The mother of the soldier who is being allowed to freak out on air.

[Yelkcub]

The woman's grieving and her judgement is skewed.
The Sun is a rag and is taking advantage.
Gordon's getting fucked whatever he does. Prolly doesn't deserve it for this.

 

[Beanburger]

Used? - it's not like Gordo wasn't using the idea of handwriting letters as a cynical spinmeistered attempt to make it appear as though he actually has a personality.

He probably wasn't. He doesn't get any press for them (except bad press when it goes wrong), and if it was spin, you'd think he'd have had the letters proof-read at the very least.

 

[ymu]

How is she a fucking prick? That's a bizarre thing to say. She's angry, she has every right to be angry, she's got a chance to make that anger very public and she's using the opportunity to try and make a difference. Good on her.

 

[danny la rouge]

Cheers danny, means a lot

Compassion clearly doesn't, though.

 

[Corax]

Compassion clearly doesn't, though.

Man goes abroad to kill people, gets killed instead.
Mum upset.

I can see why not everyone feels bundles of compassion.

 

[frogwoman]

How is she a fucking prick? That's a bizarre thing to say. She's angry, she has every right to be angry, she's got a chance to make that anger very public and she's using the opportunity to try and make a difference. Good on her.

this.

 

[Ralph Masters]

Don't be absurd. She's a grieving mother, how is she supposed to behave? I'd be cutting off his blood stained hands.

No, the people behaving appallingly here are the Sun.

It not so much how she should be behaving, more about how the press can prey on people who are going through trauma, and may be vulnerable in the presence of ruthless hacks.

 

[untethered]

How is she a f- p-? That's a bizarre thing to say. She's angry, she has every right to be angry, she's got a chance to make that anger very public and she's using the opportunity to try and make a difference. Good on her.

At the cost of her privacy and dignity? I'm embarrassed by her and for her and I'm no supporter of Mr Brown nor the government.

Mr Brown's letter and phone call were private communications. If she has an issue with them she should raise them privately.

If she wants to criticise government policy publicly that's a different matter.

 

[danny la rouge]

Man goes abroad to kill people, gets killed instead.
Mum upset.

I can see why not everyone feels bundles of compassion.

Indeed. But apparently she's a "prick". She's the only person who isn't a prick in this.

 

[untethered]

Man goes abroad to kill people, gets killed instead.
Mum upset.

I can see why not everyone feels bundles of compassion.

I wonder if Mr Brown writes letters of condolence when innocent civilians get killed by our troops.

 

[Ralph Masters]

Indeed. But apparently she's a "prick". She's the only person who isn't a prick in this.

she's caught up in a battle of pricks, and all because of what?

 

[Yossarian]

I'd like to know how the Bixby letter might read if it had been written under the pressures of the modern news/political cycle.

The fallout from it would have been pretty swift as well.

'Did Lincoln's Assistant Write Bixby Letter?'

'White House Bunglers Told Mum 5 Sons Were Dead When 3 Survived'

'Bixby Boys in Desertion Shame'

'Exclusive: Mrs Bixby Tells The Sun Why She Supports the Confederacy'

 

[gabi]

How is she a fucking prick? That's a bizarre thing to say. She's angry, she has every right to be angry, she's got a chance to make that anger very public and she's using the opportunity to try and make a difference. Good on her.

She's angry because her son was being well-paid to help invade someone else's country and subsequently got killed?

Then her half-blind, extremely busy PM writes her a letter of condolence (which doesn't happen in any other profession and which imho he should be delegating anyway) which she spellchecks, finds errors, calls the worst fucking newspaper in the land to bitch, then records the guy's next attempt at consolation and passes that onto the Sun as well?

That's a prick.

 

[danny la rouge]

Mr Brown's letter and phone call were private communications. If she has an issue with them she should raise them privately.

Jesus.

Why is this so hard? It isn't Brown's side versus the Sun or the Sun's side versus Brown. Both Brown and the Sun are in the wrong. The grieving mother is venting her justified anger, as I would. As most people would.

 

[mattie]

I wonder if Mr Brown writes letters of condolence when innocent civilians get killed by our troops.

No wonder he had to scrawl it quickly.

 

[southside]

It's all broken we should not even be there in my two bob book of wtf!.

 

[phildwyer]

Serves Brown right. He's a murderer.

 

[tar1984]

I bet the woman was all proud of her son joining the army, then he gets wiped out and suddenly her anger gets directed towards helicopters and spelling mistakes.

