No, a non-story is a story that has to be dug up and publicised with malicious motive as opposed to a story which actually happened and was reported as such.

You don’t think this happened? Forgive me for asking, since I am obviously suffering some sort of delusion of him apologising for something that never happened, but what then was apologising for?

Mate. you really have no idea how the real world works

Threats and aggression? Or maybe promises and encouragement? Both work, but which is better? (Not your mate, though)

or used to, before the lefties came along, before the lefties & various support groups set up shop, we all got along just fine, yup, work & rec was aces, but no, you lot & your support groups had to come along….don’t you suppress me! type Monty Python stuff, all was good, yep you made & continue to make issues where there were none! yep, the left just love making issues, normal working people just like to make their working day fly by, but no…the left has to come along & put all sorts of rubbish in everyones way…disagree and you’re a right wing nutcase! Yep, that’s why I why I hate the left…you’re either for us, or a rightwinger….well lefties, I have news for you….I’m in it for a easy working day, where we all have a laugh, possibly at each other expense, but no, along you lot come, arguing your case from your lefty ivory towers protected by your patented ‘racist’ card ™ lol

Maybe you should get some professional help, and you really ought NOT to look into the politics of the Python team (and it’s ‘don’t you oppress me’) since I’d hate to disillusion you further (but Eric is the closest to being a capitalist – hence the rehash of Holy Grail that is Spamalot – but he apparently near thumped someone who called him out for losing his socialist ideals).
Bullying in the workplace is not a good thing, and employers are fully aware of this – people who carry it out either get retrained or replaced. I used to work with an ex-military type, full of banter, who was prone to asking women about their sex lives despite their complaints to him and the bosses, and made fun of several of the younger employees by giving them names like Foxtrot November Golf (or FNG – he even told a boss it politely meant Flippin’ New Guy, although we all really knew what the ‘f’ stood for), Waste-O-Space, or Oxygen Thief. We all complained about him, nothing ever seemed to happen; the boss liked ex-military types.
One young chap was not outgoing, rather introverted in fact, got given the name Dummy (apparently the boss, responding to a complaint, was told this was because he needed to compose his thoughts when asked a question, rather like having to take his dummy out of his mouth before he could speak, but we all knew it was because our ex-mil friend considered him just plain stupid) and, having taken it all personally one particular day, decided he needed to do away with himself by drinking drain clearer from the cleaners cupboard. Luckily it wasn’t all that powerful – or we discovered him too soon for it to have the effect he desired – yet his tormentor even berated him on the ambulances stretcher as they took him away. And when we were asked what had happened, altogether in the offices conference room, our self appointed fun-meister growled that none of us understood about humour, banter, the need for us to understand that he meant it all for the best and we should be relaxed about it, Dummy – and even then , with all the bosses there, a human resources solicitor present, and all of the department, he still called him Dummy – would understand and laugh about it. Our ‘friend’ was sent on a training course and warned that he needed to pass that course with flying colours; I don’t know what the course was since he didn’t pass, never returned.
Did I mention that your above post sounded exactly like him trying to justify himself?

Incidentally I was Joe; annoyingly, he called most of us Joe since he wasn’t bothered about learning our names until we fitted in with him.

I’m just an ordinary working type, we do not need you. we do not want you, just let us all get on with our work & all will be good!

Leave you alone to…what?

Re 18

Sounds to me as tho’ your family, collectively, suffer from a sense of proportion and humour deficit. But then, humour was never high on the list of lefty characteristics.

You are sick.
So women should be happy to be subjected to lecherous men just because they don’t have a sense of proportion and suffer from humour deficit! Is that how the righties, the fascists, keep their men happy, forcing women to be subjected to crude comments and comparisons to nude models? Is that it, women should know their place? Is that how you treat your wife, John, if you have one – show her some busty centrefold and tell her she just doesn’t compare?
Or maybe you consider all women are whores and deserve what they get, regardless?
Why not bring back the whip and thrash those workers who are obviously shirking by not taking the mickey out of the women… Hey, thrash the coloured, the handicapped, the vulnerable too while your at it, since they all like a good joke – and if they don’t laugh it must be because they have a humour deficit.

It’s what Jeremy Clarkson would do…

^^^ yep John. lefties have that there 1000yrd stare , don’t expect any sign of humor 😉 ^^^

I asked on here somewhere if anyone could come up with a right wing comedian.

