Tory Iain Dale’s View Of The Ethnics
ANYONE else get a whiff of something unplesant in this piece by Tory hopeful and celebrity blogger Iain Dale?
My evening with Cambridge University Conservatives was certainly not without incident. I was speaking at their termly black tie dinner. Apparently the attendance was the highest for several years. I last spoke there in 2004 when not a single woman was present. This evening about half the attendees were female, and there were quite a few ethnic minorities present (some in their own country’s dress) too.
Yes - “Their own country’s dress?” Are they foreigners or British persons from an ethnic minority background? Or does it not matter..?
Spotter: Tim Worstall
Posted: 15th, June 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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June 15th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I have never thought the Tories a narrow right-wing sect. Nor have many Asian, Jewish and female voters. Indeed, it is the far left that now often appears bigoted and boldly anti-Semitic. As for the audience at the Tory meeting, might it say more of the type of person who goes to Cambridge University Conservatives’s dos than the party as a whole? I agree with Worstall. There is no implication that you are a racist - there is enough bigotry about, often displayed with pride, without trying to find it with a microscope and spoiling for a fight. And congratulations on the progess - more foreigners attend the CUC’s party than before. Good to woo the foreign vote. Very sensible.
June 15th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I wrote it that way because I think the two I spoke to actually were from overseas - ie they were foreign nationals attending courses at Cambridge.
What you have implied by writing this piece is that I am somehow a racist. If you really think that, then write it. And then prepare yourself for a libel suit.
June 15th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
As Tim Worstall writes on his blog:
“There’s a distinction to be made between ethnic minority (British but not of the majority ethnic background) and those who, when wearing “their own country’s dress” are wearing clothes which are not British. We call these people “foreigners”.
It’s the “their own country” bit that gives it away.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Pathetic. I notice you don’t provide a link to the original article. Any half sensible person (which you clearly are not) would see that this piece was positively welcoming the fact that things had changed since I was last there. As I wrote in response to a comment…
“I quite reasonably pointed out that CUCA has changed in the three years since I was last there. There were more women and more ethnic minorities. I regard that as a good thing and see no reason why I should be inhibited from pointing it out. It reflects how the party is changing generally - and for the better. If you think we should stay as a narrow right wing sect then that’s up to you. I do not.”