I am absolutely confident that granny Gillian Duffy was not being bigoted when she spoke to the Prime Minister yesterday. There is surely no room in the world for two bigoted old Duffys.
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Meta
A total nothing story, blown completely out of proportion. The fact Sky broke this is of absolutely no surprise. She was bigoted, just like the ones who say “i’m not a racist, but…”
He should have said that to her face though.
Whilst one knows in theory the scope and scale of the fear and loathing with which our political masters view us, the People, nevertheless, it is instructive to be provided with a brutal, sneering, ignorant example by the leader of, er, ‘The People’s Party’!
There was only ever one bigot in that conversation yesterday and it wasn’t Mrs. Duffy.
I wondered how the Labour warhorses would deal with this thermonuclear gaffe by Your Man.
This is one of the best.
My Oh My ! With all these people saying they have always voted Labour But…….
I wonder how, with this mass of historical support, how we ever lost an election in the past ????
GW
“She’s just this OLD BIGOTED WOMAN”
What does this say about Gordon’s view of the old and women? Bigoted perhaps?
Presumably it said he was at least 66% right.
The only thing he did wrong was not saying it to her face.
Actually, James he said she’s just this a sort of bigoted woman. All a storm in a teacup. By the way isn’t Duffy an Irish name. Nothing at all wrong with that, we’re all immigrants in the end, but with recent experience of posters saying “no blacks, no irish, no dogs” it’s a bit sad that she now complains about eastern europeans.
Pathetic! She’s a Mrs. so the name is almost certainly her husband’s. Anyway, what’s wrong with “no Irish”, I don’t like ‘em much, either, particularly on a Saturday night!
Actually this does expose something rotten about the ruling clique in the Labour Party, but not what the media and the other parties are claiming it is.
Gillian Duffy’s casually racist opinions are not that uncommon among the British public so on the face of it Gordon Brown’s words are not unreasonable. However her racist opinions are not so different from those expressed by the likes of Margaret Hodge or for that matter Phil Woolas, ex-Borders & Immigration Minister.
So the real scandal here is that Brown et al are too cowardly to stand up and challenge this casual racism in the British public largely because they are running scared of the Daily Wail and the Sun. This is the end result of politics by spin and focus group rather than principle and conviction.
The irony is that, unlike Blair, Brown probably does have some decent principles when it comes to racism and xenophobia and he has come a cropper because he has been too spineless to state these principles publicly and change government policy accordingly since he became Prime Minister.
His only consolation (which is no consolation at all for us, the voting public) is that the Tories are at least as venal in this respect and the Lib Dems hardly any better. Give us some progressive and principled Labour politicians who know what they believe, are not afraid to argue for those beliefs publicly and who have enough faith in ordinary British people like Gillian Duffy that they can see past the casual racism dished up by the right-wing press if they are presented with a coherent alternative.
I understand that immediately after the election there will be a high level meeting at Gillian Duffy House to discuss this issue
John Edwards
All the dinosaurs on here trying desperately to defend Brown with the regrettable deployment of ‘Labour Party Rule 256 – in immigration discussions, immediately imply that anyone with a contrary view is a Nazi.’
It’s little wonder you’re going to get destroyed at this Election.