“All these eastern Europeans that are coming in – where are they flocking from?”
Flock: 1. A group of animals that live, travel, or feed together.
Of course we’re all as smiley and sweet to everybody we meet as we think and refer about them in private, but that ‘flocking’ line could easily be taken as something a bigot would say. She also answered her own question, so she knew the answer – and so back to the ‘flocking’ bit she mentioned. Bigot.
So two people having a ‘private’ conversation in front of dozens of the media’s “finest” missunderstand each other and it’s the front pages of every paper., and I bet Clegg is wondering why this isn’t his fault.
It’s a funny gaff, very unfourtunate and an absolute gift for these rags, but I’m really more concerned with Greece right now rather than some line from The Thick of It. Would have been ace if Brown had just answered, “Eastern Europe” and moved on.
Bad case of foot in mouth by Brown.
However, if politicians censor any debate on immigration, how have Mail & express been allowed to keep bleeting on about it for all these years?
Interesting comparison of the Mail and Express handling of this story: the Express goes all personal and attacks GB, whilst the Mail, which I would have expected to do the same, uses the impersonal phrase “Politicians’ censorship”. PD’s alleged friendship with GB? A desire not to push Labour voters into the arms of that nice tennis playing young man?
No love for GB here, I’ll admit to generally conservative (small ‘c’) politics – but the Mail couldn’t be further from representative of my views in general. Having said all that, Brown went up in my estimation to be honest.
Personally it’s all about the context, and in my opinion it’s quite obvious what she is getting at.
Duffy: “You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying that you’re … but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?”
She is not asking Gordon Brown to clarify exactly what parts of what Country in Eastern Europe do immigrants come from, why would she? That makes no sense at all.
Rather, it is her trying to be ‘PC’ whilst taking issue with the fact that we have immigrants coming to the country and claiming benefits. Accusing them of ‘flocking’ into the country is ridiculous. Asking where are they coming from is a precursor to the statement she would like to make but knows she can’t – her line about…
“…and people who are vulnerable can’t get claim, can’t get it.”
…gives you a clue what she’s driving at. Look at the context of her question and it’s fairly clear that she takes issue with Eastern European immigration, but she gives no reasons why. Perhaps bigotted was the wrong term for GB to use, but the way she put the question makes her seem small minded and ignorant at best.
I wonder if GB misheard here “flocking” as something else that sounds a bit like it?
F*cking bigots.
….and I notice almost all the TV coverage left out what she said for the stuff he said.
They even manage to misquote him.
He said some “sort of a bigot”, which isn’t quite the same thing.
She was being too, what’s all this cr@p about “You can’t say anything about the immigrants….”?
Clearly people do.
The DM & DE rarely shut up about them for 2 issues.
Picture of 66-year old care worker granny looking suitable shocked. I think the BBC also said she was a Labour supporter, but mentioning that here would not doubt undermine the average Mail reader’s enjoyment of their outrage at GB.
You’ve never said something then regretted it Karlo? People expect super human practice from politicians and that’s just nonsense. The man is on a doomed campaign trail and If his blood didn’t occasionally get heated (isn’t he famous for it – and with far worse language) then I’d suspect he was heavily medicated. So, yeah, his opinion at the time was X, later it was Y. Call it a flip-flop if you want, or that he’s really sorry for being found out, but the sweet old lady was clearly asking a question from a position somewhere near bigotville. This episode hasn’t altered my opinion of the man at all, and if it were Cameron I’d probably start to like him, but just not enough to actually like him.
LB: And how can Labour voters be pushed into the arms of a man not running for election? TB is making a lot of money because people want to pay him a lot of money. Ahem, I blame the system.
Yeah, you can’t mention immigration at all. Well, unless you count the almost daily ranting headlines/articles about it in various newspapers. Clearly according to the Mail that doesn’t count.
Oh wow old woman who doesn’t like immigrants gets called bigot, big deal. Am I the only person in this country who doesn’t give a flying fudge about immigration and thinks it’s okay to slag of people I don’t agree with.
