In the news

One of the rioters charged with "Theft by finding", what's that then? Picking up an ipod off the floor round the back of Curry's on Tuesday?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14531077

Ed Miliband finally saying something worthwhile.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14531077
Ed Miliband finally saying something worthwhile.

I'm not too sure a half hearted 'racism is not really on' counts as really worthwhile.

Starkey, supposedly one of Britain's leading intellectuals, comes out with the most racist repsonse I have seen to the looting and it hardly causes a stir. So, I wouldn't expect Miliband to call him a cunt but at least he said something. And he called the comments "disgusting and outrageous" which is not as mealy mouthed as you make out.

Starkey, supposedly one of Britain's leading intellectuals, comes out with the most racist repsonse I have seen to the looting and it hardly causes a stir. So, I wouldn't expect Miliband to call him a cunt but at least he said something. And he called the comments "disgusting and outrageous" which is not as mealy mouthed as you make out.

Starkey stoking the fire http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517

This is the second time in as many weeks I find The Telegraph has published some sense.

Toby Young writes

"To begin with, Starkey wasn't talking about black culture in general, but, as he was anxious to point out, a 'particular form' of black culture, i.e. 'the violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture' associated with Jamaican gangs and American rap music. Had he been talking about these qualities as if they were synonymous with African-Caribbean culture per se, or condemning that culture in its totality, then he would have been guilty of racism. But he wasn't. He was quite specifically condemning a sub-culture associated with a small minority of people of African-Caribbean heritage. (Admittedly, he could have made this clearer.) Rather than being racist, he was merely trotting out the conventional wisdom of the hour, namely, that gang culture is to blame for the riots."

^^That is the Newsnight appearance that Miliband was referring to.

"The whites have become black". It couldn't be clearer. Of course he then goes on to try and explain that he doesn't mean all black people blah blah blah. A man known for his supposed elegance and precision of language blurts out what he really feels; he is afraid of black people, he sees them as criminals, as violent and as 'intruders'. So even if it is not just black people who are rioting the blacks are still to blame for their pernicious influence.
And not forgetting that he said David Lamy doesn't sound like a black person.
It's a pretty rich mix of prejudice, ignorance, snobbery and fear. Though why anyone would be surprised that inside this preening, egotistical and self-regarding buffoon there lurks another even less appealing buffoon is beyond me.

Oh and if anyone with as obviously shallow knowledge of, say, opera as he has of hip-hop had slagged it off he would have been the first person to jump on them for their ignorance and philistinism.

Yes, I have now seen what he said. His views are irrelevant - he's a tudor historian talking about contemporary urban unrest.

David Lamy...

Yes, I have now seen what he said. His views are irrelevant - he's a tudor historian talking about contemporary urban unrest.

David Lamy...

Thats doesn't sound like something a black person would say.

ha

This is the second time in as many weeks I find The Telegraph has published some sense.

Toby Young writes

"To begin with, Starkey wasn't talking about black culture in general, but, as he was anxious to point out, a 'particular form' of black culture, i.e. 'the violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture' associated with Jamaican gangs and American rap music. Had he been talking about these qualities as if they were synonymous with African-Caribbean culture per se, or condemning that culture in its totality, then he would have been guilty of racism. But he wasn't. He was quite specifically condemning a sub-culture associated with a small minority of people of African-Caribbean heritage. (Admittedly, he could have made this clearer.) Rather than being racist, he was merely trotting out the conventional wisdom of the hour, namely, that gang culture is to blame for the riots."

Toby Young is a massive cunt - he joined my school in the 6th form (he is not, as he once claimed, a grammar school boy) - and he was a massive cunt then.

I am not surprised to find him defending Starkey, who has, after all, made a career out of being a massive cunt.

Anyone that has listened to Starkey on the Moral Maze would likewise also know that Starkey is a massive cunt, and even if he isn't actually a racist, will espouse racist views just for the sheer hell of it.

Toby Young is having a laugh if he seriously believes that one can quote Enoch Powell with respect to inner-city community relations without being thought to be a racist. Starkey clearly fancies himself as a demagogue with same rhetorical powers as Powell, but unfortunately exposed himself as an inarticulate, idiotic old fool who would have been better off keeping his mouth shut.

The Newsnight producers & researchers undoubtedly knew, and expected, that Starkey would say something 'controversial', as that is his stock in trade. Both Starkey & Young are best if completely ignored - they have nothing of consequence to contribute.

the Moral Maze?

imagine Tom Paulin going on about this shit...
or worse Melanie Phillips

helicopter over chalk farm / camden for the past ~15mins. Twitter says they're raiding Queen's Crescent

this just in! some blurry picture from a mobile phone that may or may not be related

qwe

Toby Young is a massive cunt - he joined my school in the 6th form (he is not, as he once claimed, a grammar school boy) - and he was a massive cunt then.

+1 I read his book, it was self congratulatory wank.

Toby Young is a massive cunt

Must spread some rep etc...

Yes, I have now seen what he said. His views are irrelevant - he's a tudor historian talking about contemporary urban unrest.

In that case, 'orf with his head'

Toby Young? He's the most inward looking man alive. He doesn't have an informed view on anything other than his own ballsack. Assuming he has one.

Opinions, arseholes etc.

Plus anyone who looks like Heston Blumenthal put through a mincer has got to be a cunt.

Some of my best friends are mincers, I'll have you know.

As are mine

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