Another Labour Fuck-up: You really want the Incompetants to Stay in Government?

It seems Gordon's press opportunity accompanied by the Elvis impersonator was actually illegal because no live music licence was obtained for the event.

Nice that Labour get caught out yet again by the self same petty laws that they brought into the world.

Except its not them that will get stung: despite them not adhering to the law, its someone else who take the rap: Tom Waterworth, the head teacher of  Lodge Park Technology College where the event was held will actually be liable for any breach of the law.

Is it Bigotry?

A bigot is someone who refuses to accept the ideas of others (either religious, race or politics).

So, Gordon Brown was technically right (if quite harsh) to call her such, in as much as she didn't agree with his viewpoint, despite being a core Labour supporter. More accurately if (as he suggested) he misheard Mrs Duffy when she commented on East European immigrants, he should have called her a xenophobe (one who is fearful of someone or something of a foreign nature). Sorry to be so pedantic, but these days Labour are so accurate with their use of words that it should be second nature to Gordon Brown. In fact I believe he knew exactly what the word meant when he used it in that context and he meant to use it, he was calling her a bigot not about her quotes about immigration, but because she refused to agree with Gordon, refused to cow-tow to him and accept his policies were perfect, like the obediant Labour supporter she should be, or (up until today) the obedient Labour supporter that had been shoved in front of Gordon whenever the cameras were around.

But as I said earlier, this gets to the heart of what is fundamentally wrong with our system of politics today. A woman, a voter must be able to express and opinion, enter into a debate with a politician and be allowed to takle them on policies on which they disagree. This is debate, its the cornerstone of our democracy.

What Gordon Brown showed was his vision of our political system: the system where we glibly vote Labour in and accept whatever crumbs they throw us, the Soviet style of politics where the politburo dictates to the population with no debate, no democracy.

How dare this woman, this "nekulturny", this commoner, take the great leader to task over his actions. Has he not saved the country from the brink of financial ruin? Has he not borrowed vast sums of money to keep our welfare state and therfore our economy afloat? Has he not been recognised around the world as its saviour?
HOW DARE SHE!

And that, dear reader, is what Gordon Brown must think every day, what his cabinet must bear in mind every day, what his staff must bear in mind every day, what they must strive to insulate him from in case Nokias start to fly. Gordon Brown must loathe criticism, must loathe anyone with a different viewpoint, must loathe Mrs Duffy (despite apologising) and by extension, must loathe each and every one of us out in the world with an opposing view.

Tonight Gordon Brown appears to me to be a very deluded, very insecure, very disturbed man.

A Bigotted Woman?? I think not Gordon.

What a day for Gordon. This exchange of views:



Which you'd think a fair and frank exchange about things that are of concern to a lot of people, ends up with Gordon Brown Expressing this view:



So a concerned pensioner, who (I think quite rightly) asks why she should be paying tax on a pension, who (when Gordon Brown tries to rebutt by mentioning pension credits) quite rightly cuts him off because she isn't eligible to receive them, then asks him directly how he's going to reduce the deficit and takes him to task about education and immigration is labelled by Gordon Brown a bigot.

Well, I must be a bigot too, because I have the same questions for Gordon Brown and a whole load more.

Quite rightly Mrs Duffy is dissapointed. She's quite level-headed and you really need to hear what she says.



Now this goes to the root, the nub of what is wrong in politics today and especially to Gordon Brown's psyche. Happy to tell us what we should and shouldn't be doing, happy to tell smokers to stand out in the rain, happy to tell us we don't deserve a referendum on the EU.

But very unhappy to receive criticism of any kind.

I originally come from near Rochdale. I used to know women like Mrs Duffy: they take no nonsense and no prisoners. They are very sharp when it comes to politics as well.

I know one especially well: my mother. Who asks exactly the same questions as Mrs Duffy. A pensioner who sees the idiocy of paying tax on a pension, who wonders for her grandchildren's future thanks to the national debt.

UPDATE:

Gordon Brown has met and apologised to Mrs Duffy. Its unclear whether his apology is accepted. If it was me I wouldn't accept any apology. After all, Gordon Brown wouldn't have said it if he didn't mean it, he wouldn't have apologised if he hadn't been overheard and he absolutely won't change the contempt he has for even core Labour supporters.

Its obvious in his eyes we are sheep to be herded to the polls and massaged and cajolled to vote for him. To be discarded just as soon as those votes are cast.

In essence, Gordon Brown is untrustworthy.

UPDATE2:

STill no confirmation by Labour staffers as to whether Mrs Duffy has accepted his apology. That'll be a big fat NO then,

Hung Parliament: a Turning Point for UK Politics?

I really hope we get a hung Parliament this year, for a number of reasons.

First, it will show to the politicians that all of them sharing the populist centre-ground is bad. After all, what choice (And by that I mean real choice) do we the electorate have if all the main parties cram themselves into a narrow niche of the political spectrum?
Most politicians are spouting on at the moment that a hung Parliament will be bad mainly because it means they won't be able to call the shots. In reality they're saying its bad for them.

What it isn't, is bad for democracy, because after this hung parliament, after the fighting, bickering wheeling and dealing has been done, the major parties might just figure out that chasing populist policies isn't the way to run a country and might for once, start distancing themselves from each other and give us a proper range of choices once more.

Well, I can only hope.

It might also signal to the population at large that there isn't really anything seperating the main parties and they might, for once, start looking at independant candidates.

I can only hope about that as well.

Because as I've said for a number of years now, this year and this election is a crucial one in the history of this country. You may not think it, but this is a pivotal point: our country can rise in light, or fall into darkness.
Right now, we seem destined for darkness.