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Original poster

No British - No Women

415 replies

MrSpoc · 20/01/2011 15:13

I have just come across this article:

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Huntingdon-St-Ives-St-Neots/Playgroup...

am i being unreasonable to be disgusted at how this can be legal.

OP posts:
hogsback · 20/01/2011 18:08

MIFLAW - language isn't a protected characteristic, education level is not a protected characteristic, hair colour is not a protected characteristic. You are free to discriminate and exclude on these grounds to your heart's content.

Race, along with sex, age, disability, religion ARE protected, and you have to play by the rules.

purepurple · 20/01/2011 18:10

And if someone asked for a "couple of hours off from foreign people"?
Would that be ok?

FranSanDisco · 20/01/2011 18:11

A small fee could be introduced, as is payable at white people's toddler groups, and then they could fund this group without taxpayer's money. I am sure they £1,000 could be better spent in the current climate.

MIFLAW · 20/01/2011 18:11

"A couple of hours off from British people?
This is laughable,and ever so silly. I have lived in a few countries in different parts of the world. I have never felt the need to get a couple of hours off' with other women who are from anywhere else in the world apart from the place welived in." You are a saint. How long did you live in each of these countries and how integrated were you into the communities?

"Though I imagine that if your wife is 'foreign' she may need a couple of hours a day away from you" - does Tommy Cannon know you are stealing his material?

claig · 20/01/2011 18:11

We must make foreigners and British born equally happy using taxpayers' money contributed by the people and for the people. We must not discriminate against anyone. We should treat everyone as equals. The new government will do precisely that, since they are not progressives. New Labour is history.

TheEvilDead2 · 20/01/2011 18:12

That was because the point was made SN room would be destroyed by the NT kids.

Are British people going to come and smash the place up if they are allowed in to the group?

ISNT · 20/01/2011 18:12

"I just don't understand what the issue is...letting a bunch of women who are not British find common ground with eachother, which a girl of "mixed race" being excused (she obviously told them what "her parents were"). If you don't like it, then go somewhere else. I just can't see the issue."

It's a problem because they have a rule which they are not applying logically.

Would they have let the two women in, if they had revealed that their parents were Irish? Or that one of them had a German father?

If it's no british then you can't start randomly letting british people in on the basis of the colour of their skin. The woman they let in was british, they wouldn't let other british people in, that is totally nonsensical. It's akin to saying that only white people are "properly british" which is dodgy in the extreme and the sort of idea espoused by the BNP ie utterly racist.

scurryfunge · 20/01/2011 18:12

MrSpoc, still laughing at your comment that you should give any Tory minister credibility.Grin

hogsback · 20/01/2011 18:13

FranSanDisco - the "taxpayer's money" argument is irrelevant. The law applies to private bodies just as much as it does to public ones.

politicalminefield · 20/01/2011 18:13

Whether I think it's right or wrong to exclude British people in this case, I think that the main focus of the news story is the "brits are being excluded" storyline. It's not focusing on the objectives of the group itself. The danger of stories like this is they invoke such a reaction as is being seen on this thread. This type of story also fuels the racist opinions of the likes of the BNP. You only have to read the comments at the bottom of the original article to realise that.

begonyabampot · 20/01/2011 18:13

yes but 'braying brits' don't usually realise they are braying. I lived in asia for a few years (an ex colonial) and many of the locals there did feel intimated by the western (especially British expats). I don't know where some of these ladies in the group in question came from and what kind of background they come from financially and educationally - but I can see they might feel more at ease in each others company - just for an hour or 2.

TheEvilDead2 · 20/01/2011 18:14

MIFLAW I agree with Mrs Rufflo, and I have been living abroad since I was 18 (thats very nearly a decade)

ThePosieParker · 20/01/2011 18:15

scurryfunge Thu 20-Jan-11 17:13:16
posie, can you explain the middle sentence of your last posting please. It didn't make sense.

Yes it did, just one rogue m...surely that's not too hard for you?

