Racist abuse response

[gazaprop]

The abuse directed against England players after last night's valiant effort was beyond disgraceful.
This was a time for ALL of our political leaders to show a united front against the scum.
Initially this was indeed the case - until - Starmer, later in the day, decided the situation was an ideal opportunity to garner some grubby political capital.
He clearly took a conscious decision on this by calling into question the PM's leadership qualities re 'taking the knee' - obviously diluting what force the earlier unity had.

A united response was required by all but - Labour's Starmer sought personal and Party gain above this. The public will, I'm sure, draw their own conclusions.

[sandGroundZero]

…The public will, I'm sure, draw their own conclusions.

I conclude you, gazaprop, have a bee in your bonnet vis-à-vis Starmer (and probably Labour).

Priti Patel questioned about 'fans' booing England players for taking the knee

The PM was slow off the mark with respect of his Home Secretary's "gesture politics" remark. And then of course there is Conservative MP Lee Anderson "…who is in a massive public sulk because our footballing heroes, under the leadership of Gareth “here’s what an actual leader looks like” Southgate take the knee in solidarity with those experiencing racism and oppression.
"Anderson recorded his petulant sulk and posted it on his Facebook page, declaring that he will NOT be watching the momentous game against Italy on Sunday, so vehemently opposed is he to displays of anti-racism in football."

The Prime Minister is occasionally vague, if not altogether clueless about where he stands.

[donkey22]

Johnson has been called out on his racism before including this little gem:

Writing in the Telegraph in 2002, Johnson referred to a visit to Africa by the then prime minister Tony Blair.
"What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies," he wrote, referring to African people as having "watermelon smiles."
https://www.businessinsider.com/bori...ies-2019-6?amp

And this

Gary Neville has asked why Boris Johnson last month said it was "okay to boo players" taking the knee…..
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...45277.html?amp

[salus.populi]

Who on earth would want to provide a united front against racism with an actual racist?

[Toodles McGinty]

I can only echo the other responses.

Johnson's list of racist remarks is long and comprehensive. There are few sections of society he hasn't made some deplorable remark about, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, misogynistic etc, etc.

Patel and Johnson both declined to condemn those who boo players taking the knee. Raab ridiculed it. Tory backbenchers have made absolute ***** of themselves with their remarks about Rashford and 'Marxists'. I believe one particularly stupid cow, who you'd think would keep quiet after she sold the sordid story of her convicted and jailed sex offender husband to The Scum for £25,000, had to apologise for her sneering comment about Rashford today. So I'm not sure how much unity there was to dilute.

I'll give Starmer his due, he took the knee publicly. Perhaps if Johnson had, a lot of the booing might have been quelled. A positive use of his dog-whistle politics for a change.

[local]

Thank goodness Boris had the sense not to take the knee.

I suppose the short thinkers will be asking the Queen to do it next.



‘Totally wrong’ to boo players taking the knee, says Boris Johnson
‘Cheer the England team, cheer the Scotland team, the Welsh team,’ says PM


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b1864726.html



Euro 2020: Don't boo footballers taking the knee, Boris Johnson tells England fans
Number 10 says the PM wants the public to "cheer (the players) on, not boo" after coming under pressure to take a firmer stance.


https://news.sky.com/story/downing-s...-knee-12330221


Racist my ***.

[Toodles McGinty]

Thank goodness Boris had the sense not to take the knee.

I suppose the short thinkers will be asking the Queen to do it next.



‘Totally wrong’ to boo players taking the knee, says Boris Johnson
‘Cheer the England team, cheer the Scotland team, the Welsh team,’ says PM


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b1864726.html



Euro 2020: Don't boo footballers taking the knee, Boris Johnson tells England fans
Number 10 says the PM wants the public to "cheer (the players) on, not boo" after coming under pressure to take a firmer stance.


https://news.sky.com/story/downing-s...-knee-12330221


Racist my ***.

No, not at all: letterboxes, picaninnies, watermelon smiles, Obama's 'ancestral dislike', 'an almost Nigerian interest in money', a "bunch of black kids" made him “turn a hair”, he railed against the Macpherson reforms, which were proposed in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence case, condoned an article that claimed black people have a lower IQ.

The backpedalling comments (only made on Friday) are another case of, as Heseltine described him, a man who waits to see the way the crowd is running and then dashes in front and says, ‘Follow me’.”

Commiserations on your racist arse. I can only assume, if you see Johnson as free from all notion of bigotry, it matches the rest of you. Because anybody who claims Johnson isn't a racist is absolutely a racist or a gullible simpleton.

[sandGroundZero]

…Number 10 says the PM wants the public to "cheer (the players) on, not boo" after coming under pressure to take a firmer stance. …

— that's Boris in a nutshell

Racist my ***.

— that's local in a nutshell

.

