Tee hee!
James McGrath, 34, quit after suggesting older African-Caribbean people should return to the West Indies if they did not like the new mayor. Asked in a tape-recorded interview if Johnson's mayoral victory would trigger an exodus of immigrants from the UK to the Caribbean, he replied: "Well, let them go if they don't like it here." McGrath, the mayor's deputy chief of staff who hails from the north Australian state of Queensland, made the comment in a meeting last month with Marc Wadsworth, a black activist and London-based journalist.
For the record, I am not 'Marc Wadsworth'!
To be fair though, I once lived abroad for nine years, and I can't say I was treated like a second class citizen (short of not being allowed to vote) but in the end I decided I preferred England and so I came back. What's wrong with that? Should I have stayed there and campaigned to make that other country more "Anglophile"?
Monday, 23 June 2008
"London mayor aide quits over race row"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I lived in Japan for 5 years. I learned Japanese, accepted I couldn't vote, and may no attempt to extract money or priveledges from the Japanese.
It all seemed very reasonable to me. Go to someone's country, try to fit in, and if it doesn't work out come home again.
Why is it so disgraceful to suggest the same thing to people with black skin?
Anonymous, it isn't. This is yet another "row" that emerges because somebody says something totally sensible, that would gain the nods of all your mates in the pub, but apparently can't be stated by people once they gain office.
"Well, let them go if they don't like it here."
I really can't see anything offensive there. There is no hint of compulsion, no suggestion that they should be encouraged or given a bounty to leave. It is a completely reasonable thing to have said.
Post a Comment