Hungary in centre of UK’s “Bigot-gate” scandal

This article's conclusions are a bit far-fetched by saying that Mrs. Gillian Duffy referred to the Hungarian immigrants especially, when asking about the 2 million Eastern European expats, out of which only 2,000 are from our beloved country. However, it might be right in that this was the "fatal blow" to the Labour Party's possible reelection this Thursday. For those who haven't heard about it, Gordon Brown left a campaign event with his microphone still on, and while in his car, he called an elderly pensioner a "bigoted woman" for asking about Eastern European immigrants. The whole story first caught my attention, because the word "bigoted" (vakbuzgó) means moustached in Spanish, so I merely thought he didn't like the lady's looks. :) (retrieved from the Budapest Report website)

Hungary, in the heart of Eastern Europe, is one of the ‘new Europe’ states that will be in the centre of the news in British media for quite some time, thanks to the recent blunder of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The “Bigot-gate” scandal broke when a BBC microphone caught the British PM making sarcastic remarks after his political campaign in Manchester on April 28, 2010.

Brown had finished sweet-talking an elderly citizen, but unaware of his live microphone still in operation, had minutes later called her “a bigoted woman” for daring to ask him about Britain’s brothers in the East. Unfortunate for Brown his negligence can cause the fatal blow to his incumbent Labour Party, which had planned to win the upcoming elections. The woman had complained about her fears about Eastern Europeans immigrants, including Hungarians. She demanded, “All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?” Unconfirmed reports say that there are some 2 million immigrants in the UK of which at least 2,000 are Hungarian nationals.

The majority of Hungarians have decided to stay in their host nation for long term as the British Pound is still stronger than the Euro, much stronger than the Hungarian Forint (300:1) while the minimum wage in the UK (currently GBP 5.80/hour) is merely a dream in Hungary and working conditions at this level in the UK are more humane than in Hungary. Hungarian guest worker Rudolf Magyar told Budapest Report that he, his wife and two boys (6, 10) have settled down in the UK’s Cornwall County and don’t plan to return to Hungary.

“We both have full time jobs. We are paying our taxes and national insurance and our boys are attending school here and playing football for the local team. But the likes of Magyar and his other Eastern European peers are now the back-bone of the British economy, as many Britons prefer to go on job seekers allowance instead of laboring for minimum wages. Nevertheless Brown has drastically reduced his chances of improving his already tarnished short-tempered and arrogant reputation, political analysts said.

His affair with the 65-year-old discouraged lady from the industrial area of Rochdale, Manchester has almost caused a crash in international internet systems as so many viewers had logged on to see the recording on various hosting sites. Now Brown is apologising in every direction, but it seems his words are falling on deaf ears. The Labour Party is furious about his blunder as they are heavily dependant on working class people like thee lady from Manchester. Yet Brown has denied shooting his party in the leg. He argues, “If you make a mistake you apologise… I’m concentrating on bigger issues…”

But what can be a bigger issue than the entire world being hyped up about the stupidity of a prime Minister. Brown made a personal visit to his victim and apologised for having earlier ranted, “That was a disaster…she was just a sort of a bigoted woman,” about her. Political analysts said they believe Brown may not have made the trip, had he not been confronted for the BBC audio recording. The Manchester lady whose name is Gillian Duffy (pictured) is definitely more popular than Brown and has reportedly already hired a media consultant to sell her story to the media.

The date is set: 6 May

From The Times

April 6, 2010

Fiercely contested election campaign begins today

Roland Watson, Political Editor

Gordon Brown will travel the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace today and launch the most fiercely contested election campaign for a generation.

He will ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament next Monday and will name May 6 as the day voters decide his fate.

Within minutes the frenzy of electoral combat will begin. Mr Brown will make a symbolic trip to the South East, showing his determination to hold on to new Labour gains of 1997. David Cameron will head in the opposite direction, taking the fight to Labour in the Midlands and the North.

The formalities between the Prime Minister and the monarch will take only a few minutes but will trigger the most eagerly awaited showdown since Tony Blair swept away 18 years of Conservative rule in 1997 and what promises to be the most closely fought election since John Major defied the polls and Neil Kinnock in 1992.

Each leader has his own personal mountain to climb. Mr Brown is looking to banish the memories of the election-that-never-was in November 2007, when he ducked out of going to the country at the last moment. He is asking for his first mandate as prime minister, and a historic fourth term for Labour, against the backdrop of the deepest recession for 60 years and a potentially mutinous public sector.

The National Union of Teachers voted yesterday to join forces with the biggest civil service union to co-ordinate action to defend public services from cuts whoever wins on May 6.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, told teachers: “If you judge a government by how it behaves as an employer, this is the worst Government in the history of this country.”

Mr Cameron needs to gain 116 seats to win an overall majority, the biggest required swing since the war.

If successful, he would be the youngest Prime Minister for two centuries and the 12th to serve under Elizabeth II.

Nick Clegg needs to capitalise on polls that point to a hung Parliament. Liberal Democrat supporters hope that he would emerge from any post-election bargaining with an influential role.

Eve-of-campaign polls underlined last night the volatility of the contest.The Tory lead narrowed to four points, down five points, according to an ICM poll for The Guardian — the narrowest margin recorded by ICM for two years. It put the Tories on 37 per cent, Labour on 33 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 21 per cent.

By contrast, a YouGov poll for The Sun puts the Tories on 41 per cent — the first time they have breached 40 per cent since January. The daily tracker poll puts Labour on 31 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 18 per cent.

