Saturday 9 November 2019

Douglas Murray calls this 'offence archaology'

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Once accusations of racism and sexism were a weapon of the left against the right in Britain and around the world, but are now used for political advantage by both sides of the political divide. 


One Labour candidate has had to stand down because she compared Israel to an abused child abusing others after the experience of the Holocaust.

One Labour councillor is in big trouble because she “liked” a Facebook comment which said: 

“Adam and Eve were put on the planet from a higher authority for a reason. As parents, we have to do our best to explain normality.”
The Labour parliamentary candidate for Clacton stood down after he got into trouble for calling another councilor, who was Jewish, Shylock. The man said he had no idea Shylock was Jewish. Knowing the cultural level of many political activists, particularly in the Labour Party, this sounds likely. I bet John Prescott doesn't know who Shylock is.

Juliet Samuel, usually one of my favourite writers, in today's Telegraph:
"The most notorious of the bunch [five Labour candidates who have been required to stand down], Chris Williamson in Derby, has finally been dropped despite a rearguard action by Corbynistas to keep him in place. This is a man who said his 2017 campaign was “a test case for Corbynism”, who said it was a “privilege” to meet a prominent propagandist shilling for Bashar Al-Assad, who called the Skripal poisonings a “very convenient… smokescreen” and declared that Labour had been “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism."
Also in today's issue she tells her fellow millennials not to be so sensitive and not to take offence too easily. 

A former talkshow host on BBC Radio Norfolk, who had been chosen as a Conservative candidate had to stand down for things he had said on air in 2014 in a conversation with a footballer.
“I think women need to be more aware of a man’s sexual desire that when you’re in that position that you are about to engage in sexual activity there’s a huge amount of energy in the male body, there’s a huge amount of will and intent, and it’s very difficult for many men to say no when they are whipped up into a bit of a storm.
“What I’m trying to say is that women also have to understand that when a man’s given certain signals, he’ll wish to act upon them and if you don’t wish to give out the wrong signals, it’s best probably to keep your knickers on and not get into bed with him. Does that make sense?
“And it’s the old adage about if you yank a dog’s tail, then don’t be surprised when it bites you. Or you can’t keep snakes in the garden and think they’ll only bite your neighbours.”


Back in 2014, Ofcom which monitors what is broadcast, said the comments, which prompted 46 complaints, were “not justified” but that the BBC had “acted swiftly” by broadcasting an on-air apology.

In Canada the Conservative leader in the recent general election got into trouble for not going on a Pride march. 

In the last Romanian presidential election Social Democrat Gabi Firea, now Mayor of Bucharest, was universally ridiculed for saying the now President Iohannis, then the centre-right candidate, would have been a better candidate had he had children.
“From my point of view, a person is more well-natured when he raises a child from his first days up to maturity. A man living in a cold house, without hearing baby’s babble, without seeing his first steps, his first grades cannot feel all these … You can adopt a child if you want to have a complete family, from all points of view (…) In all civilized countries, all aspirers to the President seat belong to complete families, they are married with children and grandchildren...”
The Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination condemned Mrs. Firea a warning and made also an appeal to all public figures or power brokers 

“to promote non-discriminatory language and behavior and to take stand against eventual breaches of equal opportunities’ principle.”


3 comments:

  1. One of these things is not like the other. Like the smarmy churl Andrea Leadsom, Ms Firea should have known better to make insinuating comments about an opponent's personal life that is none of her business. It tends to backfire, especially when the opponent is a more solid candidate and person than the accuser. Ms Firea might have had a ruck of kids but she is still a hack.

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    1. As far as I know no-one in the British press has said that any of these remarks are not important weighty matters that require contrition and resignations. Mrs Leadsom's remark was not important and did not require her to stand down. She is useless but not nearly so useless as Mrs May.
      Are you not worried that the Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination can fine people who make certain points in an election campaign? Maybe they can gaol them too.

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  2. No one will be jailed. Romanian politics are pretty salty.

    Ms Firea's remarks were not criticized for being politically incorrect, but for being nosy, stupid, and unnecessarily personal. Having kids does not make you a superior human being or politician. Edward Heath never did. Who was the better leader, childless Teddy or Gabriela "Mama" Firea?

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