Do you think comments such as those of MP Anne Marie Morris should be overlooked because they were once typical parlance?

[VladmirsPoutine]

I haven't come across a thread regarding this and it's made me wonder.

She was recorded using the N word in a conversational manner.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/10/tories-urgently-investigating-after-mp-uses-n-word-at-public-event

She's apologised for the offence caused, oddly enough not because she actually caused it. And May is looking to suspend her.

But some of the comments I've read have said that the term she used is a typical idiom that used to be common parlance. Does that render it ok? I mean it was once acceptable to also own slaves and for men to rape their wives... so surely that's no excuse.

[ExplodedCloud]

No. It might have been common parlance but nobody under the age of 80 is going to use it surely?

[Butteredparsnip1ps]

I don't think you can accidently make those kind of remarks. Nor could an allegedly, intelligent women make them innocently.

[PurpleDaisies]

No, it's totally unacceptable to use language like that.

[allegretto]

I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt but if she doesn't know it is inappropriate then she is seriously out of touch and not suited to the job.

[RangeTesKopeks]

No! It's a horrible remark to make. And it's really not a common thing to say at all. It's so offensive.

Could she not have said something instead like: 'now we get to the real 'challenge'?'

It also sounds like she is using it in a professional context, which is absolutely not unacceptable.

[RangeTesKopeks]

Sorry - 'which is absolutely unacceptable.'

[TerfwithaNerf]

According to google she's 60, not 160 so no, she has absolutely no excuse for using such and outdated and offensive expression.

[Softkitty2]

No. No excuse and we shouldn't excuse it all.

In fact TM should show zero tolerance and FIRE her, no calls for resignation but she should be sacked!

[eyebrowsonfleek]

No excuse. If she says that in public what does she say in private?

[JigglyTuff]

No - it's absolutely unacceptable. She's unfit to hold public office.

[RangeTesKopeks]

I'm so surprised that she used it. Surely the last thing she would want to do is get bad press or draw attention to herself for a negative reason!!

[WorraLiberty]

I'm surprised you're even asking this question OP

It's a no brainer. Of course it's not ok.

[WinifredAtwellsOtherPiano]

Unless she's just awoken from a thirty year coma, no it's not forgivable.

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

No excuse at all, it's awful to say that! Either she knew how bad it would be and said it anyway, so she's a nasty bigoted cow, or she didn't know it was so bad in which case she's stupid and ignorant.

Not someone I want making decisions on how the fucking country is run either way!

[annandale]

In a funny way i found the reaction helpful.

Ten years ago my boss used the same phrase in a staff meeting. I was genuinely so shocked i didn't say anything. I'd fairly recently moved out of London, where God knows there was plenty of racism but most people would no more use that phrase casually than cut their noses off.

I chewed over what to do for another day. I felt bad i hadn't commented. I wondered what the staff who were black (yes there were some) thought. I wasn't hugely happy there and after a bit i decided to resign. Stupidly i said why in my resignation letter.

God the angst that resulted. He was aghast thst i thought he was racist. I did end up staying a bit longer because they were struggling to recruit. He apologised to me, when it wasn't me who was wronged by it. And I've always felt i handled it wrong at every stage: i should have challenged in the moment: i should have raised it with him as my boss in another meeting: i shouldn't have resigned, or if i wanted out of there i shouldn't have said why. I never thought it was ok to say though; my mother was told why it was offensive in the 1940s fgs.

None of that has changed but it is quite comforting to see that other people find it unacceptable.

[DorisMcSweeney]

How anyone in the public sphere can use that phrase and think it is appropriate is beyond me

[MsPassepartout]

Of course it's not okay.

I can't remember this word being common parlance within my lifetime. Because it's been considered unacceptable language for as long as I can remember and almost certainly unacceptable for longer than that.

[Mawalls]

It will be interesting to see who changes their mind in 20 years time when they are being called a bigot for referring to baby havers as women.

[VladmirsPoutine]

It's not the first time a member of the Tory party has sought to use such similar terminology. The last one claimed that he'd left his brains behind.

I personally find it hugely offensive. Not least because I'm of mixed origin.

[PortiaCastis]

No, absolutely no excuse for using that disgusting word.
The M.P should know better!!!
That's it !

[Stoneagemum]

Her partner and election officer at the local hustings blamed the problems I. The education and healthcare systems on immigrants and their high birth rate.

This to me shows it's an ingrained attitude as her and her partner must speak like this at home as they are comfortable about spouting these comments in public.

[VladmirsPoutine]

MsPassepartout Thing is, I'd never even heard of it or come across it. I knew / have always known that the N word is entirely wrong to use. But I had never heard of the phrase she used - only through a bit of googling I found that it happens to be a turn of phrase.

[OhtoblazeswithElvira]

I had never heard the expression, it certainly is not commonly used to that excuse is out.

I'm usually very easy-going with language but this particular expression is really offensive and paints quite an unequivocal picture of this person. If she really can't see the problem she has no place in public life.

[TheMysteriousJackelope]

Age is no excuse. My mother is 85 and grew up in the British Raj and she knows not to use language like that, as did her parents, born circa 1890.

It was never acceptable, it's just nobody called out racists and bigots longer ago. Now they do.

[ThomasHardyPerennial]

I think she should be sacked. Her apology was also shameful, she claimed the phrase used was "unintentional" - was it bollocks! Utterly disgraceful.