The joke turns sour at City Hall

Hysteria

yup - think I agree with you Melanie.

This is but one small example of the "they've taken our country from us" cri de couer - to the effect that things people used to say in innocence are now deemed to be so bad you have to lose your job!!!!

Roy

For a brief few weeks we could have thought a fresh new breeze was brewed and blowing, now we find it was just a stale old fermented fart.

Michael B

Saving the appearances. Spinelessness. Capitulation.

This might have been taken up as a political moment of clarification, of sound, comprehensive, finely articulated social and moral forthrightness. In turn, it likely would have required an ability to "hold the line" during the defensives and counter-offensives that would have ensued, but that too, under soundly articulated offensives and positions, would have represented an opportunity not for capitulation but for moral clarity to be furthered, to be further advanced.

It is true that there is a type of realpolitik even at a more local and domestic level, on the political playing field. But that is a reality that needs judicious forethought in terms of when to accept compromise vs. when the issue is, directly or indirectly, substantial enough that a stand is worth taking.

Verity

I have posted about this on Iain's blog and Coffee House, so angry am I.

But it demonstrates, especially with the added eloquence on the points you highlight, that the Conservatives cannot be trusted to govern Britain while playing by the toxic rules of Labour.

Yet they show no inclination to challenge them.

Thus, the Tories are no more fit to govern than the current, end-of-the-line detritus that is currently dragging Britain down to its knees.

John

Dhimmification by use of the race card. Oh well, Boris - the honeymoon was good while it lasted.

Herbert Thornton

Every time I read the latest manifestation of Political Correctness Disease I ask myself - what next?

P.C.D. makes people so mentally deranged that it will not surprise me if they accuse Melanie of using a name to which she isn't entitled and say that it proves that she's a racist.

Melanie - maybe it would be advisable to change your name to Blanche?

MikeNZ

I think this shows that Boris can't cut it at this level.
Unless he wanted to lose James for now.
Rightly so it is now open season on all Tories by liberals and the racist Black because of this.

This was not honest conversation but a spearing of someone without cause.

That Boris should have politely told them to naff off with the PC rubbish.
Lets get on with making London the city it should be.

If you can't deal to this Boris resign.

Water

Whether it was his first mistake, I’d be some what hesitant in agreeing. McGrath made some blasé remarks (which weren’t that bad by any means) but refused to put up a fight! ‘Tis a Daft situation, political correctness gone overboard. I abhor such false accounts of racism; people play the race card all too easily and are far too sensitive about it. Marc Wadsworth has gone down in many people estimations as a direct consequence its safe to say.

John Williamson

What is the problem with his comment. If people aren't happy living in the U.K. hen hey should go somewhere where they are happy.

Geoff Miller

So, I see that an aid of Boris Johnson has resigned after he said (in response to a direct question that stated black people were going to leave the UK because they could not tolerate a democratic election result putting in place a white man who, nominally, supports British values), that they were free to go.

Well, surely such racist views on a democratic vote/candidate should result in them going.

Why should the guy who stands against such racist, undemocratic, views by black people be punished?

Boris is running scared before his new seat is even warm.

It doesnt bode well for the future.

Doesnt he realise that he was voted in to sweep aside the "minority" ethnic dominance at City Hall and serve ALL the people.

Perry

Thank you for your thoughts Melanie. Always valuable. I have commented on this at CH, and now add my support for your point of view. Roy catches my reaction.

Fergus Pickering

Oh come, come, the lot of you. Any fool can see why Boris did what he did? This macho stuff is idiotic. Study Margaret Thatcher and the miners. She GAVE IN to them at first. Then she made her preparations, set her elephant traps. Then she sprung them and Big Arthur was no more. She was a CAUTIOUS Iron lady. You may say that Broon is cautious, but he's not. He's paralysed. They guy deserved to go. He should have zipped his lip and he didn't. What was he paid for if it wasn't to say the right things and not the wrong things?

EC

If Melanie refuses to accept the role as PR 'minder' for Boris then perhaps he should consider hiring Joan Rivers. On the BBC R4 Midweek progamme last year, after one of his trademark noxious innuendos, she dispatched the stunned Darcus with ruthless efficiency.
You have to stand up to these people.

david skinner

A society, such as our own, whose behaviour used to be based on the Ten Commandments, of tolerance and trust and which put the needs of others ahead of its own, that resulted in a proliferation of charitable organisations (and which are increasingly coming under threat of closure from the Charities Commission and Stonewall) did not require legislation telling us that we could not incite hatred towards the orphan, the homeless, the aged, infirm, the insane, the left handed, ginger haired, height challenged, the overweight and Goths - it was taken for granted not do those sorts of things.