After all, they say the devil has all the best musicians…

Does saying one word make you a racist though ? Of course not.

So he keeps doing it – or keeps getting found out: the Asian on the bridge, the cars compared to Mexican stereotypes, it all adds up in the end.

It’s a story about nothing. The BBC will never get rid of him, the Top Gear brand is worth too much to them.

We shall see. There is a team of lawyers writing to the embassies of all the countries that broadcast Top Gear…

“We are to write to every ambassador and the US president next week asking them to consider the evidence and then to decide if this racist show should be broadcast in their country in future.”

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/02/jeremy-clarkson-row-barack-obama-top-gear-n-word

If other countries think about it and take a different view to you, then the BBC loses face, credibility and money – and the show.

Del, have you ever ventured out into the real world?

The real world? Where people are decent and don’t abuse people for their sex, colour, handicap, etc?

Have you?

I mean seriously? just asking is all, I know lefties seldom like to venture beyond the keyboard,

Says the man with the name ‘Strangelove’ issuing missives from…behind his keyboard.

the world I live in is a rufty tufty type deal

Has that got anything to do with the way you offer ‘banter’ at work? Or do you offer abuse too?

we all get along, we don’t need your cotton wool protection, everyone gets on just fine, we do not need you or your lefty chums , honestly!

‘Because if we don’t get along, we get Mr Knuckles out and Mr Knuckles don’t like to be disturbed, he gets angry and when Mr Knuckles gets angry, hur hur, people get…hurt.’
Such a shame Bob Hoskins has died – he would have played that character perfectly!

Maybe you should consider a move to Cuba or something?

Some UKIP guy said something similar about Lenny Henry – and looked what happened to him!;o)

The UK needs go ahead type chaps, just do your job, have a laugh (ok. option in your case Del ol ) go home. What’s the issue, other that the lefties seeming bottomless pit of offence f course 😉

Maybe you need to put the bottle away and go to bed – without getting ‘rufty tufty’ on your wife. You accused him of being behind a keyboard and at this time on a Friday night I imagine he is at home already.

A “rufty tufty” type place is it? Well good for you. I can only assume that you would have been one of those sniggering and shouting obscenities at the women who work in your factory or wherever it is. Not realizing how upsetting and frightening it might be for them. I mean it’s only banter and you need to have your fun in your rufty tufty workplace don’t you. Who cares who it upsets as long as you’re happy eh?

Good one. Excellent.

Del. again I can only assume you are preaching from a lefty type ivory tower, again, we all get along, give as good as we can get, all good mates, no matter what, it’s you & your bleeding hearts that cause the the divide, no one in my section could be called ‘ist’ in your lefty world, we all get along, do what we have to do, have a laugh, it’s your whole left wing ideal that is actually the problem, our section is what you could call ‘mixed’ both sexually & culturally, we do our job, we have a laugh, you & left wing mates are the issue as I said, if that is the way you want to go, then S0d off Cuba, really. the worlds has had enough of your sorts, just leave us alone, we do not want you or need you…sorry, but that is fact, nowt else.

‘Now don’t make a noise, coz Mr Knuckles, he don’ like noise…’ Just like a gangsters threats.

It rather depends on how much (or even if) you want answers.

No, not really, not to the lengths (no pun intended) you’ve gone to – the point was to the quote immediately above my question, the lengths (no pun intended) you had to go to for a precise gallon.
Had I been taught the Imperial system I don’t doubt it would all make some sort of sense, but it is not taught as a system in Britain because the metric system is easier and more logical – despite mistakes with the earths circumference. A child can work something out fairly quickly in any part of the metric system because it follows a rule across the system whereas anything that might involve – example – how long should a bar of steel be if you require 27 items from it, all 3/16’s of an inch.

No, there isn’t…

No, you are looking in to it too deeply.
We are taught metric, yet the speed signs and our cars speedometers are all mph (with kph on the speedo, but not as noticeable).

Figure out the cost of replacing every single one, for a totally meaningless whim.

You are right, but – like my answer above – I was actually referring to the fact that distances on signposts are not metric…

I do find it sad that, when I was 8 years old, my class, in the infants’ school, was considered capable of learning the metric system (and that includes the decimetre and decametre,) but modern children are not, which is something of an insult to their intelligence, and their desire to learn.

