howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
12 January 2009
20:1412628i must get back to two posts here.
phil, with his prince phil comments, heard them all before, but so funny.
jacquie has rightly (in my opinion) pointed out that there are so many important issues facing dover and our country at present, that the prince's comments are not that important the following day.
i think that paul b originally started this thread just as a sunday morning thing.
when i came home this evening and turned on the news, the first thing i heard was that jcb were giving the bums rush
to 684 people, wincanton the same to 865, world of leather)a kent firm) on the verge.
add that to the end of last week when nissan had to annihalate a lot of skilled staff and south eastern trains dumping people and i think that the "paki" comment comes into perspective.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
12 January 2009
21:1512647You are quite right howard, as was Jacquie. There are more important things to worry about than a meaningless and harmless comment.
The problem is that too many people are too sensitive these days and instead of whinging about being offended need to go out into the real world.
If that offends them then tough...
Some idiot woman recently was in the news getting £50k compensation for 'hurt feelings'.... pathetic and greedy.;
12 January 2009
21:2212648I agree, BarryW - hurt feelings don't merit £50K in any language!! But that, and the fact that there are other important things out there, doesn't make it ok to use bad names. Yes, it's been done to death now, but it really does matter. To put everything into perspective, someone I know used to say "everything matters, but nothing matter frightfully". And that is true - it all matters, and it should, but nothing matters "frightfully". that's Life!!
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
12 January 2009
21:5312658I'm not sure when the arbiters of a threads worth were appointed here but I think there are some far more pointless thread (largely based on speculation) unlike this subject that calls into question acceptability and behaviour. These things do matter, and just because I have to work all day, I feel a little excluded...sorry!
I'd just like to add that I have worked hard all day if Sue is wondering (and still am now) whilst listening to Desmond Dekka.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
12 January 2009
22:0012660you do not take prisoners dt, certainly are passionate about your beliefs.
i respect you for that.
i bet those pupils of yours live in awe of you, that blackboard rubber must have hit a lot of heads.
12 January 2009
22:0412661respect, DT1!!!! I wondered where you were in all this!! It got a bit lonely!
12 January 2009
22:0912663PS - I also appreciated Chris P earlier - wondered where he had go to as well!!! It is appreciably less isolated now!!! Thanks Chaps!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
12 January 2009
22:1512665i do love reading the rants from dt, you have to read them through a few times.
clearly knows his stuff, don't agree with all that he says, unimportant in the bigger picture though.
apparently, he is a good friend of loadsamoney barry.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
12 January 2009
22:3512672loadsamoney, eh howard - if only that was true.....
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
12 January 2009
22:5012678you still like the intellectual cut and thrust with dt though barry.
better than the dire stuff that you, sid and keith et al come out with.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
07:5512688Yes - howard, I agree. My discussions and debates with DT are much more interesting and intelligent than those with Sid and Keith. If only they could engage like DT, the forum would be significantly improved.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
13 January 2009
09:1012691Ah no no its a bit premature to want to stop this thread as along with DT I havent had my further say yet. If people want to discuss worthier topics then open up new threads by all means. Thats what we are here for. But this topic is no dafter than a 101 other topics.
Discussing this issue doesnt prohibit discussion of any other issue.
But back to the original topic. I think how you see this is very much to do with age. I draw your attention to 2 significant TV programmes. One the award winning "Life on Mars" the other " Hells Kitchen"
In "Life on Mars" a modern day Police Officer was transferred through a time warp back to the 1970's and was subsequently horrified by the stuff that went on among other police officers. The programme was well researched and totally accurate as we all remember only too well. The leading police officer at the time (DCi Hunt) called everyone of darker hue " a Paki Bastard" and the pogramme portrayed this clearly. Nor were the darker skin types the only ones to get it in the neck. This was normal life. Almost everyone used the term "Paki Bastard" without too much provocation. It wasnt a term of endearment.
Then we get on to Hells Kitchen and that fairly awful Jim Davidson. Jim was stuck in a seventies timewarp of his own and used terms like "Raving Poofter" and was equally horrifying about women too. He wasnt affectionate in these derogatory terms either but positively nasty. His career went into freefall afterwards. Where's Jim now.
Some people as they get older still remain entrenched in the old days. Still kicking in with 1970's values. Bad news. The world has moved on. New generations are running things now and any reference to "Paki Bastards" is not acceptable.