@lady burglar: ““that nice tennis playing young man”. Are you referring to Tony Blair and the tennis court at his multi-million pound mansion or someone else?”
No, the one of Nick Clegg and his school friends in tennis gear, which the Mail website insisted on displaying alongside every NC story several days ago just to remind everyone how posh he is. Unlike DC of course.
Yes a Google search on ‘immigration site:dailymail.co.uk’ returns 46,100 hits from here; that’s 46,100 pages containing the word on the Mail site alone
apparently you cant mention immigration
because thats why the Daily Mail, Daily Express, the Sun etc do it on an almost daily basis
a more realistic headline would be that you cant criticise anyone for mentioning immigration or else you are a loony lefty terrorist loving liberal communist
Like a paper like the Daily Mail ever gave a f*ck about the likes of Mrs Duffy, Rochdale or working class people – except if they came in handy to use to bash Labour.
Naturally the only time I ever saw anything from anyone about ‘demonising’ anything or anybody was on the front of the Daily Mail.
‘Newspapers’ pretending everyone is up in arms about something they think everyone should be agitated about.
Just their usual b*llocks.
I wonder how many times Dacre or his minions ever dropped everything to go round and apologise for saying something they shouldn;t have done?
A lifelong Labour supporter, but when the party leader upsets her she sells her story to the Mail on Sunday? Don’t know what they paid her but I believe going rate for such things is thirty pieces of silver!
In fairness to her it’s been reported that she turned down the Sun because she wouldn’t say what they wanted to hear. I suspect that there are millions like her, traditional working class (or working class roots) who feel abandoned by new Labour and don’t feel that any other party has anything to offer – except the BNP in a few cases.
Somehow Mr D’s likely Irish ancestry doesn’t get mentioned – we built our canals railways with the predecessors of today’s Eastern European workers, also if she worked with special needs children for 30 years was she one of the public sector workers on an inflation proofed pension that the Mail hates so much?
‘Naturally the only time I ever saw anything from anyone about ‘demonising’ anything or anybody was on the front of the Daily Mail.’
That’s right Mailman it’s only the Daily Mail that demonises people. Phil’s comment (you know the one about Mrs Duffy being Judas) is perfectly justifed and reasonable and not at all hysterical and daft.
So Phil do you think we should just get rid of this pesky democracy stuff and make it compulsory to vote labour?
I’ve no idea if she got paid for her interview but good luck to her if she did (most people have to sleep with a premiership footballer first). She’s filled enough newspaper pages and airtime to deserve any payment she gets.
How many Daily Mail voters will have been dissuaded from voting labour as a result of the Mrs D debacle? um.. I’m guessing I can count them on the fingers of one hand.
Karlo: Do you have to try really hard to miss the point so spectacularly?
Does Phil above (whose comment was daft, I agree) run a newspaper read by over two million people every day? If not, and he’s just expressing a personal view, then the comparison makes no sense whatsoever.
Do you really think that the reason this issue has become such a long running news story is because of its affect on Daily Mail readers, or is it being presented to floating voters as “Look what a nasty, dislikeable man Gordon Brown is”, with the express intention of removing a part of the potential Labour vote. Do you really not see that?
Incidentally, and as I suspect unlike you, I have met Gordon Brown. He is, in many situations, a difficult man, socially ill at ease and a poor listener, who can present as rude. It does not, however, follow that my personal dislike of him as a person affects my voting intentions.
I don’t know why you are getting so worked up. Obviously, McBroon said something that was very stupid and to make it worse, he said it with a live microphone strapped to his jacket – with a transmitter stuck in his waistband, to boot. What a perfect prat that man is! He deserves to lose his job and I can’t wait to see the BBC cut down to size after the elections. Briliant. Big Brother in 15 different colours (if I can mention the N word here)
um yes.. actually I think the Daily Mail sells around 2.2 million copies which probably gives it a readership of around 5 million (plus its web readership) but lets not quibble about numbers.
er …the Duffy story ran and ran because, for most of us, it was a real hoot to see a senior politician make such a monumental unforced error and it became even funnier by being so spectacularly mishandled by Labour.
