Sometimes you feel compelled to write articles that you realise are going to make you wildly unpopular. I fear this is one of those times.
I don’t wish to fall back into the blogging trap of commenting on the news headlines, but as someone who has no time for New Labour or for the war in Afghanistan, I think the media furore over Gordon Brown and his misspelt letter is entirely unjustified and really very nasty indeed, even by UK media standards.
It is not news that Gordon Brown cannot spell. Given his intelligence, background and rigorous education, he can only have this basic spelling difficulty because of a fundamental problem. Labels don’t especially help, but whether you call him dyslexic or say he just does not have the ability to spell however hard he tries, it comes to the same thing.
That too is not news. This from the Daily Telegraph doctor on 20 April 2009:
It was a bit of a shock to learn the Prime Minister mis-spelt the word “knowledge” (omitting the “d”) in his handwritten apology for those “prank” emails, with their lurid allegations, sent from his office. But close reading of the letter (taking into account his poor handwriting) reveals he also omits the “r” from “understand” and has obvious difficulty with “embarrassment”. These errors could scarcely be attributed to poor teaching as Scottish schools are notorious sticklers for correct spelling, so he must, I presume, have some form of dyslexia.
It has only recently become clear that while spelling (or any other routinely acquired mental attribute ?” reading, talking, elementary maths and so on) might seem quite simple and straightforward, they all involve processes in the brain that defy all imagining. Thus in the twinkling of a second that it takes to hear a word, the brain fragments it into a myriad of its constituent parts with 22 separate areas being involved in the interpretation of sound ?” for example distinguishing between the consonants “p” and “b”.
It is, in short, astonishing we can talk, read, or spell as well as we can. Thus the likelihood that the process might be slightly less than perfect in some ?” with the effect as seen in the PM’s letter ?” is quite high.
Brown has emotions like everyone else. His self-referencing is somewhat worrying. His genuine commitment to the casualties of Afghanistan is fuelled in part by an obsession with courage and overcoming adversity – on which he has terrible ghost-written books in his name and patronises awards – and it is obvious that this is because those are the qualities he believes he possesses personally. Equally his own awful loss of a child plainly has a role in his decision to write to the bereaved military families.
But it remains undeniably attractive in Brown, and a great kindness from an incredibly busy man, to write longhand letters to all the military bereaved families – something Blair nor Thatcher would have ever thought of, and which no other Prime Minister has done. Brown’s obvious difficulty in writing and spelling makes this more endearing, not less. If he had a secretary do it, or dashed them off on a word processor, the spelling would be perfect but surely it would mean much less than a note of real condolence from the Prime Minister direct to the bereaved, not intended for any other eyes?
Which brings me on to more delicate territory. Nothing can be worse than losing a child, and especially in a pointless war. The grief of Jacqui Janes must be dreadful, and convention restrains us from saying anything bad about anybody under the strain of bereavement. If my making unpleasant observations on Jacqui Janes would offend you, I am afraid you should stop reading.
But there was a calculation about her taping of her phone call with Gordon Brown, in cahoots with the Sun newspaper, which goes beyond the perfectly understandable emotional venting of feelings, or an intellectual desire to challege policy.
The fact that she chose to make this calculated move in collaboration with the newspaper which is the most important media propagandist for the war which claimed her son, raises further questions. I do not share the desire to elevate the woman as a hero (unlike for example Old Holborn).
http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2009/11/hissing-brown-and-s-word.html
Not everybody who has been bereaved was, is, or will be a saint or even a nice person.
I really am sorry I was forced to say that. But somebody had to.
Craig
fuck off.
Old Holborn,
For someone who claims to be a libertarian, you have a very aggressive attitude towards someone for merely holding a different opinion to yours.
Is Old Holborn a person? I thought he was maybe a viral ad for after-shave cigars – ‘Old Holborn – the smooth, choking, bilious smoke’
I’m afraid that many of these self-styled libertarians are but very old-fashioned Tories in disguise.