Not sure what you are saying here – my own eight year old has long been knowledgeable on the metric system, and even explained to me that they had been shown all the bits about the length of the thumb joint and the arm-stretched to nose yard, the foot, etc. It amused them. But then there were questions about why their rulers were ‘forced’ to defer (I can’t remember exactly what he said, but i got the gist) to an Imperial measurement since 30 cm’s was just an odd length to make it. I told him it was to fit in his pencil case…
My mother, a retired teacher, said to one of my kids “you cannot work the Imperial system out on a calculator very easily“, and I think that is as good a reason as any for why kids won’t go back to the Imperial system.

Only playing to the field ‘Del’ 😉

Maybe you should stop flirting with Derek before your wife discovers your infidelity…

errrr not that sure I started this thread, but thanks anyway (I think.. Del 😉 )

I started the thread – if you need to check just go back to the first post and my name is there. But Derek is referring to you putting the slant the way it has gone, I believe.

Try angling it back to Jeremy Clarkson being either a muppeting divot or a divine saint who can do no wrong and you can’t go wrong and the mods won’t interfere…

honest Injun’ I will (providing that’s not a racist saying & will not offend you or anyone one you can find to offend of course 😉 )

It probably is: I heard a genuine Hopi tribal elder politely inform an American father, who had repeatedly referred to ‘Indians’ despite signs asking otherwise, that since they were nothing to do with India then it wouldn’t offend anybody if he could call them Native Americans. Father then grumpily informed his son in a loud voice that everyone could hear that they’d better not use that name while in the visitor centre otherwise they would get scalped by the Indians! Idiot.

(Reminds me of touring the Glenfiddich distillery several years ago; there was a young English couple in biking leathers who not only appeared to already be a little tipsy but insisted on adding ‘och aye tha noo‘ to the end of every sentence they said, loudly. The guide ignored this crass stupidity but other visitors kept telling them that it was very insulting – which they found funny – and it surprised no one that, when we left, there was a police officer at the gate breathalysing them)

I enjoyed Clarkson’s “observations” on the enforced apology.

It will all be good publicity for Top Gear, one of the BBC’s most successfully sold programnes.

He was essentially just saying he was sorry for being caught.

And wonder if the lawyers and their letter writing will have any effect on worldwide sales – that will really make the BBC take notice.

Yeah how about a free NHS ????
Funny old thing – I have paid many thousands in NI contributions over the years for my ‘free’ health care.

But at least you aren’t charged the equivalent of £70 to visit a doctor (and that is before the prescription charge, if required) like you are in Ireland, or questioned about your medical insurance in the ambulance so that they can decide on the quality of your care as in America (or even which hospital to take you to, since they can be held responsible if they take you to the wrong one).

I am neither a ‘leftie’ or ‘rightie’ – I have been screwed by both parties many times,but I would have to say that the idea of (say) labour being the party for the ordinary working man is very outdated – you only have to look at their leaders over the last 40 years LOL – and as I have said on here before I do believe that Broon single handedly did more fiscal damage to this country than any other PM (plus the damage he did previously as Chancellor of the ex chequer )

Can’t disagree with any of that. There are way too many professional politicians in all parties, that and moneyed people who have never had to try and survive like the common working man on money earned by working.

Free at the point of use is the correct description. A great and wonderful idea 70 years ago but no one then could have seen the NHS grow into the vast badly managed inefficient monolith it has become.

But the Tory’s mates would really love it if we were forced to purchase medical insurance, complete with hyped-up premiums included especially for their share holders benefit.

I do tho’ know a specialist Dr.

If you think that using yourself as an example of your specialist doctors work will convince anybody…;o)

My God, you do spout some nonsense ! When I left school and before the date – some six months away – for joining my Merchant Navy training school, I worked in a factory that made household bleach and staffed entirely by women.

Sexual harassment? Was that what is was called ? I was one, of two or three other young boys working on the factory floor among these ladies and what fun they were! We were name called, touched, poked, prodded, lured into corners and generally given a bit of a verbal and physical going over.

Did we complain? Of course not. We’d have thought that a bit odd. The women were fun, attractive and humourous, they were all ages and made all our lives a bit more interesting. I remember them with affection.