There are so many reasons not to vote Labour I’d be amazed if the Duffy story swayed anyone other than Mrs D and her immediate friends and family.
If your voting intentions have not been swayed by your personal opinion of Gordon Brown, why should anyone else’s. Or are you just smarter than the rest of us?
Yes, I also agree. My comment about “thirty pieces of silver” was daft, but then it was meant to be tongue in cheek, which was why I put the ! on the end (perhaps I should have used a smiley) .
I had been struck by the fact that a supposed life-long Labour supporter had apparently given her story to the most notoriously anti-Labour newspaper just because the leader was critical of her. Why? Do people normally support political parties from principal or as a personal favour to leader? The classic case of selling out to the opposition because the leader upset you is of course Judas.
Unfortunately, most of us would probably do the same thing if offered a life-changing sum of money to do so, and of course the Mail et al know this. So perhaps it’s more a criticism of “cheque book journalism” than of any individual.
BTW, it seems it’s true what Nick Davies says in “Flat Earth News”: if you want to get people’s attention, go over the top.
Where do all these eastern Europeans come from?
Erm! How about Eastern Europe Mrs Duffy.
But I think the most hurtful thing about all this is
being compared to a Daily Mail reader.
“All these eastern Europeans that are coming in – where are they flocking from?”
Flock: 1. A group of animals that live, travel, or feed together.
Of course we’re all as smiley and sweet to everybody we meet as we think and refer about them in private, but that ‘flocking’ line could easily be taken as something a bigot would say. She also answered her own question, so she knew the answer – and so back to the ‘flocking’ bit she mentioned. Bigot.
I wonder how this would have been presented if it had been Cameron’s gaff? I suspect it would have been dismissed as a simple misunderstanding.
So two people having a ‘private’ conversation in front of dozens of the media’s “finest” missunderstand each other and it’s the front pages of every paper., and I bet Clegg is wondering why this isn’t his fault.
It’s a funny gaff, very unfourtunate and an absolute gift for these rags, but I’m really more concerned with Greece right now rather than some line from The Thick of It. Would have been ace if Brown had just answered, “Eastern Europe” and moved on.
Bad case of foot in mouth by Brown.
However, if politicians censor any debate on immigration, how have Mail & express been allowed to keep bleeting on about it for all these years?
Interesting comparison of the Mail and Express handling of this story: the Express goes all personal and attacks GB, whilst the Mail, which I would have expected to do the same, uses the impersonal phrase “Politicians’ censorship”. PD’s alleged friendship with GB? A desire not to push Labour voters into the arms of that nice tennis playing young man?
No love for GB here, I’ll admit to generally conservative (small ‘c’) politics – but the Mail couldn’t be further from representative of my views in general. Having said all that, Brown went up in my estimation to be honest.
Personally it’s all about the context, and in my opinion it’s quite obvious what she is getting at.
Duffy: “You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying that you’re … but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?”
She is not asking Gordon Brown to clarify exactly what parts of what Country in Eastern Europe do immigrants come from, why would she? That makes no sense at all.
Rather, it is her trying to be ‘PC’ whilst taking issue with the fact that we have immigrants coming to the country and claiming benefits. Accusing them of ‘flocking’ into the country is ridiculous. Asking where are they coming from is a precursor to the statement she would like to make but knows she can’t – her line about…
“…and people who are vulnerable can’t get claim, can’t get it.”
…gives you a clue what she’s driving at. Look at the context of her question and it’s fairly clear that she takes issue with Eastern European immigration, but she gives no reasons why. Perhaps bigotted was the wrong term for GB to use, but the way she put the question makes her seem small minded and ignorant at best.
She looks like a bigot!
DEMONISED
She was DEMONISED I tell you.
Cos Brown isn’t allowed a personal opinion.
I wonder if GB misheard here “flocking” as something else that sounds a bit like it?
F*cking bigots.
….and I notice almost all the TV coverage left out what she said for the stuff he said.
They even manage to misquote him.
He said some “sort of a bigot”, which isn’t quite the same thing.
