Shit Hits The Fan Dept.
Boris Johnson advisor quits after racist remark
Maybe in years to come - rather than being seen as the year in which spiralling fuel prices heralded the beginning of the collapse of civilisation - 2008 will go down in history as the year in which several politicians made absolute arses of themselves by slipping racist nonsense into their conversations.
Latest to join this ever-increasing parade? None other than James McGrath, advisor to Boris Johnson (or rather a very freshly-made ex-advisor) who made an extremely ill-advised statement to an undercover journalist. Responding to a Darcus Howe article in The Voice - which suggested that Johnson's election would trigger a mass exodus of Caribbean migrants - McGrath snapped back with the classic knee-jerk comment: 'well, let them go if they don't like it here.'
Despite denying strongly that he has no racist inclinations whatsoever - and this does seem to be a rather silly off-the-cuff femark rather than anything genuinely malicious - McGrath has stepped down. The furore all emerged from an article by Marc Wadsworth over at 'citizen journalism' hotbed The Latest.
Boris Johnson's response in full goes as follows:
"It is with great regret this evening that I have accepted the resignation of my political adviser, James McGrath. Unfortunately, his remarks in a conversation with an Internet journalist, published this weekend, made it impossible for him to continue in that role.James is not a racist. I know that. But his response to a silly and hostile suggestion put to him by Marc Wadsworth, allowed doubts to be raised about that commitment."
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1 Comments
What ever is racist about that response?
The question may have had the same response about any person going to leave London/York/France/Madrid for what ever reason.
I think this "racialism" and "discrimination" business has gone sadly too far. It has done more harm than good and, in addition to providing easy pickings for the legal proffession, has been instrumental in worsening the situation.