John McDonnell's Thatcher assassination joke

[UnquietDad]

here

Acceptable or not?

I think he has had an easy ride over this. Imagine a right-of-centre politician saying they wish they'd assassinated Harold Wilson or Gordon Brown.

Of course it's acceptable, it was a joke to a sympathetic audience. She wouldn't give two hoots, she's had far worse! He shouldn't have apologised.

Reagrdless of that, I think there would have been far more of an outcry had this come from the Right about a Labour leader.

I'd agree to a point. I think they're is nothing wrong in the slightest with the joke, I would share your concerns about hypocrisy however and think that if anyone who was in the cross-hairls of the liberal left made a similar joke they would have jumped on them to a greater extent.

I think it is disgusting and shows what a bitter nonentity of a pipsqueak the clown is. Apparently he has "cracked" the same joke before, so he obviously thinks it is funny and acceptable. What a state of affairs when we have a fool like that running for leadership of the Labour party.

for his next piece of up to the minute political satire, is he going to crack a joke about 'Peace in our time'?

i think this just shows just how deeply the misogynism of the left runs (if you consider the whole original purpose of the Labour movement was to protect the rights of the Working Man - prominent lady left wingers often testify to how bloody hard it was for them to get ahead...(think meetings being held in Working mens clubs with men-only bars))..and the sheer childishness too...she was Prime Minister...she hasn't been now for twenty years! Get over it!!

Not funny. Not clever. Sooooo been done before.

Oh, left-wing politicians are always allowed to get away with harsher jokes than right wing ones. Even a sniff of right-of-centre views will torpedo the average comedian's career.

Having said that, I don't give a toss about the joke one way or the other.

This is disgusting.

Is it now acceptable to "joke" about the assassination of Gordon Brown or Tony Blair?

Why is this man still a member of the Labour party?

"Is it now acceptable to "joke" about the assassination of Gordon Brown or Tony Blair?"

Yes. From an actual leftie.

Coolfonz

Remember John McDonnell is a supporter of the IRA.

Do you think it is acceptable for BNP supporters to joke about assassinating ethnic minorities?

Do you think it is acceptable for supporters of al-Muhajiroon to joke about assassinating Jews?

The Young Conservatives used to sing 'Hang Nelson Mandela' (to the tune of 'Free Nelson Mandela'). Unfunny, tasteless, horrible 'jokes' are not the preserve of the left.

Plenty of left-wingers have said very harsh things about Blair and Bush and other leading Labourites. Am sure this includes rather unfunny jokes about assassination.

Honestly, the self-righteousness of some on the right is ridiculous.

Proles I have vague memories of seeing something like that somewhere- documentary of Kenny perhaps? Never knew context though.

i thought jokes were supposed to be funny..?

what he meant was "shit, did I say that out loud around microphones?"
not "it was only a joke"

I'd happily assassinate many people (Jools Holland for one)..it might not be to everyone's taste but nor am I saying it's a joke

it's his opinion and i don't give a shit about it or him tbh...v strong personal views should remain personal though
except for the Jools Holland thing

Just wait until Thatcher dies - then we'll see true leftie nastiness emerging in the form of all those "rejoicing" and "dancing on her grave" and so on, as they have said they are going to do on numerous occasions.

I'm no Thatcher fan at all, but to stoop to that is highly childish.

(Remember the "state funeral for Thatcher" thread on here? Some of it came out there.)

she was a woman doing a job to the best of her ability and I have always wondered if she would have been vilified as much were she a man...?

but that's for another topic

Unquietdad, I can't wait until she does die. it means I can open that bottle of bubbly waiting in my fridge.

Um excuse me

This is a minority of lefties you lot are referring to!

Most 'lefties' are not mawkish, advicocating bad humour assasination or any of teh things we seem accused of.

At worst this is a small %; it is certainly not a defining characteristic of the group!

And seriously there are plenty of examples of similar right wing behaviour.

And frankly if someone posts SanctiMoanyArse is ebing sanctimonious I won't be arguing with a name like this LOL

Kenny Everett was an asshole and was not a senior Tory. This leftist nobody McDonnell is standing for leadership of the Labour party. There is no comparison. I remember listening to a well-known sanctimonious left-wing fraud's talkshow and they thought incorrectly that Thatcher had died. He made jokes and so did many of the callers. It was stomach-churning to see the level of hatred in people who consider themselves civilised. They were like bloodthirsty Bolsheviks baying for blood.

Can you imagine if Osborne, the Bullingdon member, had made a similar joke about Michael Foot. All of our media, our left-wingers like Jon Snow and associates, and our "impartial" BBC would have had it as the top story for days. They would have been demanding an interview with him. He would have been thrown to the wolves and rightly so. But this left-wing lunatic hasn't even been interviewed. The left-wingers are silent, to them it's no big deal, they always crack such jokes behind closed doors.

Margaret Thatcher paid very gracious tributes to Michael Foot when he passed away.

I wonder if those on the left will be so dignified when she passes away?

claig

Excellent point. Kenny Everett wasn't standing to be leader of Labour, and presumably, wanting to become Prime Minister!

Imagine if David Cameron in 2005 had started talking about assassinating Blair! I can only imagine the field day the communists at the BBC would be having.