by VorJack
Sometime last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown forgot his microphone was still on and called one woman a “bigot.”
I know this because I heard it on the news. That’s the local news. That’s the local news in Albany, NY.
… the hell? We’ve got our own political mess to deal with. Look, I know the city was renamed after the James II, the Duke of Albany, in a desperate suck-up bid after the British takeover. But that was 300 years ago! We’ve moved on.
Alright, my fine British readers, what exactly did Brown do to piss off journalists on this side of the pond? Did he maybe offend some reporters, causing them, as a class, to vow revenge?
And while we’re on the subject, what’s with those “American style” debates anyway? We’ve been complaining for decades about how vapid and substance-free they are. Why copy that, for FSM’s sake?
I think Rupert Murdoch is favouring Cameron, so if your local news is affiliated with NewsCorp you might be experiencing some bizarre trickle down; but that’s pretty odd.
I think Brown has the problem of having succeeded Tony Blair at around the time Obama succeeded Bush – the cosy relationship Blair had with Bush has not been repeated with the change of regime in America; which is a pity since they should be more natural allies. (It’s always surprised me how our supposedly left-leaning PM cosied up to the right wingers all over the world – one of his foremost supporters in Europe was Silvio Berlusconi, the notoriously right-wing Italian premiere). I don’t know if his frosty reception in Washington has had any effect on his media reception in the US, but it’s not impossible.
Vapidity and lack of substance in political campaigning is nothing new in the UK, but this years elections are a bit weird since the blossoming of microblogging and interactive media. I think there’s a real hunger over hear to see something approaching an accessible debate from the party leaders. That and with the rise of celebrity culture and reality TV, it’s kind of a natural move for appealing to the popular vote.
*Deep inhale* The problem we have in British politics is that we have a system of “proportional representation” whereby the number of actual votes received by each party is largely irrelevant because the winner is decided by the number of electoral seats won; a Tory MP may win a seat with 2,500 votes while a Labour may lose a seat even though they received 25,000 votes. Labour and the Tories have been desperately clinging on to this deeply unfair system for decades (there have been elections where the Liberal Democrats have had a majority in terms of actual votes received but still been in third place in terms of seats won because their base tends to be urban). After the scandal last summer during which it was revealed how much MPs had been claiming on expenses, without oversight, people are starting to demand more accountability from their elected body. The big hope here is that the Lib Dems can get enough power to introduce the single transferable vote and break this crap two-party duopoly that we currently live in.
As for the biggot instance, the woman concerned was having a whinge and trying to scape-goat foreign students and immigrants for all of her family’s ills. She is a bigot, and GB called her a bigot. The only thing that made me angry was that he’s such a coward that he apologised for it instead of sticking to his guns.
“(there have been elections where the Liberal Democrats have had a majority in terms of actual votes received but still been in third place in terms of seats won because their base tends to be urban).”
I would certainly agree that the Lib Dems get a somewhat bad deal from the way national elections are deceided but I really don’t rember when they’ve ever won the majoity of the vote yet finished third. Also it’s not that there vote is urban it’s that it’s far more consistent across the country instead of the large north/south divide for labour and the conservatives i.e. getting 15%-25% of the vote consistently is fairly useless.
FTPT is purported to have the strength of “enabling people to topple incumbents”. As far as I can see, it’s done the exact opposite. This is the first time I will be voting in a national election, and I know where I’m sticking it (my constituency is Lib Dem, with Tories close second, so we really need to keep this seat, even though the MP himself is a bit of a prat).
Slight correction there Custador; what we have currently is the ‘First Past the Post’ system for the general elections (Scotland has the Alternative Vote system which creates problems of its own).
Proportional Representation is what the Liberal Democrats are proposing. Although just as a reminder, Blair proposed electoral reform in 1997 and nothing has come from it. It’s because once a party gets into power, FPTP works in their best interests as for example in my constituency of Streatham which is predominantly Labour, hypothetically, if Liberal Democrats gets 19999 votes as long as Labour gets one more than them then Labour will gain a seat. Effectively it means 19999 votes were wasted and the democratic interests of those voters won’t be represented. So for the ruling party it’s always good for them as in some constituencies their opponents don’t stand a chance in hell.