Based upon the Biblical presupposition that God created all men and women in his image and inspired by the motto "Am I not a Man and a Brother?" William Wilberforce fought the slave trade, Those presuppositions have now been replaced by those of evolutionary humanism.
How soon will it be before we have an evolutionary ladder of rights to protection, with maybe foxes, giant pandas, whales and Tibetans above the old, infirm, insane - with Christians and the 200,000 babies aborted last year, under the government’s SureStart Programme, at the bottom - as they are in China?
One can only assume that violence may be legitimately visited on those, whose human rights card has expired?

The corollary of a law that bans me from eating fruit from just one tree in the garden, is that it automatically gives me permission to eat from all the other trees. A law that bans me from shooting certain species of birds in my garden, automatically allows me to shoot pigeons that are not protected. A law that bans me from inciting violence against black people, Muslims and homosexuals automatically permits me to incite violence against all others. It isn’t that the Race, Religious and Sexual Orientation Hatred bill deprives the whites, Christians and heterosexuals of a weapon to personally attack others but rather that it deprives them of a weapon to defend themselves; for as soon as they attempt to defend themselves they are accused of stirring up hatred against those who persecute them- just as Jews are when defending themselves from Islamic attack.

As Melanie says ,” To Wadsworth, a reported remark by a black columnist smearing Boris …… was apparently quite acceptable. But the robust response by… McGrath to such a deeply unpleasant and unfair comment…… is deemed to be racist.

What Boris should be getting by the throat is not Marc Wadsworth but the philosophical and ideological presuppositions upon which Mr Wadsworth’s arguments are based. For Boris to accept the legitimacy of Marc Wadworth’s philosophical presuppositions is worrying indeed.

Jenny

What is worse is that Boris has now set a precedent for his own administration. If someone else calls someone "sunshine" in his office, they must now surely go too?

Presumably the ineffable Darcus Howe thinks people who call their children "sunshine" should have them taken away from them for being "racist"?

What would Darcus Howe know about anything apart from his own self-importance?

Ian C

Fergus Pickering, you are right in that a 'political' adviser was suckered into saying something that he should have known better. All he would have benignly said in response to Wadsworh should have been "I think that is very unlikely". End of conversation.

That is the sacking offence, not the so called distant or far-fetched 'racist' innuendo element of the error.

Spineless, however, it inevitably is and this is how the forces of relativism have taken hold - because those with a job to do cannot do it without playing politics in this modern media driven age when a moment with a dropped guard is always fatal.

How did we come to be living like this?

logdon

In a democracy the idea is to create equality and freedom of speech for all. However just as the Earth and Planets revolve around the Sun a core is needed, reflecting the legislative power and opinion the majority of voters in a nation confer on it's rulers. That's not to say minorities are unheeded but they should enjoy the privileges afforded to the rest without fear or favour. So far so good but when that minority begins to demand special treatment we see a perversion of true democracy emerging in which the bulk of citizens are ignored in favour of that few. This then raises the question of who actually is running our so called democracy and who is it being run for. If immigrants do not like the way we operate, instead of the common sense solution of them leaving for somewhere more conducive to their attitudes, we are now expected to ignore mass public opinion and bend our rules, law, culture and all the rest which makes Britain what it is to suit them. What a recipe for disaster? Logic assumes that immigrants arrive because they prefer what we have to that of the country they depart from. Now it seems that if they change their minds we are the ones expected to alter in favour of that old culture with all the baggage it contains. (And presumably what they fled from in the first place.) Complete and contradictory madness. However with the state of the nation being as it is Johnson has to play the game. Sad though that a perfectly capable man has to go in the face of what can only be construed as anti white racism. Welcome to Zimbabwe, sorry Britain!

Ed Hummer

If Darcus Howe wants to leave I'll pay for his busfare to the airport.

Canon Alberic

What is really hard to stomach is the preening, patronising tone of Marc Wadsworths article, like Darcus Howe but somewhat more subtley attenuated to its support base in guilt-driven clientalist nulabourland. I think Boris has made himself a hostage of this disordered thinking because he believes his major electoral weakness is: tory=rightwing=racist; but perhaps this demonstrates that his biggest problem is dealing with these dangerous useless and now very vested self-interest groups. Very disappointing Boris, not even credibly ruthless, and lightyears from the Baroness' pragmatism.

Stephen Rothbart

This is one of the dangers of the PC movement in politics.

In the US, Obama has already announced to the world that the Republicans will use the race card to undermine him, even though the Republicans have been one of the first to have a multi-ethnic Cabinet with blacks, like Rice, and Hispanics, all in leading positions, and even though it was the white voters in the Democratic Party that refused to vote for him.

This is now the way of the future, with any attack turned into racist or sexist slurs by the recipient and decent men and women forced to resign for the most trivial of comments.

