Gordon Brown writes in black felt tip pens......

Which doll?

BENEFITS!!! HAHA BROWN U ORRIBLE G1T!!!!!!!!

not a great fan , but atleast he took the trouble to hand write a letter not let one of his secretaries print out a computer generated sheet.

...the fact there was a spelling mistake ? not that important ...surely its the message that counts

He phone up and apologised. Apologised! When did that ** Thatcher ever apologise?

The Sun using some poor woman to score points
This is one of the most overhyped, non-event news stories I can remember

It's not really a mis-spelling, just messy handwriting

Totally depressing on all sides

I agree, Poppydog.

Makes Jordan's latest PR escapade sound important. :(

close one eye and squint out of the other. Then try and read text written with a fine liner.

Chunky pens are about all he can see poor guy. At least he had the decency to write a letter in the first place.

I bet this poor woman's grieving will be helped with the money she's received from the sun.

He's taken this idea on himself of personally writing to the family of every fallen serviceman - a good gesture. He could easily just get a secretary to type it, or even just print of a standard format.

He was trying to make an honest gesture, and this woman has ruined it - now they will all revert to the 'safer' typed letter, which he won't write and she has denied everyone else this gesture...

didnt bother his eye introducing over 780 new taxes.....

I rather agree with the general sentiment. There's a 101 things this government can be called up on - that a man with poor vision from one eye doesn't have the best handwriting in the letters he takes the time to personally write to the families of deceased servicemen isn't really one of them.

Thankfully, people seem to see this, and the Sun's stunt has backfired on them - giving publicity to the fact that he writes letters, something I wasn't previously aware of.

The general feeling here, is shown in The Sun's 'Your Comments'
at the bottom of their piece on the internet.

Although you can spot one or two 'deliberately inserted' comments
to try and balance the agenda, which is slipping away from The Sun,
most can see through the hype.

The Sun are now trying to incorporate the supplies and equipment
problem into the story, rather than the rubbish handwriting.

The deceased soldier's colleagues and mates over there,
must be cringing slightly.

Tricking Brown by secretly taping a 'phone call from him is disgraceful and incidentally, unlawful. I note The Sun has made sure it throws the mother under the bus by implying it was all her idea.

sad man
brown :(

Yeah, it's some nasty stuff from The Sun. No issues with the mother, she's going through an awful time and there are indeed questions to be asked over support, but a responsible paper would have said thanks but no thanks. Basically, he's done the right thing twice, and on both occassions she's tried to bury him for it.

This is a complete non-story, fuelled by a bereaved mother's grief and a newspaper desperate to smear a prime minister any way it can.

I think Brown is, in general, a reprehensible individual who is out of his depth, and who got where he is by briefing against his then-boss and using his own little footsoldiers to do the same.

However, for all my dislike of him, I think his desire to write to the families of dead servicemen is heartfelt and driven by the fact that he genuinely does feel for them and the loss they've experienced (remember, he lost a child himself).

The dead serviceman's mother thinks he could have survived, and her basis for thinking that is "he bled to death". He'd lost both legs below the knee, had lost a hand, and ultimately his face had to be reconstructed. The chances were he would have bled to death regardless of whether he could be evacuated by helicopter or not. He was on a foot patrol, and foot patrols are necessary. So, much as I feel for the poor woman at the loss of her son, and having to learn about his injuries (which were detailed at the inquest), I don't seriously believe a helicopter evacuation would have saved him. I can't blame her for lashing out though - she's lost a son in circumstances that were utterly terrible.

Sad paper - The Sun
Sad people - Sun readers
Really Sad people - Tory supporters/voters who feel the need to promote their warped views by denigrating the Prime Minister.

This can be quite a Sad place sometimes, because the Sad people are the most prolific (it seems to be all they do).

fwiw, I agree with poppy too.

PoolFC. Good post, I agree with you completely.

Pool sums it up perfectly

I detest new labour (and the sun) with a passion. but this is a cheap shot.