So summing up my ramble. Some pc stuff has been essential so that we adjust society favourably to absorb our new mixture of races and creeds. Anything that seriously offends sections of our own community nowadays is not really on, not if we all want to live in harmony.
This is the reason behind the Prince Harry outcry, even though it might all seem very reasonable to us oul geezers who lived through the 1970's.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
09:5512695You cant get away with that PaulB.
Even back in the 70's it was unacceptable to rudely and aggressively call someone a 'Paki Bastard', certainly among my friends. It was a matter, not of political correctness, but of simple human decency and curtosy.
But among friends it was different, it was common to refer to a mate as a 'Scots Git', 'Honky' or 'Black Bastard', done in a friendly manner, wanna pint bogtrotter?. If anyone else did so, if anyone else called a friend such a name in a hostile tone then it would be a different story and all hell could break loose.
The latter is pretty much the same as Harrry referring to his 'little Paki friend' to a mate of his. Perfectly harmless. The big difference is that today people have lost a sense of perspective and this is where the evil, pernicious and suffocating political correctness comes in.
People need to get a life and a bit of perspective. I loved Life on Mars because it reminded us of a time before pc, when the police were real police. If they could give misbehaving youngsters a clip around the ear today a lot of problems would be solved!
Incidentally, I like old Jim Davidson, he has done a lot to entertain the forces for instance, going to the Falkelands when other entertainers would not do so. These days it is not so much public taste that is his problem but tv executives brain washed by political correctness.
Do you remember the old sitcom, Love Thy Neighbour from the 70's? There was a white bigot living next door to an articulate and clever black man. I think the black man was played by someone who in now in Eastenders. This comedy really was ahead of its day showing just how silly racial prejudice is/was. This will not be be repeated, again because it infringes upon political correcteness. But then there is another theory as to why it wont be repeated, the bigoted white man was Labour and the black bloke was a Tory and in one episode they both stood for the Council! The left wing tv execs would not like that!
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
10:081269613 January 2009
16:3312718Can we please get over this catch-all phrase Political Correctness when we want to excuse something and poke fun at people trying to make a difference? Absolutely - when I was younger there were some dreadful examples of "Political Correctness Gone Mad"....like when we were banned from using the term "black coffee" by the dysfunctional local authority I worked for. Now, however we call it, black coffee is never going to be an offensive term. And even now, there are few people who would argue for some of the rather silly things that some well meaning people try to encourage us to do or say. But Paki, and those other obviously aggressive terms, are not in this league - and we know that, really, don't we.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
13 January 2009
16:5212722Absolutely Bern, thats it in a nutshell, Well said
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
18:2012734I have already given an example of where the difference lays between decency and the utter insanity of political correctness Bern.
Whether the term 'Paki' is aggressive depends on the context in which it is said, like the term 'Brit' or indeed any word.
Perhaps instead of surrendering this abreviation to the rascists it should be re-claimed for normal and reasonable usage, the way the Union Flag has been 'reclaimed' from the BNP.
Interesting the example of pc you gave. My (first, now deceased) wife had a new colleague straight out of University objecting to people calling coffee black. She was laughed at and ridiculed and she soon joined the real world. Yes, that is a ludicrous example of pc and we hear of further examples all the time.
Me I draw the line even at meetings being run by an inanimate wooden object. Someone who runs a meeting is a chairman, full stop, whatever sex they are. I will not patronise a lady by clumsy changes to the word or abreviating it. I have sat on many a committee run by very able and excellent 'madam chairmen' who would cut off the dangly bits of anyone who calls them something different!
Sid Pollitt
13 January 2009
18:3012737Some of the 'examples' of political correctness in the past were stories about so-called looney left councils. Some of the stories were made up by the press.
I see that there is a report today about people being charged with racially abusing the footballer Sol Campbell, if the abusers are royal should the charges dropped?
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
19:2112741The black coffee examples Bern and I have given are real not the imaginings of the press. Likewise many other examples are real though the left like to pretend it is all made up.
Are you suggesting that a 'royal' is guilty of racial abuse, who? We know it was not Harry as what he said is there on video and all can see he was not abusing anyone. Dont tell me you would condone a law against saying what Harry said. Surely you are not that big a fascist.
Sid Pollitt
13 January 2009
19:5212742As far as I'm concerned all racism is racism. My question was, if the yobs at the football match shouting nasty comments were members of the royal family, should they be charged or let off? And if there is a line between abuse and light abuse, who decides?