In the end the backlash will be on the very people who least deserved it, the normal men and women of colour or certain races or religions who will become victims of the enormous resentment that this kind of PC behaviour brings out in all of us, even the most tolerant of us.

Yes, Boris failed his first serious test, but I think I can imagine the headlines in the Guardian and the CRE if he had let his man stay on.

john doe

Well it didn't take long for Boris the Buffoon to succumb to the PC racists. He's a windbag and phony who plays 'stick your finger in the air' politics. It's just more depressing and compromised gutlessness from the UK.

Ann

The triumph of racism over decency. As shameful as the Dreyfuss trial, except that now it's whites being persecuted by racist blacks. And I have been saying that about this 'activist voice' for decades.

Ann

Ed Hummer: join the queue.

Fergus: what nonsense. You have no clue about the consequences of appeasing thugs and bullies.

Neil Saunders

This is the essence of Political Correctness in all its manifestations: it will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender.

david skinnner

Logdon, whilst in full sympathy with all that you say, I have to say that it is not justified by the philosophical basis on which you build your admirably commons sense argument.

You describe a hermetically sealed system with the state at its centre and which is presumably evolving and changing into something new .Its morality does not remain fixed but moves with the times. The only moral compass is a constantly changing and democratic political correctness- the average consensus at any particular moment. If the evolutionary state is forever evolving into something new why should you complain when a minority breeds to become the majority and thereby become the consensus of opinion with the power to make all the decisions?

It is precisely because there is no greater authority than the state that what might be shocking and completely unacceptable behaviour can almost overnight become respectable and what was previously considered to be decent and responsible behaviour can become criminal. Without any fixed, absolute point of reference, outside the monolithic state system, human nature has a way of accommodating and becoming comfortable over a period of time with a state of hell. It can gradually sleep walk into becoming hardened, desensitised to cruelty, barbarism and evil, until what was considered abnormal or deviant becomes the acceptable norm, as happened in Nazi Germany, Russia, China, Cambodia and now- even Britain. No doubt Germans today still cannot believe that they as a nation descended to such barbarism, just over fifty years ago and only 22 miles from our coast.

Jeremy Wilkinson

Howe is on record (in the New Statesman) as praising some of the most disgusting Communist mass-murderes. He is also, according to the Guardian, prone to the most misogynistic outbursts (suggesting that such are acceptable amongst West Indians).

So, well done Melanie for urging others to stand up to bullies. I look forward to you now resisting the temptation to bully your critics by referring to them as "anti-semites" on no evidence whatsoever (esp. when they point out that you know nothing about Christian theology (replacement theology indeed!)and suggest you show some respect for persons and truth).

David M

Everyone here appears to agree that Political Correctness is a debilitating and corrupting disease that is destroying this great nation of ours.

Labour, LibDems and the left are hand-in-glove with it. The Tories are surrendering to it. There is only one serious, organised, political force that is preared to oppose it. And you all know who I mean.

If you are serious in your opposition to this sickness, the choice is yours. You either support those who are prepared to do something about, which few of you seem willing to do. Or, you provide an alternative.

If you are not prepared to go down either of those roads, you are putting up the white flag of surrender.

So what is it to be? PC or not PC? My suspicion is that faced with the stark choice that is on offer, most of you will choose the PC road.

Please, good people, prove me wrong!

Peter A

As someone who worked for many years in local government and was witness to the rise and entrenchment of the equalities grievence agenda I am upset but frankly not suprised by this gutless move by Johnson.It is these capitulations(and under what pressure here?)that will erode the confidence of staff and of the electorate that there is a will to really pursue change at City Hall.I guess the joke is on all of us who gave him the benefit of the doubt.The rest of the country will be watching this stuff.

david skinner

David M , you obvioulsy mean the BNP or the British Muslim Party.

button

It's really sad; I can't believe
how fast England and Europe have
fallen.And Canada is just as bad(witness Mark Steyn).Political correctness plus Islamofascism
plus unlimited immigration equals goodbye Western civilisation.
What's the old saying? Hell is the impossibility of reason?
There's a quote from Lord of the Rings 2, where in a similar
context (facing an invading army) one of the main characters
says:
Where is the horse and rider?
Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed- like rain on the mountain,like wind through the meadow.
The days have come down in the West;behind the hills, into shadow.
How did it come to this?

You guys probably won't go out
with a bang, but a whimper,as
most will.
Some of you may think this absurd, but at least here in the former Colonies, the citizenry is still armed.
The only way Western civilisation can lose is by default- which is exactly what's happening now, where the victims willingly submit.
Good luck, and stand tall.

bigotry gone mad

Don't you just love the off the wall hatred of muslim here?

This story has nothing whatever to do with Islam or any muslim. Yet John can still bring up dhimmification.

