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[tunnie]

I just can't believe this - I am about to defend Gordon Brown!

Sorry, folks, but he is absolutely correct to hand write a personal letter to the next of kin of soldiers who die on active service. 

Of course, being Gordon Brown, he may well be doing it for the wrong reasons, but it would be churlish to suggest that.  It's the right thing to do, so don't criticise him for it.

I mean, he couldn't very well get a secretary to write it - the press would be all over him for not taking the time to do it himself.  And if he used his PC (should he actually possess such a thing), he'd be open to accusations that it's just a computer generated letter, showing once again that he doesn't care.

No, it's absolutely the right thing to do, for once.  But, of course, being Gordon Brown, he's not thought things through, not paid attention to details and not given the least attention to what people will think. 

I've got terrible handwriting, so, where possible, I type.  But I always hand write letters of condolence - it does show you've made a special effort to express yourself well on this particular sad occasion - wouldn't want anyone to think I'm recycling a previous effort, even if that's exactly what I am doing.  But I wouldn't send a letter with mistakes in it - I would re-read and re-write as many times as it was necessary to ensure that what I sent couldn't cause any offence. 

I'm too nice to be Prime Minister.

I agree your toughts ..but an unreadable letter is not so meaningful and would be much better an old type writer writing with a prime minister sign imho

Of course, totally agree 

But!

In such a sensative case, he should have proof read it, to make sure it was all good. Someone other than the PM should have ok'd it for release as well.

[webby23]

The sooner that idiot is out of No. 10 the better, how arrogant is he to not even check that the grieving families name was spelt correctly....

Total total idiot.....

 

[Banjax]

I should add it was for this:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Gordon-Brown-Disrespectful-Says-Mother-Of-Guardsman-Jamie-Janes-After-PM-Gets-Soldiers-Name-Wrong/Article/200911215445164?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15445164_Gordon_Brown_Disrespectful_Says_Mother_Of_Guardsman_Jamie_Janes_After_PM_Gets_Soldiers_Name_Wrong

When someone looses their Son, you would expect the PM to at least use (as i do) his PC as a spell checker!

One of the mistakes i cannot understand is: greatst for greatest, thats a typo I would do on a PC typing too fast, not when writing a letter  :-/

I'll disable my 'Nickbat' mode now!

have you loost your spellchecker tunnie? 


as far as it goes, it was good of him to send a personal letter - i don't know many world leaders who would take the time, plus its a lot better than some standard sympathy template he just signs.
his handwriting is notoriously bad due in part to poor eyesight in his one good eye, which is why he uses a marker pen to write.
the mistakes are regrettable, but not deliberate.....seems GB can't catch a break - plus i would assume he has advisers to get the details like names correct

old GB - even when he does the right(write) thing he gets clobbered 

[jereboam]

old GB - even when he does the right(write) thing he gets clobbered 

True.  But it's not just that.  When he does the right thing, he doesn't do it in the right way. 

He just doesn't seem to understand that just because he thinks it's right, that doesn't actually make it right.  And  just because he thinks it's right, that doesn't mean everybody else is going to see it that way. 

Come to think of it, my wife behaves like that...

The worrying thing, though, is that Gordon's supposed to be running the country.  I think my wife might do a better job.

I'd emigrate...

[waspy]

What we have here is "a young man has lost his life in defence of his/our country & if the PM is to write a personal letter to his family then at least get the bloody dictionary out FFS"

[Lazydocker]

I can't believe I'm going to defend him too... This has b een blown out of all proportion and he's actually spoken to the lady concerned on the phone too.

Yes, someone should have ensured he had the correct names but a handwritten letter, no matter how bad the writing is, is far more personal and meaningful than anything thrown out by a computer!

I'm not excusing the fact he got it wrong but his heart was (for once) in the right place

[Dishevelled Den]

I should add it was for this:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Gordon-Brown-Disrespectful-Says-Mother-Of-Guardsman-Jamie-Janes-After-PM-Gets-Soldiers-Name-Wrong/Article/200911215445164?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15445164_Gordon_Brown_Disrespectful_Says_Mother_Of_Guardsman_Jamie_Janes_After_PM_Gets_Soldiers_Name_Wrong

When someone looses their Son, you would expect the PM to at least use (as i do) his PC as a spell checker!

