Gordon spreekt met 'kwezelachtige dame'

En toen schoot Gordon Brown, acht dagen voor de verkiezing, zichzelf ten overvloede door het hoofd. Kijk eens naar het plaatje. Ziet er uit zoals een plaatje er dient uit te zien in verkiezingstijd. Premier onderhoudt zich geïnteresseerd met kiezer. Maar natuurlijk vindt (vrijwel) iedere premier zoiets vreselijk. En zeker Gordon Brown. Dat weten we zeker, want nadat hij het gesprekje met kiezer Gillian Duffy  in Rochdale, England had afgesloten stapte hij zijn auto in en sprak: 'Wat een vreselijk gesprek. Wat een verschrikkelijke kwezelachtige vrouw; het had niet mogen gebeuren dat ik met haar moest spreken." Die uitspraak werd opgenomen en wordt met enige regelmaat afgespeeld op de Engelse televisie. Labour staat nog altijd derde met rond de 26 procent van de stemmen. Nog acht dagen en dan kan Gordon iedere dag de waarheid zeggen.

De transcriptie van de tekst:

Gordon Brown: You’re a very good woman, you’ve served the community all your life -

Gillian Duffy: I am, I’ve worked for the Rochdale council for 30 years…

Brown: Good. You deserve -

Duffy: And I work with children and handicapped children

Brown: Oh well working with children is so important isn’t it? Have you been at some of the children’s centres? –

Duffy: But what I can’t understand is why I am still being taxed at 66 years old because my husband’s died and I have some of his pension tagged onto my pension?

Brown: Well we’re raising the threshold at which people start paying tax as pensioners, but yes if you’ve got an occupational pension you may have to pay some tax but you may be eligible for the pension credit as well, you should check –

Duffy: No, no, I’m not, I’ve checked and checked and they said I’m not

Brown: Well you should check it again just to be sure, to be absolutely sure.

Duffy: Yes they’ve told me, I’ve been down to Rochdale council

Brown: And you know we’re linking pension to earnings in two years' time, we’ve got the winter allowance as you know which I hope is of benefit, two fifty -

Duffy: I agree with that, it’s very good, but every year I speak to people of my age and they say ‘Oh well, they’ll be knocking it off’

Brown: We’ve done bus passes as well, free presciptions -

Duffy: But how are you going to get us out of all this debt, Gordon?

Brown: We’ve got a deficit reduction plan, cut the debt by half over the next four years, we’ve got the plans that have been set out to do it - look, I was the person who came in and said -

Duffy: Look, the three main things that I had drummed in when I was a child was education, health service and looking after people who are vulnerable. There are too many people now who aren’t vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can’t get claim.

Brown: But they shouldn’t be doing that, there is no life for people on the dole anymore, if you’re unemployed you’ve got to go back to work. At six months –

Duffy: You can’t say anything about the immigrants because you’re saying you’re – but all these eastern Europeans coming in, where are they flocking from?

Brown: A million people come in from Europe, but a million British people have gone into Europe, you do know there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well. So education, health and helping people, that’s what I’m about.

Duffy: I hope you keep to it.

Brown: It’s been very good to meet you. And you’re wearing the right colour today! How many grandchildren do you have?

Duffy: Two.

Brown: What names are they?

Duffy: They’ve just come back from Australia where they’ve been stuck for ten days they couldn’t get back with this ash crisis.

Brown: They got through now?

Duffy: Yes.

Brown: We’ve been trying to get people back quickly. But are they going to university, is that the plan?

Duffy: I hope so. They’re only 12 and 10.

Brown: They’re only 12 and 10! But they’re doing well at school?

Duffy: Yes. Very good.

Brown: A good family. Good to see you.

Duffy: And the education system in Rochdale I will congratulate it

Brown: Good. Good to see you, take care.

[In car] That was a disaster. Should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?

Aide: I don’t know, I didn’t see.

Brown: Sue’s, I think. Just ridiculous.

Aide: Not sure if they’ll go with that one.

Brown: Oh they will.

Aide: What did she say?

Brown: Everything. She’s just this sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be a Labour voter. Ridiculous.

Bron(nen): The Wall Street Journal