Friday 9 August 2013

Britain is still, sadly, a country with old anachronistic Member of the European Parliament called Godfrey Bloom

Godfrey Bloom, who is the 63 year old democratically elected Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and  Humber representing the small right wing UK Independence Party, has attitudes which would have been more typical in Victorian Britain. He was filmed at a meeting in Wordsley in July and the release of his speech by the Guardian has engulfed this old man in a storm of controversy.
He said, in relation to British aid to Third World countries : 
"How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month when we're in this sort of debt to Bongo Bongo land is completely beyond me. To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid. F18s for Pakistan. We need a new squadron of F18s. Who's got the squadrons? Pakistan, where we send the money."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23608106
 
 In the furore which followed he :
 
* defended his remarks saying people in Yorkshire would not think the term 'bongo bongo land' was racist because there is no such country.
 
* when asked what he would do if he was reprimanded, told BBC Radio 4's 'Today Programme': "I'd say "Righto, sorry, sorry everybody" and "If I've offended anybody in bongo bongo land I shall write to the ambassador at the Court of St James's and apologise to him personally." * denied the phrase carried any suggestion of racism and stood by his comments, saying: "What’s wrong with that? I’m not a wishy-washy Tory. I don’t do political correctness... The fact that the Guardian is reporting this will probably double my vote in the north of England."

A former economist, he was elected as an MEP in 2004 and has been making headlines ever since with his views on women, climate change and Germans.
He put his foot in it when, he :
 
* soon after he was appointed to the European Parliament's 'Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality',  declared that "no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age" and  added that he wanted to deal with women's issues because: "I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough."

* on climate change he once remarked: "As far as I am concerned man-made global warming is nothing more than a hypothesis that hasn't got any basis in fact."

* admitted visiting brothels and argued that instead of being exploited, most prostitutes "do it because they want to".

* in 2010, was ejected from a Brussels debate after using the Nazi slogan : "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" to insult German Social Democrat, Martin Schulz (right).

UKIP leader Nigel Farage ordered him to apologise and banned him from using the phrase 'Bongo Bongo land' again

UKIP chairman Steve Crowther (left) said: "We are asking Godfrey not to use this phrase again as it might be considered disparaging by members from other countries.However, foreign aid is an extremely important debate that needs wider discussion."

Rushanara Ali, a Labour Development spokesman, said: "If Nigel Farage is serious about getting rid of racism and intolerance in his party, he should take action against politicians who think it’s acceptable to speak of people in developing countries in that way."

A spokesman for the anti-racism, 'Hope Not Hate' campaign, said his remarks were reminiscent of the "Tory party of 1985", when Alan Clark, former MP for Kensington and Chelsea, provoked outrage by referring to Africa as ‘Bongo Bongo land’ in an official meeting.
 
Laura Pidcock (left), from campaign group 'Show Racism the Red Card', said: "What I can tell you is that in the classrooms that I visit as an anti-racism education worker, these crude stereotypes that see Britain as a civilised place and overseas as tribal is an extremely homogenising sentiment and I think it's incredibly damaging.
Actually he needs to understand that it is highly offensive and what he meant by it isn't important - it's the outcome that's important."

Godfrey Bloom, an old, outdated 'fruit of democracy' in Britain in 2013.

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