WI: Gordon Brown makes harsher comment

As anyone who followed the 2010 General Election in the UK would know, Gordon Brown made a comment concerning a lady who asked him a question, calling her a "bigoted woman". Now, although people joked about it, I don't think it effected how many people voted Labour really. But, What If Gordon Brown had been much harsher, that covered a range of people, let's say he says this:

"What f***ing moron put me with that b****? She's as f***ing stupid as those pathetic slapheads. Who was stupid enough to put me with that old bag?"

Now, while this is a bit extreme, let's say Gordon was having an off day, and so that's why he said this.

Now would these very harsh comments effect the eventual Labour vote more-so than his 'lighter' comments?
 
As anyone who followed the 2010 General Election in the UK would know, Gordon Brown made a comment concerning a lady who asked him a question, calling her a "bigoted woman". Now, although people joked about it, I don't think it effected how many people voted Labour really. But, What If Gordon Brown had been much harsher, that covered a range of people, let's say he says this:

"What f***ing moron put me with that b****? She's as f***ing stupid as those pathetic slapheads. Who was stupid enough to put me with that old bag?"

Now, while this is a bit extreme, let's say Gordon was having an off day, and so that's why he said this.

Now would these very harsh comments effect the eventual Labour vote more-so than his 'lighter' comments?

Why would he? i mean this is pure ASB. calling someone bigoted is not an insult, but what you want him to say is an direct insult.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Why would he? i mean this is pure ASB. calling someone bigoted is not an insult, but what you want him to say is an direct insult.

Gordon Brown insulting someone is not ASB. :rolleyes:

He's a massively angry man, and the thankless nature of his old job only enhanced that. People always had the view that Brown was like that, but the Mrs Duffy incident really brought it to the front of people's minds. Indeed, I'd disagree with the OP, I think Brown's comments were a major influence on people's voting; for one, it was about the only thing that actually happened in an otherwise boring election campaign, and two, a lot of people interpreted it as contempt for the public in general.

A worse outburst, especially if said outburst contained swear words, (obscenity is still a major issue for thousands of citizens), Labour's results would be much worse.
 
Why would he? i mean this is pure ASB. calling someone bigoted is not an insult, but what you want him to say is an direct insult.
As ninebucks says, it's well known Gordon Brown is an angry man, in all honesty he was very lucky that all he said was that she was a bigoted woman.
Gordon Brown insulting someone is not ASB. :rolleyes:

He's a massively angry man, and the thankless nature of his old job only enhanced that. People always had the view that Brown was like that, but the Mrs Duffy incident really brought it to the front of people's minds. Indeed, I'd disagree with the OP, I think Brown's comments were a major influence on people's voting; for one, it was about the only thing that actually happened in an otherwise boring election campaign, and two, a lot of people interpreted it as contempt for the public in general.

A worse outburst, especially if said outburst contained swear words, (obscenity is still a major issue for thousands of citizens), Labour's results would be much worse.
Would we see cabinet members being kicked out? MP John Denham right next door to my constituency only got a couple of hundred votes majority, would be see this slip and have him booted out? Also most other cabinet members got very high majorities, so would we be unlikely to see these members kicked? Also, if the only one who's kicked is John Denham, how might this much more offensive outburst effect the current labour leadership election?
 
IIRC, this is accidentally overheard on an open mic, so I can't say its that extreme. Bush was caught referring to a reporter as a major-league a****** once. It wasn't much of a big deal here, and it wasn't during election time.

So figure a fair bit more extreme, and during an election in the UK... Could be enough to inch Labour's share down a little... the tabloids would have a fun time of it for a while. Don't know if it would be enough to give Cameron an outright majority.

I'm an American, though, so I don't quite know how Brits would react to something like this. Would you punish your own Labour MP, even if you somewhat favored (or favoured, since you're British ;)) Labour's policies, because Brown had a bad day and acted like a dolt out there?
 
Gordon Brown insulting someone is not ASB. :rolleyes:

insulting the old lady that the way the op wants him to is. angry man or not there is no way to get him to say that in public. there is a difference between an off the cuff remark in frustration which gets caught on mike and a full blown rude rant.

see i could see Gordon making a harsher comment, it's why i entered the thread in the first place. but what theNordicBrit wants Gordon to say, is something i find not possible.
 
Depends really, alot of people had already made up their minds long before the "Comment" (hell I hated labour since 2001 but that's just me), if it was really bad though I can see the "Get Brown out" vote having more influence than it did, that may not have helped the Tories much though, because if Labours traditional support started deserting they'd be more likely to go to the Lib Dems than the Tories, which would have made the coalition negotiations a bit more interesting since the Lib Dems would be bargaining from a place of strength. Might have avoided Browns little coup attempt though if Labour got beaten even worse.
 
*wonders what asterisks sound like when spoken* ^^

I'm with Death on this. Gordon wouldn't have said that. And why you'd want the votes of someone who doesn't vote on policy but on personal opinions befuddles me.
 
One of the highest profile Labour MP who would stand to lose their seat would be Education Secretary Ed Balls, who OTL was returned with a reduced majority of just 1001. If Gordon Brown's gaffe is enough to remove Balls from Morley and Outwood this becomes of importance as he is then unavailable to stand in the Labour Party leadership election (though as he is possibly the least favoured candidate this may ultimately be irrelevant).
 
I can certainly see Gordon swearing (or rather hear). I don't think it will be the F word however, but it might be 'bloody'. I think it will be critical however as to whether he swears:

a) With regards his advisor (Sue Nye) (whose bloody idea....)
b) With regards Mrs. Duffy (she's a bloody bigot)
c) Both

A will have little impact beyond the impact it had. I'd doubt any seats would be different.

B or C will be worse, but again, not massively so. I predict a few more Labour losses, probably they lose Rochdale (despite Mrs. Duffy being from Rochdale, Labour held on with a tiny majority).

A seat by seat analysis I'm not going to do, but say any Labour seat with a majority of about 500 or less falls afterall, including Rochdale (which has 889). I suspect this would have only a few seats lost to Lib Dems and Conservative, probably leaving us with:

Con 310
Lib Dem 60
Labour 252

Con minority 30

Coalition government is still the order of the day really.

A better one would be if the impact is that much greater but not so great to give Cons an overall majority. Maybe:

Con 317
Lib Dem 64
Labour 240

Con minority of only 8. With 8 UUP, they could just scrape by..... or maybe go for Confidence and Supply agreement with the Lib Dems.
 
I doubt anyone would care other than the woman herself, just as in reality.

By that stage of the election most people's minds were made up and it had already polarised. No Labour voters are gonna switch to Tory because of it.
 
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