to consider Prime Minister's quip re Torrettes as beyond the pale?

[sovreign]

Everyone has a bad day and no one can be pleasant all the time. I accept that men are sexist and just raised my eyes at the 'calm down dear' in House of Commons. But to stoop to using Torrettes as name calling device for your opposition is surely beyond the pale. Coming from a man who would have us all believe that he tended his son with a disability, the only conclusion I can make is that Cameron is suffering from stress and isn't fit to look after our children.

That dig about him not caring for his disabled child was pretty low as well OP. But YANBU to object to Cameron using a neurological disability as shorthand for annoying PITA.

you accept men are sexist?

coming from this forum it would appear the other way around tbh. oh wait now i'm making sweeping unfounded accusations

I think it's a shame that the other comments the op has made are distracting from the fact that David Cameron (as a very public figure) should know better than to use a disability as a 'humourous' insult. Maybe he'll start making 'funny' faces a la Ricky Gervaise, next time.

I still don't think it was inappropriate. It was merely descriptive - a bit like saying to someone are you blind when they can't see something right in frong of them.

If Tourettes sufferers don't shout out at inappropriate, random times, often using inappropriate language, making it difficult go ignore then I apologise.

He should have just said Ed Balls is a cock, nobody could argue with that.

Tourettes involves involuntary motor, vocal and facial tics. So often not shouting and swearing. Not that Cameron's comments would have been acceptable if it did tbh.

MrsJ, do you often call irritating people 'spastic'? If not, then you know what the PM said was wrong.

Tourettes is not primarily about swearing, no. Some people have tics that involve swearing, many don't AFAIK.

it is disingenuous to say that it was merely descriptive, it was clearly meant as an insult. Using a condition like tourettes as an insult is just wrong.

"Both sexes are sexist; that's why you have your hair cut love"
Nice

I can't believe he would even say that!!!!

YANBU to think his comment was inappropriate.

YABVFU to bring his own relationship with his son into it. Whatever you think of the man politics, it is NOT ok to use someone's dead child to make a snide dig.

He is the PM ,he should engage his brain before he opens his mouth

Edam - I don't use the word spastic. People who do use that word don't use it as shorthand for irritating though so you've lost me.

I thought the PM meant it as meaning it was distracting, difficult to ignore.

ok, if someone had clumsy limb movements would you use the term spastic?

YANBU to say that his comment was disabilist.

YANBU to think that having had a disabled son would make him more aware of the offence caused by remarks like this.

YABVU to suggest that he did not care for his son.

Of course it is disabilist. It implies that people with Tourettes are irritating an distracting and was used in a derogatory way.

Mme, I wish everyone had come over to comment on my much less inflammatory (ie boring) thread, about DC's stupid comment.

Using a disability to get a cheap laugh is not on really and I don't see how anyone can defend it ,especially coming from the PM

Hazey - I've already said I don't use the word spastic. It's a pejorative word.

how sad that some people can't see how offensive this is

It's crass and misinformed (not that I would expect any less from DC) - people with TS don't all swear and shout for starters - so he's lumping all people with one disability together - which is 'ist'

He's a pratt but we know that!

it is also a medical term relating to a type of muscle spasm. so following your comment that the pm was being merely descriptive, you could also say it is ok to describe someone as spastic if they have clumsy limb movements, but we all know that isn't ok. the thing is the pm was using tourettes in a pejorative fashion.

MrsJ Nice to know my 15 year old brother would be an irratant to you
Some people have no idea!

tbh it just shows the PM to be the disablist bigot that he is.

Hazey - You are misrepresenting me. You know spastic is pejorative and Tourette's is the name of a condition widely understood to include verbal outbursts of an inappropriate nature. Tourette's isn't pejorative in the same way blind isn't pejorative.

Tyson86 - Show me where I said Tourette's sufferers are irritating. Is your brother offended by Cameron's comment?

I don't think it's offensive at all - in the same way as saying you're 'depressed' when actually you're just temporarily pissed off is not offensive to people with true depression.

It's just lazy use of language - no harm intended

And I think that is the point, MrsJAP - that ISN'T really what Tourettes is - but it is the public perception of it.

And stupid ill thought comments like this (and many others that I hear on a regular basis) just entrench the misperception.

If I tell people my son has Tourettes they are reluctant to engage with him and to include him, as they believe he will be shouting and swearing all the time. Whereas what he actually does is clear his throat and pull his hair (at the moment - it changes periodically). Shouting out actual words, let alone swear words, is a very rare form of Tourettes.