Comments on: Ali Miraj’s Tory career is over

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:36:29 +0000

A politician should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.

with apologies to Samuel Johnson

By: El Cid

El Cid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:26:17 +0000

Don’t you just love politicians.

(Memo to Rumbold: I’m being sarcastic)

By: Leon

Leon — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:00:49 +0000

Guido claims an exclusive: http://www.order-order.com/2007/07/exclusive-miraj-labour-approached-me-i.html

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:39:43 +0000

Folks, when people say there should be less immigration in this country, theyâ€™re frequently referring specifically to non-white immigration (even if they donâ€™t say this explicitly).

I’m certainly not, and neither are the Conservative Party nor, say for example, Migration Watch. I don’t care what particular shade of skin, or what particular generic ancestry someone has, there are simply waaaay too many people coming into this country in a waaaay uncontrolled fashion.

By: Jai

Jai — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:17:16 +0000

Folks, when people say there should be less immigration in this country, they’re frequently referring specifically to non-white immigration (even if they don’t say this explicitly). They are not referring to the large numbers of Australians who work in London or immigrants like that hot Eastern European babe in your HR department.

In other news, I hereby declare Kismet Hardy to be the resident Pickled Politics Pirate, due to his anarchic posts. Arrrr, arrrr, ahoy there, and all that.

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:55:02 +0000

There was an interesting documentary on this subject on Radio 4 this morning, part of the 60th anniversary of subcontinental independence. Its prolly available to listen on the interwebnet somewhere.

By: sid

sid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:51:58 +0000

Bengalis have always been the untermenschen of the Indian subcontinent, despite the fact that all the Nobel Laureates from India are Bengali.

By: Rumbold

Rumbold — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:48:37 +0000

An perhaps not too imaginary a fence Sonia:

“Without fuss, without bother, without much debate, India began building a fence all the way around its 2,050-mile border with Bangladesh. The fence consists of two rows of 10-foot-high barbed wire stretched between posts studded with spikes. Coils of barbed wire fill the space between the two rows. Work began in 2000, and about 1,550 miles of the fence has been completed.”

http://wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/great-wall-of-india-to-fence-bangladesh-out/

By: sid

sid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:44:15 +0000

Re-issue ! Re-package ! Re-package !

And when it fails to recoup ?
Well, maybe :
You just haven’t earned it yet, baby

By: sonia

sonia — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:44:09 +0000

‘immigration’ and wanting to keep your borders open only to people who are of the same nationality ( apart from where agreements like those the EU have which allow other s to come in as if they were nationals) is about protecting the premise of the nation-state and nationality for nations. it’s being ‘groupist’ and classifying people based on nationality – as the factor.

rather than racist, unless people want to define racism in a wider sense – to include any kind of stratification/classification of people – and not just stratification/classification of people based on race/ethnicity.

of course everything gets jumbled up, some people say its easier to immigrate if you are ‘white’ than ‘black’ so i’m not saying race doesn’t complicate it, but a lot of places, you could effectively be the same ‘race’ but that still doesn’t allow you to cross the border – think west bengal one side, bangladesh the other, and a nice imaginary fence in the middle.

By: Rumbold

Rumbold — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:42:40 +0000

Kismet:

Labour becomes Ruobal, which sort of sounds like rabble. Very apt.

By: sid

sid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:42:12 +0000

tu qoque!

By: Kismet Hardy

Kismet Hardy — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:42:01 +0000

“Have you met them all? Have they all personally confirmed to you that they are racist?”

What a silly thing to say. You have to generalise because there are suicide bombers out there who don’t want jihad or want 73 raisins in heaven but are just really pissed off that their brother died in a friendly fire or is just a bit of an easily led prat.

It’s totally within the realms of politics, journalism and straightforward pub argument to have a general overview of a people without getting bogged down by individual exceptions to the rule

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:40:53 +0000

The Tories? Still a bit Racist? No! Never?! Really?!

Not much mention of Conservative Ideology there, Sid, eh?

By: sid

sid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:39:28 +0000

Sorry Bleh, nice try, but when we talk about the Tories we talk about an institution/policy/ideology, not the individuals within it.

By: Kismet Hardy

Kismet Hardy — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:38:06 +0000

I’m now working on one involving the word ray and cyst

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:37:06 +0000

Well, Sid you *are* engaged in a form of racism yourself – your wholesale denegration of the Conservative Party as “racist” earlier in this thread. Have you met them all? Have they all personally confirmed to you that they are racist?

I will say however – the first ethnic minority Prime Minister will be a Conservative, mark my words.

By: Kismet Hardy

Kismet Hardy — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:35:57 +0000

In the same sort of way that if you pronounce Love backwards it sort of sounds like Evil, if you pronounce Tory backwards, it can be made to sound like I Rot

eyethangyou

By: sid

sid — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:32:23 +0000

As I said, it’s quite expected that as a Tory supporter, this accusation will either go over your head or meet with either hurt pride, defensiveness or tu quoquery.

By: Bleh

Bleh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:29:05 +0000

Except you’re calling a spade a lawnmower. I think you’re guilty of seeing racism where none exists. c.f. the word “niggardly”, for example. It does a grave disserve to genuine racism.