Well done John, you've caught the spirit perfectly.

david skinner

Button, as you probably realise Tolkien like his friend C.S.Lewis was a Christian. Lord of Rings described not a closed system but one which was ultimately governed by a greater force outside of itself. Just as ours is.

http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2007/11/24/the-lord-of-the-rings-and-christianity/

Jo

It has everything to do with dhimmification because the fount of political correctness - the ideas of Marx et al - are what have left so much of the West defenceless against Islamism's agenda (as set out in The Koran).

The source of so many of Eurabia's problems can be laid at the feet of Islamism, of course, but at source, it has to do with the acid effect of constitutional self-harm that has infected all of Eurabia.

This is why you guys have a more integrated older Muslim population, but a seemingly much more hostile younger group. The more you give to Islamism, the more it will take.

It seizes the political agenda with each small piece of cultural surrender and this act of official validation then takes too many easily-led young people with it: "Ah, these Islamists must be right. I'll support them, then."

Each small victory only puts more fire in Islamism's state-fed belly.

As for "here in the former Colonies, the citizenry is still armed". Or so you think. The right to bear arms in America has acted as a bulwark against what has happened both in Britain and the rest of Eurabia.

However, there is one presidential candidate who wishes to curb gun law. We all know who it is and I can take a pretty good guess why it is.

The effect of the gun curbs he proposes would deprive the American people of the final line of defence in the same way that the people of Eurabia have been denied theirs - and look at the state they're in.

London Calling

I found both comments offensive, firstly to assume that you speak for ‘all the older Caribbean citizens’ and the response that followed from James Mc Grath that they could ‘return if they didn’t like it here’, both were arrogant careless remarks to make, and as Clive reported on his blog on the subject, James had a month to respond and chose not to.

If our words appear offensive, in which case these comments may have, then James had enough time to apologise for any offence it may of caused, but he didn’t and even if he felt he did not need to apologise, his silence on the matter can only leave others to speculate, which is far more damaging.

In Boris's defence, we do not know what has been discussed behind closed doors between James and himself regarding on the matter, but the honourable response surely should have been to clarify the comments made and James has not done this, therefore he either doesn’t care for any offence caused or he doesn’t care for his position, of which his resignation or firing could have only been the final outcome.

We all have a duty to be respectful to our citizens whatever race they may be, this has nothing to do with the PC brigade, its called politeness.

Anth

If he's to tackle crime and terrorism, he's going to need every scrap of trust he can get from non-whites, otherwise they'll feel themselves persecuted and victimized. As long as McGrath agreed, it was probably the most sensible thing to do if the mayor is to stay focussed on the main task.

Water

In light of the current climate, I would say he ‘could’ be considered to be very ruthless, just depends on how you interpret the scenario. As all the people above highlighted the negativity that an overtly PC country sometimes presents, can make for dicey situations and Boris has made his errors (the relevance of his emphazied later).
As skinner highlights there is nothing outside the state more supreme (other then I would say cash, which is the system inside and out and what everyone worships and what is shared between states, hence why it could be understood to be external) thus within the confines of the system where political reputation is supervened upon by adherence to the evolutionarily dictated pc compass you need to abide by spirit of the times. Given certain things Boris has said before maybe the reality of his position has dawned and now he has shed Mc Grath to get himself a get out of race free card for past lyrical slip ups ambiguities. Not that I agree with it, but it could be the case not to say that it is. Also it seems too ominous that Grath hasn’t kicked up any fuss to the best of my knowledge, it seems rather convenient and convenience and politics rarely go together.

Water

In light of the current climate, I would say he ‘could’ be considered to be very ruthless, just depends on how you interpret the scenario. As all the people above highlighted the negativity that an overtly PC country sometimes presents, can make for dicey situations and Boris has made his errors (the relevance of his emphazied later).
As skinner highlights there is nothing outside the state more supreme (other then I would say cash, which is the system inside and out and what everyone worships and what is shared between states, hence why it could be understood to be external) thus within the confines of the system where political reputation is supervened upon by adherence to the evolutionarily dictated pc compass you need to abide by spirit of the times. Given certain things Boris has said before maybe the reality of his position has dawned and now he has shed Mc Grath to get himself a get out of race free card for past lyrical slip ups ambiguities. Not that I agree with it, but it could be the case not to say that it is. Also it seems too ominous that Grath hasn’t kicked up any fuss to the best of my knowledge, it seems rather convenient and convenience and politics rarely go together.

hate for brains

“Dhimmification” is a charge, an allegation. It's about what muslims are supposed to want to do to non-muslims.

But this story doesn't seem to involve any muslims. So how is it supposed to be an example of dhimmification?

You may not approve of what has happened, but to say this is somehow the work of muslims is false.

Gets the hate hormones running though, I guess. Oh yess.

