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22 comments from readers

Steve Green Daily Referendum
18 September 2009 at 11:51

You're sick mate.

James
18 September 2009 at 11:57

To "Steve Green Daily Referendum": thank you very much for your highly reasoned and thoughtful views. It is respondents like you who do so much to counter the belief that the "blogosphere" is full of freaks.

Steve Green Daily Referendum
18 September 2009 at 12:21

James,

A great many of the people who now support the Conservatives are (obviously) ex-Labour voters. I presume that when those people stop supporting Labour they became racist.

Maybe you are not sick, maybe you are just desperate to smear people who have had enough of Gordon Brown and his party.

I would have thought that you would of realised by now that these pathetic attempts to smear the Tories do not wash with the public anymore. Didn't you learn anything from the "Tory Toff" campaign?

Keep up the good work. Vicious stories like this only boost the Tories in the polls.

David
18 September 2009 at 12:56

You know, none of the comments you've quoted from Hannan are racist. And reading the blog, Hannan states that some of the attacks are racist and and that such attacks are discreditable.

Bit of an epic fail on your part, really.

Desperate
18 September 2009 at 12:56

Keep peddling the same ridiculous rubbish James. I'm a labour supporter and even I think you're clutching at straws here. Why don't you start thinking of a reason why Labour is a positive choice for the British people instead of sputing rubbish. It's people like you who are destroying genuine political debate. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Andy D
18 September 2009 at 13:01

James, you do seem to have missed the entire point of Hannan's article. Which is effectively that to some American's they do feel that Obama IS 'not one of them'.

He's agreeing with Carter...that some attacks are motivated by racism...but not all are

Please do learn to read. But then that would stop you making easy mud-throwing articles and induging in the lefts favourite pastime of accusing people of being racists.

Maggie
18 September 2009 at 13:05

You poor, deluded boy. Please grow up or shut up until you have something worthwhile to say. You're halfway towards pointing me in the direction of the Conservative camp with this rubbish.

Herbert
18 September 2009 at 13:21

This is absurd. God knows I can't stand the smug little git or his mad politics, but a close reading of what he writes doesn't make me think, 'Ah, a racist'.

James Macintyre
18 September 2009 at 13:22

Surprise, surprise. The Tory and racist apologists come flocking in all their charm.

Just to clarify: I am aware that Hannan's post seeks to justify the beneath-the-surface racism in America towards Obama and the general feeling that he is an outsider who should not really be president. In that sense, he should be praised for his openness. What he is admitting is that many -- including him -- do feel that Obama is not one of them.

As for his claim that he dismisses some racism, that doesn't fit with his own revealing words. And as to weird allegation that Carter and other critics are somehow "playing the race card": it is Obama's opponents, who Hannan has joined over healthcare, who play with race.

Tommy Judd
18 September 2009 at 13:27

James,

I do think you're going down a slippery slope here.

I think Hannan is a pompous, incompetent and oddly nationalist (for a man who would consider himself liberal) politician seeingly intent on depriving Cameron of a majority at the election. But I don't believe his comments are racist. They are reflective of a gut feeling among some "regular" Americans that a half-Kenyan Hawaiian partly raised in Indonesia by a proto-hippy mother isn't one of them. That's really up to them, just as many readers here feel an Etonian Oxford graduate shouldn't be prime minister or London mayor.

Given the brutal reality of racism - a view that someone is inferior to you solely because of their race or tribe - and the horrors to which it has led in Europe and the US and continues to lead in Sudan and China, it is an accusation that should be used carefully and sparingly. Jimmy Carter has effectively said Obama is immune to criticism, which is not only ridiculous but almost designed to fuel racism and resentment.

Hannan may veer towards Powellism but he is no racist and, more to the point, neither is his "friend" Cameron. Be careful.

By the way, I'm no Tory.