As for the bigot thing; personally I do think she was a bigot. A stupid one at that. She asked the PM “Where are all these Eastern Europeans coming from?”…Hm, I don’t know Eastern Europe?
Furthermore she’s following the trend of ‘blame the immigrants/non-Whites’ which exaggerates or scapegoats them for ridiculous problems. I blame the Daily Mail and The Sun.
England, like the US, suffers from Duverger’s Law because of our affection for FPTP voting systems.
“England”? you’ll be meaning the UK there I think …
Thanks for the correction. I wasn’t 100% sure about Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland.
Did I also mention that all parts of the UK, except England, have some form of their own parliament with Wales and Scotland mixing FPTP and PR whereas NI has solely PR – will I think so anyway. Nothing is so complicated in the UK they we can’t make it even more complicated to avoid offending someone!
Hello neighbour. I´m from Crystal Palace. I went to the ice rink in Streatham last summer for the first time in 15 years and it was still exactly the same. You think they would at least have painted the walls.
I agree with your comment, Mark. Another huge problem with First Past the Post is that it reduces accountability. Only around 20 percent of seats in Britain are marginal, so the MP can effectively do what he wants and dumping him out of office is a practical impossibility.
I’ve heard that they’re actually closing it down. Would be a shame. I’ve only actually been there once not too long ago and had the most fun of my life. On the other hand they’re bringing back the MegaBowl! Which I used to go to a lot when I was younger.
Small world, eh?
It`s not really Streatham without an ice rink…
It always amuses me when people complain that one of their favorite things is closing down, and also mention they haven’t been there for years. These two facts could be related folks. :)
Yeah, that’s true. I used to say that when Woolworth’s closed down; if you liked it so much, then why didn’t you go there more often? But I guess it’s just nice having it there.
As a response to James: Do you wanna know the lame reason I’ve been hearing (not sure if it’s just a rumour) why Streatham Ice Rink is closing down? Someone said it’s because of that stabbing of that kid there.
Which is retarded, because as unfortunate as it might be; there’s no sense in closing down the ice rink because of ONE stabbing.
It´s more the nostalgia factor. I don´t even like ice skating!
Back to the point of why American news is so infatuated with this (my local news in South Carolina carried it, too). I think a lot of Americans view the British, especially the upper-class British like you might find in parliament, as unflappable and the complete embodiment of social grace. The stereotype, true or not, is that MPs will always be understated and polite. So when someone as important as the PM makes a social gaffe that was obviously big enough for him to scurry back and personally apologize/apologise, we Americans find that amusing because it goes against expectations. Also, I think the American news syndicates’ (ABC/NBC/CBS) UK affiliates made stories and sent it to the US affiliates, so our local ones just played the story to fill some time because it needed no work on their part.
I’ve always found it weird why people cling onto the polite Englishman stereotype.
Not too long ago I heard a little boy (6-9years old) call his mother a “stupid cunt”. And you know what? It’s pretty common.
If I had to guess, the British TV shows that end up on the radar in the US (Are You Being Served?, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Doctor Who, Absolutely Fabulous, Fawlty Towers, etc.) reinforce the stereotype of a people with a delicate and bizarre sense of humor and a strong sense of propriety. Shows like Misfits Americans tend not to see unless they are already looking.
You need to watch Prime Minister´s Question Time. It´s very strange because they don´t hesitate to insult and heckle each other with wild abandon, yet House of Commons rules state that they can{t use their actual name, but must refer to them as (for example) ´The Right Honourable Gentleman from Sedgefield´.
Here in America, Parliament Question Time is shown on CSPAN2 every once in a while, and I’ll tell you I’m jealous of you guys having leaders that are willing and able to think on their feet and coherently answer a barrage of questions about policy. Less so now that we have a somewhat literate president, but still. It would be fun and, I think, more healthy.
That seems like a good analysis JT. And for your information, the American perception of British society is absolutely true. It can basically divided into bowler hatted, umbrellla carrying city buisness men. The wives of whom stay at home in their rose covered cottages with gingham curtains, putting paper doileys on the table. The rest of us are cheeky cockney chimney sweeps, walking around whistling with our thumbs behind our braces.
