Laurence Fox is an ignorant, spoilt brat.

[longwayoff]

What is wrong with this fool? Apparently in James Delingpole's podcast, heavy sigh, he criticises Sam Mendes for featuring a Sikh soldier in WW1 film. Ever heard of the British Empire, Laurence? How many Indians died for Britain? AIBU to say LF is being deliberately divisive and provocative and evidently doing his own publicity?

"The Indian Army provided the largest number of troops, and by the end of 1914 they made up almost a third of the British Expeditionary Force."

A third of the BEF?
I know the source for this is a Brighton Museums article about a small military hospital there (linked in the post) but what a bizarre statement! Shame they don't provide a source, and do they mean in the hospital or on the Western front? or in India?

Ffs. Stop focusing on one woman. There are many who have been marginalised or eradicated from history for no other reason than the colour of their skin. Interestingly, I put two other names up; neither discussed.

This does make me very sad. Because the end result of this obsession with identity politics is that it will continue alienating those who jumped ship to vote Tory in the recent election. We'll end up with the Boris Johnson as PM for the next 10 years at least at this rate. This is a result of sticking to ideology rather than pragmatism.

I agree but what the middle class left don't seem to understand, that everyone does, is that not everyone who is BAME or Gay or whatever voted for the left and that they're as sick of identity politics as everyone else. That they also vote Tory just doesn't seem to compute in the progressive left's brain

A BAME woman in the audience on the Liverpool QT tried to point this out and seemed to be agreeing with LF, but she has been totally ignored in subsequent discussions and was also ignored at the time.

So its historically accurate that hindus fought on the Western front, and fought in battalions with British soldiers

Technically yes and so did black troops, including a relative of mine who was KIA, on the Western front, I dont think anyone would denies there were but the problem as I see it is when people forget the demographics and start exaggerating the numbers for woke comment points. Yes they fought in British regiments but the numbers were small simply because the numbers of Black and Indian heritage people in Britain, where these regiments formed at the time, was small. Same with the numbers of Polish who served in the BoB. Try discuss the BoB sensibly and you inevitably end up with an overload of feverish comments about the brave Polish, which of course they were, but the numbers of xomments get out of proportion. Why not just call them all brave? Why this constant need to split allied soldiers up into ethnic groups? What difference does it make. Why can't they just be soldiers, brothers in arms?

A couple of years ago there was the epic Twitter battle around a BBC teaching aid, a short animation film set near Hadrian's wall in 200 AD or whenever. It portrayed an African Roman officer, his family and their daily life. Was there such an African heritage officer in Roman North of England, possibly yes but the film info stated they were a 'typical' military officer family. Even the noted historian Mary Beard, at the centre of the Twitter storm, agreed in the end that the portrayal of the family was not 'typical' and the word was eventually removed. So why had the programme makers decided they were 'typical'? Historical accuracy or the pushing of a modern political agenda.

So one soldier in a regiment (as apparently the film is) would have been accurate.

There is no "possibly" about African romans being in the north of England either.

If there were people of colour involved in any of these things why is it so offensive to white people for them to be portrayed?

"Why not just call then all brave" .

Good question.

Because the British tend to paint the BoB as a British alone victory, not one which was won with the help of allied forces. Our brave boys in their finest hour when we, alone, stood against the Nazis. When actually we stood with the support and aid from the other countries in the Empire.

Twitter comments from LF *"Fellow humans who are #Sikhs

I am as moved by the sacrifices your relatives made as I am by the loss of all those who die in war, whatever creed or colour.

Please accept my apology for being clumsy in the way I have expressed myself over this matter in recent days.

L"*

Some Sikh responses...

"Laurence, as a Sikh I can not forgive you. As there's nothing to forgive. Sure, the comment seemed like a Knee jerk reaction, but most of us know it was aimed at the enforced PC bullcrap by the woke police. Sikhs stand for liberty, and we stand with the British people."

"A tad clumsy it was, but most sensible people get that you were still seething from the frenzied frothing by the wolk-folk over your #bbcqt appearance. The best of us trip up sometimes. Minor faux pas. It's all good. I didn't take offence one tiny bit. Keep rocking."

"Laurence, your apology is warmly getting, and it takes dignity to accept an error of judgement. To those still bearing a grudge against you, could I remind them that Sikhism is based on the virtues of democracy, equality and tolerance-please show any of these"

He’s a rent-a-Gob who’s probably wondering why HE didn’t get cast as a British Officer as he’s got the right pedigree AND he’d be cheaper than Cumberbatch... plus he has some god awful music to plug. Nothing like a acting toff from an acting school explaining to us working class how things should be around here...