You know those cr.appy political cartoons you get in high brow
newspapers that are supposed to be satirical and funny but are
just plain sh.it. (The day today did a good spoof of them). Well
the torygraph did one a few months ago where Gordon Brown (in the
midst of all this bad eyesight, is he healthy enough to be PM nonsense)
is having an eye test with big letters at the top and getting smaller.
anyway the test board spelled out F A I L U R E, and Gordon was
reading it as S U C C E S S. thought they might get in trouble (basically
taking the p.iss out of his eyesight) for that
and it would become one of those mini-scandal things that get in the
papers and on the tv for a few days when nothing interesting is
happening. Can't be fekked with that paper anymore, just print
crossword off the interweb and use internet for any news. Is a shame
because it has v.good sports coverage imo.

I will never forgive him for saying "no more boom and bust". For
that reason he will always be a C U N T in my opiinion.

It's good to see cross-house support for this motion!

agree with Pool too

personally i think this government has done a terrible job at just about everything but this for me generated the first flicker of sympathy for Brown. The Sun is IMO a pathetic paper and anyone who buys it, for whatever reason, is helping to fuel the publication of this and more rubbish like it

Fk me. 3 people saying they agree with me. Has this ever happened before?

I'd cut and paste and back the whole thing up to disk if I were you!

Done, and published on http://www.poolfcisalwayswrong.com

That'll show those cnuts.

pool
a complete non story




you sad person
people going to war having to buy there own kit

:)

poofc talking out his ar.se as usual

Erm, that's not the story - see thread header.

blobby, that's not the story. This story is about the letter.

The story about failing to adequately support our troops is one for which the Labour government should be thoroughly castigated. Troops certainly have died because of lack of helicopters to move them round, but the kid in this case wasn't one of them. Equally troops failing to be supplied (as they were shipped out there) with standard equipment items is a shocking failure on the part of the current government.

its all about the war
you can hide behind what ever you like in this world
but the truth will always out

So why doesn't the Sun focus on the war rather than the letter?

There are plenty of criticisms which can be made regarding the PM's judgement on Afghanistan (ignoring requests from senior military staff, failing to supply troops properly, questions about whether or not we can even achieve anything in Afghanistan) but instead the Sun chooses to personalise the issue with a sideshow.

As I said, the letter story is a non-story and there are far bigger issues to be addressed regarding Afghanistan. The letter story is all about personal smearing.

Positively4thstreet
Off topic I know but do you have to be a member of their crossword club to print it off online, or can you get it for free?

Why would someone with a strong argument hide behind a weak one? Makes no sense IMO. I think Pool's analysis is spot on.

I think I could do the Sun crossword in the time it takes to print it off!

The torygraph one :)

yep you do dublin. £25 a year i think. there is a toughie one too inside which is quite good if the normal one gets too easy.

paper now costs £1/day which must make it close to £500/year including the weekend papers.

I've got to say that this is gutter journalism at its worst, using a lady going through an immense amount of personal grief and anguish to score cheap points off of a PM that they want to get rid of. All because when the inevitable happens and Labour are voted out at the general election the Sun can say 'It woz the Sun wot wun it !!!'.

I see Brown has now announced he's asking for a full report on the death.

The Prime Minister of the country should not be lead around on a leash by the tabloids. It was embarassing enough when he wished Susan**well.

she should be lead around by a leash

Don't expect things to improve after the inevitable change of government then:

DAVID Cameron entered the Jedward debate yesterday - admitting he finds the twins addictive.
The Tory leader said: "You only need to watch a few minutes and suddenly 40 minutes later, you're still nailed to your chair, waiting for the terrible twins to appear."

oh so he thinks they are terrible, what if his hurtful public comments send them into a suicidal depression , how can this monster be allowed to ever become prime minister ,,

mind you thinking about it i may vote for him after all

I was just trying to point out that it is a sad truth that when asked banal questions about the latest piece of trivial 'celebrity debate' or similar leading politicians are 'forced' to give a view otherwise they get accused of being stuck-up or out of touch. Remember the stick Brown got over biscuitgate - they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

i wasnt having a go at you , just having a joke