Thursday 5 February 2009

Golliwog and The BBC

Fields in Sidmouth were selling golliwogs before Christmas. I hope they have one left. I intend to buy one when I go shopping next. I'm going to call it The BBC and hang it by it's neck from my rear view mirror.

I'm also going to complain to the BBC. I'm almost certain I heard Jonathan Woss make an improper comment about Gollywog a few weeks ago.

2 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

As a teenager, and having guessed which way the PC wind was blowing, I collected the required number of Robertson's Marmalade labels (God I hate marmalade) and am the proud owner of a Gollywog badge, that I wore next to the Motörhead badge etc.

But I'm not sure where I stashed it twenty years ago when the leather jacket got taken out of service. Maybe I'll just buy one on eBay.

Robert said...

If I offend anyone, no matter how silly the reason, I apologise. I don't make excuses. That's all Carol Thatcher had to do - make an unreserved apology - but she felt unable to do it. Imho, she got what she deserved.

"Pride cometh before a fall" my grandmother used to say.

Jonathan Ross obviously knew this saying & apologised unreservedly & profusely.

In my teen years, I first discovered racial strife during a hoiday in Newquay, where a crowd of skinheads were chasing two coloured guys.

In my early 20's, living in Birmingham, racial & ethnic abuse was commonplace. Being Irish (and British, although that didn't ever matter), I was constantly reminded that I was a thick Paddy; Pakki bashing was considered a sport by some; blacks were "rubberlips" and constantly taunted and so on. My girlfriend & I were the only whites in the area where we rented a flat, but we were courteously treated by all the olther residents. However, we had to stop going to the nearest pub because we got serious abuse about being "wog" lovers. I am very pleased that British society has progressed substantially since those days.

I think that you have been very fortunate not to have witnessed racial strife, but I assure you - it exists. Like most white men, I have retold many non-pc jokes over the years - still do - but, as I said earlier, any offence caused will be followed by an abject apology.