Do you truly belief this is a mistake? I think the only mistake made is that she showed her tru colours in public. You don't just have phrases like that in your vocabulary. That is no accident.
If it was just a foolish remark as she claims, then she is obviously not suitable for a her role, so she should do the 'Right' thing and resign, or she should be sacked, as for Redwood, he claims not to have heard what she said, as he wasn't listening. Why was he not listening in an important meeting discussing Brexit.. What is wrong with these people, we have conduct laws concerning behaviour and speech now, set by government, so she should abide by these laws and remove herself or be removed..
Good for goose and gander and all that..
It's Mays only redeeming feature of her political existence,her recognition of modern slavery.And now we have her own Brexit crowd trampling all over it, making jokes and metaphors about slavery of the past.
I have a little more sympathy for the others. I've been in several meetings where I really disagree, but I never wash our dirty linen in public. This particular situation is a difficult one as it was in public and do you draw more attention to it or deal with it later? Really hard and to me not as black and white.
However the excuse thereafter to not be listening is a bit lame. I'd have had more respect if they made a comment along the lines of what I said. Yet on the other hand, I do belief it could be genuine as well. Haven't we all been in meeting where you switch off. I'd be the first to admit to have used the phrase could you repeat the question again? data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 it may not be right but personally I do think that is a case of we are only human.
Oh ***. You really have to push it that bit further and politicise it don't you. Pathetic.
Par for the course at the moment I'm afraid.
What I am saying is that it used to be a common phrase as recently as 40/50 years ago, used as a cliche type expression like "Devil in the detail" , "elephant in the room". Obviously the derivation of the phrase she used is not harmless, unlike these other harmless phrases, but it was used in the same innocent way due to ignorance of its meaning.
As I say, the nursery rhyme I mentioned above was widely (and innocently) used not that long ago.
While there is no excuse for not understanding the meaning of it now, and no excuse for using it, no one but her knows what was in her head when she said it. My suspicion is that perhaps she was exposed to use of it as a child by her parents or grandparents, who would have been of the generation who would have used it innocently and unthinkingly. Some things can be burned into the subconscious, and pop up unthinkingly. I know that my own parents and grandparents used language which would be unacceptable now, but was considered "normal" in their era. That doesn't make them racist, just of their time.
I do not believe that she used it to cause any racial offence. I myself have been pulled up for using the phrase "getting into the nitty gritty". Apparently some claim that this also has an origin in slavery, which I had no idea of, I have used it innocently for years, and without any intention of causing offence. I make a conscious effort not to use it now, but I couldn't 100% guarantee that it would never unconsciously slip out.
Many of us of a similar age didn't use "tigger" in the rhyme, 40 or 50 years ago, but that's the point, we left it behind us that long ago. And black person in the woodpile was never in my vocabulary BTW.If she was a generation older and heading into her dotage, it may be understandable (but still not forgivable), but she is of the generation that put casual racism behind them, or at least people with any moral fibre did.
As for nitty gritty, it's in no way comparable, firstly it's not blatantly obvious as to what it's referring, and secondly it's never been definitively linked to the slave trade, that's one of several theoretical possibilities, thirdly you say you have been using it until recently, so by extension presumably Anne Marie has been using her phrase "innocently and recently".
Yes I do understand where you are coming from, but even then there are gradations and in my opinion this goes way over the line. It wasn't ok then either to use this specific phrase.
Well, not for the first time I'm going to go against the grain here.
Yes it was a terrible phrase to use.
But she didn't physically attack a black person, she didn't verbally abuse a black person, she didn't deny a black person a job.
She said a word. And in a context that was fairly benign and not intended to belittle or attack black people.
There is a precedence. Lord Dixon-Smith used the same phrase and after an apology that was it.
I'm astonished that people think she should lose her career and livelihood over this. Is this what PC has come to? You use the wrong word, you lose your entire career?