One of the mistakes i cannot understand is: greatst for greatest, thats a typo I would do on a PC typing too fast, not when writing a letter  :-/

I'll disable my 'Nickbat' mode now!

have you loost your spellchecker tunnie? 


as far as it goes, it was good of him to send a personal letter - i don't know many world leaders who would take the time, plus its a lot better than some standard sympathy template he just signs.
his handwriting is notoriously bad due in part to poor eyesight in his one good eye, which is why he uses a marker pen to write.
the mistakes are regrettable, but not deliberate.....seems GB can't catch a break - plus i would assume he has advisers to get the details like names correct

old GB - even when he does the right(write) thing he gets clobbered 

...are you sure about that bj.

This has all the hallmarks of a news seeking stunt.  How many personal notes has he written before?

As always, anything this man puts his hand to is destined to have the polar opposite of the desired intention.

[iggy21uk]

I can't believe I'm going to defend him too... This has b een blown out of all proportion and he's actually spoken to the lady concerned on the phone too.

Yes, someone should have ensured he had the correct names but a handwritten letter, no matter how bad the writing is, is far more personal and meaningful than anything thrown out by a computer!

I'm not excusing the fact he got it wrong but his heart was (for once) in the right place

Totally agree, well said.

[Lazydocker]

I should add it was for this:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Gordon-Brown-Disrespectful-Says-Mother-Of-Guardsman-Jamie-Janes-After-PM-Gets-Soldiers-Name-Wrong/Article/200911215445164?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15445164_Gordon_Brown_Disrespectful_Says_Mother_Of_Guardsman_Jamie_Janes_After_PM_Gets_Soldiers_Name_Wrong

When someone looses their Son, you would expect the PM to at least use (as i do) his PC as a spell checker!

One of the mistakes i cannot understand is: greatst for greatest, thats a typo I would do on a PC typing too fast, not when writing a letter  :-/

I'll disable my 'Nickbat' mode now!

have you loost your spellchecker tunnie? 


as far as it goes, it was good of him to send a personal letter - i don't know many world leaders who would take the time, plus its a lot better than some standard sympathy template he just signs.
his handwriting is notoriously bad due in part to poor eyesight in his one good eye, which is why he uses a marker pen to write.
the mistakes are regrettable, but not deliberate.....seems GB can't catch a break - plus i would assume he has advisers to get the details like names correct

old GB - even when he does the right(write) thing he gets clobbered 

...are you sure about that bj.

This has all the hallmarks of a news seeking stunt.  How many personal notes has he written before?

As always, anything this man puts his hand to is destined to have the polar opposite of the desired intention.

I believe, and it's only from reports I have heard, that he writes to the families of every fallen soldier :-/ :-/

[PhilRich]

It looks like he was writing that letter with his knees bent, & one hand gripping his tackle as he was obviously bursting for a p*ss! I hope I haven't offended anyone, given the serious reason for this thread but that's just what it looks like to me

[Lazydocker]

It looks like he was writing that letter with his knees bent, & one hand gripping his tackle as he was obviously bursting for a p*ss! I hope I haven't offended anyone, given the serious reason for this thread but that's just what it looks like to me

You do have to remember that he's virtually blind... I think he did the right thing... Just badly

And no... I'm not a fan! In fact, I can't stand the bloke

[Dishevelled Den]

I just can't believe this - I am about to defend Gordon Brown!

Sorry, folks, but he is absolutely correct to hand write a personal letter to the next of kin of soldiers who die on active service. 

Of course, being Gordon Brown, he may well be doing it for the wrong reasons, but it would be churlish to suggest that.  It's the right thing to do, so don't criticise him for it.

I mean, he couldn't very well get a secretary to write it - the press would be all over him for not taking the time to do it himself.  And if he used his PC (should he actually possess such a thing), he'd be open to accusations that it's just a computer generated letter, showing once again that he doesn't care.

No, it's absolutely the right thing to do, for once.  But, of course, being Gordon Brown, he's not thought things through, not paid attention to details and not given the least attention to what people will think. 