Frank Pulley

And there was me planning a return to liberated London after 8 years of Livingstone's Marxist occupation; administration and gravy train.

F**k you Boris! And don't even get me started about Radford Howe, aka Darcus Owusu, aka Darcus Howe aka The Devil's Advocate, aka The Devil Incarnate - the eminence grise (or was that imminent grease?) of racialist fomentation.

Racialism is a currency that has a coin of two sides, you muppet. Someone should have a word in your ear, Mr Johnson. If Joan Rivers could sort him, why couldn't you ? You pride yourself as something of a comedian; a one-liner from your script writers would have sufficed, rather than offering a sacrificial antipodean (frozen-out) lamb to political correctness; wtf is coming off here? Utterly craven! And I don't care whether it was your own initiative, or DC's. Doubly so if it was the latter - because if he did intercede you should have told him to f-f-f-fade away and stop interfering in your fiefdom.

As for Fraser Nelson over on the CH thread on this piece of pantomime, he seems he too needs a quick lesson in historical street wisdom, particularly about what occurred in the 60s/70s/80s. He complains about Boris falling into an elephant trap then blithely dives over the side to join him down there, by agreeing with his 'move'.

I despair of the whole sodding bunch of them - and just when I thought that notwithstanding the somewhat rag-tag-and-bobtail nature of the HM revitalised Opposition it was making headway. This ludicrous panic measure just turned the clock back 5 years (if not indeed 30). Why, Boris, don't you realise that you're handing power back to subterranean neo-Marxist moles with this sort of lunacy, just when your electorate granted it to YOU to reclaim London as the capital of the 'United Kingdom' and shed its sobriquet 'Londonistan' (see Melanie's excellent book of the same name - a plug never hurts, does it gal - even during a bollocking to the Mayor of 'Londonistan' - there! I got it in twice!).

Mike Farish

Imagine what would happen if a white person suggested that black people who have lived and worked in this country for decades have no loyalty to the UK or its democratic processes and that their 'homeland' was somewhere other than here. Yet that is precisely what Darcus Howe did. That, of course, is what James McGrath should have pointed out to Marc Wadsworth. Let's get this clear McGrath was guilty of nothing except a degree of flippancy. The denigration of black people was perpeptrated by Howe and Wadsworth. They are the ones who should be pilloried.

Water

Also before anybody start drawing the wrong conclusion by saying worshipping money I'm not being literal look at it metaphorically.

Sally S

See your point Water victim of circumstance, always an option.

Tom

"to say this is somehow the work of muslims is false" - but no-one has, Mr Nowt For Brains.

The Chocolate Orange Antagonist

Frank Pulley - well written indeed!

People refer to Joan Rivers sorting out Howe or whatever his nom du jour is. What did she say?

Next, let us not ignore the complicity of the other Bullingdon Boy here - David Cameron, a great one for recognising a PR opportunity when he sees one - exept it back-fired. They have handed power to the racist warriors infesting City Hall, instead of putting a rapier through their hearts and watch them bleeding to death on the floor.

So Bullingdonians Dave and Boris threw an Ozzie brought up on the fresh air of free thought, under the bus.

Perhaps for their first anniversary, they could invite grievance (about everything) Czar and despatcher of bodies under the bus Barack Obama to address the anniversary dinner.

Don't Dave and Boris understand that they have just ceded sovereignty of City Hall to the racial grievance cartel? I thought Londoners had voted that crew out when they ejected Livingstone with such lack of ceremony?

Zack

The academics are on parade.

jim aldridge

The return of the little people, rise, rise.

Frank Pulley

The COA

Joan Rivers - see: http://defamer.com/hollywood/media/joan-rivers-is-not-a-racist-you-son-of-a-bitch-132237.php

Frank Pulley

or:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4358172.stm

hate for brains

Tom denies that anyone has said this is the work of muslims. On the contrary, John clearly thinks it is. He says it's “Dhimmification by use of the race card”. So he “thinks” it's “dhimmification” and “dhimmification” is supposed to be something that muslims do to non-muslims.

david skinner

A statement in the times says that Mr Wadsworth said that he was shocked by Mr Johnson’s swift reaction as he “didn’t want to make a big fuss”.

Perhaps in the light of this remark, Boris is shrewder than we take him for; it has indeed stirred up the mud.

Water

Hate for brains 5:47 in response to Tom, he said its by means of the race card as concerns Boris and the event at hand it, he is not alluding to Muslims for Muslims aren’t a race of people they are a faith (and personally I have no problem with them).

The Chocolate Orange Poseur

Thank you, Frank Pulley, for the links. That jerk certainly picked the wrong woman to patronise.

eenymeenymineymo

Puerile all round. Don't think much of the citizen joker. Don't think much of the Aussie chimp. Don't think much of Boris's behaviour. Should have stuck by his man. That's the honourable thing to do, not namby-pamby to the PC idiots. Start a trend; expose ignorance at every level.

jim aldridge

More children my god!

