Mrs Thatcher came up with some interesting lines in her time, surely worthy of any 99p ‘Dictionary of Quotations’. There was the inequality-advocating “let our children grow tall, some taller than others”, the defiant “the lady’s not for turning”, the more homespun “we are a grandmother” and in later life “the mummy returns”. Daughter Carol however will now just be remembered for the word “golliwog”.
The fall-out from her axing from BBC1’s “One Show” for using this racist slur continues to dominate the front pages, making Thursday’s Daily Mail and Telegraph. We’ve seen a polarisation of opinion dividing into the “political correctness gone mad” brigade at the Daily Mail and the “good riddance to bad rubbish” type comments at the Guardian.
Either way, this is a completely inappropriate term in 2009. The long-standing brand Robertson’s jam dropped this emblem as being out of tune with New Britain years ago.
2009 is still young yet this incident brings on a sense of déjà vu in other news stories of the year. The revelation that Prince Charles is in the habit of calling an Asian Sikh acquaintance “Sooty” came hot on the heels of the storm surrounding Prince Harry’s use of the word “paki”. The latter was for all to see in a News of the World video link including Harry’s admission in answer to a question from colleagues that his hair in the nether regions is ginger (although he appeared a little slow on the uptake). Charles’ polo pal Kuldip Singh Dhillon rushed to the first-in-line to the throne’s defence denying HRH could ever be racist.
Of these three examples it is just possible that the “sooty” nickname is a term of self-appellation. Asian-fronted indie-band Cornershop named themselves in such an act as did Niggaz With Attitude. It is also possible that he was named after the silent golden coloured glove puppet Sooty. If it is something more sinister though perhaps as well as Sooty and Big Ears, Uncle Tom could be another character in the dramatis personae of this story. Harry’s whispered description of a fellow colleague as “little Paki friend” is indefensible, although the target of the remarks apparently came out with a statement defending HRH.
Brushing away the remarks as “harmless army banter” cannot cover up what is cowardly racist name calling – the words were uttered out of earshot of the soldier they were aimed at. Harry’s smoking also sets a poor example. Morrissey recently observed that nowadays everyone is potentially (a) a journalist because of blogs and (b) a paparazzi because of camera-phones but unlike when the foolish Prince was photographed unawares dressed as a Nazi this was recorded for posterity as a video-diary.
All sorts of speculation continues to swirl around about how Adrian Chiles shopped Carol Thatcher to deflect from his own marriage difficulties which have been splashed all over the press. Thatcher’s people have described the very public airing of a private comment as “shoddy” but her refusal to make an unreserved apology for the reason that the remark was made off air and “in jest” speaks volumes. Neither of these points offer justification for what at best was a lapse of judgement and at worst crass and insensitive coming from someone who’s mother was one of the biggest supporters of the South Africa Apartheid regime. At least the BBC acted swiftly unlike their dithering over Ross and Brand, and at least broadcast journalists are sackable.
I blame the parents.