People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Gordon Brown will lose British election after 'bigoted' gaffe

Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 07:49 PM

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Gordon Brown has just blown his chance of becoming Prime Minister again by forgetting one of the cardinal rules of politics -- never speak your mind when in the vicinity of microphones.

Gillian Duffy , 65, a retired grandmother came across Brown on the streets of Rochdale , near Manchester where he was campaigning.T he British general election is May 6th

She explained that she had been a life long Labor supporter but she was fed up of the party now and asked him some very sharp questions including what was he doing about immigration.

Brown answered them all in seeming good form but then back in his car he did not realize a TV news microphone was still attached to his lapel.

"That was a disaster" he said blaming a junior staffer for the encounter, even though it seemed to have been completely random.

He referred to Duffy as "a bigoted woman" which she certainly was not, merely a concerned older voter worried about the country her two grandchildren were growing up in.

Brown immediately recognized the impact of the gaffe and headed straight back to Rochdale and sat with Mrs Duffy and emerged from her home to say he had been forgiven.

But it all came too late. It was front page and headline news everywhere, and it played into the most damaging view of Brown of all that he is a a bully who is deeply unpleasant to his staff and has little sense of the concerns or worries of ordinary people because he has been in power so long.

It is the most damaging of all blows, just a week before the election and Labor were already lagging.

It now seems certain that David Cameron will be the next Prime Minister.

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4 comments

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MalcomAC | May 02, 2010, 10:39 AM EDT

It's a "gaffe" because it was true. She IS a bigot!

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jacersisityourself | Apr 29, 2010, 05:17 PM EDT

God help those of us on the island of Ireland if David Cameron and the Conservative Party get in. The NI Unionists will support him for Prime Minister on conditions that he gives back to them the destructive power that they had before “The Troubles”. Gone will be the Good Friday Agreement and all the horror that might resultantly bring to the young people of present-day peaceful Northern Ireland.

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IrishAndProud | Apr 29, 2010, 02:21 PM EDT

And think about WHY Brown is in trouble. He's in trouble because he called concern about Britain's flood of foreigners 'bigoted.' Hmmm...sound familiar? The left wing in the USA (appropriately led by B. Hussein Obama) is saying the EXACT same thing, over the EXACT same concern, with the EXACT same results awaiting them, this November. And many of the foreigners in the UK are there LEGALLY...not even so in the USA...

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DrTrelawney | Apr 29, 2010, 11:24 AM EDT

It is by no means certain that David Cameron will be Prime Minister. Given the nature of the UK's first-past-the-post system, Labour (it is spelt with a "u" by the way) could very well come third in the popular vote, but retain the largest number of seats. In that case, the Liberal Democrats would surely keep Labour in power. They would, however, probably demand a change in leader. In short, there is EVERY chance that David Milliband or Alan Johnson could become Prime Minister.

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