Its Race Again

Poor old Patrick Mercer seems to have been selected this time for slaughter on the shrine of the politically correct race relations god whilst the news agencies dance around in the flickering firelight howling for his blood like crazed pagan savages. Its the new inquisition and I’m sure I’m not alone in getting very tired of it all.

So lets examine for a moment what he actually said shall we? The text of the interview can be found here but what stands out to me is this :

“I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless…”

What he is saying is that he came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle, which is not all and not necessarily a majority. Now I’ll agree that had he said that all ethnic minority soldiers where idle that would be racial slander, but he has not. He then goes on to say :

“…but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours. I remember one guy from St Anne’s (Nottingham) who was constantly absent and who had a lot of girlfriends. When he came back one day I asked him why, and he would say: ‘I was racially abused.’ And we’d say: ‘No you weren’t, you were off with your girlfriends again.’

So the implication here is that some ethnic minority soldiers use politically correct legislation to “get themselves off the hook” when caught swinging the lead, hardly surprising and not exactly the most damning of critique. My Father told many stories of his life in the ranks prior to WW2 where he told fibs to his commanding officer to get himself out of a jam, he thought it ever so funny and it seems to be a natural part of Army life.

Now here is the issue. This country has put in place legislation to protect ethnic minority soldiers from racial abuse and this legislation, mostly because it is open to some interpretation (as to what exactly constitutes abuse) carries with it an implicit contract between both parties that it must in itself be respected. I’m sure that some soldiers will sometimes forget that when trying to get themselves out of trouble but equally they have to expect to be called upon it if that trust seems to be in question. To claim that it is in itself racist is to claim that every ethnic minority soldier is without sin at all times, which is an absurd proposition which neither the Army or Britain as a whole can accept, but that is what those who wish to slander Mr. Mercer want us to believe.

Finally.

“But that’s the way it is in the army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you’d get people shouting: ‘Come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard.’

Lets get this straight, calling someone black is merely a statement of fact. To call them a bastard is an insult but a pretty mild one to most English speakers and in the Army doubly so. Our soldiers have to be hardened for battle where they will face hardship, death and maybe capture by opposing forces. There is no place for sensitive flowers and the abusive banter that is common in the forces is part of that hardening which makes them able to do things that we would not want or be able to do.

More sensible commentary on the media circus at HMS Britannia : A Decent Man hung out to dry.

Its a shame because we need more straight-talking politicians than ever but some people seem to find that a threat.

Looking around for some background on Mr. Mercer I came across a post at MPAC-UK claiming that he’s a “Zionist”, which seemed odd [and unsubstantiated] however I also came across a story regarding a flight last August bound for Manchester which was grounded by paranoid passengers which included a statement by him :
 
“The Conservative homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer, described the incident as “a victory for terrorists”. “These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally,” he told the Mail on Sunday. “For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense.”
 
Hardly the words of a racist, or even of a “Zionist”. Somebody wants this man silenced and it looks like they succeeded.