your thoughts on the Gordon Brown mistake

I watched the news last night, biggest story of the day was the GB mistake in his letter to the mother of a lad killed in Afganistan,

while I do appreciate it must have been upsetting for her details and the name of her son to have been wrong, I also think why such a big fuss, he did call her personaly to appologise for this,

when he had read out the list of dead on tv a few weeks ago, he had the same name for the lad as he put on the letter, could it be a mistake made by those that give him his information?
could the armed forces have given the wrong info?


the fusss that was made about his messy writing was a bit OTT as well.

I was very surprised to see the lads mother on TV complaining about it, surely that letter is a private thing between her and the PM. It must be the worst thing in the world to have a son die, but I would hate for the death of my son to be all over the news for something like a letter.

anyone have any thoughts on this.

Surely there has to be bigger news than this, ok maybe it should have got five mins time, but not the time it got,
geez another young man died there on sat, he got a few seconds air time in comparison.

It was probably deliberately given more air time to distract from one his many other cock-ups and failings.

But I agree, Gordon Brown's handwriting is hardly big news! I read Google news every morning and am always astounded by what makes the news. It's always doom and gloom as well.

I just found it hard to believe this was the biggest story in the news yesterday,

From what i heard on Radio 4 this morning, I think the complaint about the handwriting/spelling was just an 'in' to get his ear to complain about the thing that was really upsetting her.

Apparently there is a tape recording of his phone call to her that the Sun now has. Sounds like they were trying to set him up to me.

BUT I think the bigger picture and what this mother is really complaining about is the lack of sufficient equipment for the forces. I can't blame her at all for bringing that to the front again and if this was the way she thought she stood the best chance ,then I can see why she did it.

Unfortunately I think the Sun is just out to get Gordon and even though i don't really like him, I can't be doing with 'dirt' just for the sake of it.

I feel very sorry for her. To me it looks as if the Sun is using her grief to get at Gordon Brown. Quite naturally she's angry and upset, but the problem is she's lost her son, not the PM's bad handwriting.
I'm not a fan of Gordon Brown, but I'm quite sure his intentions were good. If you look at the copies of the letter it does look more like bad writing than anything else and his eyesight is a real problem.
Of course something like this is a gift to the media so close to 11th.

I didnt see that part, I guess as always the press often just show what they want, the only part I had seen yesterday was the part where she had mentioned the spelling in the letter,
how very sad of the press to use a mother that has just lost her son in this way,

I agree Hali that the sun is out to get Gordon Brown and i was happy to see on the news and radio that the majority of people seem to be saying the same.

I do though feel deeply upset for this women, who is so clearly in so much pain and cant imagine what it is to lose your son.

I also feel for Gordon Brown, whom i beleive is a truly gentle and genorous man who cares and would never want to hurt this woman. Knowing a vision impaired person i honestly think there was no carelessness in his writing just his disability showing and for a so called equal oppotunities country, im ashamed But on a good note, I actually found it heartwarming to hear he wrote himself to all the families

this was my thought as well, I do wonder now if he will consider a pre-typed drafted letter, I hope not, I hope he keeps the personal letters going, though you couldnt blame him if he didnt.

I don't like Gordon Brown but I think too much has been made of this. However sloppy his mistakes, that's what they were. There was no malice intended. Yes, he should have taken more care and I do understand that the poor mum must have been further hurt because of the mistakes but he did ring to apologise. If he has problems with writing someone should check through documents for him.

I agree - just been reading (don't know whether this is true) but apparently he is the only prime-minster ever to have hand-written such letters. I certainly have more respect for him than for the Sun