So you were taken advantage of, back when you were just starting out, and so that is fine. Is it also fine for a young girl, just starting out, to be groped and fondled and abused despite refusing it but the men are bigger, older, and they are her superiors – are you condoning rape in the workplace? Imagine it is your own daughter: would you feel happy knowing that she is being pawed and groped and…abused, in the name of other peoples ‘fun’?

Left wingers everywhere, I won’t impose my ‘laissez-faire’ attitudes on you provided you do not foist your left wing prescriptions on me.

Hey, I’m not the one advocating rape as just a bit of fun.

If they don’t think a room full of women are as bad if not worse than men then some people haven’t got out much.The worst bullies at my school were girls.
Oh and the comment made about posters on the wall of topless/nude males–yes we did,catered for gays,women and males and not 1 complaint but then the new P/C group came in and down they all came – – – strange how you can still buy the scum at any age almost anywhere.

Did you get many children come into your workplace? You know, work experience or visits from workmates offspring?
I was in the office one Saturday and my then girlfriend drew dresses on all the swimsuit calendar models one of the designers had up at his desk. When he tried to create a fuss Monday morning an executive asked him why he thought it was ok for him to have such calendars up in his office but not at home with his wife and kids.

My younger brother did some sort of work experience at a military establishment; he got a huge laugh and his supervisor into trouble when he mentioned the big box of explicit p0rn mags in the room where he was sent to make them tea…

Do you? He mumbled it twice and clearly said something totally different for the final cut.

No, I don’t know – but I do know the procedure: the ‘talent’ wanders about, rehearsing the line while trying to milk all the nuance he can.

How can I make assumptions he’s not a racist? Well, firstly, you’re focusing on the controversial things he’s stated in the past and ignoring the things he’s well known for, such as, his admiration for the Gurkhas, his praising of the Indian Armed Forces during WWII, as is with the same with the Fijians, Canadians, New Zealanders and others that have fought along side the British. He’s also very admirable of what the Australian SAS had achieved during the Vietnam War… Surely if he was a “Racist” why would he show respect, admiration and write books and TV programs about those guys?

So the idea that someone who admires all those military groups could be a racist is an anathema to you?
I used to have a neighbour who loved boxing, even went to some of the big matches (or whatever they were called) but hated all ethnic minorities and wasn’t shy about showing it – was he not racist?

And why would he be proud of having a T-Shirt that simply says, ‘Albania’ on it? Or, how about this one, why would he proudly wear a Vietnamese Flag T-Shirt on the Top Gear Vietnam Special and state near the end of the show, what an amazing country it is? Again, surely if he was a “Racist” he wouldn’t show such an admiration?

How about all those young adults happily wearing Che Guevara t-shirts – are they all communists or were they being worn as a fashion statement?

He named his black dog Didier Dogba, whom is apparently a black football player. (See his Twitter account). He’s well known for naming his pets after sports personalities, of all colours.

Would he still have named the dog that if it had been red-brown, or even white?
I would have thought he might have been against giving his dog a French name, but that’s just me.

There’s a white dog in the Tin-Tin series called Snowy…

Yes, already mentioned – and Herge, the Belgian author of the Tintin books, was a well known racist who has had his books removed from libraries by reactionary schools and councils…

Surely, if it’s “Racist” to name a black dog after a black person then surely it’s “Racist” to call a white dog ‘Snowy’, yes? I’ve jokingly been called ‘Snowy’ from Tin-Tin by a Pakistani friend, is that “Racist”, was I hurt by that, did I accuse him of being ‘Racist’? Ehm, no.

Erm, I don’t make the rules up, and I cannot influence the law. Ask yourself if you’d have been more offended if he hadn’t been a friend and had called you a ‘white cxxt‘ in an aggressive or threatening manner – notice the difference?

Understand?…

Yes, you don’t think Jeremy Clarkson is a racist. But you said that last time but still not managed to qualify it. Be much easier to believe if he didn’t have previous form for insulting other races…

It doesn’t matter what colour he is, the point is, ‘Sooty’ is (according to the Political Correct mob) a racial slur, Sooty was/is what is described as black person in the US. If, as you say, Sooty was named for his [black] ears, then… Go figure it out!