Ann

I see that we have yet another new 'How dare MP call me an antisemite - some of my best friends are Jews!' prat on board.

Sally S

Seems so.

randomguy

David M, why dont you have the guts to say BNP. This is another manifestation of the gutless thing that has swept Europe and UK.
Goodluck to England

Glazed Over

The Chief Rabbi explains how it all works here:

Sacks said Britain's politics had been poisoned by the rise of identity politics, as minorities and aggrieved groups jockeyed first for rights, then for special treatment. The process, he said, began with Jews, before being taken up by blacks, women and gays. He said the effect had been inexorably divisive.

"A culture of victimhood sets group against group, each claiming that its
pain, injury, oppression, humiliation is greater than that of others," he
said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/914939.html

sean birnie

"For a brief few weeks we could have thought a fresh new breeze was brewed and blowing, now we find it was just a stale old fermented fart. Roy.

Just thought I'd repost Roy's comment since he got it in one. Nuff said, huh?

sean birnie

God how I hate "Old Media" blogs. They're like your Grannie trying to be cool. How are you expected to have a dialogue whilst waiting hours for some ignorant teenage flunky to decide whether your comment is PC or not. The sooner the tree-cutter-media go out of business the better. Adapt or die, and it's obvious which path they have chosen.

R.I.P

Terrence

My own peronal definition of a racist: "anyone that takes votes off the Labour party."

On a positive note, this over-reaction will help to build up the seething resentment even more and bring the backlash one step closer!

Jeremy Wilkinson

Ann - if perchance you are referring to me (and if not please give name of said "prat")could you kindly demonstrate how what you have said about me can be derived from what I wrote.
Thought not.
Still, I suppose smearing is acceptable for whatever your cause might be. Perhaps you should join up with Mr Burnham and his ilk. While you're at it learn how to spell Dreyfus.

Terry

A culture has to develop where we stare down people like this and say we're not backing down - for politicians they have to say, ""If you don't like me or my views or those of my staff, vote me out, but until then this is what I stand for". Spines, not blancmanges.

George Steiner

In Britain, in place of manufacturing, the growth industry is Race Grievance Mongering.

And since I am an unreconstructed racist, I went to Wikipedia to get a quick superficial education on Race as it applies to humans.

It seems that there isn't an anthropological or biological consensus. Which is good. This lets me continnue to be a racist, with preferences for certain cats, dogs, horses, women and man. Since every day of my life is spent discriminating about a hundred things daily, adding people to the list makes no diference at all.

One day I will tell you about my Italian friend who hired some Muslims in his company. Later he hired some East Indians.

Most of you don't rub shoulders much with, black, brown, and yellow people daily. I rub a lot of shoulders. And discrimination is healthy for a society even when it applies to me.

Now why would that be? Because if I don't want to be discriminated against, I have to be an agreable fellow. Don't I?

Verity

eenymeenymineymo 6:58 - Isn't referring to an Australian citizen - James McGrath - as a "chimp" rather infra dig?

Would you refer to Darcus Howe as a chimp?

No?

Verity

Hate for Brains - as always, our vast and welcoming mongrel English language has adopted a new word. 'Dhimmi' and 'dhimmification' have been adopted and their original meaning vaguely misunderstood, as always happens when the Anglosphere adopts a new word.

You'll have to live with it. The Anglosphere - the language and the legal system (excluding Canada)- is bigger than you.

David

Fergus talks sense. You don't get dragged to fight on the enemies chosen turf. The head on charge is not usually the smartest tactic.

If they tried to fight this one, it would allow journalists to make the issue "how racist is the majors administration" and some mud sticks - or at least distracts.

Boris needs to move beyond his honeymoon into the inevitable dip in mood, and get out the other side as a serious and successful major before he can safely choose to fight some well-chosen highly politicised issues at the time and place of his choosing.

Or he can go down in a blaze of glory and start a blog.

jim aldrige

"Most of you don't rub shoulders much with, black, brown, and yellow people daily" pretty much everyone I know does. None of my associates are coloured though (not out of some choice it just happened that way). It seems inevitable you’re going to come across a person of some colour if you work as a doctor, teacher, lecturer or accountant (though of course there will be exceptions). Or if you work in a city you may literally rub shoulders with ladies and gents more coloured then oneself on daily basis if you take public transport.

Also of course discrimination is healthy for a society, though discrimination in terms of choice (as regards choosing between say marmalade and strawberry jam for example) but I wouldn’t endorse any racial discrimination or cultural.

jim aldrige

Oh yes further to my last point, I wouldn't have any qualms with those who discriminated against others on say grounds of culture if the culture was promotng say rape and pillage (though by culture in its inital employal I means its day to day use).

john doe

Coloured? Everybody's coloured...otherwise you wouldn't be able to see them.

