797 days ago
Uju Anya is a university professor and researcher in “applied linguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and critical discourse studies primarily examining race, gender, sexual, and social class identities in new language learning through the experiences of African American students.” If that sounds like bollocks it is. But Carnegie Mellon University likes her stuff. Yesterday she celebrated the impending death of the Queen on twitter. Twitter took dowen the tweet but you can see it below. Carnegie condemned the tweet but that was that. Had a white professor celebrated the impending death of, say, Nelson Mandela by calling him a terriorist, he would have been fired. It is a double standard. Twitter should leave the tweet up so that everyone can see it and realise what a ghastly waste of space old hag Uju is. If you believe in free speech you can’t be selective and the world is a better place for knowing how vile Uju is and what a dump Carnege must be for giving her tenure and for not firing her on the spot.
1450 days ago
A great woman I once knew used to joke about how it could only happen in her home City that the International Airport was named after a drunk and a wife beater. I refer to the late George Best. Should we honour a man who was a footballing genius and who also had a way with words but whose off-field activities were, shall we say, not very 2020? Lesser men who beat up women have lost their place in history. And that brings us to Diego Maradona.
2316 days ago
Yesterday we quite rightly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. There was a man only to wiling to accept his own failings but who brought his country together after a bitter conflict through reconciliation. Past sins, by all sides were to be forgotten. The future is what mattered. That was the clearest demonstration of the genius and the humanity of a great man like Mandela. Today is the anniversary of the Hyde & Regents Park bombings in which eleven British ceremonial soldiers and horses were butchered and countless tourists injured by the IRA.
2422 days ago
There is no doubt in my mind that the appalling way that the evil apartheid regime treated the late Winnie Mandela and her children is a very legitimate mitigating factor for Winnie as she trudges her way on the long march towards a meeting with St Peter. Indeed the evil of apartheid and the way it treated all dissenters and all black Africans is another factor St Pete will take into account. But I very much doubt that he will be utterly forgiving and, I am sure, that Mrs Mandela will show no sense of repentance. Natch the Guardian, the newspaper of the liberal elite, thinks she did nothing wrong and it goes further, in its usual poisonous way, as it tries to silence debate on this matter. .
2798 days ago
As they prepared to lay the coffin containing the remains of the murderer Martin McGuinness into the ground in a place which the craven liberal British media termed Derry but which we know as Londonderry, the old killer's comrade in arms Gerry Adams screamed to the crowd "Martin McGuinness was not a terrorist". They howled their appreciation. Adams continued "Martin McGuinness was a freedom fighter". The fenians howled some more. But of course Adam was lying - not that the liberal British media dared to flag that up.
3946 days ago
Sitting on a train on my way to inflicting misery on my daughter by taking her to Upton Park, I am thinking of last night’s film. But first one I saw the other day: Mandela. As those who have read my articles will know, the man is a hero of mine so I suppose it is hard for me to view the film entirely objectively. But it was wonderful.
There may be some younger readers who forget that Mandela (reluctantly) found himself and the ANC engaging in acts of terror in the early 1960s. There were those on the right who branded Mandela a terrorist as a result. I suppose a Gandhi- style campaign of passive resistance might have been more desirable. However, the Apartheid regime in South Africa was a lot more evil and heavy handed than the British in India. The Mandela defence of “just cause” is not something I feel uncomfortable with. The film begs the question and allows each of us to answer it.
The two things about Mandela which make him truly remarkable were his willingness to admit to his failings as a man and his unbelievable power of forgiveness to those who had locked him up and made his life hell for 30 years. It was the latter that give South Africa a chance to heal its wounds and move forward.
Mandela insisted that his biography, upon which the film was based, did not airbrush out his failings. How many other world leaders would have behaved thus? The lamentable (BBC) aspect to coverage of the death of this great man was that it attempted to portray him as a saint, whiter than the driven snow. Mandela did not view himself in that way which makes him all the more of an amazing human being. It is a subtlety some missed.
