Monday
05Feb2007
Reply to PragueTory
Monday, February 5, 2007 at 4:05PM
On my recent interview with Paul Burgin, PragueTory challenged me to explain why I felt "disgusted by the treatment of Bob Piper back in December." Well, some readers may or may not have been aware of a gaff that Bob Piper made before Christmas. Bob reproduced an image of a blacked-up David Cameron. It was created by Unity of Ministry of Truth and supposedly spoofed the Tory 'Sort-it' campaign.
It was neither Unity's nor Bob's finest hour because, if you ask me, it wasn't particularly funny. Unity can of course get away with whatever he pleases, his veil of anonymity protecting him, but Bob is a councillor and has a position of responsibility within the party. For the record Bob apologised profusely and spent a couple of weeks in a blogger-gulag. Bob is commited blogger and has always played the game with the Tory bloggers: reading their sites and posting teasing comments. Yet when he reproduced Unity's picture PragueTory went for the throat, no doubt aware of what Bob had to lose. While PT claimed that he himself wasn't offened (isn't that always the way?), he claimed others were: -
Now, the picture may have been in 'bad taste' but was it all really nessesary? Many of the other Tory bloggers jumped onboard, and the issue blew up out of all proportion. As PT proudly states; both blink and the chief executive of Race Equality Sandwell were outraged, but why did this become national news? How did a councillor-blogger become such a big story? I wonder.
Bob learn't a valuable political lesson about the danger of political correctness, but I also expect he learn't a little something about the Tory bloggers he had teased and joked with. The Tories, and especially their bloggers, always make a big deal about free speach and political correctness, and as a libertarian I have simpathy with this position, but if you claim that political correctness is a bane on society, you then can't go and exploit it to stuff a fellow blogger can you? It's just not cricket.
Of course this is not cricket, it's politics. PragueTory did the Tories a service and I don't blame him for running with the story. But Bob was on good terms with the Tory bloggers and it was disgusting to see him taken down like that. Had he gunned for Tory bloggers then cool, fair game, but he didn't. But like I said: It's Politics.
It was neither Unity's nor Bob's finest hour because, if you ask me, it wasn't particularly funny. Unity can of course get away with whatever he pleases, his veil of anonymity protecting him, but Bob is a councillor and has a position of responsibility within the party. For the record Bob apologised profusely and spent a couple of weeks in a blogger-gulag. Bob is commited blogger and has always played the game with the Tory bloggers: reading their sites and posting teasing comments. Yet when he reproduced Unity's picture PragueTory went for the throat, no doubt aware of what Bob had to lose. While PT claimed that he himself wasn't offened (isn't that always the way?), he claimed others were: -
However, Kaz who is a BME councillor in Birmingham has found them to be offensive and insulting and asked in the comments for Piper and Ministry of Truth to take the posts down. On reflection, I agree. It is not acceptable to use "Yo Niggars", "them thar ethnics" or a blacked up face as part of political campaigning no matter how "satirical" or "ironic" you are being.
Now, the picture may have been in 'bad taste' but was it all really nessesary? Many of the other Tory bloggers jumped onboard, and the issue blew up out of all proportion. As PT proudly states; both blink and the chief executive of Race Equality Sandwell were outraged, but why did this become national news? How did a councillor-blogger become such a big story? I wonder.
Bob learn't a valuable political lesson about the danger of political correctness, but I also expect he learn't a little something about the Tory bloggers he had teased and joked with. The Tories, and especially their bloggers, always make a big deal about free speach and political correctness, and as a libertarian I have simpathy with this position, but if you claim that political correctness is a bane on society, you then can't go and exploit it to stuff a fellow blogger can you? It's just not cricket.
Of course this is not cricket, it's politics. PragueTory did the Tories a service and I don't blame him for running with the story. But Bob was on good terms with the Tory bloggers and it was disgusting to see him taken down like that. Had he gunned for Tory bloggers then cool, fair game, but he didn't. But like I said: It's Politics.
Reader Comments (12)
Although it's quite hard to be objective about this sort of partisan bust-up, that's quite a fair appraisal in my opinion. It's true I don't like political correctness, but I don't like causing offence unnecessarily either which that image and the comments in it did. Bob knows that he could have avoided the storm by using his judgement a bit earlier.
