Our Wanker of the Week is Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP for London and Liberal Democrat European Justice Spokeswoman.
The despicable "Foxy Ken" Livingstone let his mouth run away with his brain again recently and said to a Jewish reporter "But when reporters say to me I'm only doing this because it's my job... that's the same abdication of moral responsibility at the thin end of the wedge that in its most extreme and horrific version ends up with others being prepared to stand as a concentration camp guard".
Baroness Ludford was moved to make the following statement:
"Not only is Ken Livingstone acting like a political thug, but he has gone beyond tastelessness with this anti-Semitic outburst.
He should certainly apologise for these offensive remarks which come so soon after Holocaust Memorial Day on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and coincide with the Community Security Trust report showing a shocking rise in anti-Semitic attacks especially in London."
Ken Livingstone needs to take more care that even if he favours anti-Zionism, he does not insult London by insulting Jews."
Many years ago (and I mean many years ago!) when I was young and green, I went out briefly with a very sweet girl called Ros. She really was a lovely girl and I was very fond of her but the relationship was doomed because she was, to be honest, rather thick. We had constant arguments because I would make the mistake of mentioning the concept of social class.
My father was a teacher and my mother was an office worker. To me (and them) this made me a member of the lower-middle classes. Had I come from, for instance, a coal-mining village I would no doubt have described myself as working class. If I'd gone to school at Eton or Harrow most people would consider me upper-class. In our rather class-conscious 1960s British society, these were facts. It never occurred to me to say that one class was better than another. At university I had mixed with people from varying backgrounds and had friends who sprung from solid artisan stock and others whose parents were landowners. But there was no point in denying that there were differences between us, differences of which we were all aware - we didn't all speak with the same accent, we didn't all wear the same clothes and at the end of term some of us went home in big cars and some in small cars, and some by train. So what?
Poor Ros couldn't cope with this at all. If I so much as breathed the word "class" she instantly accused me of snobbery. To describe the concept of class was, to her, to condone it.
Baroness Ludford is no better than my poor dim girlfriend - in fact, she's a lot worse because she should know better, as in her chosen path of life she must mix with some intelligent people who understand English. A few of them probably are English.
She should be able to tell the difference between naming a thing and condoning it. If I mention the Spanish Inquisition, that doesn't mean I'm in favour of it. If I mention the Spanish Inquisition to a Roman Catholic, that is no kind of insult to him or her. The Spanish Inquisition is something that happened. Why pretend it didn't?
She should be able to sift the meaning out of Foxy Ken's garbled blathering, and see that he didn't say …..
• "Concentration camp guards were a good thing"
• "You are Jewish and therefore you are a concentration camp guard"
• "You are Jewish and therefore you are behaving like a concentration camp guard"
• "You are like a concentration camp guard and therefore you are Jewish"
….. in fact he made no connection between the man's race and the fact that he was, in Foxy Ken's opinion, attempting to hide behind "just doing my job" in order to avoid responsibility for his actions - something that some ex-concentration camp guards actually did when taxed with their crimes.
So what are we saying here, Baroness? That to mention the words "concentration camp" in public is insulting? Or is it only insulting if you mention them to a Jew? Or are we saying that it's all right to be rude to a Gentile but not to a Jew? Possibly because it's the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and he might be feeling a bit sensitive?
In that case, would it normally be OK to be rude to a Gentile, but not if it was on June 23rd because that was the day his dog died? Or, to be on the safe side, perhaps we should allow a week or so on either side of June 23rd?
Perhaps we're saying that one should always pussy-foot around anyone who comes from any kind of ethnic minority just in case we say something that might have a bearing on his history or that of his race? Like mentioning slavery to a black man, or marijuana to a West Indian, or black holes to an Indian? In that case, Baroness, if we ever meet would you please be sure not to mention Basildon because I once had an unpleasant experience there?
Sorry, Baroness, but you're talking absolute drivel. I have no time for Foxy Ken at all, but in this case I hope he sticks to his guns and refuses to apologise. And I hope - probably in vain - that in time you may learn to understand the English language. If it's all right to use the term "English", that is - I shouldn't like to insult anyone.
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