James Macintyre
18 September 2009 at 13:34

"Tommy Judd": thank you for your lecture. I must learn to behave. But your post , your interesting description of "a half-Kenyan Hawaiian partly raised in Indonesia by a proto-hippy mother", and your crazed attack on Carter, prompt me to ask: what ARE your views of Obama? Do you agree with Hannan? Also, how do you know Hannan and Cameron so intimately?

And while we're at it, can all the bloggers on this thread answer the following questions:

Are you going to vote for David Cameron's Tories?

Do you believe the Opposition should face scrutiny, or just be handed power without a debate?

Do you have jobs?

How often to you surf blogsites posting abuse?

Are you scared of daylight, only come out at night?

Are you real people who engage socially with other individuals in the normal way?

Richard S
18 September 2009 at 13:38

Oh no - watch out! Racists under the Beds!

Here we go again. The usual race-card twaddle to try and silence any opponent.

Its racist even to mention President Obama's race, no doubt? It's racist to oppose local authorities wasting money on sending school dinner ladies on diversity courses, isn't it? It's racist, no doubt, to talk about controlling immigration even if you want to protect services for ALL - including London's ethic population?

Just admit it. It's racist not to be you and to have your warped views?

Sorry. The BNP is racist. Many have unreconstructed nasty views on racial purity and so forth. Many are violent thugs. But shouting "Racist!" at normal people just because you disagree with them just makes the real vile stuff appear OK to normal people. ("BNP racist? What like that old man who fought the nazis is racist just 'cos he had an old gollywog in his shop window?")

No doubt if I told you I want out of South London, surrounded by wasteful public sector projects aimed at 'diversity' and policing that allows every other car to go untaxed for fear of 'community relations'...and if I told you I want to move out to a nice area where my children can go to nice schools where everyone speaks English, you will call ME racist...

...Except that my parents came here from Jamaica in 1968!! James, if you had ever experienced REAL racism from white trash thugs, you'd know the difference between racists and nice-but-too-old-fashioned politicians like Hannan.

Barry Stagg
18 September 2009 at 13:43

"Do you have jobs?"

For any "political editor" - let alone the political editor of the New Statesman - to ask that question is just funny.

David
18 September 2009 at 13:43

"I am aware that Hannan's post seeks to justify the beneath-the-surface racism in America towards Obama "

No he doesn't. He's stating this is what some people feel. He also states that some people feel the same background is a reason for supporting Obama. Neither is a justification of positive or negative support.

"And as to weird allegation that Carter and other critics are somehow "playing the race card"

Stating, as Carter did, that all criticism of Obama is racist is prety much the definition of playing the race card. Again, read what Hannan actually says - that those on the right using racist attacks are wrong, and those on the left dismissing all criticism as racist attacks are wrong.

Andy D
18 September 2009 at 13:46

Interesting that you (supposedly a professional writer) has to resort to personal attacks on your own readership. No attempt to engage, or construct a defence...just childish insults.

No comments yet seem to support you. Now, is that a result of the 'evil right-wing blogosphere' (which you had to post in your original post) or that your clearly wrong? Where's the left-wing posters? Wheres your loyal following?

If you're not careful you might end up with about the same reputation as Kevin Maguire. Still I suppose you could get a job at the Mirror if this doesn't work out.

Steve Green Daily Referendum
18 September 2009 at 13:53

James,

In reply to your attack on bloggers:

Yes I am going to vote Tory - However I have voted Labour in the last three elections.

Yes I do believe the opposition should face scrutiny - but howling racist is not scrutiny.

Yes I have a job - I was in the Royal Navy for 16 years (probably makes me a bullying racist in your eyes) and now I'm an engineer in a power plant (I work shifts allowing me to waste my time replying to you).

You can check with other Labour sites and you will discover that I don't post abuse (you are the exception - I don't like being called a racist).

You have my name - Steve Green, My Blog name - Daily Referendum and my email address. You can also check my profile on my blog for more info. (I'm not scared of daylight).

Yes I am real. I socially engage.