Because the British tend to paint the BoB as a British alone victory, not one which was won with the help of allied forces

If you really analyse war films from the past - especially those about the RAF - or those involving POWs, it's often about the white, middle and upper class, officers - - with little focus on the other ranks.

Which all seeks to create an impression in people's minds.

Tee hee marina Hyde skewers this pompous twat here -www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2020/jan/23/want-to-know-what-racism-feels-like-ask-laurence-fox

I love Marina Hyde

What you on about Nelsons pissing column about for now? you were wrong. Deal with it.

Weirdy I was taught at school that Rosa Parks was an old woman.

BEF generally means the soldiers present in France and Belgium.

I watched his interview the other day, holy moly. He's definitely not on the side of women, his language is peppered with MRA/MGTOW/incel/red pill terminology.

In the part where he talks about the #metoo movement he states that women go into acting knowing they'll be expected to perform sex, so they shouldn't be complaining now. He also states he got into acting so he could creep on women and he was miffed when "intimacy directors" began choreographing sex scenes because he enjoyed asking the female actor what he was OK with him doing to her and liked a bit of "frisson". He even mimes the boob grope while talking about it.

The performance of his music track was so awful that even though I find him a hateful individual, I still felt bad for him.

*when I say perform sex, I mean actual sex.

So one soldier in a regiment (as apparently the film is) would have been accurate.
No, because you cannot see a whole regiment in a film, unless at distance I suppose. If you mean a platoon, then no.
I'm not denying there were black and Indian British men who served in British regiments, just that the numbers would have been small.

There is no "possibly" about African romans being in the north of England either.

I didnt say there weren't any African Roman's in the North of England. There is a high status burial of a Roman north African woman on display in a museum in York. I said the portrayal in the school film wasnt 'typical'. As did others on Twitter but this was jumped on as meaning 'no Africans at all'. Which was not what people were saying

If there were people of colour involved in any of these things why is it so offensive to white people for them to be portrayed?
It isnt but when it gets exaggerated it is not historically accurate

"Why not just call then all brave" .

Good question.

Because the British tend to paint the BoB as a British alone victory, not one which was won with the help of allied forces. Our brave boys in their finest hour when we, alone, stood against the Nazis. When actually we stood with the support and aid from the other countries in the Empire.

The BoB was a British victory. There were no allied forces fighting at that time, apart from I think in Greece. Britain was pretty much alone.

@SpamChaudFroid He really does sound like a creep, and I feel very depressed to think the LF fan club think that he's so wonderful. At least he didn't get what he wanted, Hathaway was virtually celibate, which is very ironic. And the other roles I've seen him in didn't involved sexual activity. Apart from the Foyle's War character where he groped a vulnerable young woman, whose brother he had murdered earlier is the film.

The Afua Hirsch wanting to take down Nelson's Column thing is ironic because black RN sailors are represented on the base of the column. She would have dismantled a memorial to black veterans from 200 years ago. Shows how little she knows about the Royal Navy and Nelson's column

Educate yourself on the Battle if Britain and the contribution of the pilots from the Commonwealth and also the occupied countries of Europe

BEF generally means the soldiers present in France and Belgium

Yes

And you do know that one of the most successful squadrons in the Battle of Britain was a Polish squadron.. Number 303. And a Polish pilot had the highest number of kills shooting down 5 Germans in 1 day.

Flaxmeadow
("The Indian Army provided the largest number of troops, and by the end of 1914 they made up almost a third of the British Expeditionary Force.")

A third of the BEF?
I know the source for this is a Brighton Museums article about a small military hospital there (linked in the post) but what a bizarre statement!

I think they mean it literally - "by the end of 1914"

Wiki has these stats:
Founded:1914
Size: 247,400 (1914–1915); 2.04 million (1916–1918)

So, almost a third of 247,400?

"In September 1914, the BEF was reinforced by the Indian Expeditionary Force A which eventually formed two corps each of two divisions, the Indian Cavalry Corps and the Indian Infantry Corps"...

"The infantry divisions were finally withdrawn to Egypt in October 1915, when they were replaced by the new British divisions of Kitchener's Army."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Expeditionary_Force_(World_War_I)

Brighton Museum:
"The Pavilion’s first patients arrived in early December 1914.Over the following year, over 2,300 Indian patients were treated"...
"In late 1915 the British decided to redeploy the Indian Army in the Middle East, and most Indian soldiers were withdrawn from Europe."

You might also want to look at the contribution of the Commonwealth to Bomber Command. Not that many firms recognise this