Indeed many of them seem to be out and out fascists. You only have to read their comments sections to see that that’s where their major support comes from.
Old Holborn is just another of Guido’s dreary muppets.
“a great kindness from an incredibly busy man”,
Not too busy to send young Jamie off to war though – frankly writing a hand written letter to his family after his death is the very least he, or any other leader could do, and I find it patronising in the extreme that you should insinuate that Mrs Janes should be in some way grateful that the Prime Minister ‘bothered’ to write to her. He can bother to enquire after the winner of x-factor, he can bother to speak to a group of Mums on Mumsnet, then he can certainly find time to bother with the interruption to his busy day represented by the minimum courtesy to a woman whose son has just died for his country.
If Mrs Janes decided to contact the Sun with her neighbours recording, c/f Radio5 live this morning, to publicise her heartfelt anger at the manner of her son’s death, that scarcely represents a recording ‘in cahoots’ with the Sun. I am sure that had she genuinely been ‘in cahoots’ with the Sun at that stage – and incidentally, strangly prescient that the Prime Minister would chose to telephone her – then the recording would have been of a much higher quality.
The Sun has, wisely or unwisely, chosen to run with a story that landed on its doorstep. To suggest even obliquely that Mrs Janes by design or unwittingly, was ‘in cahoots’ with them to make a political point is to do the lady a great disservice.
She is a lady who is not frightened of standing up to people a lot better equipped than she is to play with words in order to publicise the need for better equipment for young men like her late son.
Good for her.
Best part of this article…?
The Daily Telegraph Doctor article misspelt the word, er, mis-spelt…
“Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media”…
http://tinyurl.com/y8nhxu5
To my mind the “British Media” has always been corrupt. Murdoch just made it a LOT worse. The Murdoch empire should have been broken up a long time ago.
Libertarians can’t be aggresive?
Watch us. Then thank us. When we take Tories, Labour, the Libdems and the rest of YOUR enemies to the fucking cleaners.
Do we want power of any kind? Nope.
All we ask is that the “State” leaves us alone.
Now fuck off.
I find that effort by Anna Raccoon disturbingly ill-informed.
PMs have not hand written letters to the bereaved families of fallen soldiers. The reason they haven’t done this is because of precisely the dilemma Brown now finds himself in.
It was his big idea, and is now rebounding upon him.
As to the recording quality being better because The Sun were involved. Grow up!!
Even though The Sun is part of the sleaziest news empire on the planet, doesn’t mean they’re totally stupid.
Anyway, looks like this one has backfired on them big time. Not that they’ll be overly concerned about that, but I suspect it hasn’t helped the Tories as much as they’d hoped.
We’ll see more of this as the election looms.
It’s becoming clearer that the Tory leadership are almost as naive as Brown.
I don’t think Anna’s comment is “ill informed” at all – she’s just pointing out that if Brown can find time for photo-ops and public relations calls to x-factor winners then he’s clearly not so busy that he shouldnt be required to write to the parents of every soldier killed in a war he sent them to and it’s not “a great kindness” for him to do it.
OldHolborn wrote
“Libertarians can’t be aggresive?
Watch us. Then thank us. When we take Tories, Labour, the Libdems and the rest of YOUR enemies to the fucking cleaners.
Do we want power of any kind? Nope.
All we ask is that the “State” leaves us alone.
Now fuck off.””
Unless you specify what you think Craig’s said wrong – and why – you’re “now fuck off” is completely and utterly redundant.
Challenging state power is also worthless if you just exchange it for control by billionaires (like Murdoch who owns The Sun) and big multinational companies (like News International which owns The Sun), or criminal mafias.
Without any state that’s what you’re going to be left with – rule by companies and mafias, even more oppressive than that by the state because it will have NO democratic input to put any constraints on it whatsoever.
