Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister caused an uproar recently after a campaign trail blunder. After a short impromptu debate with a constituent, one Gillian Duffy, he called her a bigoted woman once he got back in his car — with the microphone nevertheless on. The resulting fallout of the Gordon Brown “bigoted” remarks has cast a bit of a shadow on the Prime Minister. There is a growing concern that a hung parliament might happen. That takes more than a money advance or two to fix.
Where the Gordon Brown bigoted scandal began
While on the campaign trail in Rochdale, a borough of Manchester (apparently there’s a city to go with the football team), Brown had a brief exchange with city resident Gillian Duffy, a retired 65-year-old former council worker. After speaking with her, he went back to his vehicle. According to The Guardian, he began criticizing his aides for putting him in that position, and referred to her as a “sort of bigoted woman”. That is tantamount to giving quick payday to the opposition.
It gets better
First in his concerns, when chewing out his staff, was that television would broadcast the exchange. The really funny part is that he said all this forgetting his lapel mic was nevertheless on. Gillian Duffy had previously always voted for Labor, including for Brown. According to the very same Guardian article, now she has no intention of doing so again.
He tries to make nice
According to The Telegraph, the Prime Minister called Mrs. Duffy to personally apologize. Reportedly, she was fuming over the remarks. Prime Minister Brown offered the explanation on a BBC 2 radio interview that she had raised the issue of immigration of Eastern Europeans into Excellent Britain, and he evidently was quite sensitive to her remarks, believing she had said too many of them had entered the country.
Backfires to the hands of the opposition
A PR nightmare of this sort certainly comes at a most inopportune time. Right now, the election race between Labor and Conservative parties is to set up a majority in parliament, made worse by the emergence of Nick Clegg and also the Liberal Democrats. A hung parliament last occurred in 1974, lasting for 8 months.
Resources
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/28/gordon-brown-bigoted-woman
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7645072/Gordon-Brown-calls-campaigner-bigoted-woman.html
