Right outrage for the wrong reason. Browns' on-microphone / off-camera bad-tempered description of a Rochdale pensioner as a bigot doesn't actually disturb me as much as the previous footage of him speaking to her on his walk-about. The footage is a revealing glimpse of the patronising bollocks we have to endure in this age of spin politics.
Brown thought he was being presented with a pre-arranged and stage-manged PR opportunity to show him speaking to a long-standing Labour supporter - no doubt an experience that could serve as the basis of a 'I was speaking to a woman from Rochdale' anecdotes. Instead he was assailed from the position of traditional Labour values of care for the vulnerable - education, the health service and pensions. Until the all too-easy to ridicule 'where are all these Eastern Europeans coming from?' - Mrs Duffy had actually put a pretty well argued case to the PM.
Was she a bigot ? Well yes - a bit and I don't blame him for saying it how it is. But if you're out there campaigning you are going to come across these attitudes and you aren't going to change them with condescending liberal disdain.
And don't be surprised if the best-laid plans of spin doctors leave you with egg on your face. Trying to build populist support is no substitute for policies that actually engage with the issues of ordinary people.
And don't be surprised when the Murdoch press sets you up and bites you in the arse.
And don't be surprised when the Murdoch press sets you up and bites you in the arse.
1 comment:
'was she a bigot'? Well no I think not. She was confused by all the bigotted hypocritical shit that Brown, Clegg, Cameron and big business politicians churn out day in day out. She was wrong to blame east european immmigration for the problems facing working class communities but I've no doubt that had you or I met her on the street of doorstep and we would have had no difficulty convincing her that the answer was to demand more resoures for people in those communities.
I detected no trace of irrational prejudice towards east european workers in her words just a realistic feeling that WHERE the ruling class are derpving working class communities of much needed resources the arrival of 1,000s more people struggling to live on poverty wages was unsustainable.
The answer of course is to fight to defend services, but that is 'off limits' in the the world inhabited by Brown AND Sky News, so she must be branded as a bigot.
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