Finally, there is someone who doesn't apologise immediately after saying something that might, conceivably, offend anyone who is really rather pleased to be offended and to have the chance to parade their offendedness in the media. Ckufing PC wankers.
Hats off to Godfrey Bloom, who questioned Britain paying vast sums of aid, whilst still in debt itself, to "Bongo Bongo Land".
When questioned about his comments (for which, read 'asked to apologise'), Mr Bloom told BBC News it would
be "absurd" and "ridiculous" to label them racist, adding that Bongo Bongo Land was "a figment of people's imagination. It's like
Ruritania or the Third World. ...It's sad how anybody can be offended by a reference to a country
that doesn't exist."
Mr Bloom also said: "If I've offended anybody in Bongo Bongo Land, I will
write to their ambassador at the Court of St James."
Later attempts by worthies of his party, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), to smooth the ruffled feathers of the Bongolese by getting Mr. Bloom to apologies had mixed results. The Bloomster said:
"I used a term which I
subsequently gather under certain circumstances could be interpreted as
pejorative to individuals and possibly cause offence. Although quite clearly no such personal usage was intended, I understand
from UKIP party chairman Steve Crowther and leader Nigel Farage that I must not
use the terminology in the future, nor will I, and [I] sincerely regret any genuine
offence which might have been caused or embarrassment to my colleagues."
Such is the hunger for apologies that the leader of the UKIP, Nigel Farage, claimed on the basis of the above that Mr. Bloom "apologised", whilst the Beeb itself sloppily or deliberately misquotes Bloom as saying "he sincerely regrets causing any offence".
Read it again, Messrs. Farage and Beeb. He "regrets" any "genuine" offence caused to individuals to whom the comment might have been personally pejorative (i.e. not the PC brigade). That means no one.
Good on you, Mr. Bloom.
I don't get it. One moment he sounds like the bloke in the pub and the next minute he sounds like Lance Armstrong's lawyer.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "Bongo Bongo Land" sounds like it would come from the sort of person who would think of its (admittedly imaginary) inhabitants as "darkies". If Mr Bloom is such a person (a matter on which i have no knowledge either way), he wouldn't be on my list of heroes.
ReplyDeletePB - Mr. Bloom has clarified regarding who the inhabitants of Bongo Bongo land are. They are bongos, a species of antelope.
ReplyDeleteImaginary antelopes, presumably?
ReplyDeleteSubstantial enough for the Oxford dictionary, apparently.
ReplyDeleteAntelopes presumably stop digging when in a hole. Unlike Mr. Bloom,
ReplyDeleteYour apparent support for such a nasty, bigoted anachronism serves you badly.
Mr. Mous - when someone misses the point, I always hesitate over whether to make the point again, but on balance I usually decide that, like explaining a joke, it doesn't help. Let me just say that I respect your right both to miss the point and, like Mr. Bloom, not to apologise for it.
ReplyDeleteI see you mimic your hero by continuing to dig when in that hole.
ReplyDeleteI rest my case, Mr. Mous.
ReplyDelete