Sallyingforth - I concur that the site does attract some idiots, but on the whole, the NF skinhead thing is just plain incorrect.
If I tried to blag that I was a father in a newborn or a IVF thread, you'd see through me as quick as a flash. It's the same on that website, those who have served would see through a never-served in a heart-beat. (I'm a father of three BTW)
'Racists in the army', of course there is, it reflects a young active percentage of the population, but as you rightly say, no more than anywhere else.
Please can I just say, the majority of the remarks about the Comments section on the Daily Mail website were regards to it's blatant censorship. It's a shame that there's a few of the MN users on this thread just can't see that. Has it not occured to anyone that the red arrows are in direct response to the unduly bias moderation by Paul Dacre's newspaper? I'm sure that the EDL/BNP have better things to do than 'dislike' a newspaper article, so I don't think we have a massive racist outburst here by any means.
Mrs Lawrence's enoblement to the HoL stinks of political band-waggoning by the Labour party. Throughout the decades there's been campaigners in one such cause or other that have been seduced by the political parties for their own means, and most, I suspect have regretted it. If she accepts the Labout Peer, than I believe any good she has done (if any, I have no view) will be highjacked for shallow political ends.
The moment she takes the Ermine, she will lose her credibility as a campaigner. Is that what her supporters really want, or do they want a presence in the HoL that will toe the party line rather than seek community cohesion, justice and whatever else she's seeking?
I find the opposition to Doreen Lawrence taking a political Peerage being construed as being rascist offensive. Why is it racist that others should oppose a political party aligning itself with a campaigner for their own means? Aren't people allowed to have an opinion about someone without others classing it as racist? To call everyone a racist who voices an opinion against someone who is an ethnic minority is crass, oppressive and exactly the type of argument used by the intolerant to suppress free, educating and open debate.
As a last note, please remember that freedom of speech, percieved racist or otherwise, in which you enjoy, is exactly the thing that the majority of ARRSE members have signed up to defend.