manilaseagull
Used to be Swindonseagull
My housemaid is not Italian..neither is my gardener.
In a semantic minefield it makes sense and shows respect to avoid anything which might insult or demean - whether in respect of racial groups or religious or other minorities. You can't change the past but we live in the present.
Carol Thatcher was just an accident waiting to happen and she is perhaps fortunate that it wasn't "on air". As a result some people will give her the benefit of any percieved doubt and some will sympathise which will be sufficient to salvage her (very well paid) journalistic career.
hahaha, intense late-night debates all about Carol Thatcher on NSC! Is this usual?!
All of which sums it up pretty well for me, just because a word was used commonly in the past does not make it acceptable today, we have moved on...thank goodness!
Carol Thatcher belongs to a part of society where the use of words like she used isn't seen as being particularly offensive, but they are in a minority...fortunate that she wasn't on air, very true, there would probably have been people outside the Beeb wanting to stone her to death...if not actually, then literally.
only in the antiseptic , righton guardian reading world you no doubt inhabit.Carol Thatcher belongs to a part of society where the use of words like she used isn't seen as being particularly offensive, but they are in a minority...
It worries me that this was a private conversation. It smacks of stalinism. Welcome to 1984
Didn't Orwell say that hope is with the proles?I know its not real but...Ingsoc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis bit is a bit close to the mark. Under Ingsoc, society is composed of three classes:The Inner Party, who make policy, effect decisions, and run the government, they are simply referred to as The Party. They are akin to the brain of the party. The Outer Party, who work the state jobs and are society's middle class. "Members are allowed no vices other than cigarettes and Victory Gin." The Outer Party also are the most scrutinised, constantly monitored with two-way telescreens and other surveillance technologies. They are akin to the hands of the party. The Proles, who are the lower class, the rabble whom the Inner Party keeps happy and sedate with beer, gambling, sport, casual sex, and prolefeed ("rubbishy texts"). The proles are the proletariat, Marx's term for the working class. The Proles are 85% of Oceania's populace.
I think the argument here is that the comment was made in the workplace. The workplace is somewhat unusual - ie the BBC - but a workplace nevertheless.
It worries me that this was a private conversation. It smacks of stalinism. Welcome to 1984
I get called a cockney c"%t. A Brighton rent boy. in my workplace. So should I get the lot sacked
Personally I dont think Carol Thatcher or indeed Prince Charles/Harry are racists.