He really is an absolute liability - Christ!

[Hopeless Romantic]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8649012.stm

What a complete and utter wanker!

[T_i_B]

1. They've played it all on the Jeremy Vine show

Some of her comments to Brown were a bit stupid IMHO ("All the Eastern European immigrants...where are they from?") but nonetheless we can expect lots of fact free ranting on the subject from our dear friends in the tabloid press.

What annoyed me most was a political reporter on the Jeremy Vine show describing her as a "Straight Talking Yorkshirewoman". She's from LANCASHIRE you useless twat! Rochdale is in Lancashire, not Yorkshire. :grr:

[Hopeless Romantic]

2. This will be the most damaging thing to the Labour Party in this election

Core Labour voters, honest, decent working class people, are going to look at this and vote for any other party or not bother at all.

I still can't believe this. The man should be shot. He is a total idiot.

[craigmatic]

3. we all knew it would just be a matter of time before something like this happened right?

Brown is just awkward and not good with people.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Give him some credit

At least he didn't headbutt her. Maybe she was lucky the cameras were there. :shrug:

[Hopeless Romantic]

5. funny how she didn't come out of her house after he "apologised" though

:evilgrin:

[fedsron2us]

6. Live Mike Syndrome

is something politicians of all parties fear.

Every single one of them will have muttered something similar after a difficult encounter with a member of the public as Matthew Paris points out.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article7110941.ece

[dipsydoodle]

7. Must admit I found the Sun's comment funny

"She went out for a loaf and came back with Brown toast." :rofl:

[miscsoc]

8. it was an offhand comment to an aide

and he just had the bad luck to have the microphone still on.

i would be surprised if any politician didn't say similar things in private conversation.

it's a non story in terms of substance, although if cameron got caught in similar circumstances i'd be forming a lynch mob too, and i can't blame the right for exploiting it.

i'm a bit disappointed that the bbc is giving this bullshit so much coverage, though. i suppose they are trying to mollify their possible future tory masters.

[T_i_B]

9. I don't see how the BBC could have ignored it

It was all over everywhere else. Besides, Brown went straight from there to a Radio 2 interview and they couldn't have not raised it with him on that interview.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Agreed. It was stupid, but not the worst.

Firstly, 'bigoted' is a comment on what she *said*; it's not like calling her 'stupid' or 'ugly'. etc.

Secondly, the main stupidity was leaving the mike on. And others have done similar things. Reagan threatened as a joke to start bombing the Soviet Union 'in five minutes', without realizing that this would be transmitted to the public. And he still got re-elected!

At least Brown didn't *hit* anyone, like Prescott did in the last election!

He should have been a lot more careful, but the way the tabloids are playing on it is disgusting- just using it as fodder for their hatred of Brown *and* of immigrants.

(Though I have to admit that the Sun headline about 'Brown toast' was rather witty. But the Daily Hate-Mail - 'Granny demonized for saying the I-word' - sounds like a parody from the Daily-Mail-o-Matic. As does the Diana Express' description of him as 'a hypocrite who shames Britain'. I suppose that at least it makes a change from their demonizing Clegg 24/7.)

[Matilda]

10. I'm surprised that he didn't have a minder on hand

to make sure that he took his microphone off. Those tiny mikes are easy to forget, and somebody should have
thought of it.

[dipsydoodle]

11. The irony here

is that its Brown who drew attention to the elephant in the room.

Election 2010: Immigration not off limits, says Johnson

Labour is not treating immigration as "off limits" a minister says after Gordon Brown called a pensioner who raised the issue "bigoted".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8650546.stm

[TheBigotBasher]

12. My fear from this is that neither the Tories or Lib Dems will gain from this.

If Labour voters are really offended by Gordon Brown and his gaffe yesterday and there is no reason to presume they are not, Clegg needs to take advantage of it. He has been told not to.

Traditional Labour voters are normally not likely to vote Lib Dem, the chances of them voting for the Conservative candidate are even less than the chance of Norman Tebbit voting for Sinn Fein.

That leaves very few options. It would be a complete irony of the situation if the BNP gained anything from this and I'm guessing that the British Nazi Party is lapping this up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. 1st poll taken completely since the gaffe: Labour vote unchanged

the Sun have already released tonight’s YouGov poll. The topline figures are CON 34%(nc), LAB 27%(nc), LDEM 28%(-3). No obvious effect from the Mrs Duffy affair (much as the “does it make you more or less likely to vote” question suggested for once!). The Lib Dems are down, but I expect that’s just random variation – yesterday’s 31% was a bit higher than YouGov had been showing lately anyway.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2655

And the poll answers to questions about the incident:

The polling YouGov did on Gordon Brown’s gaffe yesterday is up in full on the website here. 44% sympathize with Mrs Duffy, 23% with Brown. 50% think its a storm in a teacup, 46% think the worse of Brown. 26% think that Brown was genuinely sorry, 56% think he wasn’t.

The imporant bit though (especially given we are a week away from an election), is whether it changes votes. 9% said it made them less likely to vote Labour, 3% more likely to vote Labour – the rest no difference. My regular readers will know I am not a fan of questions like this – people use them to signify approval or disapproval regardless of whether it will actually change their vote. Lo and behold – that 9% of people who say it will make them less likely to vote Labour, is made up of Conservative and Lib Dem supporters. Most of those who say it will make them more likely to vote Labour, are voting Labour anyway.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2653

[fedsron2us]

15. Rather puts all the media hysteria into perspective.

Ironically my Mum expressed quite a bit of sympathy for Brown when I discussed the subject with her tonight, and she is far from being a natural Labour supporter. Personally I think Brown's Achilles heal is his intellectual arrogance not his rather flakey temper.

[craigmatic]

16. well she didn't like eastern european immigrants. Isn't that bigotry?

After all the lies he's told they're trying to do him in for telling the truth.