At some point in the not-to-distant future, I'll get around to writing up my full observations on the whole 'incident', at which point the detailed thinking behind the image will become clear.
If you think that all it was about was taking the piss out of Cameron and that the sole value judgement to made about the image is whether it was funny or not, then you've not quite got the point of what it was about or what I was trying to drive at, which is not so surprised as to make the whole exercise work it was necessary to let the image hang out there without explanation in order to elicit the kind of reactions it was intended to provoke, including the faux outrage that came from the likes of Praguetory.
Whether anyone found the image funny or not was largely immaterial - humour is a matter of taste in any case. What the image was intended to do, and did so successfully, was pose a number of interesting questions including, but not limited to, the question of just how far a politician might be prepared to go to ingratiate themselves with a particular section of the electorate.
More than anything else, what I hoped the image would reveal by the reaction to it in some quarters was the abject intellectual poverty of the entire current narrative surrounding race and ethnicity, something that responses of Blink, RES and others nicely illustrated - as did PT's entirely contrived and opportunistic shit-storm.
Without revealing too much of my thinking until I can write it up properly, let's just say that its not gone unnoticed that many of those who jumped PT's artifically-induced bandwagon were the same people who, a few months back, we're happily wrapping themselves in the Danish flag and banging on about their inviolable right to free expression over the whole 'Mo-toons' thing.
Was it necessary? That's a judgement you'll have to make when I reveal my full thinking behind the image - so far I've only scratched the surface of its meaning and the intent behind it - and what I think can be learned from the reaction to it.
To my mind, it was, but then I know what I wanted the image to achieve and whether it achieved it - which it did.
Sorry to be a bit cryptic but its not something that lends itself well to explanation in a comment on someone else's blog and needs to be properly written up for everything to become clear.
Unity, Thanks for calling by.
I understand the point you were trying to make. I even deleted a paragraph that explained my thoughts (I don't intend to speak for you). But this is a different matter. My thoughts are entirely based on the said faux-outrage.
Humour is a matter of taste?
Somebody just said that, above, as if it were obvious.
Please explain or be trashed.
Humour is social !!!
Sori you lot are in politics - forgot that.
You are right that Dominic Fisher was not offended. He actually commented on the post about something entirely different hours before he stirred up this shit-storm. He is also a liar. He claims he didn't stir it up, but that other people visited his site and were equally 'outraged' and he made no comment to others until I sent him an e-mail on the Sunday afternoon. However, this is a pathetic lie. I have an e-mail from a very prominent Tory blogger who confirmed that Fisher had e-mailed him on the Friday asking him to start spreading the shit.
You are right in one sense. I made the mistake of treating scum like Fisher as if he had a sense of decency. However, Unity's image was not racist. The people you quote only saw the image with no associated text. I have explained these matters to people in their correct context, and they cannot see what the fuss was about. The Chief Executive of Race Equality Sandwell has said he will give evidence for me if the useless Standards Board ever think of pursuing this matter... that is how 'outraged' he is.
Bob had better name his source re the email stuff. I've checked my records. I raised the subject with just one Tory blogger on Friday as a when we were discussing something completely different. This is all I said on the matter.
This posting by Piper and Ministry of Truth is about to go ballistic. These Socialists are livid at being challenged by a Tory.
Hardly a request to spread the shit - just an accurate prediction. Bob's just looking for a scapegoat.
>>> This posting by Piper and Ministry of Truth is about to go ballistic. These Socialists are livid at being challenged by a Tory.
The Plane, Boss. The Plane. The Plane...!
I think PT's retired to Fantasy Island - although that makes a change from his usual m-o of issuing non-specific threats based on his 'knowing people'.
Bit of tip, here, PT. If you are going to try and smear someone, then something within a few light years of reality and vaguely believable is usually the way to go - out with the fairies just doesn't work.
Sheesh...
>>> I’ve checked my records. I raised the subject with just one Tory blogger on Friday as a when we were discussing something completely different. This is all I said on the matter.
PT: Does that include or exclude the 'hey, come and look at this...' comment you posted over at Morag's blog on the Friday afternoon? You know, the one for which there's a screenshot posted at MoT.
Oh Gawd! More playpen politics. There'll be tears before bedtime.....
playpen politics.........let the idealists retire and the BIG boys have a play. and why not.
Tired effort. I was inciting Morag to do anything.
Weak.