Why did the Sun make political capital out of a woman’s grief?

The Letter from Gordon Brown in which he mis-spells the name of Guardsman Jamie Janes

Gordon Brown has telephoned the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan to apologise after apparently misspelling his name in a letter of sympathy.

Guardsman Jamie Janes, 20, from Brighton, East Sussex, was killed in an explosion in October. His mother Jacqui called the letter a “hastily scrawled insult”, but Mr Brown said he was sorry “for any unintended mistake”, adding that his writing could be “difficult to read”.

On the one hand we have a man who privately and personally expresses his sympathy and condolences to the bereaved parents, on the other hand we have a women who has lost her son and is brimming with indignant anger. I can see no wrong on either side here.

Personally, I wouldn’t have gone to the Sun with this, but instead would have written a polite letter back to Gordon explaining his failings in no uncertain terms.

Jacqui Janes

As a parent I can only imagine the depth of feeling that goes with the loss of a child, but I have seen it at close quarters – my mother and grandmother both lost adult offspring. Today, thirty years after the event, I can still the empty look in my Grandmother’s eyes when she talks of her son. So I speak with some authority when I say this is the greatest of hurts. And as such even inexplicable actions like publicising what should be private grief can be forgiven.

The Sun, on the other hand, is a grubby little rag that is using this in a politically motivated way, not caring a jot for the grief of the mother, or indeed the compassion of Gordon Brown who makes time, as Prime Minister of this country, to write personally to each and every one of those bereaved parents.

He should be commended not condemned. The Sun, on the other hand, should be treated with the contempt it so richly deserves. Even more so, now we hear that the disgusting rag recorded the conversation between Jacqui Janes and Gordon Brown and is releasing it to the public. I find it hard to believe that they would do this – I’m staggered at the contemptuous way the Sun is treating this story.