So, as any anarchist with a half-decent brain in his head (e.g Noam Chomsky) knows we require some form or balance between anarchy and order and some form of government. I completely agree that there have to be limits on how government power and that it’s undemocratic in a lot of ways at the moment, but having no government whatsoever would not be an improvement.
plus without any public services we’d be back to the Victorian era where the poor die in droves in the street or hovels of treatable diseases, hunger, cold, etc – you can see what a modern capitalist society without enough government would be like it you take a look at Brazil – heaven for 1% of the population, hell for the other 99%, the richest get richer and the majority die like flies
Maybe it would be a good idea if Brown could write to all the Iraqi and Afghan families whose relatives the British troops have slaugtered, maimed, buggered and tortured. Perhaps they wouldn’t be so particular about his spelling or their lack of equipment in defending themselves against the conquering barbarians.
Brown deserves everything he gets in my book. If you’re going to write a letter of that significance then you have to think about it and you have to do it right. Why didn’t he re-read what he’d written or have someone proof read it? It’s just careless and I don’t think he had Mrs. Janes grief or Mr Janes loss in mind. He scribbled it out as fast as possible and dropped in the out tray without a second thought. His telephone call was another missed opportunity where he failed to sincerely apologise and seemed to mount a defence of his letter instead admitting he was at fault. I don’t see why people are getting high and mighty about The Sun considering they have supported Labour for over a decade during some appalling events and that we all know that Labour’s lapdog, The Mirror would do exactly the same if Cameron were PM.
I certainly would not say it’s an act of kindness for Gordon Brown to write to bereaved families. Call me cynical, but I think it’s a PR effort.
If he was really upset about the dead, then he would stop his posturing with the US, gain some courage and bring our troops home from Afghanistan. The longer they are there the more damage will be done to this country in future years. The Afghanis will have long memories and with Britain begin the second biggest invaders, younger generations will pay the price.
Gordon Brown has had his chances to withdraw our troops but instead he prefers to play second fiddle to Obama, showing how spineless he is in making major security decisions for this country.
As for him continually mentioning he understands Ms Janes’ grief at losing a child let me say, losing a child who is days old and losing one whom you have nurtured to adulthood are incomparable.
I sympathise with anyone who loses a child, whether stillborn or in early infancy, but to lose an adult son or daughter in a war which is unwarranted and makes our country far less safe, is too hellish to comprehend.
He should leave the letter writing to those who have done it for generations – the regiment. They have the knowledge of the family and each letter written is specific to the individual. I have known many officer who poured over numerous letters of sympathy until they felt they got it right.
The mother is distraught. I will not comment of the taping of the phone call as I believe a friend of Ms Janes was involved.
If only we could see what people are thinking…
http://tinyurl.com/y8ep5vw
I wonder what Blair is thinking…
tinyurl.com/yc2x4an
@ Duncan 10.07pm
Of course her comments are ill-informed.
Brown has broken with tradition to send these personal handwritten condolences.
The reason they weren’t sent before and PMs kept their distance from the raw human impact of things like this, is because of precisely a potential for the problem Brown has now found himself with.
They were watching their arses. He wasn’t! Clearly he’s not quite as calculating as some would have us believe.
She also claimed that the telephone recording would have been of higher quality had The Sun been there when the call arrived. How naive and ridiculous is that? They’re not that stupid!
A man I dislike intensly for all manner of reasons said:
“Brown is a good man, but wrong. Blair was a bad man”.
That was Norman bleedin Tebbit!
Yet, there’s something very simple and human and everyday and banal, in that statement that I think we can all relate to.
FWIW I dislike intensely the direction this govt has taken over the past 12 years but I blame Blair and his inner circle for that, and the opportunity provided by our very undemocratic system of government.
Fair points Ruth, Doug and Subrosa – though Ruth i don’t think all our troops have been involved in all these things by any means – some of them are the witnesses who came forward to give evidence against those who did (and those who did mostly did so on the orders of superiors going right the way up to cabinet level)
I completely agree with you though that it’s as much fanatical bigotry to think all British people are right and anyone British troops were sent to attack was in the wrong as it is for Al Qaeda to think that all Muslims are right and all non-Muslims in the wrong.
