Epic facepalm.

I think this also exposes something else. The power battles behind the scenes. This Labour article sums some of this up, http://www.gofourth.co.uk/you-cant-buy-our-election-murdoch as well as this SSP article http://eastdunbartonshiressp.blogspot.com/2010/04/it-was-son-wot-lost-it.html

What also happened here was a case of Murdoch’s revenge. Brown was caught out in a way that is kind of an unwritten “breach of conduct”. The press don’t do this kind of thing. Sky did today – and had reason to.

Not only was this a turning point and an upping of the game by James Murdoch, who was under pressure to get results after persuading his father to throw millions behind the Tory campaign, but also a complete surrender by the BBC. The BBC carried the “bigot” remark first to Brown (on the Jeremy Vile show) and then News 24 running it as their only story from 11am to 6pm solid almost as a sister station to the despicable Fox like Sky news. Of course this is because the BBC MUST cosy up to the tories, and don’t have to cosy up to labour because of the way it is funded (That fuck Nick Robinson and his rt wing minions had a field day). Cosying up to the Tories is more in the interests of the BBC Trust than to Labour who have, regardless of how we as left socialists think of them, and even though they are creating markets within the structures of the BBC, a committment to the way the BBC is funded.

Yes, condemn- nay SLAM Labour for Brown and his political elites first exposure to the results of their disgusting “British Jobs for British People” sloganeering, but also recognise the fact that this was more than a firing across the bows by the Murdoch empire – the people who want not only the Tories in power, but to obliterate tthe voice of dissent (ours).

Woman: The three main things I had drummed in when I was a child was education, health service, and helping people who are vulnerable. But there’s too many people who aren’t vulnerable, but they can claim, the people who are vulnerable can’t claim, can’t get it.
GB: But they shouldn’t be doing that, there is no life on the dole for people any more, if you’re unemployed, you’ve gotta go back to work.
Woman: It’s, it’s, you can’t say anything about the immigrants because… they’re saying that you’re a.. But all these Eastern Europeans what come here, where are they flocking from?
GB: *Incomprehensible*.. British people have gone into Europe, there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well.

To me, that sounds like it was the same conversation. I don’t think it was a coincidence that she brought up Eastern Europeans right there. I think she was trying to make a point about how she feels that Britain is swamped with immigrants who claim benefits while British people can’t get dole money when they genuinely need it. I think that’s what she was trying to say, although I could be wrong.

I think it’s quite a sad video really. Clearly this woman isn’t a nasty person. She believes in the old Labour party, the welfare state, helping those in need. But she’s been disappointed by them, and in the absence of a Labour party she can believe in, she’s fallen into the trap of believing immigration myths, believing that immigration is at least partially to blame for the problems of poverty and deprivation created by capitalism and the right wing parties in charge of Britain. I think the Labour party have a HUGE part to play in this situation arising, and that makes me really sad, and I hope GB’s mishandling of the situation doesn’t lead to this woman and people in similar situations moving politically to the right – the opportunity is there to be exploited by bastards in politics and the media.

‘Undoubtedly what she was saying, which basically amounted to ‘Eastern Europeans come here to scrounge off benefits’, WAS bigoted.’

I have to admit, at first I agreed with you. And Brown. But actually, the only thing she said was actually: ‘You can’t say anything about immigrants … All these eastern Europeans – where are they coming from?’

Actually, she says nothing about benefits. Or scrounging. She is a Labour supporter, and it is a bit much to read into those comments that she thinks that people from Poland, Slovakia etc. are scroungers, so I think you’re being a bit unfair to her. I agree with everything you’re saying about the media, the fact that the media has completely ignored that what the woman said is, at least, questionable and offensive in itself to some people. But I’m just trying to be a bit cautious I guess. Like you say, low-lying racism is everywhere, created by poverty, the vast majority of people being ignored by politicians and the media. She does say ‘you can’t say anything about immigrants’ which suggests to me this woman feels more ignored and isolated rather than actually bigoted. To argue that she is ‘misinformed’ is a bit like crying ‘false consciousness’… From my experience, simply trying to argue with people to win them round to your thinking on immigration can nigh on impossible. I’m not sure how to best deal with this, and I’d be curious to find out what others think about this. But I just thought this was a point worth raising

Most concerns about immigration aren’t based on people intrinsically hating foreigners, but on class concerns like housing, jobs, services etc. You can’t blame the mass unemployment in the UK just now on immigration, cos most of the time during mass immigration unemployment in the UK was pretty low. But the fact that you can get a ‘reserve army of labour’ of cheap Polish or other migrant workers does mean some unscrupulous employers will use that to keep wages low.

Ultimately though, theres two people who decide how much you get paid – the govt who decides what the minimum wage is, and the employer who decides whether to pay you that or something higher, and thats who the fire should be directed against.