I KNEW it!
I’m not British, but…
Your bigoted woman sounds like one of our Teabaggers. Brown needs to grow a pair as does Obama, but this instance in particular seems to indicate the need is more urgent within the trousers of Brown. Our electoral college and your system of proportional representation are both archaic in their design and only barely smack of true democratic representation. The Sun and the Daily Mail are used as intended to stir the pot amongst the masses thereby distorting the relevance of all and sundry. Fox News and others do quite the same over here. The little boy whom Mark Mukasa heard calling his mother a “stupid cunt” was probably spot-on in his assessment, and I’d not be surprised if he’d somehow learnt the the phrase from someone in the upper crust. Perhaps the child works as apprentice to the royal chimney sweep and managed by the Grace of Her Most Excellent Majesty’s God (and by the whistle-proof malformations and misplacements of his cockneyed master’s teeth) to hear the phrase falling from the lips of none other than Prince Philip himself. The interesting part would be to learn just whom he was referencing. It could have been a navy cadet, and then again it could have been Kate.
So what did Brown do to piss off the journalists? I am of the belief that this situation has more to do with money in private circles than anything else.
The journalists seem to be pandering to the myth of PC. I’m not sure which newspaper it was, but it had on the front page to the effect of “Pensioner Disrespected for Saying the I-Word” (Immigration).
So essentially they’re saying that this woman was raising a valid point and she shouldn’t have been treated in such a manner. The Right wing press likes to perpetuate the idea that the freedom of speech is being taken away by looney Leftist ideals of political correctness and surrendering to the immigrants.
I’m all for people having concerns about the levels of immigration (as it can be a strain on public services if uncontrolled), but the manner of her questioning was in actuality quite bigoted.
*rant mode on*
That’s the problem with the immigration debate, it really is almost impossible to talk about it with out accusations of racism. Part of the problem is that a lot (the majority?) of views held against immigrates are racist. I’ve lost count of the number of comments I’ve heard down the pub about bloody coming over here and nicking out jobs (being on benefits doesn’t really mean that you have a job to nick does it?) or the Muslim family who “jumped” the housing queue and my sister still hasn’t got a place. Firstly it doesn’t work like that and secondly why is your sister who has never worked in her life and has just got knocked up by a bloke she hardly knows deserving of a council house?
*rant mode off*
Exactly. Honestly I think that most people don’t even have a rudimentary understanding of the whole immigration issue. A lot of it is fuelled by the exaggerations in the press,such as the Mail had a headline back a few weeks ago that said “Gypsy Family Kicks English Family Out of Home”. The article tried to make it appear like a damn near pandemic. My mum works as a legal advisor and she says that generally it doesn’t work like it does as it’s portrayed. The majority of immigrants don’t get it as easy as that.
And how the hell can the immigrants be taking all our jobs but yet be all on benefits and then SIMULTANEOUSLY setting up corner shops? Keep the stereotypes consistent!
I’ll tell you something else for nothing: I’d rather employ an Eastern European migrant in an unskilled job than a Brit – they work hard, they don’t call in sick when they have hangovers, they don’t bullshit you. They just do the job and take the pay. Brits? Every unskilled, untrained, lazy scrote thinks they should be on a fast-track to management without having to earn it, they lie, they cheat, they mess you around and the quality of work is crap compared to what Polaks do. Sorry, but that’s all true in my experience. As Brits we have ZERO right to demean Eastern Europeans.
/rant.
Excellent! Good points, everyone! There has to be balance in all things. Absolutes get us nowhere. It’s when we start to look at all sides of an issue that possible solutions begin to present themselves for consideration. Dialogue leads to positive change.
Or we’re poor, backwards folks who still work menial hard-labour jobs that should have gone the way of the dodo sometime mid- last century.
I can say these things, it’s okay. Born and raised in L’pool, moved to the States as a kid. As my mum says, we’re poorer than dirt and more common than muck. No-one in the US sees that side of England.
Shouldn’t you be getting back to your coal mine or textile factory?
Nah, welding on the docks :)
^_^