I've got terrible handwriting, so, where possible, I type.  But I always hand write letters of condolence - it does show you've made a special effort to express yourself well on this particular sad occasion - wouldn't want anyone to think I'm recycling a previous effort, even if that's exactly what I am doing.  But I wouldn't send a letter with mistakes in it - I would re-read and re-write as many times as it was necessary to ensure that what I sent couldn't cause any offence. 

I'm too nice to be Prime Minister.

Aah the age old problem of the personal note.

There are few circumstances where this is appropriate in officialdom and it's mostly where the correspondents have a degree of intimacy (in the non romantic sense). 

The conventional, and normally accepted, method of dealing with such matters is to have the body text in suitable typeface while the salutation and subscription are hand written.

There's no reason in this instance that a hand written note should have been employed to convey his thoughts - especially when so little care and consideration were applied to its construction.

Another stunt gone wrong.

[Dishevelled Den]

I should add it was for this:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Gordon-Brown-Disrespectful-Says-Mother-Of-Guardsman-Jamie-Janes-After-PM-Gets-Soldiers-Name-Wrong/Article/200911215445164?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15445164_Gordon_Brown_Disrespectful_Says_Mother_Of_Guardsman_Jamie_Janes_After_PM_Gets_Soldiers_Name_Wrong

When someone looses their Son, you would expect the PM to at least use (as i do) his PC as a spell checker!

One of the mistakes i cannot understand is: greatst for greatest, thats a typo I would do on a PC typing too fast, not when writing a letter  :-/

I'll disable my 'Nickbat' mode now!

have you loost your spellchecker tunnie? 


as far as it goes, it was good of him to send a personal letter - i don't know many world leaders who would take the time, plus its a lot better than some standard sympathy template he just signs.
his handwriting is notoriously bad due in part to poor eyesight in his one good eye, which is why he uses a marker pen to write.
the mistakes are regrettable, but not deliberate.....seems GB can't catch a break - plus i would assume he has advisers to get the details like names correct

old GB - even when he does the right(write) thing he gets clobbered 

...are you sure about that bj.

This has all the hallmarks of a news seeking stunt.  How many personal notes has he written before?

As always, anything this man puts his hand to is destined to have the polar opposite of the desired intention.

I believe, and it's only from reports I have heard, that he writes to the families of every fallen soldier :-/ :-/

...if the reports are accurate L it's the very least that he can do.

[Olympia5776]

[I'm not excusing the fact he got it wrong but his heart was (for once) in the right place
His heart may have been but his head wasn't.

This is a World leader writing a personel letter to a bereaved mother who's son was killed as a direct result of decisions made by him and his government.
I'm not commenting on the rights or wrongs of such a campaign only his approach to the subject matter.
The PM has an Army  ( excuse the unfortunate pun ) who are there to assist and advise him and should have ensured that he at least got the courageous  soldiers name correct  after getting it wrong when he announced it at the dispatch box previously.
Given that he lost his eye when he was at University all those years ago he should now be aware of his deficiences and at least ensure that his atrocious grammer and spelling were checked,ammended and signed off  by trusted assistents prior to being despatched.
God forbid the launch of a Nuclear missle depended on a hand written note from himself.
He clearly had no regard or time  for the sensitivity required in the deliverence of such a letter .
I'd also be very surprised if Leaders of all Coalition countries didn't write private and personel letters to the families of each and every one of their nationals who were killed in the duty of their respective countries.
For a man who's popularity is in freefall he is his own worst enemy .

[jereboam]

The conventional, and normally accepted, method of dealing with such matters is to have the body text in suitable typeface while the salutation and subscription are hand written.

This is the style adopted for the dismissal of recalcitrant cabinet ministers.

There's no reason in this instance that a hand written note should have been employed to convey his thoughts - especially when so little care and consideration were applied to its construction.

Another stunt gone wrong.

How cynical you are! 

But I think that it would be a sympathetic gesture to send a handwritten letter.  And I'll allow Gordon the benefit of the doubt for once, given his upbringing.  However, with handwriting like that, discretion might have proved the better part of valour.