I am not disputing Sooty. I am disputing the ‘n’ word he used which he apologised for and which is regarded as very offensive, in this day and age, in broadcasting and especially when coming from a blunt talking white man not trying to talk street jive…

Understand?

Do you know i NEVER thought of Sooty and Sweep as racist ,i always thought of them as a team made up of chimney sweep type names,just amazing how the P/C brigade can educate me into thinking something i never associated them with.

Me neither, and I introduced the chimney cleaning element earlier…

And you were perfectly right, and it shows just how some will turn any form of twist and turn, in order to find offence where there is none (and never was, so you can forget their “education.”)
Originally, the puppet was all yellow, so Harry Corbett used soot to blacken his ears and nose, so that he would stand out on black & white TV, and that is why he got his name. Sweep was a natural progression. I suppose, now, we’ll find their little friend, Soo, is a racially offensive name in Outer Mongolia, or some such.

No one has said Sooty and Sweep were racist in Britain. The fact that sooty is a racial slur in America was mentioned by one of your own and I have agreed that I had been aware of it, whereas the ‘n’ word is regarded as offensive in English speaking countries by all except right wingers trying to save Jeremy Clarkson’s reputation.

And so it continues with your nasty little insinuations, for which there has been no evidence whatsoever, but you have to ramp it up to a whole new, revolting level.

Oh good grief. Are you saying that this situation NEVER happened in reverse? NEVER?
There is a history of men hurling themselves forcing their attentions on younger women in the workplace: Max Clifford is just the most recent to have been found guilty in court – but I suppose he is innocent too?

And nor is anybody else, but you can’t resist making the dramatic statements, can you?

Willing or not, he had their ‘intentions’ forced on him and he accepted it and he has condoned it – to him it is all just a bit of fun. Yet you can be up on a rape charge if your sexual partner is underage, willing or not, fun or forced: look at that teacher and his pupil who both ran away to France recently…

Did he? Did you see him do it, or are you making something up, just for effect, AGAIN?

No, but I have watched Hammond when he did an outside scene for some science programme – the crew tried to keep people away whilst he went through his lines, and his script wasn’t fixed since he tried out several different lines to see which worked best. Bob Hoskins usually did it in front of a mirror when he had the time, even in public toilets (although not always in private). That is the procedure…

No, just extremely unlikely, but that’s something you can’t possibly consider.

I considered it – that’s why I put ‘could be’.

Was his name Jeremy Clarkson? If not, what does he have to do with the subject of this thread?

Just showing that it is not impossible for someone to be a fan yet have racist views, that is all.

Try asking them, rather than asking others to guess.

I was rather hoping that someone here might be able to help with that question since I can’t see you wearing a Che t-shirt…

Ask him, rather than asking others to guess.

Forewarned is forearmed – if he had (and I am not saying he did) named his black dog after a black sportsman with mischief on his mind how likely is he to admit it?
.

Yes, it is, and shows, yet again, how you will make any statement, in your desperate attempts to make a non-story into some major event.

Actually, heard that mentioned on a radio phone-in yesterday – he apparently regularly goes off on one about the French in his Sun column so, this guy asked, why did he give his dog a French name?

And Clarkson’s library is full of them, isn’t it? What, you don’t know? Still can’t resist trying to make any effort to talk up this non-event, can you?

How tiresome – have you not read the thread? Snowy was Tintin’s dog, Tintin was written by Herge, snowy is apparently a racial slur in America, Herge was a well known racist in his native Belgium and elsewhere.
It is all mentioned back there if you look…

Yes, the difference is that he didn’t, and I note that, yet again, you’ve used a word you said you would never use. Can’t trust you an inch (sorry, 2.54cm) can we?

The difference is an example – I would never use that word at or to somebody vocally.

And, of course, you can supply loads of examples, can’t you?

I could, but since you are too lazy or not bothered enough to go find them yourself (maybe try the Daily Mail website) I shall save you the effort of having to justify Clarkson’s actions for each one.

So a slip of the tongue (and however desperately you try to talk it up, there’s no evidence that it was anything more) cannot be apologised for? No, of course it can’t, not if it comes from a white man, since we know that only white men are racist, don’t we?

Well, two slips of the tongue and a possible slur against teachers…
And those words are yours, not mine – anybody can be racist.

Which is where the programme was made, and made for, so no other criteria can apply.