She was being too, what’s all this cr@p about “You can’t say anything about the immigrants….”?
Clearly people do.
The DM & DE rarely shut up about them for 2 issues.
Picture of 66-year old care worker granny looking suitable shocked. I think the BBC also said she was a Labour supporter, but mentioning that here would not doubt undermine the average Mail reader’s enjoyment of their outrage at GB.
um..so just what is his personal opinion? First he calls her a bigot then he ‘profoundly regrets’ doing so.
“that nice tennis playing young man”. Are you referring to Tony Blair and the tennis court at his multi-million pound mansion or someone else?
You’ve never said something then regretted it Karlo? People expect super human practice from politicians and that’s just nonsense. The man is on a doomed campaign trail and If his blood didn’t occasionally get heated (isn’t he famous for it – and with far worse language) then I’d suspect he was heavily medicated. So, yeah, his opinion at the time was X, later it was Y. Call it a flip-flop if you want, or that he’s really sorry for being found out, but the sweet old lady was clearly asking a question from a position somewhere near bigotville. This episode hasn’t altered my opinion of the man at all, and if it were Cameron I’d probably start to like him, but just not enough to actually like him.
LB: And how can Labour voters be pushed into the arms of a man not running for election? TB is making a lot of money because people want to pay him a lot of money. Ahem, I blame the system.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mailwatch. mailwatch said: Front Page: Mail: http://bit.ly/cxBoyH #media #dailymail [...]
Yeah, you can’t mention immigration at all. Well, unless you count the almost daily ranting headlines/articles about it in various newspapers. Clearly according to the Mail that doesn’t count.
Well it’s now quite clear we can all mention immigration, and I’m not sure who is vulnerable and can’t get it? Working in a Job Centre as I do.
Oh wow old woman who doesn’t like immigrants gets called bigot, big deal. Am I the only person in this country who doesn’t give a flying fudge about immigration and thinks it’s okay to slag of people I don’t agree with.
@lady burglar: ““that nice tennis playing young man”. Are you referring to Tony Blair and the tennis court at his multi-million pound mansion or someone else?”
No, the one of Nick Clegg and his school friends in tennis gear, which the Mail website insisted on displaying alongside every NC story several days ago just to remind everyone how posh he is. Unlike DC of course.
A name like Duffy means that immigration must have occurred some time in the past. Argh, bigots perhaps should not be allowed to vote.
Alternative view
http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-spoken-issue.html
Yes a Google search on ‘immigration site:dailymail.co.uk’ returns 46,100 hits from here; that’s 46,100 pages containing the word on the Mail site alone
apparently you cant mention immigration
because thats why the Daily Mail, Daily Express, the Sun etc do it on an almost daily basis
a more realistic headline would be that you cant criticise anyone for mentioning immigration or else you are a loony lefty terrorist loving liberal communist
Shock horror! PM has opinion!
The only thing he did wrong was apologise. He should have stuck to his guns.
No doubt, Brown’s blown it..
I wonder if his lost votes will go to Lib, Con, SNP, BNP?
On a lighter note, does anybody else think Mrs Duffy could be Terence and Philip’s mum?
Please god let the tories lose just for the front pages on Friday!
Like a paper like the Daily Mail ever gave a f*ck about the likes of Mrs Duffy, Rochdale or working class people – except if they came in handy to use to bash Labour.
Naturally the only time I ever saw anything from anyone about ‘demonising’ anything or anybody was on the front of the Daily Mail.
‘Newspapers’ pretending everyone is up in arms about something they think everyone should be agitated about.
Just their usual b*llocks.
I wonder how many times Dacre or his minions ever dropped everything to go round and apologise for saying something they shouldn;t have done?
From the website it looks like the MoS has bought up Mrs D.
I think we should be told about all the unemployed Daily Mail readers sponging off the welfare systems in France, Spain, Portugal…..
…and that awful Nick Clegg who once appeared in a school production of Blithe Spirit! Shocking!!!
