I don't know what the fallout from 'bigotgate' will be, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it resulted in a rise in support from the BNP. And I don't say that lightly. But look at it this way. Brown has not only insulted Mrs Duffy, he has effectively branded everyone in this country who is concerned about immigration a bigot too. Brown and Labour already have a problem with the white working class vote in areas like Dagenham, Barking, Burnley and West Yorkshire. It is those areas where the BNP is already reaping electoral benefit.
They will now make hay out of this gaffe in their GOTV leaflets.
And I wonder how Clegg and Cameron will play it in the leaders' debate tomorrow. I imagine Brown will try to crack some sort of joke of it, but Cameron needs to think of a good rejoinder.
I don't necessarily subscribe to the view that this incident will be the gamechanger Paul Waugh and Ben Brogan are suggesting. But it could be. Labour needs to do something to change the media agenda within the next few hours. Something big.
Mandleson has been sent out to tell a complete pack of lies, telling us that Brown is a man of integrity and conviction.
ReplyDeleteI am sickened that British Politics is not only in the hands of people nobody voted for, but that their lack of basic morality is so evident and so destructive.
We are being asked to accept a view of events from a twice disgraced minister, about someone who has been revealed, finally, as a petty nutball whose first response in a disaster is to want to know who did this to him.
And by the way, why is it that Mandelson's private life never comes under scrutiny?
How long will the prime mentalist stay as leader. Vote Brown get Balls is looking very imminent.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on, Iain. This is manna from Heaven for the BNP. Gordon Brown's biggest political sin, though, was to tell Jeremy Vine "If I said it". That shows him up far more for being a devious wriggler that actually calling Mrs.Duffy a bigot, bad as that was.
ReplyDeleteSo, anybody who doesn't agree with Brown is a 'bigot' now. My, my, what fun it must be to be in the Labour party.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gift to the BNP.
Politicians and the media have been driving people to the BNP for a long time. The great news is that today the media managed, spin doctored, PR massaged mask slipped.
ReplyDeleteAnyone with questions on immigration = racist bigot. Questions about homosexuality = homophobic bigot. Questions about climate change = denying bigot. Questions about Europe - xenophobic bigot.
The contempt that the political class have for the electorate is quite staggering. The silent majority used to be silent out of reserve & politeness. But now they are being forced to be silent by the the thought police and newspeak enforcers they're getting thoroughly p***ed off. So they flock to the BNP because they hear someone who simply speaks the truth plainly.
Who doubts that what Brown was caught saying isn't the opinion of every senior politician & eurocrat everywhere. Not so much the "Bigot" comment but the "Who let that women near me?" The voters & elections are a complete inconvenience to them.
The Brown stuff has hit the fan but it will distribute itself on all the party politicians. Good.
Cameron should leave it and rise above it. The damage is done. You must always leave your enemies with a means of escape.
ReplyDelete"Wrinkled Weasel said...
ReplyDeleteMandleson has been sent out to tell a complete pack of lies, telling us that Brown is a man of integrity and conviction."
Absolutely correct, too. Brown is convinced that Mrs Duffy is a bigot.
He, just as mistakenly, believes that he has integrity.
He hasn't just insulted Mrs Duffy but perhaps 75% of the population. Not just the "white British" but settled 2nd generation immigrants and their families too. I know a Sikh 2nd gen who is seriously considering voting BNP because they promise to stop further immigration.He sadly doesn't realise that the BNP is FAR LEFT and totalitarian contrary to the "far right" claims in the media.
ReplyDeleteBrown has history. He has also insulted a majority of the population, and many distinguished scientists, by calling man-made climate change sceptics "anti-science" and "flat earthers".
As they say "I know when he is lying because his lips move" (except off mike of course when some truth appears)
It's not a 'game-changer'. The public aren't that stupid, they know that all politicians say one thing in public and another thing in private.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I think it makes Brown seem more human!
foxnews - In the U.S., politicians kiss babies. In Britain, they call voters "bigots"--thanks Gordon Brown ... http://fxn.ws/d1my52
ReplyDeleteThis is just going to Damage the country! This man runs the country!
Clearly Brown doesn't want to discuss the issue of immigration.
ReplyDeleteBUT, to call an OAP a bigot because she has an opinion and vented that opinion is shocking. Jonah's views may very well run contra 180 degrees to Mrs Luff, but his behaviour, post event, is a damning indictment on the contempt, that he and many in the leadership of Labour, hold for the electorate.