Nationalism can be just as dangerous as religion if either is taken too far.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Whatever I think of Gordon Brown as a politician and I don’t rate him highly at all.. I admire him for taking the time to write the letter of condolence. So what if he has a problem with his spelling plus his poor eyesight. Is that really important. This letter should be accepted as it was meant.. a genuine move from a very busy man. All this criticism from so many sources.. could any of these people cope with the work schedule and criticism a prime minister has to deal with?.. I very much doubt it. Why are we in this country so ready to pull people to pieces.. While I feel very strongly for this poor lady who has lost her son she has also lost her dignity at a very painful time, but there again pain and bereavement make us act out of character, so who are we to throw stones… what would we have done and how would we have behaved.. none of us know until we are in that situation. I pray that this situation will settle down and everything will be put in proportion.
Do you have a tendency to repeat yourself, Rosemary? If so – please allow me to assure you, we get your point. 🙂
I do agree with you on the whole, fwiw. I disagree in one respect – coping with grief does not usually involve running to a filthy rag like the Sun, and then allowing their goons to organise a sting/ ambush on someone very likely to telephone you to apologise for sending condolences inappropriately.
She played a role as if Brown had personally murdered her son with his own hands. Anyone joining the army knows being killed, whether in glorious battle or dying like a dog for no reason, might well be part of the job. It’s not just about making your mother proud while you wear a smart uniform.
Now if she was the mother of someone blown up in a wedding party in Afghanistan by our heros over there, I could understand her total outrage – but even then, calling in a filthy, degenerate newspaper to cover the story would be hard to understand.
“The one thing that won’t go on record is how much the Sun has paid Jacqui Janes for being their patsy in this sordid affair.”
According to a Radio5 report, nothing.
Alan Douglas
Glenn, she may well think Brown murdered her son. That is her privilege. You obviously known nothing about military life. You obviously have never witnessed the grief involved. Until you do I suggest you limit your uninformed civilian opinions to facts.
Suffice to say most of our military are very highly qualified individuals who offer to serve Queen and country, not for money or glory, but as a worthwhile career in the protection of our people and our islands. Many could gain far more financially working in private business.
Without them Glenn, you possibly would not be happily typing away on your keyboard.
‘Without them Glenn, you possibly would not be happily typing away on your keyboard.’
Is that because Saddam might have got Glenn with his weapons of mass destruction?
Subrosa: Instead of awing us with reference to superior knowledge and understanding, why don’t you make a point, instead of blowing smoke about how little I can possibly know compared with your Great Insights?
I was talking about facts – and I mean facts, rather than the refuting of straw man arguments and making assumptions, of which your 23:52 post entirely consisted. Maybe in your world, we should only have military, ex-military and military family commenting on anything at all concerning war and death waged in all our names? Even when this specific item has been the primary news for two days?
Sorry mate, this isn’t America. You can’t run that crap past us here, although it works in America very well. Don’t allude to your Great Military Understanding – articulate it, if you can. I’m not going to be scared off with this “you’ve never worn a uniform” crap, and few others will either. Until this becomes a military state, that dog just ain’t gonna hunt.
And to further your erudition, a lot of the military sign up precisely because they want security and can’t get a job anywhere else, particularly in America (and Iraq, and Afghanistan for that matter). Heard about all these South Wales boys from the valleys are signing up in record numbers? Guess they must have suddenly been overcome by a mass “Queen and Country” urge.
Please don’t tell me that our boys out there are saving my miserable ability to type, because that’s just risible. The last war which genuinely needed waging occurred before I was born, and that is a war in which I would have been fighting myself, on an entirely voluntary basis.
Subrosa, I too, would like to know why Glenn wouldn’t be typing happily away at his computer. Is there something that’s being hidden away from the general public but is known by the Few? Is it in reality related to the economy? That the economy is so, so fragile that the military ‘rape’ of other people’s lands and resources including opium are shoring up the economy. Surely we should know these facts?