a difficult voter who told of her concerns about immigration, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown retreated to the sanctity of his car, where he promptly described the woman as “bigoted.” Unfortunately for Brown, he was wearing a live microphone at the time.

AP via Yahoo:

Brown, apparently forgetting that he’d left a television microphone pinned to his chest, called 66-year-old Gillian Duffy a “bigoted woman” as he was being driven from a public meeting where she had needled him on immigration.

Within minutes the bad-tempered aside had exploded across the British media, and within a couple of hours Brown was rushing back to her home to beg Duffy’s forgiveness and writing to his supporters to make clear he’d apologized.

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OzarkMichael's avatar

By OzarkMichael, April 29, 2010 at 6:24 pm Link to this comment

As an American conservative, I have alot of experience at being called names like ‘racist’, ‘Nazi’, and ‘bigot’. Knowing that these charges are baseless in my case, i do not easily believe them about anyone else, at least not without some proof.

Usually Truthdig appeals to the Leftist bias by keeping information to a minimum. As a conservative, and a Christian, it often falls to me to bring some facts to the table. Especially since a person’s reputation matters to me more than the cheap thrill of feeling superior to that person.

From the Truthdig videos alone the reader has no idea what happened. The Labour party released a transcript of the exchange and I have copied it here for you.

Duffy said: “We had it drummed in when I was a child … it was education, health service and looking after the people who are vulnerable. But there’s too many people now who are vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can’t get claim, can’t get it.”

Brown replied: “But they shouldn’t be doing that, there is no life on the dole for people any more. If you are unemployed you’ve got to go back to work. It’s six months…”

Duffy interjected: “You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying that you’re … but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?”

Brown said that although there were 1 million immigrants to Europe from Britain, there were also 1 million Britons who had moved to Europe.

It turns out she is a liberal who supports universal healthcare, education, and helping those in Great Britain who are vulnerable. She is upset at Great Britain’s huge deficit. She is upset that foreigners are coming into Briton and setting up on the dole, when there arent enough resourses for the natives.

But anyway, now everyone who gets their news from Truthdig can better decide if she is really a bigot or not.

Watch it for yourself:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/28/gordon-brown-bigoted-woman

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By ThatDeborahGirl, April 29, 2010 at 5:00 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Actually, I think Brown was spot on. I like that some politician somewhere can recognize a bigot when they see one. On this side of the pond, politicians love to pretend that racism & bigotry have no bearing in American politics. Personally, I’m tired of playing that game.

Good on Brown for telling it like it is. No apology needed but I gets it’s better to CYOA.

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By hidflect, April 29, 2010 at 3:32 am Link to this comment

This is the way Tony Blair’s Orwellian nightmare creation (“New Labour”) swings. If you don’t show cap-doffing, rabid agreement with their immigration policy you’re an instant bigot. Sounds like Britain needs another few million CCTV cameras to keep more government eyes on all those dangerous grannies threatening Labour’s Vision Of The Future.

Vote Lib Dem.

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By diamond, April 28, 2010 at 7:21 pm Link to this comment

Well, she is a bloody bigot and I would have liked it even more if he’d told her to her face. Britain is chock a block with ‘nice old ladies’ who are bigots to their foundation garments. They consider anyone who isn’t white and Christian to be a lower form of life and they think the Eastern Europeans are white trash and should all be put on the next boat back to whatever misery, war and lethal danger they’ve fled from. Gordon Brown knows a bigot when he sees one and he also revealed how much he despises them. Good on him. There should be more politicians who despise bigots instead of using their bigotry to win votes.

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