I've noticed quite a heavy censorship on this thread..just goes to show how rampant political correctness is.

Bill M

You think this is bad, get ready for the fun across the pond. Obama began the race-baiting this past week by pre-pronoucing his Marxist self and his racist wife as victims of racist Republican attack dogs.

Four years of "sensitivity" at the presidential level is going to be tough to take.

jim aldrige

john doe nobody said they weren't.

jim aldrige

Apologies Mr Doe freudian slip

Water

jim you said some people weren't coloured, but otherwise I'm with you.

prejudices are part of their genetic makeup

john doe thinks he's noticed quite a heavy censorship on this thread.

Not so I suspect. Actually the Spectator shows a marked tolerance for Zionist forms of racism, some of it pretty blatant.

I recall in particular one apparently Jewish Zionist saying of another apparently non-Jewish poster that he and people like him had prejudice as part of their genetic make-up. Seemed pretty textbook racism to me, but all waived through by the moderators.

Water

Ignore the last comment jim seems to have been a cross over in comments.

Sally S

I've had a good few posts not go through, but things seem to have improved of late. Then again it maybe a systemic error, then again it might be filtering who is to say.

David M

randomguy said "David M, why dont you have the guts to say BNP. This is another manifestation of the gutless thing that has swept Europe and UK.
Goodluck to England"

The reason is that the purpose of this blog is not to promote specific political parties.

The purpose of my post was to make the point that everyone is so opposed to Politcal Correctness but noone is prepared to follow that opposition through to its logical conclusion. And that includes Melanie herself.

I will repeat my challenge. What other alternative to PC is there when all the other parties are enthusiasts or appeasers?

George Ross

I arrived in this country, as a young political refugee, from Eastern Europe, some forty-five years ago. I am contemplating an active retirement, at the end of an enjoyable and rewarding academic career.
I love being here and I am immensely grateful for having been received, accepted and offered a fair chance to fulfil my potential, satisfy my aspirations and contribute to the well-being of my adoptive country. Had I stayed in my native country, I would have perished long ago in some ghastly part of the Gulag.
Of course I don't like everything I see here. Nobody does. But, for me, the balance is overwhelmingly positive. And if there are things I don't like, I try to mend them by argument, by using the democratic process available.
If I had been unhappy here, if I considered disagreeable what I saw, if I disliked intensely this country and its dominant values, then, quite obviously, I would have moved to more congenial and agreeable shores, more in tune with my outlook and values. This seems to me blindingly obvious and, indeed, I would advise anyone unhappy here to go elsewhere.
I am deeply saddened to realise that a serious, competent person, Mr. James McGrath, a senior political adviser of the Mayor of London, was asked to resign for voicing precisely these sentiments: this is one of the things that I don't like in this country.
I very much hope that he would be reinstated without delay. Insane, totally misguided political correctness, has no place in a civilised world.

Sally S

George Ross personal question, if I’m intruding just say, were you by chance born of British parents or something of the sort, because your name seems very British for someone from Eastern Europe.

James J

It just proves that the Conservative will not restore our traditional respect for freedom of speech. If Boris Johnson is looking for a useful task to set the inflated ‘Equality’ department(s) at City Hall maybe he should commission a report on whether the majority ethnic group in London think immigrants whinge too much and how common the :“if they don’t like it here then they should go back” attitude is.

James Marshall

Can anybody find the actual article that Darcus Howe published that had the ‘Boris Johnson, a right-wing Conservative, might just trigger off a mass exodus of older Caribbean migrants back to our homelands’ quote in it? I've googled it but the only results seem to point back to the Marc Wadsworth article, not anything from Darcus Howe himself.

Brian Moshe

Some years ago a respectable and decent white US government official was forced to resign from his post for using the perfectly innocent word 'niggardly' in a conversation with a black US official.
I cannot remember his name nor which president - Clinton or Bush - forced him to go, but remember thinking it probably wouldn't happen in Britain.
Now I'm not so sure....

(Although I usually log on as Brian I am changing my name to avoid confusion with Brian O'Connor. From henceforth I will call myself Brian Moshe.)

Familiar Clown

I wonder if this isn't simply a case of wielding the new and shining instrument of power. As for an Aussie saying 'sunshine'
this is simply another term for 'mate' which Aussies, and increasingly Brits, also use a lot. Personally, I prefer
'sunshine'

Ann

For someone so adept at smearing, Jeremy does have a big mouth.

Kiffa

Yes, he should have said something neutral like 'it is normal for people to fear change'. That humanises Darcus, and dismisses the problem.
But Boris, you should have backed him

Jeremy Wilkinson

Ann
As your comments contain non-sequiturs and are therefore, in this context, self-refuting, I'll leave the ball in your court. Still, at least your tactics have form. Check out Benjamin Ginsberg's The Fatal Embrace for the sordid details.

