All things new - and bigots

All things New
I still haven't quite got my head round the fact that my life will be changing completely in the next couple of weeks. I finish working at the NMC on Wednesday 12th May and a few days later we will have moved house. I will then, after a short break, be attempting to work freelance. This next month is going to start a new chapter in my life that I still can't quite believe. I am so lucky!

I chose the 2 pictures today as they are of the same flowers but just taken using different settings on my camera. I like the contrast but also the fact that they are essentially the same just perceived differently.

Bigot-gate
Of course it will be a new beginning for the country in May as well. I haven't had time nor the inclination to blog about the general election so far. Today has proved the perfect day to change that. The campaign had been plodding along rather doggedly - there was the brief media love affair with Clegg and the Lib Dems, then the inevitable back lash. There was the leaders debates 1, and 2. I was rather interested in the sets for the debates. ITVs looked like an 1980s game show set, where the loser might get gunged and Dusty Bin would turn up to do a dance. Set 2 on Sky looked like something the BNP would design to advertise the Olympics. I'm sure the BBC will do something dramatic but tasteful tomorrow.

So the rather dull campaign was enlivened today by Gordon Brown putting his foot in it. Here is a link to the BBC's unfurling coverage of it all. In a nutshell - Gordo has been told to do more meeting and greeting of "real people" so while in Rochdale a suitably "real" woman who happened to be walking back from the shops and wants a nose at Gordon Brown, is found and given the opportunity to ask questions of the PM live on TV. Said "real" woman asks some "real" questions about all kinds of things and also tries to tell Gordo her life story, as "real" people tend to do.

We know that this "real" woman has worked for the council for 30 yrs but is retired now, her husband is dead, she has children and grandchildren, she also tells Gordo that she has done a lot for the community like "working with handicapped children." So she asks about university tuition fees, pensions, tax, the economy, looking after the vulnerable, and what is he going to do about "All these eastern Europeans, where do they all flock from?" she says that they get benefits that vulnerable people don't get.

So why is this newsworthy? Well Gordo dealt with it ok, he's firm but fair and patient. He even says she is a "good woman," what ever that means? (Makes me think of the Crucible and Good wife so and so.) Chat over, Gordo jumps in his special election limo, forgets his mic is still on, and moans petulantly that it was a "disaster" blames "Sue" for picking the woman he just had to talk to, bemoans the fact that Sky will use the interview which he thinks is a disaster and then answers a question from his aide about why it was such a disaster by saying the person he was talking to was a "bigoted woman."

So now we have "bigoted - gate" or maybe it will be "bigoted-woman-gate." This "bigoted woman" the whole country now knows as Gillian Duffy, and I am sure the cult of Gillian Duffy will grow if she doesn't stick to her plan to leave the country to go on holiday instead of casting her vote on May 6th. The media, for at least the next 48 hours will want to know what Mrs Duffy's opinions are on everything.

Naturally the media forced Gordo to apologise almost immediately and the radio apology was filmed and is really uncomfortable to watch. All Gordo's aides were out in force apologising and the good citizens of Rochdale are due to get a second visit from the PM later today so he can grovel some more. We have a real cult of apologising in this country at the moment and I don't like it one bit.

So after giving a resume of the facts and events, here are my thoughts.

I can't forgive Gordon Brown for being so stupid as to not keep his mouth shut when he is wearing a mic. But I can totally understand why he might call many of the people he has to talk to as bigoted. Most interesting for me is what his comments say about him as a person. It seems to me that Gordon Brown is mega critical on himself regarding his performance in front of the cameras, to the extent that he could not see that his exchange with Mrs Duffy had been a positive one. It was innocuous enough that the TV channels wouldn't have bothered to repeat it. Gordon couldn't see that. It also seems to me, and I'm no psychologist, that Gordon immediately blamed his aide and then Gillian Duffy for making the encounter a disaster, whilst I think deep down he thinks it is all his fault maybe everything is his fault.