Marvelous – hopefully EELightning agrees.

SAVE his reputation? Save it from whom, or what, exactly? Only from stirrers, like you, who treat any “race” item like a dog with a juicy bone, giving you the opportunity to pick the last morsel from it. I love the way “rightwinger” and “leftwinger” are bandied around as some sort of insult, when most users don’t have a clue what they mean. Still, they sound good, don’t they?

For some reason most probably to do with money the BBC still want him around, but they have apparently given him just one last chance: that is applicable to his reputation.
The rest is supposition on your behalf.

What a shallow life you must live, having to trawl through hours of stuff, for controversial items, just so that you can present it on this site, then sit back and wait for members to fall for your stirring. Quite what pleasure you derive, from such behaviour, is a complete mystery to me.
You are extremely fortunate that this is one of the most tolerant sites I’ve ever visited; on dozens of others, you would be labelled a troll (of the worst kind,) and banned for life.

Can I just ask which other sites you speak of, and which of them you’ve been banned from? You talk as though you have experience in that field.

Snafu ,my works place is NOT in the public domain -no public access ,infact you have to know the codes to doors to get in.

Maybe so, I was not claiming that they could walk right in but in lots of places the occasional kid is not frowned upon by management; some even have bring your child to work days.

One of my colleagues at work is head honcho of the black workers group — i just can’t get it through to him that i feel that that is racist as i wouldn’t be allowed to start a white only workers group–please explain how that works.

I have no idea – maybe in the same way that there are (or were) women’s worker groups to protect them from the attentions of groping hands and unwanted innuendo that apparently doesn’t happen…?

Have you heard the lyrics of some of the songs broadcast on Radio 1 (and not the cleaned-up versions either); surely, if the BBC really care about racist language, attitudes towards women and drug-abuse they should start there before worrying about a word that, may or may not have been mumbled, on a piece of video that wasn’t broadcast.

I doubt there are many here who could find Radio 1 if the name didn’t come up on the display. much less stomach it’s music in an attempt to listen for racist language to moan isn’t racist. But I fear you are fighting a losing battle – Samantha Cameron appears to be deeply into sweary, sexist, racist music:

If New York rapper Azealia Banks is to believed, Samantha Cameron potters around No 10 singing the lyrics [to her hit 212]…

Banks tweeted that Sam Cam told her that she “loves” her song 212. It’s not clear where the two met, although both have been spotted at London fashion week shows.

Sam Cam must have a strong stomach for hip-hop. 212 is the rudest chart hit in recent memory. Radio 1 had to make more than 50 edits before it was deemed suitable to play even after the watershed. It covers a range of topics including gang violence, homoeroticism and cunnilingus, or as Banks puts it in the song: “lick my plum in the evening, and fit that tongue d-deep in”. (If you sing the next line in a posh accent, you could easily mistake it for “punt gets to Eton”.)

http://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2012/sep/18/samantha-cameron-loves-azealia-banks

Can’t say I’d expect to hear it blastin’ out of No10 though.

And it might not have been broadcast on Top Gear, but the video is available to view (still via the Mirror website, I expect, if the BBC hasn’t claimed ownership) and it has an identifiable Clarkson mumbling away on it.

Come on guys it’s a bank-holiday weekend…..let’s abandon our keyboards and go to the beach!

Went to the beach this morning. It was cold.

Do the Mods and Rockers still meet for a fight at Brighton? Maybe Flypast and Aeroplane readers could gather on Clacton’s promenade and wave their Zimmer frames or Anorak’s at each other each bank holiday…

I mentioned that as a bit of humor/sarcasm…which you seemed to have missed.

Not much humour to be had from the right wing moaning classes. No names, you know who you are…;o)

He can’t be talking about me since I’m still here…

Well thank you for your insight into my into views, but please do not try to label me or second guess me, I am not and never have been a racist, a lot of my friends are multi cultural, what I was trying to put across was that views on people’s origins are fluid, what was acceptable 30 years ago is no longer acceptable, though with the ferver over immigration in the UK today, recent immigrants could claim to be abused to the same extent, just the immigration issues tend to disguise it.

Peoples views may be fluid, but we cannot go backward: things will never be ‘as they were’ with such words and these days to try and rehabilitate them will cause as much controversy as trying to get any of the main swearwords into polite, everyday usage. Those that use such words open themselves up to assumptions of racism through their own cultural intolerance.

