Sincere disingenuousness

[MrGongGong]

Ah, that old chesnut - some of Mr Bloom's best friends are .....

His views of foreign aid are not in question here but the way he chose to express them. The words he used surely tell us something about his views on those people/countries in receipt of aid, don't they?

:ok:

I think some of the reactions to this shows how the whole "with us or against us" thinking has become all pervasive.
Objecting to this obnoxious bigot is not the same as suggesting that corruption is a good thing. In the same way that objecting to the Met murdering people is not the same as saying that it's somehow ok to blow up innocent people......

[Nick Armstrong]

I wonder if the camera caught KG-M chortling at the departing Bloom as it once caught Sir Robin Day post-Nott? A great television moment :ok:

I seem to remember a slight shrug and an "OK" from young Krish... and then the next interview was with Matt Frei who started by assuring K that he didn't plan on ripping his ear-piece out...

[amateur51]

:ok:

I think some of the reactions to this shows how the whole "with us or against us" thinking has become all pervasive.
Objecting to this obnoxious bigot is not the same as suggesting that corruption is a good thing. In the same way that objecting to the Met murdering people is not the same as saying that it's somehow ok to blow up innocent people......

Well said, Mr GG

[amateur51]

I seem to remember a slight shrug and an "OK" from young Krish... and then the next interview was with Matt Frei who started by assuring K that he didn't plan on ripping his ear-piece out...

Last heard of as BBC's North America correspondent a while back - has he switched to Channel Four then? :erm:

[eighthobstruction]

Last heard of as BBC's North America correspondent a while back - has he switched to Channel Four then? :erm:

yep, a while ago....Marc Mardle now BBC US

[scottycelt]

well i for one do not like seeing foreign aid, such as it is, ending up in Swiss Bank Accounts ...., nor do i approve of corruption in the EU, HMG or any where for that matter ... is it bigoted to call Cameron and Osborne toffs or posh boys .... if so guilty m'lud

Precisely, Calum.

As for the 'the land of kilts and haggis' it doesn't bother me in the slightest. If some people think it an accurate and appropriate term to use (like calling a Scotsman 'Jock', Welshman 'Taffy' or Irishman 'Mick') so be it. Frankly, it only makes me smile.

I suspect any African who might have come across Mr Bloom's stupid remark (and was also in the slightest interested) may well have roared with laughter instead.

Sometimes we (or at least some of us) take stupidity and ignorance far too seriously, I fear.

[eighthobstruction]

Sometimes we (or at least some of us) take stupidity and ignorance far too seriously, I fear.

....some of us have made a whole life out of it....(displacement activity)....:smiley:

[MrGongGong]

Precisely, Calum.

As for the 'the land of kilts and haggis' it doesn't bother me in the slightest. If some people think it an accurate and appropriate term to use (like calling a Scotsman 'Jock', Welshman 'Taffy' or Irishman 'Mick') so be it. Frankly, it only makes me smile.

I suspect any African who might have come across Mr Bloom's stupid remark (and was also in the slightest interested) may well have roared with laughter instead.

That really isn't the point you know
There's a huge difference between calling yourself something and someone else using the same word
NWA etc etc etc

[amateur51]

Precisely, Calum.

As for the 'the land of kilts and haggis' it doesn't bother me in the slightest. If some people think it an accurate and appropriate term to use (like calling a Scotsman 'Jock', Welshman 'Taffy' or Irishman 'Mick') so be it. Frankly, it only makes me smile.

I suspect any African who might have come across Mr Bloom's stupid remark (and was also in the slightest interested) may well have roared with laughter instead.

Sometimes we (or at least some of us) take stupidity and ignorance far too seriously, I fear.

I take your point but Bloom said it in his address in order to establish his credentials with his audience and he has repeated it each time since as an act of provocation. A thoroughly unpleasant person.

[Nick Armstrong]

Last heard of as BBC's North America correspondent a while back - has he switched to Channel Four then? :erm:

Couple of years back: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/47809

[umslopogaas]

Sadly, this incident has not made it any less likely that I would vote for UKIP. The likelihood was zero before he spoke out and you cant get less than zero, however more obnoxious they are shown to be.

Re. stupidity and ignorance, I think how seriously we should take them depends on who is showing them. It does not matter very much if they are shown by the man emptying my dustbins, or digging holes in the road (which is not to say that those people are stupid or ignorant, only that if they were it wouldnt matter much), but it does matter in the case of a politician in the public eye who aspires to represent us.

[DavidP]

Precisely, Calum.

As for the 'the land of kilts and haggis' it doesn't bother me in the slightest. If some people think it an accurate and appropriate term to use (like calling a Scotsman 'Jock', Welshman 'Taffy' or Irishman 'Mick') so be it. Frankly, it only makes me smile.

I suspect any African who might have come across Mr Bloom's stupid remark (and was also in the slightest interested) may well have roared with laughter instead.

Sometimes we (or at least some of us) take stupidity and ignorance far too seriously, I fear.

You're seriously comparing references to Scotland as 'the land of kilts and haggis' - which is a lazy stereotype at worst - with 'bongo, bongo land' - which is "an attempt to portray a continent as an undifferentiated mass of uncivilised people who have just enough sophistication to rip us off by spending our money on sunglasses, but otherwise are happy with their drums"?

Mind you, I'm not surprised that an individual who makes excuses for an institution systematically aiding the commission of criminal acts against children seeks to defend the language of a vile bigot like Bloom.

[KipperKid]

Has he been expelled from the party ?

He's not Rodney Marsh :winkeye:

[KipperKid]

Sadly, this incident has not made it any less likely that I would vote for UKIP. The likelihood was zero before he spoke out and you cant get less than zero, however more obnoxious they are shown to be.

Re. stupidity and ignorance, I think how seriously we should take them depends on who is showing them. It does not matter very much if they are shown by the man emptying my dustbins, or digging holes in the road (which is not to say that those people are stupid or ignorant, only that if they were it wouldnt matter much), but it does matter in the case of a politician in the public eye who aspires to represent us.

You are wrong. Take the tattoo-infested postman that racially abused my wife on our own doorstep some years back. When I stood him on his head, it was me that the authorities wanted to prosecute. Happily attitudes have changed regarding the gravity of such things. You need to catch up.

It's not ok for anyone to be bigoted.

[MrGongGong]

It's not ok for anyone to be bigoted.

Indeed it's not
BUT
if you smokies really want to be taken seriously by anyone apart from the bigots
then dismissing horrible people like this as simply "eccentrics" who "choose their words badly" is not the way to behave at all.