BristolUK

You're right there. Like the marmite ad complaints.

But a British MP or MEP using such an expression is definitely worthy of the attention it's getting.

Even UKIP recognises it as outdated.

montreal mike

this gets even more intriguing

now her weight has become an issue

will wonders ever cease?

l

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...cism-size-bias

Shard

Interesting article. The journo is suggesting that it may not be pure racism, but weight ism and class ism too. If the snub was not simply a language error, then this may be a more plausible explanation. In any cased, big O should have confronted the shop about it rather than walk away (offended) and the seek to denigrate Switzerland.

YoshiPal2010

"Play the white man, you mean?"

caretaker

Perhaps the clerk, totally fooled by Oprah's friendly, open, and charming personality didn't think it possible that she could be rich.

mikelincs

As an MEP, Bloom has always been a thorn in the side of his own party, he has been thrown out of European Parliamentary session for comments that were deemed racist in that he made Nazi taunts at a German MEP.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...colleague.html

montreal mike

until a week ago i had never heard of him

I bet angela merkel was not amused

jimf

How was the "Ein Volk" etc comment racist? I notice that the gentleman that the Ein Volk comment was directed at previously made reference to the likeness of the Italian PM to a concentration camp guard. Was he ejected?

montreal mike

sorry to disappoint but it wasn't

bats

Er no. The article says that Berlusconi likened Shultz to a camp guard, not the other way round.

You don't think sayibg "Ein Volk, in Reich, Ein Fuhrer" to a German is rather insulting and stereotyping?

jimf

It could well be considered insulting and stereotyping - I'd queried the previous reference to it being racist.

montreal mike

I am 99.99 percent sure this German politician did not serve in the war

I am 99.99999 percent certain he was no Nazi, or death camp guard, or Luftwaffe pilot or worse..

I am 99.999999999999 percent sure he was toddler during the war if indeed he was even born at the time

so why the insult?

and I think most people here would agree this is not racism, even though I suspect some might relish the prospect

jimf

Politicians of all parties insult and stereotype every day. Some are more subtle than others.

Almost Canadian

So, name calling is fine so long as it is you that is doing it?

montreal mike

i think it was trudeau who called nixon a 'rectal aperture'