Hungary in centre of UK’s “Bigot-gate” scandal

by Tamas S. Kiss Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Hungary, in the heart of Eastern Europe, is one of the ‘new Europe’ states that will be in the centre of the news in British media for quite some time, thanks to the recent blunder of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The “Bigot-gate” scandal broke when a BBC microphone caught the British PM making sarcastic remarks after his political campaign in Manchester on April 28, 2010.

Brown had finished sweet-talking an elderly citizen, but unaware of his live microphone still in operation, had minutes later called her “a bigoted woman” for daring to ask him about Britain’s brothers in the East. Unfortunate for Brown his negligence can cause the fatal blow to his incumbent Labour Party, which had planned to win the upcoming elections. The woman had complained about her fears about Eastern Europeans immigrants, including Hungarians. She demanded, “All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?” Unconfirmed reports say that there are some 2 million immigrants in the UK of which at least 2,000 are Hungarian nationals.

The majority of Hungarians have decided to stay in their host nation for long term as the British Pound is still stronger than the Euro, much stronger than the Hungarian Forint (300:1) while the minimum wage in the UK (currently GBP 5.80/hour) is merely a dream in Hungary and working conditions at this level in the UK are more humane than in Hungary. Hungarian guest worker Rudolf Magyar told Budapest Report that he, his wife and two boys (6, 10) have settled down in the UK’s Cornwall County and don’t plan to return to Hungary.

“We both have full time jobs. We are paying our taxes and national insurance and our boys are attending school here and playing football for the local team. But the likes of Magyar and his other Eastern European peers are now the back-bone of the British economy, as many Britons prefer to go on job seekers allowance instead of laboring for minimum wages. Nevertheless Brown has drastically reduced his chances of improving his already tarnished short-tempered and arrogant reputation, political analysts said.

His affair with the 65-year-old discouraged lady from the industrial area of Rochdale, Manchester has almost caused a crash in international internet systems as so many viewers had logged on to see the recording on various hosting sites. Now Brown is apologising in every direction, but it seems his words are falling on deaf ears. The Labour Party is furious about his blunder as they are heavily dependant on working class people like thee lady from Manchester. Yet Brown has denied shooting his party in the leg. He argues, “If you make a mistake you apologise… I’m concentrating on bigger issues…”

But what can be a bigger issue than the entire world being hyped up about the stupidity of a prime Minister. Brown made a personal visit to his victim and apologised for having earlier ranted, “That was a disaster…she was just a sort of a bigoted woman,” about her. Political analysts said they believe Brown may not have made the trip, had he not been confronted for the BBC audio recording. The Manchester lady whose name is Gillian Duffy (pictured) is definitely more popular than Brown and has reportedly already hired a media consultant to sell her story to the media.