MP Anne Marie Morris suspended for racist remark - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40555639

You have to wonder what she made of The Divine Comedys' Something for the Weekend...

If that comment was really unintentional, then that's how she thinks in her personal life too, because nobody just comes out with stuff like that unless it's ingrained in them.

Mark

EDIT - Also, hasn't this action further reduced the majority with which the Tories are so narrowly holding on to power with?

The remark was certainly unfortunate but personally I'm not about to immediately associate using an antiquated and now frowned upon phrase with some sort of deeper seated attitude or issue. Actions speak louder than words, as it were. Does she have any record of prejudicial behaviour? What's her voting record like? While there's a certain amount of amusement certainly, I find the rush to judgement here makes me somewhat uneasy.


Well last I heard she'd only been suspended not expelled from the party, so not unless she crosses the house and sits on the other benches, no. And I rather doubt that will happen.

That's okay, you don't have to, but a phrase like that isn't just going to come out of someone's mouth without it knocking about in their head in the first place, and something like that already in your head, to me, speaks volumes about you in your personal life.

Anyway, she's suspended, so that's good.

Mark

Think about what you've just said for a minute. What you've said is that we can and should be punished for what's in our heads - or even worse, what we judge to be in each other's heads - on top of our actions. Are you really sure that's a precedent you want to set? Really?

She may think things you or I would find very distasteful. But then I might think a lot of things you would find distasteful. And vice versa. But none of us should be abused, or sacked, or face any consequences beyond our own morality for any of that. We're all allowed to think absolutely whatever the hell we like. What can and should be governed by under the norms and laws of a reasonable society is our actions, not our thoughts.

And she did something fairly bad. She said a word that has lots of bad connotations she shouldn't have. She said a bad word and from that you can draw conclusions about her thoughts, intentions and attitudes? Well done, you've managed to do more entirely on your own than the entire cohort of scientific study of the human mind has in two thousand years of work.

She said something she really shouldn't have said. It's been made patently clear of her that she shouldn't have done so. That's as far as it goes. Anything further drawn from it stems from your own prejudices, not anything backed up by any evidence.



Actually, it a classic political solution in so far as it doesn't solve the problem and will probably satisfy few on either side of the argument.

Jonathan

Not what I said at all.
I said I judged her on what she said, and based on what she said she was punished for that.
I'm not advocating thought crime punishment.

Mark

How about something along the lines of speed awareness and the ilk?
Most admit to actually learning something from these sessions and from personal experience I know it has changed my behaviour.
Casual racism could so easily be treated like this, you just don't realise the hurt you are perpetuating. It's not big and it's not clever.

I would quite happily use that phrase in the same way she did without being in any way racist.
It is more often than not the people who pick up on these old expressions and MAKE them racist that need looking at.