You call decent people racist and you don't expect some comeback?

Like I said - keep up the good work, you are winning more votes for the Tories with every word.

Mehdi Hasan
18 September 2009 at 13:55

Tommy Judd - I am intrigued as to why you think Powellism is so distinct from racism - what are the discernible differences between the two doctrines that Ted Heath missed when he rightly sacked Powell from his front bench team in the wake of the ludicrous "Rivers of Blood" speech? And Hannan may or may not be a racist but how do commenters on this site explain a white man referring to a black man's past as "exotic" and apologizing for those who do not consider the black man to be a "regular guy"? Also, how many of the commenters on this thread are from ethnic minorities, as I am always amused at the sight of people who are not from an ethnic minority pontificating so confidently on what is and isn't racism?

Madasafish
18 September 2009 at 14:06

James

Some of us bloggers are retired.

We read all sorts of stuff, some clever, some funny, often wrong, sometimes right.

I have to say you give the impression of someone losing the argument and flailing around.

Describing lots of your opponents as racist is a typical Labour trick when you have lost the argument.

All you manage to do is convince others to ignore you at best and despise you at worst..

Well done.

Tim J
18 September 2009 at 14:37

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas. He spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

Given that John Kerry was accused of an exotic background because he went to finishing school in Switzerland, how does Obama's background not classify as exotic? How many other Americans have similar backgrounds? When the Observer decsribed Boris Johnson as having an exotic background was that racist?

C'mon, this is a particularly fatuous piece even by your standards James.

Tim J
18 September 2009 at 14:48

As a sidenote claiming that, as James and Mehdi appear to believe, talking about Barack Obama's 'exotic background' makes you a foaming racist would appear to be comprehensively debunked by the fact that Obama himself said the following:

''I have an unusual name and an exotic background, but my values are essentially American values,'' Mr. Obama said. ''I'm rooted in the African-American community, but I'm not limited by it. I think this election shows that.''

Though I suppose it's always possible that Obama's a racist too eh chaps?

sharifL
18 September 2009 at 14:51

There is racism against Obama. The reason it is so difficult to blame others is this 'political correctness'. You dot say, you black SOB, but express views that he has a different background etc. We have all suffered that. Whenever I express my opinion about women, people say, well, I understand why you say that because of your different background.

There was time when everybody said what they thought, so we knew where we stand with them. Not anymore.

Iftikhar
18 September 2009 at 15:21

There is no difference between the policies of BNP, Tory or Labour, as far as Muslim community is concerned.

Muslim community has been victim of racism and discrimination for the last 60 years by the British society in every walk of life. The situation has gone from bad to worse.

Now Muslim community is vicitm of terrorism. Thousands of Muslim youths are being searched in streets for no reason and hundreds of them are behind the bar without any trial. British prisons are the training grounds for criminals and when they leave prisons there is a possibility that they would committ some kind of terrorist activities. There is a growing sense of alienation and insecurity among Muslim youths across Britain, inspite of two Muslim ministers, couple of MPs and Lords, an army of local councillors and a jungle of state funded Muslim organisations and so called Muslim leaders. They are the "show boys" of the British Establishment. None of them represents the needs and demands of the diverse Muslim community.

Recently, Pakistani students were detained on terrorism chages by the police. Their arrest will lead to more scare-mongering.They were convicted even before trial. Gordon Brown said the arrests could have foiled a "very big terrorist plot". The arrests have quickly led to accusations against Pakistan for not doing enough in the fight against terror. Gordon Brown also believes that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan. Pakistan has become the nexus of terrorism within the media, much of western think-tanks and government circles. Police could not find any thing suspicious. Britain had given Pakstan no evidence against them. Now they are going to be deported to cover up blunders and mistakes because of lack of evidence. Gordon Brown should tender an apology and they should be compensated and should be allowed to continye their education for better community relations and cohesion.

Iftikhar Ahmad

www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk