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67 Comments
- Vaktathi, on 11/09/2009, -2/+117While some may have a problem with Brown on a political level (and there's lots of good reasons to), I'm not entirely sure why this woman has it out for him after sending her a hand written note of condolence rather than a copy/paste rubber stamp letter. I'd have thought that a hand written letter would have meant more than one of the pre-written template letters.
So the guy has bad handwriting, get over it. He took the time to personally write a letter by hand instead of have some secretary call up a standard word document and stamp a signature on it. - stutimandal, on 11/09/2009, -2/+77It's the thought that counts.
- fyi2, on 11/09/2009, -1/+59Also the guy has issues with his sight, he is responsible for a huge amount of data across his desk daily. We have to allow reasonable humans to make reasonable mistakes. Would I vote for him, no way! However that does not stop him being a decent guy who knows he is responsible for sending men in to harms way, and does the honourable thing when someone dies, who is executing his government's policy.
Way blown out of proportion.
PS I understand the mum's pain, but the media could have had a little cop on! - gritta, on 11/09/2009, -1/+54I absolutely hate Gordon Brown and Labour but I think it is quite nice that he spends the time to handwrite a personal letter to the family. With all of the brave soldiers losing their lives that must take quite some time.
- Tyrghast, on 11/09/2009, -0/+43A simple misspelling is nothing to be enraged over. She could have simply received a generic letter with her son's name filled in a blank spot in the first sentence, with someone's signature printed on.
- SpruceCaboose, on 11/09/2009, -0/+32I am with you. Some people just have bad handwriting, but the fact that it was a written letter and not a form letter shows that he cares at least a bit.
- Alli3388, on 11/09/2009, -1/+29I know she's a grieving mother, but that doesn't change the fact that she's coming off as a whiny bitch about this. It's clearly an honest mistake, and for her to cause this kind of angry stink is just so irritating. As the first post succinctly points out, it is the thought that counts!!! Really, she's doing no favours to the memory of her son with all this.
- digghasnoethics, on 11/09/2009, -0/+20He's blind in one eye, and is having problems with the other.
- big_daddy, on 11/09/2009, -1/+21She is just pissed off she lost her son. Fair enough, but I think she would also complain if she received a template letter from a printer. Maybe he has dyslexia?
- drunkirish, on 11/09/2009, -1/+21She should feel lucky she didn't get one of these:
Deer Ms janes,
I'm sorry for your kid that done dyed. Please except my condolinses.
Bee proud that your son Janie was fightin terrrists for keepin his country free.
Letter accomplishd,
President Bush - MattBlackCat, on 11/09/2009, -0/+20The Sun and News International are scum for intruding on a families grief to further their own political agenda
- OCDMedic, on 11/09/2009, -1/+20Looks like someone found the thesaurus add-on for Firefox.
- tomjowitt, on 11/09/2009, -1/+20It's just whipped-up tabloid rage that managed to break into the mainstream press. I'm not a huge fan of Brown but he does only have one eye and has difficulty writing. Considering how much he deals with in one day it's a bit much to blame him. Saying that, these things should have been checked by an underling as they're just asking to be put in the spotlight considering the current opposition to the war.
- norman619, on 11/09/2009, -1/+19The fact that the man took the time to actually WRITE a letter instead of some form letter says a lot about the man. I think this woman is simply lashing out at him out of grief. I also think the media is exploiting that for political reasons, ratings, and to sell papers which is disgusting.
- chrissku, on 11/09/2009, -0/+16Nothing to see here. Gordon Brown did the right thing and sent out a hand written letter to the soldiers family. He is human and mistakes do happen. I would venture to guess that he wouldn't have sent it out if he knew there was an error.
- SpruceCaboose, on 11/09/2009, -0/+15He wrote the letter, and that is why it became public. The letter came first, then the public outcry, then the phone call to apologize for the (possibly) misspelled last name. It appears as if he writes letters to all the families of people killed in the service.
- iDiggYa, on 11/09/2009, -2/+16Oh my god! Was the letter alright?!
Seriously, my condolences to the loss of Jacqui Janes. - ultraseamus, on 11/09/2009, -1/+13Well, he did use an awful lot of big words. I pretty much just inserted random substitutes for every word I did not understand. I dugg him down because I do not see how devotion to crispy bacon has anything to do with this article.
- reaper527, on 11/09/2009, -0/+11he made the same mistake more than once, which tells me its very possible that his name was misspelled in the official record that was handed to the pm. a careless mistake would be if there was an obvious misspelling, and that isn't what happened here. she is definitely being unreasonable. he is taking the time to hand write a letter instead of having his secretary type something and putting a computer generated signature on it.
- Rain12913, on 11/09/2009, -1/+11It was actually kind of an awkward sentence.
- stubear, on 11/09/2009, -1/+11"On the other hand, there are times any mistake, honest or not, is completely unacceptable."
And this is CLEARLY not one of those times. - zyklon, on 11/09/2009, -2/+11People will complain about ANYTHING.
- DooM, on 11/09/2009, -1/+10Yeah - but, I also don't blame this mother. I think I'd probably be snapping and freaking out about butter on my toast if my child had been killed. I think it's silly that anyone printed this or might use it to attack the man - he's writing handwritten notes ffs.
- FallenTurtles, on 11/09/2009, -0/+9I resent that! You're an insult to everything I stand for!
- RealmDown, on 11/09/2009, -2/+10I rather enjoyed your polysyllabic erudition. It was a pleasant change.
- anonymous10, on 11/09/2009, -1/+9I don't think there's any cognitive dissonance in their efforts, they know exactly what they're doing whether or not it's agreeable.
As for the term 'administration?' The UK doesn't have an administration, it has a cabinet, and that mistake coupled with your aggression is why you're getting buried. - elchispito, on 11/09/2009, -2/+9No I dugg him down for being pretentious.
- Pooley, on 11/09/2009, -4/+11If you want to put Gordon Brown on the spot, ask him why Guardsman Janes died on a fool's errand, not why he has crappy handwriting.
- breadfred, on 11/09/2009, -0/+6It is the UK - we got loads of crap 'news' papers here.
- norman619, on 11/09/2009, -0/+6What dose this have to do with a sympathy letter to the family of a fallen soldier? So he misspelled the name. I have a name which is misspelled all the time even when people have my ID right in front of them. The spelling does not matter. It is the thought that counts in situations like these.
- zyklon, on 11/09/2009, -0/+5Then sit down.
- scuba7183, on 11/09/2009, -1/+6Being partially blind would cause problems if he was copying the name from another source
- spworm, on 11/09/2009, -0/+5Big words do not a beautiful sentence make.
- frequentFlyer, on 11/09/2009, -1/+6LOLed. hard.
- LokitheComplex, on 11/09/2009, -0/+5To be honest I'd worry more about the inept war rather than the spelling. Running to the Sun here is like running to Fox news. The Sun is the mouthpiece of Murdoch who loved the idea of the necon war tour of the middle east. A tour like that would have guaranteed a lot more letters.
- FallenTurtles, on 11/09/2009, -0/+5But this chair is uncomfortable. How dare you!
- big_daddy, on 11/09/2009, -0/+5Reason I think possible dyslexia is the misspelt words, which you wouldn't necessarily expect with partial sight.
- npburow, on 11/09/2009, -0/+4Why is this in the news? And why did I read nearly half that article?.. what a waste of time.
- theuniversal, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4Yeah, the political lesson here for the PM is that he shouldn't bother trying to write a real letter. Much safer to sign a form letter, or even safer yet, just have the military send something with nothing at all signed personally from the PM.
- borez, on 11/09/2009, -0/+4Yep you're right, my bad.
I get a little pissed with my government when remembrance day comes around, I was speed reading and looking for an excuse to have a go and I misread. My apologies. - vinod1978, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3Can't blame the mother, but you have to blame the media.
I respect Brown for writing the letter in the 1st place. Tell me another PM, president, or official that does that...
I guess the Sun wants to exploit anything to make a buck. Someone should do a story on the Sun and their lack of ethics. - insertAliasHere, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3As in, angry...yeah, I can see that.
- yt2005, on 11/10/2009, -0/+3Good point, normen.
- Nodaki, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3drunkirish wins at the Internet today!
- Vaktathi, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Wait what?
It states quite directly in the article if you had read it that he did apologize in his phone call. Did you read the article?
The whole banks versus soldiers thing is an entirely different topic of debate. It really boils down to her flipping out about a hand-written sympathy letter that wasn't to her perfect standards instead of a boilerplate letter sent out with a stamp signature. - stubear, on 11/10/2009, -1/+3@MWeather,
Perhaps he did take care and someone else got the name wrong? The article did state he incorrectly mispronounced the name when reading off the recent list of dead soldiers before the House of Commons. I'd be willing to bet a subordinate compiled a list of names for Mr. Brown to write letters to their families and that list said James, not Janes. It's an honest mistake and while it would have been better had he not made it, it's ridiculous to think even for a second he meant any disrespect by it and his apology should have been accepted by Mrs. Janes. If she is unwilling to accept it then she has an axe to grind and nothing will assuage her. - SpruceCaboose, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2Not a problem. I was just trying to clarify.
- MrChunks, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2Particularly us Brits. It's the very reason we don't try and solve our problems. We'd have nothing to complain about. We're not happy unless we're complaining and if we didn't have anything to complain about, we'd complain about that. We're not happy unless we're unhappy.
See, I'm even whinging about our complaining nature. ***** Brits. - Vaktathi, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2Well, there's no reason for Brown to lie about apologizing, and he took the time to personally write a letter by hand to this woman for the loss of her son. Methinks the woman at this point isn't entirely being truthful.
If she's going to go off on a giant rant and ignore the thought behind the letter and just to make a personal political grandstand, I'm not exactly sympathetic to that. It sucks her son died, that I can be sympathetic for, but not about her flipping out on TV and ranting on a guy that took time to personally hand write a condolences note.
Sorry, just can't do it. - frequentFlyer, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2That's right nice of 'im to do that, yeh?
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