Yes Gordo, you may claim to listen, but we now know what happens post that event, when you're with your bully boy mates, total and utter contempt.
So, lets reciprocate.
Express reveals that Clegg voted for the Common EU Asylum Policy.
ReplyDeleteAnother Lib Dem policy bump approaches.
At least Brown is honest. LDs pretend to be what they are not.
Not a game changer at all, in the sense that it tells us nothing new about Brown.
ReplyDeleteBut what of the effect on Cleggmania? Nothing about Clegg on the news channels at the moment, and perhpas for a very long time.
When I read about this "gaff" that was my first thought. It was as if the script was written by the BNP campaign.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Cameron & Clegg should leave it alone. Its something that could as easily blow up in their faces as it has Labour. This has political land-mind written all over it.
This will NOT drive voters to the BNP.
ReplyDeleteBrown's gaffe now allows anyone who wants to to discuss immigration policy openly & sensibly without being smeared.
This should allow Cameron to put his case for restricting immigration for example. It should also allow Clegg to discuss his amnesty for all the illegals here - not much of a vote winner I suspect.
Because we can now discuss one policy against another this makes the BNP less relevant - not more.
It wasn't just the ZanuLiebor policy on immigration that allowed the BNP into the space left by the other parties, it was also our inability to discuss it without being called racist.
Cameron thinks the same way as Brown, that anyone who dares criticise Muslims, immigrants, political correctness etc is a 'bigot' as much as Brown.
ReplyDeleteIts just that Cameron hasnt been caught out - yet.
Cameron wants mass immigration as much as Brown, its just that Cameron wants cheap labour for his corporate and business pay masters whilst Brown just wants cheap votes.
Seeing as Ian Dale himself is the beneficiary of Camerons Politically Correct Cronyism, as he is one of the New Tory Elite being a middle class gay man, then its a bot rich Dale attacking Brown.
The New Tories = from Aristocracy to Affirmative Action in one step and bypassing meritocracy.
Cameron cares for the White Indigenous English Working Class as much as Brown - which means he doesnt care at all.
Cameron just wants the ethnic block vote and to quietly poison our society with ever more of the same politically correct poison as New Labour.
Camerons Tories = Blue Labour.
Not only pensioners like this woman and working class whites, 2nd generation Asians educated and looking for jobs are very angry about the level of immigration, and so called skilled immigrants are let in depriving these Asians of jobs. The culprit is CBI and many City finance companies. Cameron has the wrong policy on immigration and the Tories fear the kind of propaganda Labour and Libdems will unleash if Tories immighration caps are much much lower or they say no immigration for a period. Clegg is so deluded that he thinks different areas in the countrty can get immigrants and keep them there. I heard him saying in Radio 4 that the immigrants workpermits should designate a region. He is so inept that if this is done, the immigrants will simply drop out if there are no longer jobs in the region specified and will become illegals rather than going back to their countries outside the EU.
ReplyDelete"Labour needs to do something to change the media agenda within the next few hours. Something big".
ReplyDeleteYou mean like announcing that Europe is poised to declare the election result is null and void because 75,000 convicted prisoners were denied the franchise?
RJF said...
ReplyDeleteCameron should leave it and rise above it. The damage is done. You must always leave your enemies with a means of escape.
Wrong! When your enemy is helpless on the floor..put the boot in good and hard.
Two wrong don't make a right but Cameron's gaffe on the first TV debate was far worse.
ReplyDeleteThe “40-year-old black man” was an appalling description of the man he met in Plymouth. It throws together all non-Caucasians into one black pot. Far better to have identified where the man originally came from as a six-year-old (The West Indies? India? Somewhere else?) rather than just categorist him (vaguely) by his colour. The question was about immigration not about colour!
AT LAST the people have seen (or heard) the real Gordon Brown.
ReplyDeleteYou just have to look at the people who have been closest to him: Charlie Whelan, Damien McBride and Ed Balls to know his real character.
These three poisonous individuals have managed to drag British politics so far down the gutter that they swim amongst the pieces of shit that they put down there.
This shows how two faced Brown is. He has been trying to get over to the public how he understands their concerns over immigration. Mrs Duffy asked very reasonable questions and he calls her a bigot behind her back.
Well Gordon - I think you have blown it this time. There are plenty of others out there who will notice this. As Iain says, the BNP will benefit from this.