 

[Spion]

How is she a fucking prick? That's a bizarre thing to say. She's angry, she has every right to be angry, she's got a chance to make that anger very public and she's using the opportunity to try and make a difference. Good on her.

She's angry about the wrong thing. Her son died because somebody shot or bombed him for occupying their country not because of a lack of helicopters

 

[Spion]

I bet the woman was all proud of her son joining the army, then he gets wiped out and suddenly her anger gets directed towards helicopters and spelling mistakes.

Spot on.

We should start a fund so mothers of dead Afghans can flood the phone lines to Downing Street.

 

[ymu]

She's angry because her son was being well-paid to help invade someone else's country and subsequently got killed?

Then her half-blind, extremely busy PM writes her a letter of condolence (which doesn't happen in any other profession and which imho he should be delegating anyway) which she spellchecks, finds errors, calls the worst fucking newspaper in the land to bitch, then records the guy's next attempt at consolation and passes that onto the Sun as well?

That's a prick.

No, that's not why she's angry. She's a fifth generation army spouse and she supports the war.

This is why she's angry:

GORDON BROWN: I don't think so but, er, obviously you are entitled to your views. We have tried to do everything we can to protect people against these explosive devices.

JJ: Er, Mr Brown, Mr Brown can I just step in here. My sons are fifth generation infantry I'm not silly. I have had lots of info from different people who I know from within the Army. I know about Chinooks that, er, were meant to be brought up to the Mark III standards but went wrong so they're no good.

I know about the Merlins that have been brought back from Iraq and are still sitting in this country.

I know of another soldier that sustained the same injuries from an IED that my son sustained and he's alive. All right, limbless, but alive. My son wasn't given that opportunity...

....

GB: Please understand my good intentions and I'm sorry you feel so strongly about, er, about, er, the way I wrote the letter but I hope that on reflection you'll understand that I have the greatest of sympathy for you and I...

JJ: ... I'm not, I'm not doubting that, I am not doubting the whole of the country has the greatest of sympathy for me. What I do know for a fact is that our soldiers out there - they should be out there by the way, I do truly believe in my heart of hearts that the troops should be out there. We do need more troops out there for a start, we do need the helicopters out there. That's a fact. I know for fact of certain different pilots working out of Kandahar that on some occasions there is only one Casevac (casualty evacuation) helicopter available.

GB: Well, I, I, I'm sorry that that that's the information that, er, you've been...

JJ: But I know it's fact and not fiction.

....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-at-war-Jacqui-Janes-the-full-transcript.html

Prick.

 

[DotCommunist]

I bet the woman was all proud of her son joining the army, then he gets wiped out and suddenly her anger gets directed towards helicopters and spelling mistakes.

The helicopters stuff is nonsense as well. Helicopters aren't going to 'win' this conflict.

 

[Spion]

No, that's not why she's angry. She's a fifth generation army spouse and she supports the war.

This is why she's angry:



Prick.

Yep, she's a warmongering prick

 

[Ralph Masters]

Her warrior son is dead, this isn't the time to squabble over petty matters for someone else's political gain, she needs to be treated with respect, something Murdoch and his gang aren't capable of.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It's made it onto the BBC. It seems like standards have slipped,

To be fair, every time I have seen it on the news they have looked at it very fairly from both sides. It's more like they are reporting what the Sun is up to and discussing that. As sad as it is to report news that is being created by a so called news paper, the fact is that it is now 'news'. I feel the Sun have been hugely insensitive in this matter and it smacks of them manipulating the mother.

 

[Diamond]

The fallout from it would have been pretty swift as well.

'Did Lincoln's Assistant Write Bixby Letter?'

'White House Bunglers Told Mum 5 Sons Were Dead When 3 Survived'

'Bixby Boys in Desertion Shame'

'Exclusive: Mrs Bixby Tells The Sun Why She Supports the Confederacy'

 

[kabbes]

I think this is a very interesting discussion. I'm not exactly sure who I agree with, but I'm finding some fairly compelling arguments on both all sides of the fence.

 

[Beanburger]

This is why she's angry:

A resource issue. Don't you think the government would be happy to equip the army to the teeth with a shit-load of cutting-edge hardware if the British public was happy to foot the tax bill?

 

[goldenecitrone]

Brown should have sent a typed copy of the letter with the original. And organized some literacy classes for the thick tart.

 

[mattie]

A resource issue. Don't you think the government would be happy to equip the army to the teeth with a shit-load of cutting-edge hardware if the British public was happy to foot the tax bill?

The Gray report highlights we're spunking billions on poor procurement.


Not Brown's fault, but Brown's ultimate responsibility.