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I agree up to a point. It should be primarily policies that matter, but the personality of the guy in charge also has to be a factor.Originally Posted by TheAnimus
What this incident does is show the mask slipping.
For ages, there have been stories about what Brown is like behind the scenes. All the stuff about abusing staff, the "hatchet" men indulging in political smears which he then denied knowing anything about, the "bullying" allegations., and so on. And it's not just political opponents saying it. I can't remember how many of his erstwhile colleagues have made remarks about him being a "control freak", and so forth, but there have been several that were cabinet colleagues.
So it begs the question, if this incident should have some protection because it's a "private" conversation, then what else is he saying in private that he won't say in public?
I listened to what Gillian Duffy said, and I listened to how Brown characterised it, and I can't for the life of me see where he got "bigoted" from. All she did was mention the extent of immigration from Eastern Europe, and that is a perfectly valid political point ... had Brown and Blair implemented the transitional controls on accession countries that just about every other member state did, we would not have had the level of incomers from eastern Europe that we did, and that was vastly more than Labour told us would result. I don't remember the exact figures, but from memory they predicted something or the order of 50,000 and we ended up with more like 750,000. Moreover, some areas had a way higher than average burden to bear because that levels was not spread evenly across the UK. So, for a local authority with a heavy level of immigration, it does affect provision of local services merely by increasing demand. You can't suddenly magic up extra housing, doctors and hospital facilities, school places and so forth overnight, even if funding was provided to match, which it wasn't.
Being concerned and/or upset about badly misjudged government policy and badly handled results is not bigotry.
And for a PM to show that level of contempt and disdain for not only a voter, but one of his own supporters, in private, whilst having moments before finished saying to her face how nice it was to meet her shows the level of rank hypocrisy and arrogance the man is capable of.
If he is all smiles and pleasantry to her in public, while being that obnoxious in private and bitching about who put him with "that woman", a woman who I stress is a voter, when in private, then it merely says to me that we can't take a single word he says at face value. What else is he saying that he doesn't want us to know about?
When Brown took over as PM, he promised us all that he'd "listen". He's not listening, and personally, I doubt he ever has. He simply didn't want to hear what she was saying. And that is his problem. All he wanted was a sound bite. And now we know why he has been avoiding meeting real voters, and sticking to carefully stage-managed appearances in front of carefully vetted Labour faithful.
It just says to me that his party colleagues that accused him of being a control freak knew what they were talking about. And this is the man that wants us to put him back in power? when he treats his own supporters with such disdain?
Policy is important. Critically important. But character is not entirely unimportant either. And that was a fail, Mr Brown. A major fail.
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