I've always said that Gordon Brown will be another Jim Callaghan. The difference being that most people did at least think Jim was a decent bloke. Gordon Brown will have the rest of his life to stew in his own dark thoughts knowing that most of the British public cannot stand him. And this will affect him greatly: GOOD - It's the least he deserves.
'Labour needs to do something to change the media agenda within the next few hours. Something big.'
ReplyDeleteIain Dale, I salute you! If nothing happens, then this remark will pass unheeded; if, on the other hand, the next few hours sees Labour at the centre of some major upheaval or event, you will go down in history as the man who saw it coming.
I just listened to the 'apology'. It isn't. Its 5 secs of sorry and three and a half minutes of justification for saying it.
ReplyDeleteMandleson has said this election is about character. Yes, well we have seen Gordon's today. I think you are right. Many will vote BNP before they will vote LAbour
Remember - Labour were rubbing their hands 0ver the Chris Greyling B@B remark. Now the boot is on the other foot!! Just shows what he thinks about "ordinary" people doesn,t it?
ReplyDeleteThis is a game changer.
ReplyDeleteAll the those allegations of dishonesty, incompetence, refusal to accept responsibility, blaming others etc -all now confirmed for all to see.
Made worse on Jeremy Vine By continuing to say "if I said" even after the tape had been played.
And on an issue which concerns many traditional Labour voters.
There is no way that this will just blow over with only 8 days to go to the election.
Peter @ 2.25PM - I agree with every word you have said.
ReplyDeleteSaturday morning scenario on M6convoys of buses heading for Rochdale full off (the not to be mentioned in polite society party)people to make the most of Brown's gaffe and it would not suprise me if they manage to capture the seat as even the "dyed in the wool" Labour supporters finally get fed up of being treated with contempt and used as voter fodder by a leadership completely out of touch with their traditional supporters.
ReplyDeleteI'm utterly stunned. For any polician to make such a remark is wholly wrong. For a Prime Minister to make such a comment is simply unbelievable. If there is one good thing to come out of all this, it is the very public suspicion of the subsequent comments from the likes of Mandelson as they try to put out yet another fire.
ReplyDeleteBut if you want to be really angry about this sorry saga, just take a look at how the left are showing their true colurs of intolerance and smear via the likes of Twitter. Apparently, the PM may have been right, the woman probably was a bigot, and she only asked about those foreigners taking all our jobs. Oh, and Bevaniteellie thinks it just shows Brown is human. No it doesn't sunshine. It shows the rabid arrogance of this Government, their opinion of anyone who asks direct questions and your inability to say it was wrong to make such a comment.
@ Paddy - before you get on your high horse about how Cameron poorly described someone's racial background and saying how disgraceful it was, would you care to let us know how many people from ethnic minorities are standing for the LibDems?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will get the BNP too many extra votes, but It might make some of the disillusioned labour supporters stay at home.
ReplyDeleteWell you never know. On the plus side the inevitable disgust at tonight's disgraceful PEB might knock this into second place on the headlines.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Ian Dodge
ReplyDeleteYou are correct.
Anybody comming across a big brown heap of poo with a ticking sound coming from it is advised not to poke it with a stick, but to carefuly walk away pretending not to have seen it
Gordon Brown: "Sorry I got caught, Mrs Bigot. Sorry, I mean, Mrs duffy".
ReplyDeleteMemo to Special Branch: You'll be sorry if you don't sweep me for bugs in future!
Thats it . The defining moment of the campaign , Brown is nailed as a political bigot by his insulting assessment of a loyal Labour supporter. Trying to portray the Prime Minister as a frail human figure prone to making a mistake just digs the pit deeper . And what an issue to blunder on . This is more like two own goals not just one .
ReplyDeleteWhilst the Toynbee types will shake their heads and make excuses over their `Pinot Grigio` tonight, the real people in Liebour heartlands( where I live sadly) will also be shaking their heads knowing that one of their main election concerns has been thoroughly dissed by this clown...
ReplyDeleteThe BNP are very active this time around, especially on the large Council Estates which are their main operating bases..
We all know the danger of these far left idiots but some dont care and the support for them will have gone up today. I know of one, odious, junior minister who must be well parping himself tonight...