A lifelong Labour supporter, but when the party leader upsets her she sells her story to the Mail on Sunday? Don’t know what they paid her but I believe going rate for such things is thirty pieces of silver!
In fairness to her it’s been reported that she turned down the Sun because she wouldn’t say what they wanted to hear. I suspect that there are millions like her, traditional working class (or working class roots) who feel abandoned by new Labour and don’t feel that any other party has anything to offer – except the BNP in a few cases.
Somehow Mr D’s likely Irish ancestry doesn’t get mentioned – we built our canals railways with the predecessors of today’s Eastern European workers, also if she worked with special needs children for 30 years was she one of the public sector workers on an inflation proofed pension that the Mail hates so much?
‘Naturally the only time I ever saw anything from anyone about ‘demonising’ anything or anybody was on the front of the Daily Mail.’
That’s right Mailman it’s only the Daily Mail that demonises people. Phil’s comment (you know the one about Mrs Duffy being Judas) is perfectly justifed and reasonable and not at all hysterical and daft.
So Phil do you think we should just get rid of this pesky democracy stuff and make it compulsory to vote labour?
I’ve no idea if she got paid for her interview but good luck to her if she did (most people have to sleep with a premiership footballer first). She’s filled enough newspaper pages and airtime to deserve any payment she gets.
How many Daily Mail voters will have been dissuaded from voting labour as a result of the Mrs D debacle? um.. I’m guessing I can count them on the fingers of one hand.
Karlo: Do you have to try really hard to miss the point so spectacularly?
Does Phil above (whose comment was daft, I agree) run a newspaper read by over two million people every day? If not, and he’s just expressing a personal view, then the comparison makes no sense whatsoever.
Do you really think that the reason this issue has become such a long running news story is because of its affect on Daily Mail readers, or is it being presented to floating voters as “Look what a nasty, dislikeable man Gordon Brown is”, with the express intention of removing a part of the potential Labour vote. Do you really not see that?
Incidentally, and as I suspect unlike you, I have met Gordon Brown. He is, in many situations, a difficult man, socially ill at ease and a poor listener, who can present as rude. It does not, however, follow that my personal dislike of him as a person affects my voting intentions.
I don’t know why you are getting so worked up. Obviously, McBroon said something that was very stupid and to make it worse, he said it with a live microphone strapped to his jacket – with a transmitter stuck in his waistband, to boot. What a perfect prat that man is! He deserves to lose his job and I can’t wait to see the BBC cut down to size after the elections. Briliant. Big Brother in 15 different colours (if I can mention the N word here)
^
What he said.
um yes.. actually I think the Daily Mail sells around 2.2 million copies which probably gives it a readership of around 5 million (plus its web readership) but lets not quibble about numbers.
er …the Duffy story ran and ran because, for most of us, it was a real hoot to see a senior politician make such a monumental unforced error and it became even funnier by being so spectacularly mishandled by Labour.
There are so many reasons not to vote Labour I’d be amazed if the Duffy story swayed anyone other than Mrs D and her immediate friends and family.
If your voting intentions have not been swayed by your personal opinion of Gordon Brown, why should anyone else’s. Or are you just smarter than the rest of us?
Yes, I also agree. My comment about “thirty pieces of silver” was daft, but then it was meant to be tongue in cheek, which was why I put the ! on the end (perhaps I should have used a smiley) .
I had been struck by the fact that a supposed life-long Labour supporter had apparently given her story to the most notoriously anti-Labour newspaper just because the leader was critical of her. Why? Do people normally support political parties from principal or as a personal favour to leader? The classic case of selling out to the opposition because the leader upset you is of course Judas.
Unfortunately, most of us would probably do the same thing if offered a life-changing sum of money to do so, and of course the Mail et al know this. So perhaps it’s more a criticism of “cheque book journalism” than of any individual.
BTW, it seems it’s true what Nick Davies says in “Flat Earth News”: if you want to get people’s attention, go over the top.
DEMONISED: THE PM WHO DARED TO UTTER THE B-WORD.
You can’t call anyone a bigot these days, it’s all political correctness censorship gone mad if you ask me.