To think Boris Johnson should be be thrown out of Tory party?

[crunchymint]

He is clearly racist. He should be thrown out of the Conservative party.

So let's imagine Boris walked up to a woman, just doing her shopping, who happened to be wearing a burka and shouted to her that she looked like a bank robber, or she resembled a post box.

Any decent human being would be shocked surely?

So why is it okay to write it in a national newspaper?

theliverpoolone are you suggesting that labour are doing a much poorer job of holding the conservatives to account that the conservatives do with JC? If so I would have to agree and not just over Boris.

Unfortunately racism occurs in the far left and far right extremes and for some god awful reason we have a far right front bench and a far left shadow front bench

Totally agree with that. The further the right wing push to see how far they can go, the further the left wing pull in the opposite direction. It's all such a fucking mess. And in the middle blameless Jewish or muslim people are taking the flack.

Is this push back from Momentum because they are being labelled antisemitic?

The conservatives are trying to appeal to the far right now though so I don't see why they would want to get rid of him.

Teresa May decided to deport (black people) first then hear appeals later, even if they'd spent their whole lives practically in the UK. Can't understand why she's still in power unless they're now going after the right wing loony vote, I guess they can't bank on the homeowners vote anymore.

ISLAM IS NOT A RACE! and NORMAL MUSLIMS DON'T WEAR NIQABS! (burkas have mesh over the eyes). It just pisses me off.

On the one hand you are minimising actual racism which is discrimination on the basis of a set of generic characteristics that they have no control over and that have no baring or reflection on their personality or beliefs. On other hand you are also denying the incredible hardship that some apostates experience when leaving the religion. You could call it islamophobia if you wanted to but ffs don't say that's racism. But you shouldn't call it islamophobia because that limos all the lively, Liberal civilised Muslims who don't want to efface women in with the hardliners. Arguably it's not even an islamic thing per se to cover women up to the point where they are a walking shadow, just common in many Islamic cultures. Even so, I don't want my lot to be associated with that, its bloody offensive that culture treat women that way and that women through fear or internalised misogyny choose to live their lives literally faceless to the world.

If you don't like his comments that's fine but it doesn't give you the right to minimise racism or to pretend that these extremists represent to majority of the Muslim community.

I think full face coverings represent the height of misogyny & have no place in a civilised society. I'm not a Boris fan, but I do wish someone would take a stand & ban the fucking things - happy for balaclavas & other face coverings to be banned too. Totally out of order & all to do enjoy the the subjugation of women & nothing at all to do with religion.

I may well be wrong but I thought he'd quit after disagreeing with TM about Brexit???

Or did I dream that Boris has left the Tories??

I agree with every word Boris wrote.

Yes, I believe the wearing of a burka is nuts, but it should not be against the law. If I want to go out with my face covered I will. If a muslim woman wants to do the same, I have no problem with that.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to question whether a woman is freely wearing the niqab or required to do so by cultural pressures. (DH is Muslim and one of my elderly SIL wears a niqab - the only family member to do so).
However, to mock the way the women look was cheap and nasty. But then again I think Bojo is cheap and nasty most of the time.

I really don’t know if he’s genuinely racist or not!

I believe everything he says is carefully worded and is an attempt to further his career.

Should he be thrown out of the Conservative party - please do!

This man will happily destroy us all of it means he can become Prime Minister

Well it certainly detracts from all the Corbyn shit doesn't it?????

Regardless of wether his comments were racist or just meant to be plainly insulting, it's not the way we should expect a senior politician to behave.
I have strong views on that garment, but I'm certain I could express those views much more appropriately than he did. He meant to be provocative, to ridicule and to capture more of the far right vote. He has undoubtedly done that - but it isn't the actions of an intelligent or responsible politician who wants to unite the people of the UK.

So this is Tory bashing. No actual racism by Boris.

Walking dead
Religion and belief is a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act. So if he was inciting hatred of a religion that would be a potential crime.

However, to the extent wearing the niqab is a patriarchal imposition surely it is the people who impose the requirement who should be called out rather than mocking the women.

I am not left wing and not a Tory basher but I think Boris is toxic.

Wasn’t he saying that women should be free to wear the burqa? That’s not racist. It is the opposite.

He was making a nuanced point about tolerance (bit too nuanced for most of this thread). He was saying that banning the burqa a la France is not OK.

He described it as looking like a post box. Some people might say there is something to that - and they are free to do that (tolerance) - the Boris point was that we need to have a discussion not a ban. And he was objecting to what the burqa means for women and how it dehumanises them.

Racist is complete the wrong term.

He along with anyone else had the absolute right to call out the burka as mysogynistic controlling and has no place in the 21 st century but he has no place to be childishly rude and insulting.

But then he’s a mysogynistic idiot himself.

I do wish people could understand the term racism. It really isn’t hard.

SusamWalker

It’s frightening isn’t it.

Quoad
What is nuanced about describing a woman in a niqab as looking like a bank robber?

To the extent he is a libertarian then I would expect him to oppose a ban. However, he didn’t need to resort to childish insults to make his point. The article would have been better without them.

He thinks he'll get away with saying this stuff because he sees Trump does.

And you know, some people will love the "say what you see" take.

He is a total arse God help us if he ever runs for PM.

I can imagine the people baying for Boris's blood/resignation whatever, would have QUITE a different attitude if it was Jeremy Corbyn who had said what he said.

No he shouldn't be sacked. Many politicians have said worse. Get a grip.

Shouldn't apologise, has done nothing but express an opinion, people are being fucksticks.

The whole Tory party should probably be sacked with a few maybe allowed to join the replacement. There should be a credible Tory party representing the mainstream of working Britons that would vote for them, the current lot don't seem like actual conservatives really.

It’s obviously no coincidence that he’s penned this after his meetings with Bannon. Boris will do or say anything to become PM. Brexit didn’t do it for him, now he’ll try the Trump playbook. There’ll be more like this from him, I’m sure.

I don’t think he should be thrown out of the Tory party.

I think he should be thrown out of an aeroplane, over a deep canyon.

He’s a dangerous embarrassment.

It was a nuanced argument about the burqa.

To those who think he should be thrown out of a plane or whatever, I would say this:

The feminism board is full all day long but despite this it is very hard to get any cut through in the media. Boris didn’t need to discuss the depersonalisation of women, but he has stuck up for tolerance AND challenged poor treatment of women.

The bank robber jokes are for the people who would otherwise not listen to anything about women’s rights, and for headlines. It is bloody clever politics.