Oh well every cloud an all that...cheers
Well considering that Labour stand for encouraging 3rd world immigration for "social reasons" as Andrew Neather boasted; that neither of the other 2 officially approved parties are willing to say anything against that; the Labour, Tories & LudDims engage in war crimes, genocide & worse; & that only the BNP have the integrity to say that dissecting human beings, while still alive, to promote the racial programme of Adolf Hitler is a bad thing perhpaps the BNP desreve more votes & the genocide promoting parties somewhat fewer.
ReplyDeleteOr does anybody think the BNP should have kept quiet about our government letting our duly appointed police engage in racial murder as all the organs of the state have?
Wouldn't be surprised either! This political correctness is getting really annoying :-/
ReplyDeleteDon't know for whom to vote?:
http://www.leblogdelamirabelle.net/pensees-qui-trainent-par-la/la-carte-electorale-britannique-au-tresor-the-vote-u-lator-will-find-you/
But it's weird. Everybody I know turns out to be a conservative. Come on! Who paid for this? :-D
What has New Labour ever done for the traditional Labour voter?
ReplyDeleteThe current Labour Party is so out of touch with its voters that it is a scandal that they are allowed to call them selves the Labour Party.
Brown's comment when actually having met a real voter sums it up nicely.
I notice Dave keeps well away from real voters too.
Yeah, this is going to drive support to the BNP.
ReplyDeleteIn the South, if Cameron makes a good showing tomorrow night, it'll probably get the Tories a couple of percentage points, too - Clegg's policies aren't well thought-out ("are you proposing border controls on the M5?" "what about someone who's been here illegally for 9 years?"). That will hopefully be enough to get up to overall majority territory.
But in the North, there's no credible opposition party. Dyed in the wool Labour voters won't vote Tory under any circumstances. The Lib Dems are a joke as their "intellectual" middle-class rhetoric means nothing in working-class towns. UKIP are, again, middle-class and South only, not to mention falling apart at the seams. Which just leaves the BNP, who will benefit. Not as much as they could, though - people still recognise them as being horrid racist gits. I expect very low turnouts in a lot of safe Labour seats, simply because "there's nobody else to vote for".
Rochdale, a swing to Lib Dem in 2005 with a narrow margin, is probably now a safe seat for them.
(w/v "ampless" - bet Brown wishes he was "micless")
Harriet Harman spinning away just now on Sky News said to Adam Boulton "you are a political commentator Andrew Marr, a very good political commentator if I may say so".
ReplyDeleteThey're all shook up.
Adam shortly afterwards asked her if it was true that Mandelson had told her to shut up and that he didn't want to hear from her again. Ouch!
Driving votes away to the BNP might not be a bad thing. In Burnley a few Labour votes shifting to the extremits could let the Lib Dems in and I'm sure the same could apply in a number of seats the Conservatives are hoping to take from Labour.
ReplyDeleteJust reach for Polly Toynbee's clothespag and remind yourself we should never look a gift horse in the mouth.
The Immigration Elephant
Iain, can you honestly say that when you were campaigning in norfolk that you never walked away from a doorstep and said something rude about a voter, all politicians and candidates do it!
ReplyDeletePippa, only LibDem ones! But then, I wasn't miced up!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder people have lost all respect for the political process, political parties, politicians and authority.
ReplyDeleteAfter having what anyone would consider a reasonable debate with an ordinary everyday voter. The parting words on the ordinary voter form the Prime minister himself, was The politico describes her as a bigot.
This has just confirmed everything I thought about politicos. They are two faced bastards.
This is not just a Nu-Labour thing. Remember call me Dave, I will give a guarantee, we will have a referendum on the EU constitution if I get into power. What did he do fuck you your not getting your referendum. How dare Dave do that.
Another matter, why can't we talk about immigration???
This country is fucked!!!
If the politicos were to take their heads out of their arses' and listened to the real people of this country we would not be in the shit state we are in now!!!
Brown already has form in this area - remember the letter of condolence that was sp badly judged (and also subsequently spun as showing his human failings).
ReplyDeleteWill it change anything? Probably not. Those who are determined to support the left will talk of 'Tory scum patronising the electorate' and those determined to support the right will talk of 'New Labour being condescending towards the electorate'. Whichever way you look at it the political class look down on the 'little people'. The Lib Dems will, of course, promise anything to anybody to get their noses in the trough.
Just been watching the morning news in Bangkok.
ReplyDeleteGuess what? They ran the film of McBigot with a translation in Thai.
McBigot never fails to tell us how respected he is outside the UK.
Not so. The Thais think he's terribly direspectful.