The problem is as I said the worry over being PC, it has got so bad people dare not even broach the subject of immigration for fear of people like you labelling them as racist.

It is off topic but…the problem with things like discussing immigration on a forum is that the more extreme view-holders (the send-’em’back, deport-’em-under-the-lorry-they-came-in-on, feed-’em-to-my-dogs types) will spout their views based more on skin colour than anything else.
Yes, there shouldn’t be mass immigration with the open borders we have at the moment, but nobody (bar UKIP, probably) has mentioned anything about reinstating customs and immigration controls (which would also cover illegal drug smuggling through ports, thereby killing two birds with one easy to apply stone). If the immigrants were white few would have any problem with letting them in: from personal experience I know there are many white South Africans in Britain who left after the fall of apartheid, some of the Afrikaners having no link at all with Britain other than a desire to work here rather than the Netherlands. You can understand why whites might want to leave Zimbabwe, but the couple I met displayed qualities that made it quite plain why they couldn’t stay; incidentally neither of them had current family connections here, their ancestors having arrived, via South Africa, with Rhodes in the late 19th century. Then there are the Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, other members of the Commonwealth, Americans (there are lots of Americans here; I have met a few who claim to be almost political refugees, and others who came here for work reasons and just stayed), plus those who came here without having English as a first language.
But the extreme view holder will pick to battle those who are of a different skin complexion to him, every time. I have no problem with discussing immigration as long as all aspects are covered, fairly and equally.

Yes the show I was referring to was Love thy Neighbour, one of the highest rating shows of the time, and yes gladly we will not see the likes of again, but you do not get it, it was popular and it was acceptable at the time, otherwise it would never have been produced…. Life and the world has moved on, will you ever stamp out racism?, never, there will always be racism sadly as long as there are people of different races or colours in the world.

Looked into love Thy Neighbour and it appears that both the men displayed bigotry, the writers claiming to try and spread it over both of them although they were heavily criticised for it (mainly for making the white man a bumbling fool). I have to say that I never saw it – just three channels, such a small choice of viewing in those days yet my Mum wouldn’t watch ITV! Apparently it did happen in those days…

The trouble is your so called PCness is it isn’t always equal, when you can have an imman in the UK spouting his racist hate on the streets of the UK without fear of arrest or prosecution, that tells you something.

That’s religion for you. But it is the same in America – the TV preachers and the Westboro Baptist Church, nearly all Western friendly, non scary, Caucasians.

As for my comment about Clarkson’s comment and do I care, nope not in the slightest, it wasn’t broadcast, he was nieve and perhaps stupid, but there are more important things happening in the world, the Ukraine, ferry deaths, landslides in Afghanistan etc..than to worry about one mans stupid comments… Myself I learnt my tolerance of others getting spat in my face in Ireland and to think it was all over religion that preaches peace!

Peace and choirboys, very popular with the godly-frocked ones…
These other ‘important’ things happening – I have tried to start threads, and tried keeping others going, yet usually no one (apart from the usual suspects) wants to discuss on them or even start their own serious thread about…anything.

There was criticism of racism of a local Morris dance team here because they black their faces as they have and as tradition demands for hundreds of years. I almost pity idiots who feel the need to express such inanities.

The blacked up face usually, originally, represents the dark one (I think) and was easier and cheaper to do than any other colour (presumably they might have preferred red instead?). In Mummers Plays and the earlier Mystery Plays the blackened face, or a big hat, was more usually there to obscure the players face so that he could beg for money from his employer, or the local lord, in the run up to Christmas without the shame of recognition. These days the begging is for charitable causes.

Snafu – All of which reinforces my contention that it’s a great deal of fuss over absolutely nothing of any significance. Pathetic.

Except…
Just because you’ve never heard it (apparently) doesn’t make it any less offensive to those for whom the term is a derogatory slur deliberately aimed at them.

