Appalling Misjudged Harman Gaffe...

[Chil1234]

You know you've won the argument when your opponent is stooping to cheap personal insults. Calling Danny Alexander a 'ginger rodent' was jaw-droppingly childish and I'm glad she had the good grace to apologise. Silly woman.

Utterly vile and childish.

this kind of politics really turns me off - completely childish, point-scoring and cheap. it makes it so clear that they think we're idiots.

wasn't she trying to make some allusion to the delightful native red squirrel
oh no she was making the exact opposite point

i care not the choice of rope she makes but shurely she has enough now to do the job

mooney p'haps you could kick the chair out?

Good response from Danny boy.

Is this what politics has been reduced to calling people ginger twats rodents?

she is a vile nasty hypocrit. agreed rannaldini this is the time for someone to kick the chair from under her. IMHO she should be called to resign over this just as if she made a rasist comment. does she not have ginger hair herself?? she is a horrible biatch.

I must have missed the intervening centuries when politicians behaved delightfully.

How curious.

Only some politicians. She's not taking this well, is she?

'Is this what politics has been reduced to calling people ginger twats rodents?'

yes that is politically correct progressive politics. They are building a progressive future.

Typical of Labour a t m though. They can't face raking any responsibility for their reckless spending and they aren't prepared to say what they would cut. So in the absence of any rational policies about anything they attack the Lib Dems. And now personal comments? It's pathetic and unworthy. Take responsibility, for heaven's sake.

She should have gone eons ago.

Can she be prosecuted under the Equalities Act?

All it takes is for someone to perceive discrimination, even if they are not the "offendee". And as this thread shows, many, many people were offended.

This is terrible.
So so misjudged...and in Scotland where so many people are red heads.

Own goal, I'm afriad.

This demonstarates Labours desperation, knowing that they have lost the argument they stoop to such low-blows.

OMG I can't believe all the squealing about this. Blokes say so much worse to each other all the time. She made herself look like an idiot; he shrugged it off - do we really need to be considering prosecuting her under the Equalities Act?

I think that its just she likes to call herself Mrs Equality and then she starts taking the piss out of someone for their hair colour.

grumpyvamps Ordinarily, I would agree with you.

In the case of Harriet Harman, however, whose bonkers Equalities Act is especially designed for such remarks, I think a prosecution would be rather fitting.

Grumpy - take it you don't have a redhead dc then? Apparently Harriet has - hope the dc gives their mum a right ticking off and reminder of any bullying they have endured. It may seem completely facile but ginger-ism is one of the last permissible discriminations it seems.
Fwiw I got great satisfaction from emailing her office directly yesterday.

This shows how desperate the Labour Party are. The country is realising the severity of the actions needed to clear up the mess they created when in Government and they know they don't have anything remotely constructive to say about how to solve the problems they created.

teej - I am a redhead. (Now blonde, but prob revert back at some point. Teasing happens all the time - surely the fact she made herself look like an idiot is enough?

all the folk who reckon that there is such a thing as "gingerism"- I have a little q for you to ponder. I got called Spock at least once daily at school by other kids-some of them ginger. This went on for- oooh- about 11 years. It may have had something to do with my fucking enormous slightly oversized ears

I learnt (at about 6) that the way to deal with this was to smile and accept it with grace and dignity. If instead I had wept and shouted "fuck off out of it you ginger bastards" would I have then been using discriminatory language?

I don't really think that calling this discrimination/ calling into question H Harman's commitment to equality is either appropriate or useful

(me and dp think it's hilaaarious that the whole focus on this 'issue' has been to do with the ginger aspect- everyone is igmoring the rodent bit, which is much more offensive, surely!)

...when jobs are restricted to non-gingers, or B&B landladies start telling ginger people they have no vacancies, then let a non-ginger in 5 minutes later, or ginger families moving into estates have anti ginger slogans daubed on their doors you may have a case

Does "she needs a quick going over in a dark alley" mean what I think it means?