George Steiner

Some say that there are as many as 700,000 words in English. But the word "race" elicits only a few. Vile, hatefull, repulsive, bigoted and a few more. The catchwords of the politically correct.

Yet if I say I prefer the French to the British or the Italians to the Germans, I am most unlikely to be called a hatefull racist bigot.

But should I say that I prefer the Japanese to the Jamaicans all hell will break loose. At least it will in Britain. But not if the Jamaican prefers his own to the Gypsies.

Why should a mere preference for one or the other something justify outrage, or more?

I submit to you that not allowing to have such preferences is an artificial distortion of the human condition.

Alexandrovich

George Steiner: "...vile, hateful, repulsive, bigoted...catchwords of the politically correct."

You're not seriously suggesting that Ann is 'politically correct' are you?

Commondog

George Steiner.

Well said. The 'R' word is just one more of the taboos around which the razor wire and the dogs have been ranged.

The thing we have to try to secure, is the situation in which all races can take a pride in themselves AND respect others. We are at the moment, miles from this, due to years of denial that there is any racial bond.

jim aldridge

Good to see all the Georges about.

Verity

James J 2:48 - Yes. It is chilling that we now know that our freedom to say whatever we feel like saying, granted under the Magna Carta and enjoyed without a thought, as a natural right, by our ancestors for hundres of years, will not be restored by the Conservatives.

In the US, the freedom to speak ones mind cannot, under the Constitution be abridged. So Americans are still free to say anything that comes into their heads without the silent Thought Police monitor lurking over their shoulders. That most don't is a tribute the human inclination to get along if they can. In fact,as America, where all speech is allowed, demonstrates, humans are pack animals and are minded to co-operate with the pack. People are mature enough, unless they are in a rage, to monitor themselves.

Only in Britain is there a self-selected cadre of external speech monitor apparachiks.

And now James J points out that the Conservatives under Cameron will not rescue our ancient right of freedom of speech. In fact, Cameron seems to be among the warriors set on its further deterioration.

Cameron is an elitist and a rather bossy one at that.

Fred Kite

Usually people try to cover themselves in situations like this with a discreet, smear campaign.
"..it's not what you think Melanie, there is more to it than that..."
I bet James McGrath will be on the received end of that, right now.

Ann

I see that Verity is trotting out the tired, meaningless jibe of 'elitism'. It means 'promoting excellence', and objecting to it is like objecting to freedom, motherhood and breathing.

She also seems to prefer politicians with no spine.

hate for brains

Water; June 23, 6.35. I don't understand your post, except the bit about not having a problem with muslims. That's good. And puts clear water (no pun intended) between you and MP. Which is rarely a bad thing.

liamq

I would have thought that after the events in glasgow last year it`s not a good idea to say to anyone "if you don`t like it here you know where the airport is"

PERSISTENT Perry

SORRY TO POST THIS HERE FOLKS – IT WAS MEANT FOR ‘THE WALL’ – BUT . . .

WHAT’S GOING ON? DO POSTS GET THROUGH? IS SPECCY OFF AIR? HAS ZANU COME TO UK? HERE’S ANOTHER ATTEMPT . . .

So . . . today (25 June @ 1315) . . . with (B)ovine Boris emasculated, DD just an irrelevance (according to some), DC the political push-me-pull-you sales-rep of we-know-not-what who faces both ways at once, - who are we left with who will speak for us?

Who are we? - just common-as-muck people, the salt of the earth people, - unsophisticated, non-metro ruralists, who still remember a land of severe, but satisfying, get-on-and-do-it-yourself independently spirited and minded, yet kindly people, untainted by clever jumped-up little squirts who adore such jumped-up little squirts as Bliar et al.

And . . . a speedier pick up of Speccy CH link. Why so slow sometimes? Or is Speccy downloading lots of cookies like t’grouniad perhaps?

AND CHEERS TO MARK S. & MELANIE

Verity

Ann - 9:40 - I am absolutely baffled by your post.

John West

BRIAN MOSHE: "Some years ago a respectable and decent white US government official was forced to resign from his post for using the perfectly innocent word 'niggardly'..."

No, not a U.S. government official. It was in 1999 and the resignee was David Howard, an aide to Washington DC mayor Anthony Williams. Williams later said (possibly after someone handed him a dictionary) he'd acted hastily and made a mistake. Offered Howard back his job.

Ann

Sorry you are baffled, Verity - but all you need to do is read your own jibe about Cameron being 'elitist'.
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Verity

Thanks, Ann. You're right. It wasn't hard at all. I believe I spelled elitist correctly.