to think that Gordon Brown was writing with good intentions to the mother of the dead soldier.......does handwriting really matter??

[SquirrelTrap]

I think it is all rather unfair.

I would prefer a scrawled personally written letter than a spell-checked standard Word document letter? I think it is all rather nasty.

Looking at the picture though i'm not entirely sure he did spell her name wrong.
If you look at the other words in the letter with n in them they all have a slight m like look to them I think it is the way he forms the letters rather than a spelling error actually. The letter is full of n's that look exactly like the alleged m in her name.

LOL at MP

I think he did spell her name wrong, probably after mishearing it. I don't doubt his good intentions or think that the mistake was made because he didn't care. I'm surprised that someone doesn't check the letters that he writes in these circumstances for this very reason.

The rest of the letter looks messy because of his handwriting and visual impairment, I suspect it's a real effort for him to handwrite like this and it's done because it's felt to be more personal than a typed one.

I've no doubt that Mrs Janes is being manipulated in her grief.

Good lord. I hadn't seen this until I noticed this thread and I can't believe all the fuss tbh. He has failing eyesight and has taken the time to handwrite a letter, instead of getting a minion to do it or sending off a standard typed letter and he's been slated for it. The Sun clearly have a far bigger agenda than a single mother's grief and have milked this for all it's worth. I think that stinks to be honest - how dare The Sun express moral outrage about anything at all?

lol mp.

interesting that we have learned nothing from biscuitgate about how the press operates. the poor bastard can't even go out running without taking a pasting for the trousers he was wearing. it's bullying, imo, and it's something that we should be mortified by.

but then i speak as someone who is NOT from a military family, my lot just get massacred when they bring in conscription. i do find a lot of this military stuff a bit puzzling, i mean no-one wants to lose a loved one, obviously, but the chances of that happening increase exponentially when they've taken the king's shilling, surely that's something that you just have to get your head round in return for all the pay and benefits when there's not a war on?

Feel a bit sorry for GB. Thankfully it's not my child who's been killed, but if it had been I really doubt my big thing would be getting the papers involved to moan about spelling, but if it gives her some comfort ( doubtful as to how it could) then all well and good.

"all the pay and benefits"????

There is a difference between accepting the risks your loved one is taking, and accepting the Prime Minister of the country (and his staff) being incapable of getting your dead son's name correct.

i didn't say riches. i said pay and benefits, and you didn't answer my question.

Can some of you try to put yourselves in this womans shoes please.

She lost a child. She is clearly upset. If that letter was meant to be a mark of respect GB could have taken the time to check what his name actually was.

The attitude here seems to be she should just be happy she got a letter at all.

Have to agree that it just looks like bad handwriting to me, the mark of a man in a hurry, but who wanted to send a personal message. (OK so he has to)

And I am a journalist (not on a national level before I get linched, just a small rural publication!)

Yeah, that would be lynched actually....

Tsk tsk....these people & their spelling errors

YANBU

Aitch's point is interesting - I would love to know what the expectations are. I personally would be totally devastated if my DSs got to 18 and said they wanted to sign up.

Every single army person I have ever met was excited to be going to Iraq / Afghanistan.................like, genuinely wanted to go and fight.

But the whole point is that the spelling is pretty small beer compared to the loss of a child. Or have I missed the point?

(i think the point is that murdoch wants the tories in, isn't it?)

the letter looks perfectly ok to me, when i heard on the news i thought someone shoudl be in trouble for not correcting the mispelling of the name, however the handwriting looks perfectly legible to me.
it is nitpicking by the Sun particularly the so called spelling mistakes circled in red by the Sun. I think it is his style of handwriting.

right, herbie, so why do it then? because while what you describe is what many of us contend with, for me the dealbreaker is getting your head blown off. don't wander off muttering, engage and explain because i'm genuinely curious.

for example, there is a mother who pops up on tv often up here so enormously angry because her son died, but he joined up before he could consent, so she signed the forms for him. i don't get why she's not angry at herself. that's the deal they struck, isn't it?

so why isn't he an aircraft engineer for united airlines? what's the attraction of being in the vicinity of someone who wants to blow your head off? and if there is an attraction, then isn't them the breaks when it comes to pass?

But he could be an aircraft engineer for Thomas Cook? There must be something that attracts him to the military? I too, genuinely would like to understand.

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