A campaign trail blunder by the incumbent Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown has people in an uproar. Unbeknownst to the Prime Minister, his microphone was still on when he referred to Gillian Duffy as a bigoted woman. The fallout regarding the Gordon Brown bigoted remarks has not been positive. Presently, a hung parliament is a real concern. That takes a lot more than a cash advance or two of campaign funds to sort out, if it occurs.
Where the Gordon Brown bigoted scandal started
While on the campaign trail in Rochdale, a borough of Manchester (evidently there’s a city to go with the football team), Brown had a brief exchange with city resident Gillian Duffy, a retired 65-year-old former council worker. After speaking with her, he went back to his automobile. As outlined by The Guardian, he started criticizing his aides for putting him in that position, and referred to her as a “sort of bigoted woman”. He practically gave opposing candidates a quick payday.
It gets better
First in his concerns, when chewing out his staff, was that television would broadcast the exchange. The grand comedy is that he forgot his lapel mic was still on when he said it. Gillian Duffy had previously always voted for Labor, including for Brown. She won’t be any more.
He tries to make nice
According to The Telegraph, the Prime Minister called Mrs. Duffy to personally apologize. His remarks reportedly made her hopping mad. He tried to clarify by saying she had made remarks that too numerous Eastern Europeans were moving into Good Britain in an interview with BBC 2.
Backfires into the hands of the opposition
This is entirely a bad time for Brown. Currently, the Labor (Brown’s party) and Conservative parties are battling to establish a majority, and the emerging popularity of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats might make establishing a parliamentary majority difficult. A hung parliament last occurred in 1974, lasting for 8 months.
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/28/gordon-brown-bigoted-woman
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7645072/Gordon-Brown-calls-campaigner-bigoted-woman.html
