Gah. Sunday Bloody Times

[Habbibu]

John Witherow, for example, is a git. And AA Gil a pointless waste of space. So sue me.

Oh, congratulations, hazey!

Witherow seems to have completely failed to grasp the difference between teasing(Jeremy Clarkson and his dress sense,adolescent mindset etc) and being offensive,which the last comment quoted was.

Good for Claire Balding for standing up to them.
And the Times is a proper grown up paper for goodness sake,is this the best they can do?
No paper should have the right to be randomly offensive to anyone,and complaining about that isn't whinging.

I see that Murdochs rag is advertising here. Trying to drum up people to pay for his online stuff. As if.

Claire Balding seems like a great woman. She's likeable, professional and sensible. What a pity she has had to put up with this, but good for her for standing up to their inexcusable behaviour.

CB was v. good on Have I Got News For You. Clearly able to deal with teasing and joshing. But quite right to object to homophobia.

what about mocking somebody's looks and humiliating them on television though Clare - that's alright I take it?

I actually agree with JW. The lesbian community use the term 'dyke'. Its not a term of abuse - just like 'queer' is now a reclaimed word by the gay community

and by the way, I love CB. Especially love her doing the bedtime stories in cebebbies.

I liked somebody's Tweet that, if CB is a dyke on a bike, AA Gill obviously travels by punt.

Is this the same woman that took the mickey out of a jockey's set of teeth. She obviously likes to take the mickey out of others but can't take it when the boot is on the other foot.

CB is a self-righteous, sanctimonious hyprocrite who needs grow a spine and learn to take it as well as dish it out, like she did when she took the mickey out of the jockey's teeth.

Whatever she has said about other people, and I don't condone mockery of anyone's appearance, Gill was way out of order. By the way, MonkeyTrousers, I regularly refer to myself and to other lesbians as "dykes"; but the same word from straights and strangers is rarely OK - I'm sure I don't need to draw other parallels to help you understand why

mariepuree - can you explain in what way Clare Balding is sanctimonious and self-righteous? I presume you think she is a hypocrite because of the comments she made about the jockey's teeth - but the other criticisms?

FWIW, she apologised immediately and whole-heartedly for her comments - something A.A. Gill is clearly too spineless to do himself, ironically, given that you say that Clare needs to grow a spine.

Dyke is a term like others that can be used by lesbians as a term of enderement and to others as an insult.

I have a Gay freind who refers to himself as a Fag. If I were to call him that then I would probably offend him and rightly so.

But I refer to myself as tubby or fat, but if someone else where to call me it I would be offended. Its just the way it works.

by others, not to