As to the forgiveness,
3985 days ago
48 hours ago, the chairman of the BBC met the ghost of Christmas Past. If you missed that you can read it HERE
In the second part of the Chris Patten’s Christmas Carol last night, the chairman of the BBC met the ghost of Christmas Present. If you missed that you can read it HERE
The story continues…
After his twice interrupted night the good Lord Christopher Patten, chairman of the BBC, was awakened by a gentle kiss on one of his many chins. Then came another and another. “Lavender” he mumbled but awoke to find that the good Lady Patten was still snoring gently beside him.
Instead Chow Mein’s now near senile successor, named - for some reason - by his staff in Hong Kong as Dim Sum, had managed to clamber onto the four poster bed to wish his master a Merry Christmas. Lord Patten took the hint and, after putting on his ermine dressing gown wandered downstairs, eagerly awaiting the delights of Christmas Day, starting with breakfast. Quoting to himself the old Chinese motto “a man who has a solid breakfast is built to grow”, Patten rubbed his tummies and thought hard about the first meal of the day.
Breakfast would, as always, be prepared by his faithful eighty year old manservant Cawkwell. For the good Lord was a man of habit. For him merely a “healthy man sized” portion or two of freshly prepared kedgeree made with line-caught haddock and Tuscan organic eggs from the Toynbee estate, followed by locally produced bread lightly toasted ( as only Cawkwell knew how) covered with Honey flown in from Argentina with a healthy bowl of porridge to finish off.
But Cawkwell, or for that matter his breakfast, was nowhere to be seen and so feeling rather peckish the chairman of the BBC wandered into his study where he had a hidden stash of mince pies. These had been craftily concealed from both Dim Sum and Lady Lavender under a stash of printed emails marked “Saville –URGENT action needed now 2009” which he was planning to start reading after Christmas.
Lord Patten looked at the 14 foot tree, decorated last night by Cawkwell while the family watched carols from Kings but something was not right. Rummaging at the foot of the pine
3986 days ago
In the second part of the Chris Patten’s Christmas Carol, the chairman of the BBC meets the ghost of Christmas Present.
Last night he met the ghost of Christmas Past. If you missed that you can read it HERE
The story continues…
It was not the sound of Lady Lavender Patten’s refined and gentle snoring nor another panic attack about what happened to Chow Mein that awoke the good Lord Christopher Patten. But a loud noise from his study downstairs had the BBC chairman sprinting down the stairs, faster than BBC Middle East Correspondent Jeremy Bowen can say “the peace loving freedom martyrs of Hamas fired rockets on an Israeli school to protect themselves from the Genocidal imperialist warmongers.”
Sitting behind Patten’s leather bound desk with gold inlay, marked “A present from 400 million the grateful people of Europe for your Herculean labours as a European Commissioner” was another grey figure. Once again he was not smiling.
“Oh no not another of you consultant Johnnies” said Patten. The grey figure beckoned and gripped Patten’s hand. Through the air they flew.
After just a few minutes, Patten found himself gazing down on a Christmas day party.
3993 days ago
Spurs (7th) have fired their boss already this season. Today as it happens. Sunderland in 20th place, Fulham (19th), Palace (18th ) and West Brom (16th) have doled out managerial P45s already and Cardiff (15th) look set to axe their boss, former West Ham player Malky Mackay, within days. So which team is in 17th spot and looking utterly useless right now?
Step forward my beloved West Ham. If Mackay becomes available surely a P45 for Fat Sam must be imminent? If Malky is not free I really do not care who we appoint: Paul Ince, Paulo di Canio, Marco Boogers, Harry Redknapp’s dog, the late Nelson Mandela. I just do not care anymore. Fat Sam must go.
3993 days ago
Most attention in the “reasons to loathe and despise politicians” discussion following the funeral of Nelson Mandela has focussed on Call Me Dave, Obama and the Danish PM ( Neil Kinnock’s daughter-in-law) taking a “selfie.” It was a lapse of judgement and showed an unnerving degree of disrespect. But compared to the War Criminal Blair, Dave was model mourner.
