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

[SwissCheeseIsHolyCheesus]

Because she was in fact a bigoted, bigotty pants .

I don't think she's necessarily a bigot. I think the government has done a poor job of defending its immigration policy and explaining the positives of immigration. Does anyone know if immigration makes a net contribution to the economy? Probably, but it is not widely understood. So of course people speak of "flocking" when they are somewhat ignorant of the facts.

She's ignorant and an old bat.

People like this just peeve me to no end and I'd have been far less patient than GB, which is why I'm not in a position of public authority .

wish he could've just replied 'er from eastern europe. Like you just said, you thick twat' and been done with it. And none of this exposed bitching and grovelling malarky

woooah am synchronised with you oopsnotagain

I think what got to Brown particularly was the fact that she was singling out 'eastern europeans' and the point has been made ad nauseum, and was made again by Brown, that they have a right under EU law to be here so it's not the same issue as immigration.

So instead of Gordon standing up for what he believes in he gave her what she wanted to hear? He is so desperate for power that he will readily piss all over his own values?

Who knows what he believes in, though, TheCrack?

Ditto the others, too, although it doesn't take a genius to guess what DC believes in.

True Crackfox, he should have stood by what he said, people would have respected that more imo.

is the monster, raving, loony party still going ???!!!

Cupcakesandbunting; Yes the lady was bigoted, but bigots exsist all over the country dear not just oop north and they belong to all age groups (maybe excepting pre-school).

Eh? I'm not a labour supporter, but how did he not stand by his beliefs? He didn't say 'Oooh I know, vote for us and we won't let them nasty eastern europeans in anymore' he simply went over the tired old policies and tried to reason with her. When he got in the car he expressed his dislike for her? He's allowed to do that isn't he?

Wiggles toes...I still don't think it's possible for someone who's being subjected to a media barrage like that to stand up at all, never mind for their opinions. If he had refused to apologise the furore would have been just as intense

Serin, I know that bigots exist in all areas but even my mate said when she saw this story run on the news that she thinks that there's a lot more bigotry in some northern areas. I'm not being condescending, or trying to be, I was just wondering if the Duffy woman was so shocked at GBs response because she might think that we all think the same way as she and her peers?

Sorry, didn't mean to piss any northern MNers off I love northerners. My husband is a Lancastrian. But they DO seem to love the BNP!

The thing with bigots like Miss Rochdale is that they are the good upstanding people who will stand by and let evil happen. They are sure that their views are normal and perfectly sane. Now they have the endorsement of the possible future prime minister and he newspapers.

A British friend of mine was sitting having his lunch on a building site with the other good upstanding British men. Someone made a somewhat bigoted remark about black people. And someone added in another and then another and each time feeling reassured taht they were in 'like' company. He let it go on for 5 minutes then calmly said, 'My wife is black.'

strange that.

DH, white British says that the only difference he sees between what the Nazis did and what the British would have done is down to who was running the country. I think he has a point.

It's a cultural thing, we are bombarded with anti-eastern europian messages and we are all trying hard to integrate. My (southern) hairdressers has Polish road workers outside and they've been there for months. ALL the young girls working there are scared of them, they heckle and whistle and constantly ask them out. It's cultural, not uncommon in Poland to call out to the pretty girls although we have reined in the builders here now! I have to say, the hatred that the girls spout about them is a lot worse than the whistling but a completly accepted form of bigotry because people believe they are 'taking our jobs' ... now where have I heard that before...?

eh??

Gordon shud not be callin anyone BIG anything... ppl in glass houses n all that lmfao

foxytocin - can you explain what your DH meant?

Have mentioned this on another thread about this, but someone whose surname is Duffy should not be throwing stones.

I think he grovelled too much afterwards. But at least he seems to have to make a real effort to be smarmy.

Can anyone explain what foxytocin DH remark meant??

People need to be very very careful what comparisons they make with the Nazis

a part of it is that there is a lot of latent hostility, tribal aggressionn, and racism in the British mindset.with the right catalyst, it would be easy to manipulate the mindset. Especially at that time.

Keyboard dodgy tonight and had a drink. It is also his ideas which I haven't explored in much detail. Suffice to say that he is a military history boffin and is very proud of his British heritage but can also admit to the downsides of the national character as he sees them.

He is quite aware at the time that there was a lot of pro-Nazism in all sectors of British society and the press in that era. It was more a political strategy and gamble to pledge the defence of Poland, not a sense of moral duty that eventually led to war. Once they were the enemy of course they had to be demonised then. So 'we' became to good, etc.

I think Mr Foxytocin meant that the ordinary German people were no different from the ordinary people anywhere else i.e. they may not have been evil people, but not enough of them stopped evil from being done (or something along those lines)

x posted, sorry foxy!