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UK Politics: Iain Duncan Smith introduces death penalty for poor people


Werthead

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That seems quite lenient considering one of his victims was 15.




In other news, Jeremy Clarkson is an alleged racist again.



Generally I stick up for Clarkson on these things, cause I think he's just a bit careless, rather than a narrow minded bigot. But there has been a few of them now.



It is pretty distasteful how the Mirror drums these things up out of nothing though.


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Eeny meeny miny mo, when I learned that as a kid I thought the word was "nicker", ie. one who nicks stuff. It's quite horrible to grow up a bit and realise what you've been blithely singing without realising. And I have trouble believing that any non-racist over the age of 6 could say the actual n-word without feeling massively uncomfortable, it's just not the sort of thing you could do by accident unless it's already a word that you're using in other contexts.

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It's a very silly thing for him to do on camera, but it's pretty clear he's not meaning to be racist (if you see the actual clip, he's mumbling through that part of the rhyme and it's just audible what would be there), and it seems he took steps to avoid it being broadcast. Quite why he didn't just go with a non-offensive version in the first place I'm not sure (it was always 'tiger' where I grew up).


It's a bit strange that after openly and deliberately using words like 'wop' and 'slope' as jokes, not to mention all the other subjects, this is the one that forces him to offer a grovelling apology.

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No, I'd say it was racist because of the mumbling - ie it is intended as a nod to a knowing audience who are being presumed to know what and importantly why he mumbles that part of the rhyme. It looks like an intent to be naughty and daring by bearding the terrible monster of political correctness at the same time.



If as per his apology he wasn't a racist and genuinely hated the word he could have been out and proud with "Ip dip dog shit" as we did at school or some other rhyme - one would have expected him to have refused to use the rhyme at all if he really disliked the word. He surely is in a position to have control over the material he uses in his shows.

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The overlap with these two cases is illuminating. It's all about definitions.

Clearly, Clarkson doesn't think he's a racist (and at least some of his colleagues don't think he is) because he's not, y'know, actively out organising KKK meetings and probably wouldn't sell up if an Asian family bought the house next door. He 'just' uses derogatory racial terms, on occasion. But it's OK, because he doesn't really mean it. It's just a joke. It's just the language he was brought up with. He has black friends. The PC brigade. Curry. And so on.

In fact, Clarkson probably votes UKIP and you can be certain that a lot of UKIP voters sympathise or even identify with him. None of them think they're racists. They don't think Farage is racist: they don't think the UKIP posters are racist: hence, they're more or less immune to accusations of racism in the UKIP ranks. That's not racism, you see.

So the UKIP vote holds up. Probably the only damaging thing that's happened so far is Farage's refusal to stand in the by-election, which suggests a lack of confidence - a far worse sin in political terms than racism, so long as it's 'not-proper-racism'.

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I was quite amused that the BBC felt they had to explain the 'slope' joke. "You see, it could mean a slope on the bridge but is also a racial slur against the asian man crossing the bridge..."

Really?

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I doubt very much that Clarkson votes UKIP. He's too smart, and too cynical, for that. His persona is largely a marketing ploy.

I'm not so sure. I mean, I agree that the persona is a marketing ploy - but that does not prevent it being based on genuine personality traits and beliefs. The track record Clarkson has of making these little slips suggests that what he's doing is exaggerating his personality for the camera, rather than playing a role that doesn't really match his private self.

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I was quite amused that the BBC felt they had to explain the 'slope' joke. "You see, it could mean a slope on the bridge but is also a racial slur against the asian man crossing the bridge..."

Really?

I will admit to being one of the people who needed it explained.

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I like his fairly no nonsense attitude compared to most other members of his Party, which I'm bound to vote for anyway because voting Labour-not going to happen,ever.


I won't lie, I'd also be curious to see how squashed the seat by the Dispatch Box got over the course of a Parliment.


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