Gordon Brown was caught out describing Gillian Duffy in unflattering terms as he drove away from a photo opportunity. The right wing have jumped up and down pointing to the incident claiming it shows he's unfit for office, the left wing have jumped up and down pointing to the incident claiming it shows that he is human after all.
Yes I've taken the piss out of the incident and yes I'll continue to take the piss but for my own reasons. I run a business and in the course of my working day I will meet members of the public some of who I would not choose to socialise with. In my professional capacity as owner of the business it is my duty to smile and wave and thank them for their custom. In my private capacity I can call them whatever I want. If I think a customer is a complete twat I have a professional interest in not letting them know that. If they heard me calling them a twat then I might, as they are twats, expect a shit-storm of grief for doing so. Because of how twatty they are I may even be threatened with, or receive, physical as well as verbal assaults.
You may call that two-faced if you wish but the nature of business generally requires you to be deferential to the person who you are working for whether you like them or not. We've all done it whether it's moaning about our nagging mother, boss, colleague or customer. None of us are blame free (not even Jesus) but that is not the issue as far as I'm concerned.
The issue is this: Gordon Brown made a personal judgement of Gillian Duffy, as is his right to do, but he met her in the course of doing his job. To allow your employer to hear you make disparaging remarks about them is incredibly bad form and, therefore, the resultant shit-storm of anger is to be expected. Gordon is the Prime Minister, until at least the 6th May, and is therefore answerable to the whole country. We are all, in effect, his employers. If we don't like him calling us bigots we can be angry about it and we can take action.
The disciplinary hearing is being held on May 6th from 7am to 10pm. You are all invited to attend and make your feelings known.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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3 comments:
Oh, I how I look forward to seeing Gordo supervising Pickfords - although he seems to have mothballed his Moral Compass well in advance!
He'll be all right. He'll march straight into some cushy job (or jobs) on the board of something or other...
A personal anecdote: I live in a Labour-since-WWII area. Spent Sunday round my fiance's mum's house. Fiance's grandparents called in too.
Gran asks if I am still planning to vote in light of the 'bigot' incident. I say yes, but not for Labour. Utter consternation on gran's part. Not vote Labour? Unthinkable! I think better of contesting the point and smile as she airs a few chronically ill-informed political views.
Gran asks me what 'bigot' means. I provide a definition and she proceeds to defend G Brown and all things Labour.
It's just hard wired in some people.
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