Naturally Blair was at the funeral to pay his respects. But Mammon is more important than Mandela…to Blair at least. And as such he found this global convention a good opportunity to introduce his latest billionaire “client” to Barack Obama. The photos of the handshake suggest that eve the President was mildly embarrassed.
But, hey Tony, why let a spot of grieving get in the way of business? Even by the abject standards of Blair such behaviour has to mark a new low. At what point will he stop getting invited to anything to spare the blushes of the world?
Incidentally, on the subject of war crimes…
3993 days ago
The BBC is already starting its annual process of celebrating Christmas without mentioning Jesus, the nativity and all that religious crap too much. It is all so terribly 19th Century. Let’s talk about multicultural issues, get as many Imams as possible to speak of brotherly love, look forward to the Eastenders special and talk about getting pissed. Just do not mention the Jesus word.
But in another context, it was a BBC reporter who first compared the late Nelson Mandela to er….Jesus. In another age that might have been consider blasphemous.
In this age it should just be considered ridiculous. I am in no position to cast judgement on the fact that Mandela was serially unfaithful to two of his wives. Heck, from what I have read I rather admire the stamina of the old goat in his younger days. But it is also clear that Mandela as a younger man was a bully and a wife beater. Not quite following in the footsteps of Jesus.
The great thing about Mandela
4002 days ago
I explain why I am still sporting a Movember tash. Fear not it will come off this weekend.
There is a brief comment on the death of Nelson Mandela but that is covered in more detail in an article here
I look at how the global warming nutters have commented in such an asinine way on the storms.
And then I talk for the first time about my departure from Rivington Street just under two years ago. That was a company I founded 13 years ago which is now going into administration, 19 months after I left it and 28 months after I stopped being its CEO.
4003 days ago
I regard the late Nelson Mandela as a hero but the media coverage of his sad demise is somewhere between OTT and nauseating.
Why is he a hero? Apartheid was an evil regime and he played his part in its overthrow. He wasted the best part of his life in prison for the cause but the same could be said for many who stand up to evil. For me his heroism was in his actions post-Apartheid.
I could understand had he been bitter but if he was he hid it well. The way he showed forgiveness, compassion and was reconciliation embodied, was truly heroic. Moreover – in stark contrast to those now running the ANC – when gaining power he did not plunder the State’s coffers for personal gain as he could have done.
For anyone of my age Mandela truly was a hero of our era.
However, as the UK suffers the worst storms in living memory and one or two other things happen which might not please the BBC (the most upbeat Autumn statement in years), the wall to wall coverage on Mandela’s demise at the expense of all other news is OTT. Having listened to the same soundbites about ten times today I gave up on the news and will only start watching it again in a few days when the Mandela-fest has eased.
But the worst part of it is the excuse it has given the BBC and other twisted and deluded lefties to rewrite history and bash the Tories, notably Margaret Thatcher.
4162 days ago
Over on Shareprophets.com my financial weekly video postcard this week looks at the small resources stocks. It explains why there traditional sources of funding have been cut off and asks how many of them are actually already at a near zero real cash position and asks why they cannot be more transparent about it.
You can watch that video here.
My political postcard covers two topics.
In that vein my next video postcard here on TomWinnifrith.com will come to you from Greece
Video
4294 days ago
Imagine what the BBC or its sister paper The Guardian would say if a Tory or UKIP politician was seen next to a t-shirt looking forward to the death of an icon of the left: Tony Benn, Dennis Healey or perhaps Nelson Mandela. There would be immediate calls for resignations and public grovelling.
For those of us on the right, our iconic figure is Margaret Thatcher yet it is deemed perfectly acceptable in some quarters to look forward to her demise. The Labour candidate in the Eastleigh by-election has (shamefully) admitted that he was sorry that the IRA did not kill her in the Brighton bomb. And so this little snap of Labour leader Ed Miliband posing with a Labour supporter emerges.
Ed, I believe in free speech so this dickhead can wear what he likes. But just to clarify matters for me: do you look forward to the death of our greatest ever Prime Minister? Do you believe that those who admit to doing so publically have a place in the Labour party? Easy questions.
