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.

She is both stupid and racist

When I was at school in the 1970s there were kids who had been taught to use 'Irish' as a synonym for stupid, and 'Jewish' as a synonym for mean . sincerely hope that doesn't happen now.

Times change and what she said hasn't been acceptable for decades.

I recognised the expression - I'd seen it before & was aware of it but only very vaguely - I had to google it to find out what it actually meant.
It's not a phrase that's been used in common parlance my lifetime as far as I'm aware (I'm in my 40s).

Re the other people in the room's apparent lack of reaction, the Huffpost reporter who had recorded it said even he was unsure of whether he'd heard it right as it's so unusual a phrase and he had to listen back to the recording after.

The fact that it had tripped off her tongue so easily is what really shocked me - she must use that phrase often to say it like that without thinking, which is disgusting.

TM removed the Tory whip immediately and made a statement saying that sort of thing was not tolerated so she did the right thing imo.

I do think the MP herself should resign tbh.
I usually rail against the resignation demands that happen for various things, but in this case I think she has shown herself to be either very stupid & ignorant at best (and therefore unfit to be in a position of power), or a person with outdated & disgusting views that have no place in today's Britain (again, completely unfit to be in a position of power).

Boris Johnson used the expression 'piccanninies' in his telegraph column a few years back.

I am aware of the 'woodpile' expression but that's because I have a 95 year old racist grandmother.

Of course it isn't ok. Ever.

As others have said age is no excuse. Plenty of older and elderly people manage to get around ok without saying racist shit.

My grandmother is 96 and she knew that word was vile and nasty when she was growing up in the 1920s and 1930s.

No excuse.

I'm in my 50s and I never heard the word used by anyone except as a racist insult when I was growing up. Certainly no-one in my family or in polite society would have used it at all, in any context, for this reason.

I think it's an indicator of the sort of environment she lives and works in.

It's appalling that she would use that language. She should be fired. Or have the decency to resign.

I first heard the expression when someone used it on a BBC radio programme. That was probably 20 years ago and I was utterly shocked that anyone would say it at all but even more appalled that absolutely no one pulled that person up. At least there has been vocal outrage and opposition this time. That's something, I suppose.

The fact that - apparently - no one in that meeting objected raises the question, was the recording made secretly?