Reply to: Does Gordon Brown give a stuff about our troops?

[TimberWolf]

He's on a bit of a hiding to nothing speaking on the phone to a mother grieving over the death of a son. I'd say he got off lightly.

[Zippy]

Of course he cares. How could you not care?
Please try and make a distinction between your feelings on his handling of the economy and GB as a man.

[RichardCranium]

Firstly, I think Gordo is an incompetent nincompoop who should not be allowed into the House of Frazer with his pocket money, never mind the Commons.

As regards his "hastily written sympathy letter", the guy just can't win. If he doesn't write (as George W. Bush never did), then he's accused of not caring. If he writes, but it's a typed letter that he signs, he's going to be accused of delegating it to someone else, and he probably didn't even sign it himself, etc. etc. If he writes a handwritten letter, then he's damned because his handwriting isn't neat. That's how he writes, though. It's not a lack of caring, or any less, it's how the guy writes, FFS..

WHS.

I was amazed to discover he makes the time to write these letters.

I think the mother was just demonstrating grief when she complained - he even spoke to her to apologise, FFS - and the media used it to take an easy shot at him.

But then, that's all our media is for for, isn't it? No arguments, no debate, no "educate and inform". Just X Factor, partially exposed tits and cheap shots. They're the real tulipbags.

[BoredBloke]

Lastly, he doesn't seem to understand the principle of balancing the books.

You are wrong on this. he understands it but finds it difficult to do, he prefers to let the books fall onto whichever side they like while he continues to piss money down the drain.

[Doggy Styles]

I imagine he does care - seriosuly he is the PM.

I think he does too. But I believe he literally doesn't know what to do for the best or how to handle it.

[original PM]

I imagine he does care - seriosuly he is the PM.

On the other hand the guys who are out there fighting are doing the job they signed up to do.

Nobody ever has enough equipment etc - I mean ffs what should we do give everyone a tank?

I do feel for the troops out on the front line doing their job and the families back home worrying about them and wish them the best though.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

He cares as much as any PM does/did.

[minestrone]

Some people just cannot write well and sadly I am one of them, no amount of care and time could make my writing neat. In fact at school they never tried to teach me joined up writing 'cos of my dyslexia so I can only write very badly in block capitals.

Embarrassing yes, but that is just the way it is, it is pretty pathetic this was the main news story today.

[Diestl]

She should be glad, some familes got a text

Soz about son in war,
l8trz

GB

[BrilloPad]

He would care if he thought he would win an extra vote or two.

[EternalOptimist]

it was ever thus

the day the tigers broke free


And kind old King George
Sent Mother a note
When he heard that father was gone.
It was, I recall,
In the form of a scroll,
With gold leaf and all.
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away.
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp.

[TheFaQQer]

If I write a handwritten letter to my daughter's school explaining why she's been off sick, I make sure it's neat. If he's writing to someone who's lost a loved one, the least he can do is make sure it's neat, and that he spells the surname correctly. FFS!

Your handwriting is obviously neat, then. Gordon Brown's handwriting is not neat - this has been shown in any number of documents, letters and notes that he has written. There is nothing in this letter which indicates that he rushed it - only that he wrote it by hand.

And, to be honest, I can't really see anything where he got it wrong in the letter - quite often my wife can't tell whether I have written an 'n' or an 'm' in my writing, yet that doesn't mean that the shopping list I am writing has been written in a rush or without thought, it's just that she can't read my writing.

Perhaps he should have torn up the letter and started again when he corrected his mistake with the first name, rather than correcting it. Perhaps he should have a bottle of Tippex handy. If the only thing I had to worry about was whether the prime minister wrote neatly or not, then I'd be in a much happier place than I am now.

[AtW]

Regardless of the letter, Brown seems like a rabbit caught in the headlights with this war. I don't think he knows what to do, and has sort of ignored it hoping it would go away.

War? That gives him no problems, it's the collapsing economy build on debt that really got him.

[Doggy Styles]

Give the guy a break. He is obviously a retard. Either that or a very good actor, like Benny from Crossroads.

Or John Mills in Ryan's Daughter.

[TimberWolf]

Give the guy a break. He is obviously a retard. Either that or a very good actor, like Benny from Crossroads.