Gordon Brown attacked over letter 'insult'

**Damien** · 09-11-2009, 12:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8349757.stm

Quote:

Gordon Brown has telephoned a bereaved mother to apologise after apparently misspelling the name of her dead soldier son in a letter of sympathy.

The Sun newspaper said his mother Jacqui had called the prime minister's letter a "hastily scrawled insult".

I think it's decent to send a hand-written letter. Bush did not contact the fallen at all (I believe Blair phoned rather than wrote). I don't think poor hand-writing and a spelling mistake is meant as an insult

punky · 09-11-2009, 12:20

I go back and forth on this but I do think that its right for the woman to be upset. There's no way i'd send out a condolence card like that, let alone had I been implicated in the person's death. Spelling comfort as "cumfurt" and "you family" is bad enough, but misspelling a person's name or scribling over a mistake instead of re-writing is unforgiveable. Its not like he couldn't get someone to proof-read his letters.

It isn't just the writing as wlel, he read the name out wrongly.

To me, the man is just clown. Someone said "if this is the amount of care he puts into writing letters to the families of victims, then its no wonder the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were so badly managed". Quite.

Raistlin · 09-11-2009, 12:24

To be honest, if my writing was that bad I think I'd get someone to draft it for me and then proofread and sign it myself

Osem · 09-11-2009, 12:49

Whilst I can fully understand the awful pain and upset felt by the family, I won't be adding to the pillorying of Gordon Brown on this occasion. Notwithstanding the intense dislike I feel for his 'leadership' and policy, I cannot accept that he's so callous that he'd wish to offend anyone in this manner and at least (it appears) he bothered to hand write the letter rather than simply sign a typed up copy.

punky · 09-11-2009, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

Whilst I can fully understand the awful pain and upset felt by the family, I won't be adding to the pillorying of Gordon Brown on this occasion. Notwithstanding the intense dislike I feel for his 'leadership' and policy, I cannot accept that he'd deliberately seek to offend anyone in this manner and at least (it appears) he bothered to hand write the letter rather than simply sign a typed up copy.

Noone saying its deliberate, but such a blaise attitude isn't right for someone who is running the country.

**Damien** · 09-11-2009, 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

Noone saying its deliberate, but such a blaise attitude isn't right for someone who is running the country.

I think that's an assertion to say he had a 'blaise' attitude. That would have been to simply sign a pre-written letter or get someone else to do it. It's a few spelling mistakes and poor handwritting. Not ideal but not meant as an insult.

Osem · 09-11-2009, 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

Noone saying its deliberate, but such a blaise attitude isn't right for someone who is running the country.

I don't think it was blase or deliberate - I think he's a busy man, his handwriting's virtually illegible and on this occasion he made a genuine, albeit extremely hurtful, mistake. Nothing more nothing less.

punky · 09-11-2009, 13:02

The general spelling I can overlook but to get someone's name wrong twice? In writing and speech?

I can't buy that.

Noone is that busy they can't take a minute to re-read a letter give it to someone else to re-read. I'm sure if a suboordinate had made a similar mistake they would have been held to account for it.

Flyboy · 09-11-2009, 13:08

You all seem to be forgetting that the man is has only one eye and according to some he has failing sight in the other. Whilst the mother has every right to be upset at the death of her son, would she rather it wasn't a personal message of condolence from the Prime Minister, or that it was a stock letter from a some flunky at the ministry of defence? I am pretty sure that the Prime Minister is stuck between a rock and a hard place here. He would have been damned if he didn't and damned if did.

On anther note, I am pretty sure that his sort of thing is not first time this has happened to them. Their son is called James "Jamie" Janes, when she was reading out the name on the video, I could not discern her speech differences from "Janes" and James." It is entirely possible that the Prime Minister was told that his name was Jaimie James.

Osem · 09-11-2009, 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

The general spelling I can overlook but to get someone's name wrong twice? In writing and speech?

I can't buy that.

Noone is that busy they can't take a minute to re-read a letter give it to someone else to re-read. I'm sure if a suboordinate had made a similar mistake they would have been held to account for it.

George Bush used to get things like that wrong all the time - even the master orator Obama's had his moments. If Brown had wanted to be truly cynical, blase or just plain lazy he could just have left the whole matter to a secretary, simply signed the letter and thereby covered his posterior.

Whilst we'll have to agree to differ on this aspect, I certainly agree that had one of his minions caused this level of embarrassment they'd probably be in receipt of a nice new P45 right about now....

09-11-2009, 17:27

Ok for a start when it comes to something that doesn't get him off the hook we're constantly told GB's eyesight is fine and doesn't represent a problem in his job now we have this letter and all of a sudden we are being asked to take that into account so which one is it GB because i would like to know. As for those saying "at least he is writing personally" so what no one asked him to do it no one made him do it, it was his choice and when dealing with familys of service people that are grieving for loved ones you better make damn sure you get it right and he didn't.

Have you seen that letter and looked at it does it convey to you a heartfelt message of condolence or a rush job to look good i know what i think. Great play was made of this writing to familys when it was felt it made GB look more human and now he is stuck with it so do it properly or don't do it at all. Military commanders are also very busy people in extremely stressful jobs and they manage to get it right everytime so GB has no excuse and people should stop trying to make them for him.

This is one more example of GB screwing up on something he started and while that list is long this is not an addition that should ever have been made and it is an insult to this family no two ways about it.

AdamD · 09-11-2009, 19:04

Stereotypical trashy tabloid blowing the story out of all proportion, not to mention the mother who's son died
It IS sad she's lost her son, but to write to the sun newspaper to complain about a handwritten letter, is insane
I think it's very decent of the PM to write to each family who's lost a relative in the war(s)

10-11-2009, 00:54

So if you lost a loved one you'd be happy to get a badly spelled incorrectly named untidy rushed hand written letter would you just because it was written by the PM of the country. Good for you but true value of someone and something is shown in how you deal with it and GB has done very little to show he truly values the armed forces of the UK except when he wants them to get involved in something and this latest episode is just one more way he shows how much he does really value them.

Derek · 10-11-2009, 06:58

While I'm no fan of Gordon I think the Sun have gone too far in their vendetta against him.

I wonder how long they had this letter before running the story and its very convenient the mother just happened to have recording equipment standing by to tape the phone conversation between the PM and her.

I can't see any easier way to do it. A typed and handsigned letter would look inpersonal and its not as if his handwriting is going to improve anytime soon.

Raistlin · 10-11-2009, 07:00

You get someone else to hand write it, dictated by you, and then you sign it.