The Sun is insisting they are not running Jacqui Janes as part of a campaign and that the recording made of Gordon Brown’s phone call to the bereaved mother was done spontaneously by a friend who was at the Janes’s home.
Mrs Janes hits the loudspeaker button and the friend puts their BlackBerry near enough to pick up sound. The call came at 10pm on Sunday night and there was no Sun minder on the premises.
No 10 will take some convincing.
They think The Sun is in full political war mode and that James Murdoch – who authorised the decision to declare for David Cameron on the edition after Gordon Brown’s leader’s speech at conference – sees The Sun as part of the sinking element of his inheritance and useful primarily as a political weapon to serve his other commercial interests.
Anyway, we now await Gordon Brown’s press conference starting any minute and brought forward so it doesn’t clash with coverage of the returning dead soldiers to Wootton Bassett.
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I cant stand GB . I believe he has bought this country to the brink of ruin.Yet i feel sorry for him.I am sure he wrote the letter with good intent, as i am sure he phoned Mrs Janes with true regret.
Both incidents do show the flaws in his personality.An almost childish inability to write correctly and acceptance of imperfection when completed.His attempt to correct his failings with the telephone call was lamentable.He should have said his regrets and not been drawn into an argument over his conduct of the war.
To me it shows a leader who is not fit for purpose
Does it matter if it was a friend or the Sun who recorded the conversation. The issue is what Brown originally wrote and what was said during the telephone conversation. Who recorded it is not important.
And when I listened to the conversation and saw the letter I was pretty disappointed in the person we have a our PM. It is not about disability (spelling, partial sight, etc.) but about taking care. If another national leader had suffered a great loss, would Brown have written a similar letter. No, he would have taken more trouble and more care and maybe got somebody else to check it.
If this is the best he can do I suggest he is moved to a more junior role where he can receive better management supervision.
Memo to Gordon Brown: When you’re in a hole, stop digging !
Although the original letter certainly looked poor, some credit must go to a busy PM with known sight problems (and probably worse than has been admitted), making the effort to write so personally to the families of war victims.
But his (relatively small) writing errors were then compounded by his being drawn into an unwinnable public interface with the grieving mother, whether or not the Sun was a party to its recording. His predecessor would have sailed through it but, unfortunately, Brown is not only unable to emulate that quality of ‘performance’, but also seems incapable of comprehending how his public perception is diminished daily with every passing incident.
Not the man for the moment.
The influence of large media moguls and politics is what is lamentable here. yes GB should have checked the letter, but the fact that he did not is not acceptance of imperfection, but I suggest a sign of his true intent, that was to offer HIS condolences to a grieving mother, whose child and family had given so much. It was a letter of condolences. Do we now start to check the grammar and spelling of the cards we send, the dress sense of the funeral goers, the mutterings of the masses. I think that if we venture down this route, we are surely on the road to our own demise as a caring, consistent society with high aspirations, not a vengeful one that is pupetted by those with the tools of influence and the ear of the masses.
The use of the telephone recording is astonishing in its transparency by the Sun to use grief to its own ends. I would venture to say that it is despicable. I am only sorry that Mrs Janes has allowed herself to be drawn into the debacle.
The grief of others should not be traded for the price of tomorrows chip paper.
As for politics, today GB, tomorrow Cameron ( have forgotten his first name, such is the appeal of them),the blame game will continue.
Good thing we are not still using quill and ink – no way anyone would buy his memoirs !
I’m not political! But on listening to what’s been said by both sides; I feel I need to respond to this media driven story. I believe that Mr Brown done his duty as any prime minister should have. What would this mother expect from the prime minister? During all the other wars the UK has fought, have the prime ministers from the past & the royals sent condolences to all our service men that have given there lives by there own hand writing! No, only the chosen few for outstanding bravery, a hand full; I WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE ALL THAT DIE FOR ONES COUNTRY ARE BRAVE! Ms Jacqui Janes is being used by the media/ Sun news paper, which is for the working class, and only is interested is selling papers and to further damage Mr Brown’s standing in the polls; that is a fact. I come from a working class family.
Ms Jacqui Janes would not think of taping such a conversation? If so, how much is she being offered in this recession: You can see now why there is a decline in printed trash, (Sun News) & others, it’s all political, what a sad time we live in.
One day we will have a leader that will take them on & win!!
This is a new low for the sun and now I wonder about the motives of a person who would record a conversation of a phone call with the PM without his knowledge to then giving it to a newspaper with a vendetta against the man. I’m certainly cynical enough to believe a substantial amount of money has passed hands.
This is shallow reporting of a man who is nearly blind, I don’t agree with Brown or his party but I believe that this is nothing more than bullying and picking on him for every flaw, did Blair ever write a handwritten note to a family of a solider? What’s more unfortunate that this is almost discriminating against people with poor eye sight and that it’s against a generally disliked figure in politics is OK.
Give Brown and break and lets decide the upcoming election on policies not personal vendettas
I think most right-minded(?) people agree with Brown on this. We’d rather the most cack-handed concern than nothing.
After listening to the telephone conversation it is clear that Mrs Janes is grieving and angry and hitting out at Gordon Brown who she blames for the death of her son. I am not a Gordon Brown fan but I feel sorry for him because he is in an imposable situation that has clearly been set up by somebody. Whether it was the Sun or not is up for debate. All I will say is that it is a remarkably high quality recording for a conversation played threw a speaker phone and the recorded onto a recorder which was held up to it.
What annoys me…She Say’s What about the helicopters that got sent back…he explains about altitude…and then she says oh yes I know about that…Then try’s another question…that annoyed me
how can anybody say Gordon Brown was set up.He or his advisers decided to write a letter.That wasn’t suggested by the Sun or Mrs Janes.That it was so badly written can be laid at no door other than Gordons.If it had been correctly written, there would have been no adverse reaction.Anyone who uses the excuse of his eyes fails to see the distress such a badly written letter could,and obviously, did cause.If his eyes are so bad ,he should not have attempted the writing.
As for the recording, how was anyone to know he would phone personally????
When someone tapes a conversation between a grieving mother, who is in pain and hitting out at a man who she blames for the death of her son. Which is human nature and understandable. Then sells/gives it to a national newspaper. Who publish it and put their own cynical spin on it. There is no other way to describe it except as a set up.
The Sun have only spelt the name wrong themselves
http://www.anorak.co.uk/230333/politicians/the-sun-joins-gordon-brown-in-disrespecting-jacqui-janes-by-calling-her-jacqui-jones.html
With everyone using computers these days in their work handwriting isn’t what it was – mine certainly isn’t.
Shakepseare couldn’t spell, Einstein is thought to have been dyslexic, Winston Churchill was called a duffer at school and most doctors have handwriting only a pharmacist can read. Foolish are those who judge a person by their handwriting and spelling.
GB doesn’t have the best eyesight, didn’t start the war and takes the trouble to write personally to bereaved families. Then he gets a big slagging off for it. It is churlish to be so ‘offended’ when he could have easily got some civil servant to write a beautifully typed letter and scribbled a signature on (or even have an electronic signature copied in) without even reading or thinking about the letter. Would that have made the woman less offended? I know what I’d prefer.
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