In thinking the woman Gordon Brown called a bigot deserved it ?

[SwissCheeseIsHolyCheesus]

Because she was in fact a bigoted, bigotty pants .

why ?

Looking forward to lurking on this one.

I'm not very up on all the ins and outs of the incident but if I've understood what she said correctly then I'm with you Swiss Cheese.

It's no excuse for GB to be two-faced though - if that's what he thought, he should have said it to her face (nicely), rather than smiling inanely and mouthing off afterwards.

Why! just because she asked a reasonable question about immigration, is this a troll me thinks. GB is the PM one should be able to aske questions about this nothing wrong with it at all. Just a totall hypocrite, he only apologised to her as he had to do some sort of damage limitation and he is up for the chop.

Spot on. Imagine if Nick Griffin had said exactly what this woman had said - there would justifiably have been complete outraged uproar

I read the transcript in The Guardian and couldn't make head nor tail of it. What was she actually saying?

Chiccadee, in what world would GB ever have been able to have 'said it to her face' (nicely or otherwise)? There's just no way he could ever do that without exactly the same media over-reaction

So people are not allowed to have their own opinions then! There was nothing racist or bigoted about it, just a genuine question mygoodness. My mum is originally from cyprus and we are of Armenian decsent. There should be some sort of limits, cant have every man and his dog here its only a small Island after all not the USA

The language she used did sound bigoted; I don't see how anyone can deny that tbh.

"what are you going to do about the immigrants ... Eastern Europeans flocking" etc etc

(not a direct quote btw, but that was the gist wasn't it)

Well thats what a lot of people talk like, just because she does not speak in clipped home counties tones.

Unthinking bigotry then. I don't suppose she actually is a bigot, but the language she used made her sound it.

sounds pretty bigoted to me. Nowt to do with clipped HC tones, either

The one in my head, I think, peasontoast, where we have responsible reporting. Would be nice though, wouldn't it?

YABU. It was a very sensible question unless you want the UK to move elsewhere.

I am probably going to be flamed but that woman is older, set in her ways and quite a tough northerner its a cultural thing innit, it might be how a lot of old northerners speak and i know a few myself.

No one in a position of authority could have used the language she did and got away with it and yet people are falling over themselves to excuse her.

they say it how it is, cant teach an old dog new tricks

She isn't in a position of authority.

Well she is not in authority and she said nothing overtly racist just her genuine opinion did not know the thought police were out tonight.

She was ranting and raving about 'immigrants' and making no sense whatsoever, immigrants in this country are treated like rubbish and exloited by employers with little or no job security.

It also cracks me up that English people who emmigrate ( andthere are many) call themselves 'expats'.

Yes Chiccadee, that would be a wonderful thing that can never exist. I expect there's a name for that..

Well let the old dear rant so what! She is not exactly Abu Hamza or indeed Nick Griffin.

Seriously though, what kind of a world is it where the PM has to smile inanely while some bigoted bat woman mouths off, instead of being able to stand his ground and explain why this country needs its immigrants etc - all for fear of being flamed in the press. I thought leadership was sometimes about taking unpopular decisions?

[goes off to huff and puff about the good ole days]

So bigotry is excused if someone isn't in authority. That's alright then. I was always taught to challenge bigotry and racism by my jewish grandparents and yet now GB is roasted for daring to even mutter it under his breath.

Well, GB did try to reason with her but she wasn't listening and kept talking over him. No wonder he was pissed off.

What ever happened to democracy, me thinks she might deflect to the BNP