Bigotgate again, I’m afraid. Today’s Daily Mail carries a story in which it is claimed that the Prime Mentalist called Mrs. Duffy a bigot because he misheard her. This has shades of Mandleson’s “chumps” claim.
For those of you who don’t remember, back in September last year, during the Labour Party Conference, the Sun announced its defection to the Tories just hours after the Prime Mentalist’s speech. Apparently, Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief and former Sun editor rang Mandleson because she couldn’t get hold of Gordon Brown and was worried that she hadn’t told him personally about the Sun’s switch before it appeared on the BBC at 10 o’clock. A matter of courtesy, then.
It appears that an enraged Mandleson launched into a tirade of abuse, which included him using, allegedly, the ‘C’-word. Apparently, he said: “I think you will resemble a bunch of c****. but that’s your business”.
When the story broke later, Channel 4 News’ Cathy Newman confronted him about “c*ntgate”; his treatment of her was disgraceful…
The exchange:
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“Did you use a four-letter word in conversation with Rebekah Wade last night?”
“What was the four-letter word?” he replied.
“Well, I can’t say it on television – but you said it in a phone call.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you mean. What was the word?”
Trying to get a female reporter to use the c-word is disgraceful, even by Mandelson’s standards
C4 news’ report of the episode can be found on their website; watch the video and judge for yourself… Whatever, Mandleson’s ingenuity is admirable.
I’m reminded of Ed Balls and his utterly disgraceful “So what!” outburst in Parliament in response to David Cameron during his Budget Reply in March 2008:
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DC: “Under Labour, Britain is more taxed than at any point in its history”.
On the front bench, the loathsome Ed Balls heckled:
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EB: “So what?’
This astounding statement was met with hoots and jeers from the Tory benches but Cameron came back:
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DC: “So what, says the minister for children. I know he wants to be Chancellor so badly it hurts. I have to tell him another Budget like the one we have just heard and he won’t have to wait very long.”
Ed Balls later claimed that he’d said : “So weak!”, which, frankly, stretched the imagination somewhat. Worse, he is alleged to have managed to convince Hansard that he said “So weak!”, and that’s now the official record.
The Mail reported it as “So what!”:
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Tory MP Andrew Robathan raised a point of order in the Commons, claiming people sitting on his party’s benches and in the gallery above the chamber had heard the Children’s Secretary’s apparent jibe.
He even suggested that Mr Balls, who is Gordon Brown’s closest Cabinet ally, could have asked for the official record of the House to be doctored to erase the comment.
The MP said: “In column 299 of yesterday’s Hansard, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families made a sedentary intervention allegedly saying ‘So weak’.
“A large number of people on this side, in the Gallery, journalists, heard him say ‘So what?’
“There is a site called YouTube on the net and you can listen to the video. “I reckon I can hear ‘what’ being said.”
It can’t be heard clearly on this rather poor quality youtube clip, but Cameron’s put down is class:
Which brings us back to Gordon Brown and “Bigotgate”… From the Mail article:
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The grandmother from Rochdale had quizzed the Prime Minister about the about where all the Eastern European immigrants were ‘flocking’ from.
But today, in an attempt to justify Mr Brown appalling gaffe, it was claimed that Mr Brown had misheard the 66-year-old and had thought she had asked ‘where are they f***ing from?’
A senior Labour source told the sympathetic left-wing Daily Mirror newspaper that it was this misunderstanding which had made him react so badly in the car afterwards.
The Downing Street source told the paper: ‘It was that which sent him into a bad mood and made him call her a bigot.
‘He thought it was a disaster because he thought she was some BNP type swearing about immigrants on TV.’
Unbelievably, the Daily Mail charitably says:
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While the excuse might seem implausible, it would perhaps explain Mr Brown’s odd claim after his apology to Mrs Duffy that he had ’simply misunderstood some of the words that she used.’
Watch the following video and make your own mind up. I have and frankly, the claim is utterly preposterous. From the outset, once Mrs. Duffy has paused for breath, Brown launches into reciting some tractor production statistics for her, and during the rest of the conversation continues in the same vein, mostly interrupting the poor woman. To her credit, she gives as good as she gets… Towards the end, as she is leaving, he actually pursues her, firing trivialities and banalities at her.
At the point where she says: “where are they flocking from?” (2:44) watch his face and lack of reaction. He definitely doesn’t hear anything other than “flocking”. Further, it is clear that she doesn’t actually say anything other than “flocking”. Another insult to our intelligence from the most incompetent, nasty, mendacious government in our history.
Oh, and what does BIGOT stand for? Brown Is Gone On Thursday. Nice.
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4 Comments
I haven’t read The Mirror in years. Bless ‘em. You’re quite right to point out Labours record on spin but the shocking thing is how lazy the journalists have been in readily accepting these lines over the years. Will the Fourth Estate try to report what they actually see, rather than what a spindoctor* tells them they’ve seen?
And when are the media going to start reporting all the lies they are told day-in day-out?
Another element of this apology for a media is their collective amnesia.
For example. Harman’s being telling the electorate that public sector jobs are safe with Labour. Only 2 and a half years ago Brown was bragging about making 100,000 civil servants redundant. Remember that? Not a single journalist remembered.
Now obviously one could say that it is a journalists job to report the facts, not opinion, and I would tend to agree with that. However in an age when the journalists pass on so few facts unfettered by spin or lack of critical eye and pass off their own opinion as news (and how bored are we with journalists interviewing journalists or reporting on the ’spin-room’) why are they so unscathing of these volte-faces from politicians? The closer we look at the metropolita media/political world the more I think we find they’re playing the same game. After all it seems to me our hacks express their own opinions most of the time or spin what they’ve seen even if a politician hasn’t already done it for them. And of course when you’re bored listening to them they go and interview their colleagues about what they think live on TV!!
Rant over. For now.
* Remember ’spin doctors’? Almost quaint isn’t it? Andrew Cann(Quote)
Well said, Andrew.
And you know what? I think it’s because of that that the blogosphere is so important.
Given time, it will become even more important… lsb(Quote)
Andrew, the trouble is you are just as guilty of spinning as the next politician, although you do take it in better heart when (on the rare occasion) you are called out for it.
By the way, Alistair Campbell rants all the way through “The Blair Years” about the media interviewing themselves.
Part of the problem is that politicians (and organisations) who have no idea of deadlines fail to give the media any notice then expect them to drop everything and turn up on the click of a mouse. Ipswich Spy(Quote)
Ipswich Spy
Spinning or putting the best gloss on something I plead guilty.
Lying? I plead innocent. Andrew Cann(Quote)
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