The leaders will set out their arguments today: Mr Cameron, that it is time for a change; Mr Brown, that the fragile recovery makes it too risky to change; Mr Clegg, that this should be the end of Mr Brown.

There's even an interactive election map which took my breath away for a second.

"Brown shred into pieces"

This is a fine example of the polite heatedness of the debates taking place in the House of Commons. The two protagonists are the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron.



Why is David Cameron attacking the Prime Minister on a not-called general election? What is the story behind this?

Heroes of New Labour

Bagehot 
Heroes of New Labour
Dec 17th 2009 
From The Economist print edition

Yes, there have been some—though not perhaps the ones you might expect

Illustration by Steve O'Brien

CHRISTMAS, that Janus-faced season. A moment to look forward to 2010, which, in Britain, will involve a general election. But a chance also for reflection on the outgoing year—and on the past twelve and a half, the long, long epoch of New Labour that seems destined soon to end. Bagehot has been thinking in particular about which of the political figures who have populated it deserve to survive, in reputation, the ignominy of defeat and oblivion of time. Who have been the real heroes of New Labour?
That question raises a prior one, about the nature of political heroism. One criterion, obviously, is to have done the state and country some serious and lasting service: created something new, or driven through valuable change. It helps if the authorship of the policy or institution is clear. For example, the minimum wage will be a positive part of Labour’s legacy; but the idea was an old one with many sponsors and progenitors.
Moreover, to qualify for this pantheon, a hero’s virtues must not be clouded or cancelled by grave mistakes or misdemeanours. That rules out Tony Blair, for all his landslides and longevity, and Gordon Brown, despite the seeming alchemy of his decade as chancellor of the exchequer: their claims foundered in, respectively, the sands of Mesopotamia and the ashes of recession. It is possible, on the other hand, to be a sort of negative hero—by preventing something bad from happening, or taking a noble stand over something important, even if it ended in failure.
It is easy to recall the villains of the New Labour era: the lies, the disgrace, the disappointments. But who are the heroes? Here, in no particular order, is a selection:
1. Lord Adonis. In politics, media profile and genuine expertise are often inversely proportionate. As Mr Blair’s chief wonk, then an education minister, little-known Lord Adonis was the intellectual force behind New Labour’s school reforms, especially the academies programme. He understood how monolithic public services fail those who need them most; his innovations will outlast his government. More recently, as transport secretary and a powerful advocate of high-speed rail, he has exhibited the unusual advantage of genuine interest in that brief.
2. Donald Dewar. Assuming Britain doesn’t go bust, New Labour’s most lasting domestic legacy—and, overall, a beneficial one—may be the constitutional reforms enacted in its first term: the freedom of information act, ejection of most hereditary peers from the House of Lords, devolution and the London mayoralty. Though he will forever be remembered for his expensive wallpaper, Lord Irvine, then the Lord Chancellor, did much of the work. But this column’s accolade goes to Dewar, who oversaw the creation of Scotland’s first parliament for 300 years, then became its (first) first minister; he died in 2000. Devolution seems to have achieved what, for unionists, was one of its main purposes: weakening the case for outright Scottish independence.
3. Lord Mandelson. Co-architect of New Labour, saviour of Mr Brown’s premiership, all-round entertainer, Lord Mandelson makes the list not for his colourful contributions to his party but for his spell as Northern Ireland secretary. One way in which Britain is unequivocally a better place is that republican and loyalist terrorists now murder people much less frequently. The great heroes of the peace process were John Hume and Lord Trimble; but British ministers contributed—and besides Mr Blair, probably none more than Lord Mandelson, until his second resignation and European exile.
4. Sir William Macpherson. Maturing attitudes to race and sexuality have been another big improvement. The introduction of civil partnerships was the main legal symbol of this process: championed by Mr Blair and now entrenched, they have unquestionably increased the net happiness of Britain. But Sir William—admittedly an appointee rather than a politician—is Bagehot’s chosen hero. An unmetropolitan high-court judge, he chaired an inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence case, in which the police bungled their investigation of the racist murder of a black teenager. Not all the ideas in Sir William’s excoriating report of 1999 were sensible; his notion of “institutional racism” has proved troublesome. But he changed the way Britain thinks about race for the better, and for ever.
5. Robin Cook. He made what has become a vanishingly rare act of self-sacrifice. These days most ministers who “resign” are forced out after a scandal or cock-up. Cook, who died in 2005, quit over the Iraq war; in his loyal yet electric resignation speech, he pointed to the lack of international support for the invasion, and said that “Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense.” He had been a sound foreign secretary—British foreign policy did indeed have the “ethical dimension” he had promised—and had a hand in devolution too. But he earns his laurels for his brave and ultimately vindicated stance on the most contentious issue of Labour’s time in office.

The nearly men
A few others deserve honourable mentions. Bagehot’s heroes, second class (no bar), include James Purnell, who revitalised welfare reform, then went over the top in a bid to unseat Mr Brown, only to discover that his colleagues were dawdling in the trenches. By stubbornly keeping his job, Alistair Darling, the unfortunate chancellor, probably prevented a desperate fiscal plight from becoming even worse under a putative successor. Bill Clinton taught Mr Blair and his crew about governing from the centre.
This is a short list. There are, regrettably, no women on it. All the same, it is perhaps a reminder that politicians and their henchmen are not always chancers and charlatans, and that not every achievement since 1997 has turned out to be a mirage. Raise a Christmas toast to the heroes of New Labour.