You don’t like the word ‘gay’ being used to infer homosexuality? Imagine you are still at school and somebody has picked on you – for some reason, or even for no reason – and others join in calling you gay. Yes, it can be an offensive slur without even a solid connection to you being homosexual.
Or you do something as basic as hold a pen the ‘wrong’ way (in the eyes of a bully) and it might be indicated as “um, gay?” with others laughing at you. Nothing to do with an interest in the same sex, but more just something to intimidate you, like calling you a ‘spaz’ or a ‘joey’…

Haven’t really got it have you Snafu, the ‘cards’ no longer work dear boy, the only ones who appear to have issues are the lefties, probably because everyone has actually moved on & don’t really care anymore, we can make our own minds up now thanks without your invaluable assistance (sic), the days of the left being champions of the oppressed are over, & I’m sure that they are glad to hear it.
Trivia like this whole Clarkson thing, is all the left have to kick off about these days, I see this as a good thing, it proves that the real issues have long gone & folk can get on with their lives.

Nighty night matey.

Obvious I haven’t got whatever you think you have. But there are still oppressed out there, unless (for example) the food banks are being attended by greedy opportunists, there are still people being forced into jobs with zero hour contracts or having their work contracts changed so that their contract has zero hours on it, there are still people for whom life is difficult due to low pay, no pay rises, and rising prices.
Spent a while looking for these ‘cards’ but haven’t found any mention until now.
I’m sure if you tell people often enough and with enough ‘persuasion’ then they will believe that they don’t care anymore.
Oh, and what issues are left if the real ones have long gone? What were the real issues anyway? What on earth are you on about? And when are you going to answer the questions your last visit here opened up?

Oh, and just waiting to hear you’ve chopped off your non-right hand because its official designation offended you…;o)

Of course there are words that are not only designed to be derogatory, but also highly offensive, and if we are ever in the slightest doubt about their impact then we really shouldn’t use them should we.

Which brings us back to the ‘n’ word – it was not offensive originally, but (apparently) a descendant of a Latin word for the colour black and derogatory variation from the word negro.

Quite frankly though, if you are hetrosexual and someone refers to you gay, and that offends you, then I suggest you get a thicker skin and fast.

Do you have kids? There is little more confusing than being called a name and not having a clue what they are on about when you are eight years old. Maybe adults, who are mentally stable and not being bullied by colleagues and bosses or distracted by problems at home or financially, maybe they should grow a thicker skin. But just because it has little affect on you does not mean the same can be said about others in the world.

What a load of utter drivel this thread is.

Sorry to disappoint you. It is, for the most part, one side saying one thing and the other side disagreeing so that the first side disagrees with the second side and…so on.

Why not come up with the solution, something that all can agree on, then post something else that can be discussed – like the late Bob Hoskins used to say, it’s good to talk…

If any one wants to play the “being offended game” I find comments like that considerably worse, certainly as regards this forum I am very much to the left, in fact in some minds nothing short of rabid communism, however as regards Clarkson I don’t give the leavings of a flying rat’s a##e what he said, is he so important that his words of wisdom carry some weight?, no, is the comment so important? no.

Chill, it is not the end of the world. And some of them regard Hitler was a hand-wringing, soft Austrian leftie bedwetter, so no need to get unmellow…;o)

See, this ‘Dr Strangelove’ member is precisely what I was talking about in an earlier comment (I can’t see the post number on my phone). There really is no need to be so arsey…

Just assume he is self-medicating and leave him alone…;o)

I know there are arguments that if the targets of offensive language use the offensive words to describe themselves then they somehow ‘reclaim’ the word and change its meaning but I think that really just confuses the issue.

Maybe a little bit, but I know that the things that get said in rap songs are hardly likely to be uttered by me, so if everyone else feels fairly similar there is an opportunity to lose much of the confusion.
And the word is theirs to reclaim, just as they are unlikely to try and use the apt ‘grumpy middle aged white men‘ as a slur for us to try and reclaim…

In that example it could not be more clear that no offence is intended so common sense and tolerance dictates that none should be taken.

Um, how exactly is it clear? Is there clear and concise evidence that Gibson was not racially aggressive that has not been so far revealed? Or the counterpoint that he was?
I am not saying Guy Gibson was a rabid racist (or anything of the sort, understand?) but if you are basing your entire supposition on the film (you know, the one with the incorrect bomb mechanism on the Lanc’s because it was still top secret at the time) then you have nothing (but then neither do I). The point at this time is that in this day and age the name is offensive and not going to be reclaimable until hell freezes over (not the one in Norway – that happens every winter) if then.