Private conversations between G7 leaders have repeatedly been caught on tape, and it’s not the first time that’s happened.
Paul Dallison
Labour voter Gillian Duffy briefly talked to Brown on the campaign trail in Rochdale, northern England, where she challenged him on immigration and demanded he tackle rising debt.
Afterward, Duffy told reporters that Brown was a “very nice man” and that she intended to vote Labour. Brown was less than impressed. “That was a disaster — they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Ridiculous,” he lashed out in his car, not realizing that his microphone was still on. “She was just a bigoted woman,” Brown added.
Brown lost the election to David Cameron and everything’s been just fine in British politics since then!
Let’s bomb Russia: “My fellow Americans,” said Ronald Reagan in 1984. “I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The then-U.S. president wasn’t actually declaring war, and was instead sound-checking his microphone before his weekly radio address in 1984. His comments were not broadcast live but later leaked to the public.
Mad cows and Englishmen: In 2005, while France and Great Britain awaited a decision on whether Paris or London would host the 2012 Olympics, French President Jacques Chirac blasted the U.K. during what he thought was a private conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-German Chancellor (and Russia enthusiast) Gerhard Schröder.
“The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease,” Chirac said of the Brits. “You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine.”