[Toodles McGinty]

I think the best comment on this came from Tyrone Mings. Followed by ex-Tory Party Chairman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi:

[Desert Region]

i was further dismayed by the comment of Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, who said this, "They lost - would it be ungenerous to suggest Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics."

I'd suggest the Government's festering sour grapes regards Marcus Rashford MBE provoked that cruel and unjust comment.

Talk about kicking someone when they're down! He missed a penalty in the final of a competition watched by a UK TV audience of over 30 million, and was subsequently racially abused with that miss being pounced upon as the excuse for the abuse. That's a lot for anyone to have to contend with. Natalie Elphicke should be ashamed of herself for taking a free kick at Marcus by questioning his professionalism. He appears to me to be conscientious and methodical and successful in every endeavour he undertakes. If Natalie Elphicke MP wants to start criticising someone for an obvious failure to multi-task then she'd do well to start with her boss, the Prime Minister!

[gazaprop]

There appears to be a head long rush on this thread towards missing the point.
The shortcomings of Johnson are well known and, well documented but - that was not what I took issue with.
Unfortunately a rabid gallop up the hill of internet and broadsheet tit bits smothered the point.

My issue with Starmer on this point was and is - timing and, motive.

The points he made may well be valid and, I wouldn't wholeheartedly disagree on some.
However, there can be little doubt that they would have been better served, and the message on the abuse could retain it's united strength with a day or so of restraint.
This would have been the case had he not been attempting to gain some grubby political advantage. I don't understand how any rational person could conclude otherwise.

[gazaprop]

[QUOTE=sandGroundZero;6777886]I conclude you, gazaprop, have a bee in your bonnet vis-à-vis Starmer (and probably Labour)

I do have a problem with Starmer, to quote Fletcher in Porridge - I find him a charmless nirk. He also appears to have had a personality bypass - I view him as having a similar liability factor as Corbyn.

On Labour in general - there are some whom I admire, Andy Burnham is in my view a good example of what Labour badly needs.

[local]

Letterbox, Racist my A55

You are still allowed to take the ****, even out of your friends "dog collar" humour is well embedded, particularly amongst friends.

What's obvious is how few friends from different communities people on here have, its not surprising I suppose in Southport.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsyeZUjHJ9w

Grow up, Johnson has surrounded himself with people who are on the sharp end of real racism and they stay.

[Toodles McGinty]

There appears to be a head long rush on this thread towards missing the point.
The shortcomings of Johnson are well known and, well documented but - that was not what I took issue with.
Unfortunately a rabid gallop up the hill of internet and broadsheet tit bits smothered the point.

My issue with Starmer on this point was and is - timing and, motive.

The points he made may well be valid and, I wouldn't wholeheartedly disagree on some.
However, there can be little doubt that they would have been better served, and the message on the abuse could retain it's united strength with a day or so of restraint.
This would have been the case had he not been attempting to gain some grubby political advantage. I don't understand how any rational person could conclude otherwise.

I'm no particular fan of Starmer myself. But I think he was right in pointing out the hypocrisy of Johnson suddenly calling out racism after the event.

There was ample opportunity before he was 'pressured' into changing tack on the whole 'take the knee' issue. Before the tournament and in the early stages he was invited to condemn those booing and didn't.

Then as Mings says, the very thing happened that moved them to take the knee in the first place.

It's another in Johnson's long list of u-turns. If it was genuinely a Damascene moment, recognising the toxicity of racism, it should be applauded. But we know that Johnson doesn't do Damascene moments, he is a populist that has a chaotic record on switching sides as suits him, from Brexit to lockdowns.

When he didn't condemn the racists, he knew he was appealing to his own. The newly converted. The 'Tommeh' style thugs that ripped up London on Sunday. And as you said, traditional Tories don't really care what he's done or does as long as they are in power. But even added together, that's still a minority in this country. So he switches again in light of public opinion. I think that hypocrisy was bound to be highlighted by any opposition MP (or journalist, or footballer) worth their salt.

[sandGroundZero]

…My issue with Starmer on this point was and is - timing and, motive. | The points he made may well be valid and, I wouldn't wholeheartedly disagree on some.
However, there can be little doubt that they would have been better served, and the message on the abuse could retain it's united strength with a day or so of restraint.
This would have been the case had he not been attempting to gain some grubby political advantage. I don't understand how any rational person could conclude otherwise.

…The public will, I'm sure, draw their own conclusions.

Insofar as the contributors to this thread represent the public, the conclusion is that Starmer's words (as reported) with respect of the PM's leadership, especially on this issue were in line with the public's perception. That being so, the perception is PM Johnson's attitude is, at best, cavalier and therefore Starmer cannot have diminished Johnson's condemnation of racist abuse.

I think the public are well used to leading politicians saying the right thing (e.g. condemn racist behaviour), however insincere it may appear in the context of their words and deeds more widely. In that sense, politics is "grubby ". It seems unlikely that Starmer was expecting kudos. He was simply noting a commonplace perception.