I wonder if Gordo has an "It's all my fault" complex? I certainly do - it's an interesting mind set; you have to have enough of an ego to think you are important enough to have an effect on stuff but you have to have low enough self esteem to assume that your effect is often / always negative! You also have to have enough self belief to own the responsibility of everything being your fault and the energy to solve it all and make it better. It wouldn't surprise me if Gordon had such a complex but I have just made it up so it is just all my speculation :-)

Is Gordon a bully?
The media are seeing this bigot-gate as proof that Gordo is the bully depicted in Rawmsly's book and which were then animated so beautifully by Taiwanese TV! I do hope this means we are in for more Tainwanese animated news of BigotedWoman-gate. I'm sure Gordon Brown's aides have heard far worse and so have Cleggy and Dave Cameron's, but so far only GB has forgotten to take his mic off.

Is she a "bigoted woman?"
One question that was being asked on Radio 5 was what does bigoted mean? Most of the so called "neutral political commentators" thought that Mrs Duffy had said nothing offensive and was voicing the views of your average working class, northern, white woman pensioner. So they thought GB was wrong to say she was bigoted. I think these journalists don't really know what bigoted means. I think that Mrs Duffy does represent what some women of her generation and background think but not all. She tackled the Prime Minister with confidence and self belief. She clearly feels deeply about her community and in particular her family. But was she bigoted? Yes she was, and I'll explain why.

Before I deal with was she bigoted I'll tell you why I wouldn't have wanted to chat to her for very long. I personally didn't like her use of the word "handicapped" and although she is in her 60s she did work for the Council before she retired a few years back and I'd hope Rochdale Council have ceased to refer to "handicapped" children. But you never know. So I don't think its a justification to say well she's old and uses old fashioned words she didn't mean to be offensive. That argument is insulting to the thousands of people over 60 who don't use the word handicapped any more. Of course I haven't heard anyone mention the "handicapped" issue in the media.

So is she bigoted? Probably because Gordon Brown mentioned it in his apology, all the attention has been on her reference to Eastern Europeans "flocking" to the UK and claiming benefits that other vulnerable people can't get. Is that opinion bigoted? We tend to think of the word bigoted to mean someone whose opinions are extremely right wing. nationalistic, racist or sexist. But of course anyone who is determined that only their way of thinking is right and won't listen to other people's points of view are bigots as well.

I think Mrs Duffy is probably bigoted because she asserted her opinions very aggressively and argued with Gordon Brown not wanting to agree with him. Most importantly is the concept of intolerance within bigotry - not wanting to accept anyone, or any ideas that are different to your own. I think Mrs Duffy assertion that Eastern Europeans who are flocking to the UK and taking benefits that vulnerable people can't get, shows that she is willing to believe something that does reject and is intolerant of those who are different to her and reject evidence that is contrary to her point of view. I worked in a Job Centre I know who gets and who doesn't get benefits and I saw no evidence that British citizens were being beaten to benefits by Europeans. I did see British youngsters turning down jobs as being "boring," "rubbish" and "menial" that their European counter parts would take like a shot. Most of my Eastern European friends have more than one job and work all the hours they can. The last thing they want are benefits.

A word to the wise

Here is my advice to those concerned:

Gordon: always remember to remove your mic
Gordon: don't apologise if you think she really is a bigot - I think she might be a bigot
Labour politicians: don't let the journos pressure you into thinking that Mrs Duffy's opinions are those of everyone and that we all moan about Eastern Europeans taking benefit form "the vulnerable." Please use this as an opportunity to challenge such opinions
Mrs Duffy: Go on holiday, get away from the media circus it will eat you up and spit you out the other side
UK media: Please don't turn Mrs Duffy into everyone's Gran and say that her opinion is that of everyone - it isn't!


Aparently after speaking with Mrs Duffy Gordo has declared himself a "penitent sinner" so has this been Gordo's conversion on the road to Rochdale?