TotemPole · 20/01/2011 18:15

If it was for one particular nationality or language, I could understand it. But if it's ALL nationalities other than British then that's racist.

ISNT · 20/01/2011 18:17

begony on what basis should non white british women be allowed in then. As they have been born and raised in the UK, presumably they "bray" as much as the rest of them.

(Pretty nasty generalisation about british women there BTW)

scurryfunge · 20/01/2011 18:17

Nope, sorry still not sure what you were trying to say, posie. Never mind eh, it was quite probably irrelevant Grin

ThePosieParker · 20/01/2011 18:18

"And the cost is £5k? Councils spend more than that every week on photocopying. Let them have their fun, I say." MIFLAW

I say let's spend that on some respite instead.

MIFLAW · 20/01/2011 18:19

"Race, along with sex, age, disability, religion ARE protected, and you have to play by the rules."

Like everyone does about everything else, all the time. Like underage sexual activity, income tax on cash payments, speed limits, cycling on pavements and all the other weighty issues of the day?

Why is the moral, socail and financial fabric of this country of nearly 60 million people so threatened by one toddler group meeting once a week at the cost of a thousand pounds to the Council?

Why is Council money different to (pre-fees) university money? It's all from taxes, isn't it?

Where can I find a "white people's toddler group", incidentally? Is it a regular thing, or just an informal gathering everytime the Klan get together for a hog roast? Am LOVING the idea that only Aryans pay for services consumed.

"And if someone asked for a "couple of hours off from foreign people"?
Would that be ok?"

Yes, of course it bloody would - why on earth wouldn't it? Have you ever been abroad? Did they let you stay in a hotel or make you sleep naked in the town square?

ThePosieParker · 20/01/2011 18:21

Psammead Thu 20-Jan-11 17:44:47
TheEvilDead2 why do you assume that these women don't intergrate? Based on one toddler group? You have no idea what lengths they have or haven't gone to to intergrate.

Also, there is nothing wrong with wanting to take a breather. Feeling like you want a place to go to where you can relate to other people in a similar situation to yourself is no reason for giving up and 'going home'.

Perhaps this was based on the same facts that lead you to think the British girls could go elsewhere.

FranSanDisco · 20/01/2011 18:22

That's the point MIFLAW - there isn't one for the exlcusive use of white people as it would be racist.

MIFLAW · 20/01/2011 18:23

Let's spend it on some respite - indeed. Let's.

While you're here on the internet, why don't you go onto your local Council's website and download their 2010/11 budget book. It will put £5k into context for you in public spending. An amount that small (and I think I am right in saying that the Council contributed £1k, not £5k) would barely show up. It would typically be ignored in the budget setting process. Maybe put in a few FoI requests around printing costs. Or "free" newspapers. Or biscuits consumed at internal meetings. I bet you can find five huge wastes of money (by your own criteria) that will make you forget this thread even exists.

begonyabampot · 20/01/2011 18:24

of course not all british women bray, I apologise - but many of them do frequent Mumsnet.

Psammead · 20/01/2011 18:24

ThePosieParker sorry, are you suggesting that this was the only toddler group available in the area? That there was nothing available for the British women other than this?

There have been good arguments back and forth on this thread. That aint one of them.

MIFLAW · 20/01/2011 18:24

Fran

I quote:

"A small fee could be introduced, as is payable at white people's toddler groups" - now that implies that, in your head at least, such groups exist and function. So where are they and how much do they charge?

claig · 20/01/2011 18:25

'Why is the moral, socail and financial fabric of this country of nearly 60 million people so threatened by one toddler group meeting once a week at the cost of a thousand pounds to the Council?'

the new government cares about social cohesion and wants to avoid divisive disrimination as it gives fuel to the BNP.

'FranSanDisco - the "taxpayer's money" argument is irrelevant. The law applies to private bodies just as much as it does to public ones.'

FranSanDisco is right. This is about much more than the law. This is about principle. This is about the goals, aims and ethos of our society. That is why the politicians have got involved. This is political, it is about principle, about public policy.