Occasional Ramblings

"I misunderstood what she said". Could these be the words that define the outcome of the forthcoming election? Those words were uttered by Gordon Brown after what turned out to be a turbulent day for the Prime Minister.

He had earlier chatted with a woman who's family had voted Labour in the past. Among her concerns were the number of immigrants coming to this country, including those from Eastern Europe. They parted quite amicably shortly after.

However when Mr. Brown was in his car ( forgetting his microphone was still on ) he complained that he was not happy to have been paired up with the woman, in the process calling her a bigoted woman.

It was only later while being interviewed on BBC Radio 2 that he found out that what he had said was now national news. In an attempt to repair his reputation he later visited the woman at her home to apologise personally, uttering the words at the beginning of this post in his explanation to the press.

Do we believe that he didn't understand her? If he really cannot understand plain speaking is he really competent enough to run the country?