The MP who's been sacked for racism.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

So this conservative MP, who's an ex army officer has been sacked from the Tory frontbench fr saying that in the army people shout "come on you fat ba*tard, come on you black ba*rd".

Is this really racism? He wasn't condoning it, or makign excuses for it as far as I can see - just stating a fact. Is Cameron sweeping the reality of racism under the carpet and pretending it doesn't exsist?

A lot of black soldiers who served withthis MP have come forward and said there is no way he is racist, just the opposite in fact.

Somtimes it seems you can't talk about racism or ethnic minorities without getting lynched.

Well put, it seemed very injust when I watched the report last night. The reporters made it sound bad, but the transcript struck me as a balanced statement rather than racist rhetoric.

what a nobwank. if it's not racism, its the most stupid thing to say in public.

stupid

I would have sacked him for incompetence not racism.
Having read what he said, there is an obviously clear truth that some soldiers use their race as a way of trying to get away with poor performance. Hundreds of thousands of non-white people have served in the British Army, so it must be true for some.
Underperforming staff often do this, and if not able to play race will use public transport, childcare, air conditioning the funny way a colleague looked at them, etc...
The evidence is that as an army officer he did not act in a racist way.

But that's not what he said...
He said it in a way that implied that black soldiers were crap whingers.

As a politician he is employed to say things well. As a spokesman on issues that deal with other countries, he needs to be particularly good at phrasisng things.
He failed, and did so in a very public way.

Thankfully this happened before he was a real minister.

hmm i get wht he means but all sorts of epopel( white or not) use other things as excuses dont they
thin the gingger analogy is crap

Yes stupid but I think this is political correctness gone mad. Racism exists from white people to black and the other way round but everyone is so terrified of being 'racist' that if you say you don't like someone or something they have done and they are not of the same race as you, you risk being labelled 'a racist'. Look at the whole think with celeb big brother blown up into a MASSIVE race issue when really it's just Jade Goody being her typical gob sh*te self (BTW Jade Goody is a waste of airtime...would rather have a screen saver of Dr Kovac myself)

Cameron is going to be struggling to fill a front bench if he sacks everyone who makes an ill-though out comment though. Unless they have the sex appeal of Boris Johnson apparently.

Boris makes me laugh, he's a plonker but he knows it.

If someone called me a ginger bastard I'd report them, actually.

I do love it when Cameron's attempt at making the Tories into nice people fails so dismally Bring it on!

I'm only 5ft and I used to get called names like the oh so inventive 'titch' - should I have reported people for heightism? Where do you draw the line?

Perhaps "Nice but dim"?

Sigh, it isn't getting any easy being rightwing in UK/US is it?

I agree - I've been watching / seeing various reports on this over the past day and I have to say I think it's political correctness gone mad. How is it that when the whole BWA (Big White Ass) thing has been mentioned on here over the past week no one has appeared to take offence.

Just to comment on two of the quotes from the article:

"They prospered inside my regiment, but if you'd said to them 'Have you ever been called a nigger,' they would have said 'Yes.'
my comment - this is a sad state of affairs but it is a statement of fact,.

"Shadow homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said he had met "a lot" of "idle and useless" ethnic minority soldiers who used racism as a "cover"."
my comment - I have met lots of women and men who aren't good at their jobs and have used discrimination as a cover

I fail to see how this can all be construed as racism.