Anyone else shocked by Cameron's comment last night or is it just me?!

[andagain]

Attempting to answer the very first question last night, the immigration one, Cameron said:
"I was in Plymouth recently and a black man told me that immigration is out of control in this country"! I fail to see what does the race of the man have anything to do with the statement unless: a) Cameron assumes that all black people must be immigrants in one way or another or b) he is just so proud of himself for managing to talk to a black man that he had to share it.

I really am gobsmacked!

And then he moved on to confusing China with North Korea when talking about the need for Trident as protection from rogue nuclear states!

Anyone else smells racism?!

Yes I was shocked, I had to check with DH that I hadn't been hearing things. The others didn't pick him up on it though did they?

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Maybe the transcript is wrong and he actually said 13?

I didn't notice that one but eeek what a huge mistake.

What did e actually say "I was in Plymouth recently and a black man told me that immigration is out of control in this country" or did he pu the "who came here when he was 6 in the same sentence.

If he just said black man, then colour is relevant since the man's ancestry obviously included immigrants so it is strange that he would complain about them. If he also said "who came here when he was 6" it's less relevant but, TBH, it's not racist.

As a floating and undecided voter I have to say DC crossed his party off my "possible" list last night.

No i watched it again and its def 30!

But I don't want political policy informed by encounters (chance or contrived) with various individuals around the country, whether it's an immigrant black (ex?)serviceman, or a black-cab driver. Proper research and examination of all the options should be behind policy - that's what I want to hear about.

And yes, I do smell racism.

I am not sure that mentioning somebody's colour necessarily makes you a racist. I think we tie ourselves in knots about how to reference race and it would come across as less of an issue if we just relaxed, allowed people to acknowledge visual differences but emphasised that is all they are: differences in appearance. And those visual differences are not associated with differences in worth, skills, humanity etc.

I concede that might not have been the thought process behind DC's use of the word black.

It wasn't racism.

Think dc was just ticking the boxes -also mentioned state school, disabled child, carer, child on the way, mothercare, thanked army & nhs -

I noticed it too, and the firts thing I thought was ' I bet someone on MN points it out'

I dont smell rasicm, just a bad choice of words though.

I think this just goes to show that a few months at RADA, or its equivalent, would have paid huge dividends.

He'd obviously been briefed, and practiced, and practiced, and still didn't get it right. Because he hadn't sufficiently 'incorporated' his character, and didn't quite understand the motivation.

So what he'd been told to aim for was a non-chromatic, nu-British line on immigration. But, sadly, he corpsed a bit, and supplemented it from his own experience. Hence what was quite clearly a complete gaffe.

I can see where he was supposed to be going with that one - but he did get it completely wrong.

I didn't even notice that, tbh. and I wonder if it's because it was exactly the sort of thing I'd expect him to say.

I'm more worried now, tbh, about the whole de-funding of the public sector. What came across really strongly for me, in the debate, and in the subsequent discussions afterwards, was the extent to which the whole 'volunteer society" is actually going to be public amenities delivered by wageless volunteers. As someone with dc in state education, and, yes, an NHS user, I am worried.

But that's off-topic ...

Yes absolutely me and my 15yr old DS noticed quite actually.
Really don't think he did himself any favours at all last night.
Nick Clegg on the other hand came over very well.
Still undecided though.

i think it was a liar anyway.
there was no blackman

Yes, I noticed both these points. First of all thought I must be ill informed and that China is an immediate nuclear threat!

I thought he was going to be in his element last night but thought he was the poorest of the 3 of them. He didn't really say anything concrete did he? Hated the way he had to mention that his child went to state school aswell.

Smacks of "I can't be racist, I have friends who are black", even though I like DC.

I don't think he us racist, naive maybe and perhaps overly concerned not to be seen as racist.

Barry Scott Nick Clegg also mentioned the state school thing. He was a hairs breadth away from sticking up his hand, jumping on the spot and saying "mine tooooo! Mine toooo!"

I noticed the 30 years service in the Navy thing as well ans went

to me it came across as look even black people don't want any more immigrants so you know, it's ok for me to say that too.

Slimy man, slimy comment.

It's about as reasonable as claiming he knows how hard it is for people on benefits to get out of poverty. Yeah, of course you do dear

You can do racist things without admitting to yourself, or even knowing, you are a racist. It's like institutional racism, but personal. But what DC said is racist and shows he doesn't understand racism.

One of the basic things about racism is that people of any ethnic group/race are quite able to be massive twats.

So it is racist/ethnicist to say the Israelis shouldn't be mean to the Palestinians, after all they should know better.

It is racist to say to a black policeman/Condeleeza Rice/Colin Powell/John Taylor (the Tory) you are a traitor to your race.

And so on.

So what Cameron said, was racist, simple. Is it a surprise though?

It's shows his 'them' and 'us' mentality. What a slimeball.