To find this ignorant and snobbish

[Peniston]

So I see this post on Facebook by a woman I know of through school. She has a high profile at the kids' school because she's a governor and until recently chaired the PTA. To clarify, she and I are NOT Facebook (or any sort of) friends. I saw it because she has posted on a friend of a friend's timeline.

To give some context, the friend of a friend's status update is grumbling about the increased noise from Heathrow planes flying over our South West London suburb. (I am not getting agitated about the new flight paths personally because my husband and I reason that the planes have got to fly over someone's house). So people are posting supportively and saying 'sign the petition' and so on. Relatively harmless nimbyism so far.

Then the woman in question posts the following:

"I wish they would now fuck off! Too loud tonight! Can they please fly over southhall [sic] as they pay far less council tax!"

I have a few issues with this:

1. Why single out another suburb?
2. Council tax is there to provide local amenities and not to protect against potential changes to flight paths so what a stupid thing to say.
3. I checked the Ealing borough council tax and compared it to my borough (Richmond) and it is pretty much equivalent so what a load of tosh.

This has incensed me and made me wonder should such an unpleasant ignoramus really hold a position of responsibility on the school board?

AIBU?

I don't understand how it's racist? She said Southall. That isn't a race?

Also please don't mail her abd ask if she meant to be so rude. It's a very daft put down.

Did I miss a post, racist?!

From wikipedia:

Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated 10.7 miles (17.2 km) west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.[1]

Southall is located on the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) which first linked London with the rest of the growing canal system. It was one of the last canals to carry significant commercial traffic (through the 1950s) and is still open to traffic and is used by pleasure craft.

The town has one of the largest concentrations of South Asian people outside of the Indian sub-continent and is especially known for its concentration of Punjabis.[citation needed]

OR, is it racist to assume that she picked Southhall (sic) out of the air because she hates Indians, rather than just because it's pretty deprived in some areas? Are you just exposing your OWN racism by your immediate assumption/first thoughts about Southall, op?

There is obviously some sort of massive back story, or this woman rubs you up the wrong way for some reason, because that FB status on its own is nothing to get agitated about. Certainly not to the extent of looking up different borough's council tax rates.

And no, she shouldn't lose her status as PTA whatever on the basis on one ranty comment on someone else's FB status!!

Would love to know the back story, and what she's down to annoy you quite so much.

It is all tongue in cheek- not expected to be taken seriously. I would keep off FB.

It is snobbish. I used to live near Heathrow so know exactly the implications of the FB post in question.

Basically the woman is saying that the planes should fuck off and fly over Southall because it's populated by poor people and Asians who matter less than the middle class white people in Richmond and Twickenham.

Londoner here and I'd also assume a reference to Southall was in reference to Asian residents.

very naïve question, but doesn't where they fly over depend on where they are flying to?

Of course it is snobbish- but if you analysed every post on FB you wouldn't find much worth reading! Keep off FB and in particular keep off reading people you can't stand anyway!

FB is not for you.
This woman is not for you.
Give both a wide berth.

I think it's snobbish. She sounds a twat

Yanbu op

If the 'snobbish' woman doesn't like aircraft flying over her house, she ought to know what to do - move house.

As someone who knows West London well, I agree that comment is pretty offensive.

However, it's probably not explicit enough to get her thrown off the school board, so I would just ignore!

Ignore, defriend if you want. Its fb. As for the planes. We just got some information about the expansion on heathrow through the doir asking for your comments. I must admit i was moving flats at the time so it went in the bin but might be worth writing something if you got it.

Door not doir....

This woman isn't even a friend on FB! Goodness knows why OP bothered to look her up and read. A lot is coloured by the fact OP doesn't like her.

Ex-Ealing borough resident, and I'm with heartisaspade and try harder, there's a definite racist metonymy there...

OP What time does your local grip shop open today?

Moaningminnie- the planes take off and land on certain paths, depending on various factors, like the current wind direction - they will be sent to a certain height by air traffic control before they turn onto the route they are going to follow, so the areas closer to the airport will get a succession of planes at set intervals. Have a look at a site like flightradar24 and you can see the patterns - there's also an app and it's fascinating to see what's above you!

Heathrow are currently running an experiment which is taking a lot of planes over a new path - we are in Wokingham and are definitely hearing more planes recently, even though the new routes are not directly above us. This has led to a lot of complaints, especially as they didn't bother to tell people in some areas. However, apparently the trial is being stopped a couple of months earlier than expected - they claim will have enough data by November instead of January, but it may also be due to the fact that the areas they have been flying over contain some very expensive houses....

If we were all to go on FB now finding random people, who don't have privacy protection, we could list hundreds of snobbish comments. However why would we want to? Why was OP doing it?

I thought it was fairly racist too! But I would guess 90% of mumsnetters funnny know the local area. NIMBY madam yes but nothing you can do about it!

Or DON'T not funnny! How did that happen

Racism leapt out at me too (I used to live in a neighbouring borough to Southall) and I'm not normally super alert to it. While it would certainly lower my opinion of her I wouldn't take it any further, however I would be more alert for future racist (or similar) comments from her. Let her carry on posting on FB, then the whole world can see how unpleasant she is, I bet you won't be the only one who thought it.

Maybe she ought to move to Southall, she'd get cheaper housing and less noise - result.