EU referendum are you in or out

[Rubisco]

At what point does it become non-racist to mock a man's foreign ancestry? Is it OK because he's posh? A tory? Rich? White?

When that man lives on racist rhetoric, perhaps. When he's described blacks as having "watermelon smiles". When he's scared up the leave campaign with rhetoric about Turkey's "imminent" entry into the EU, immigrants, etc. At that point, one might reasonably consider it acceptable to point out the inherent hypocrisy of his position.

Maybe Boris was cryptically alluding to someone else's hypocrisy when he said those things. He didn't present it in that context, but neither did merman.

[tufty]

neither did merman.

No, he referred to Boris by his entire name. I don't actually see how that's supposed to be racist, to be honest. His parents, after all, were / are British, the whole "de Pfeffel" thing could go back generations or even centuries. I can't be arsed to find out.

And anyway, as any racist will happily tell you, "Muslim isn't a race". Same applies to being some sort of dim descendant of forrin royalty. With the emphasis on dim.

[phattslagg]

Come on, Tufty, anyone can see that Merman’s pun on the middle name of a highly privileged member of the white British aristocracy makes Boris Johnson the real victim of racism. Rubisco’s take on this is hotter than a sunny day in Bongo Bongo Land.

[KlaxonCow]

Do the maths.

We're all descendants of dim-witted foreign royalty somewhere far enough back in our ultimately shared family tree.



It's just that some of us rightly don't care, as "special people" wearing "magical golden hats" of supposed leadership is a silly concept anyway.

(See Plato's "Noble Lie" from his "Republic" for more details.)

[gilesgoat]

... keeps getting better and better ...

Government to ask Queen to suspend Parliament

The Queen will be asked by the government to suspend Parliament just days after MPs return to work in September - and only a few weeks before the Brexit deadline.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says it will make way for Boris Johnson's new administration to hold a Queen's Speech - laying out the government's plans - on 14 October.

But it means MPs are unlikely to have time to pass any laws that could stop the prime minister taking the UK out of the EU without a deal on 31 October.

[merman]

Boris: we want a deal without the backstop


Really? What credible solution for the Irish border do you have then? Because that's why the backstop was part of the Withdrawal Agreement Theresa May negotiated (with the help of three different Brexit Secretaries).

How about the reunification of Ireland then ? Wouldn't the mad bombings (if any) only happen in Ireland ?

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson represents the Conservative & Unionist Party of Great Britain. That means it doesn't want to give up control of Northern Ireland - especially when his Government is propped up by the dodgy deal with the Democratic Unionist Party.

Angela Merkel laid a trap and Johnson walked into it. "30 days to present an alternative to the backstop" - he has none, there hasn't been any credible solutions put forward in the last 800+ days since the referendum.

And now Macron says the backstop is an "indispensable" part of any deal.

Oh, and all this piffle from de Pfeffel is trying to shift the blame onto the EU in the event of No Deal - when it's the Tory red lines (over freedom of movement and membership of the Customs Union) that are preventing the deal.

Priti Patel announces freedom of movement to and from the UK for EU citizens would end on the 1st of November in the even of No Deal - which is clearly not going to happen, according to leading immigration lawyers.

At what point does it become non-racist to mock a man's foreign ancestry? Is it OK because he's posh? A tory? Rich? White?

NOWHERE WAS I MOCKING HIS ANCESTRY.
I quoted his full name because he uses "Boris" to help portray himself as this bumbling, loveable fellow who doesn't do bad things...

The fact that he is now trying to suspend Parliament proves he should not be in power.

[Dio]

It's not racist. But name calling is hardly raising the quality of the debate, is it?

[Ollie]

"Name calling"? It's his actual name.

[gravy]

Is Pfeffel a race?

[Dio]

"Name calling"? It's his actual name.

Ah, OK. Deliberately picking a ridiculous part of someone's actual name isn't name calling? Is this a standard you only apply to people you don't like, or do you do this to your friends too?

[gilesgoat]

Back to reason, do you understand the $£"$%"%£$$£ move he has just done ?

"Yes technically he can do it" .. "no it should not be done" ..

Anyway it's all fucked up, that you call it "Mr X" or <whatever> is not going to change the fact of who he is and what he does and what the parties are doing.

At this point it does not matter if they are blue, green, red, white, yellow or whatsoever and called <insert whatever you want> what it does matter is what they are doing and what they are saying.

While we are discussing about minute details ( which is what they want us to do ) we are losing the big picture.

It's all fucked up, beyond repair.

So what next ?

[JQW]

Boris Johnson is of Turkish ancestry. The Pfeffel is nothing more than bluster.

Here's his paternal great-grandfather who game to a sticky end in 1922.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Kemal

[gravy]

"Name calling"? It's his actual name.

Ah, OK. Deliberately picking a ridiculous part of someone's actual name isn't name calling? Is this a standard you only apply to people you don't like, or do you do this to your friends too?

Conversely, it's a long post that you'd have to be pretty uncharitable to claim dePfeffel / piffle as the main thrust of debate.

Bit harsh calling out dePfellel as ridiculous though

[Dio]

I was replying to the post above mine rather than anything else. I'm kind of argumented-out about Brexit. Just trying to make the world a slightly more civil place in a way that might be useful rather than raging uselessly into the void.

[tufty]

Not sure about keeping it civil. There's no civility left in politics. We have an effectively unelected prime minister shutting down our sovereign parliament so that it can't stop him carrying out a thing that parliament has expressly said it does not want to happen. In the name of "taking back control". As incivility goes, that's quite a way above making a weakish pun on a part of his name that he's proud of*.

He's a cunt. He's a lying, conniving, untrustworthy cunt that's about to drive the country off a fucking cliff, for his own personal gain. He doesn't deserve to be treated in a civil manner, he deserves to be removed from power by a pitchfork wielding mob. His shitting on democracy should be rewarded by placing his image at the bottom of every toilet bowl in the country. If I had the chance, I'd put my ski boots on and kick him squarely in the bollocks.

Yeah, I know, raging uselessly into the void.

* "proud of", but keeps hidden in order to look like the "man of the people".