This from the Grimsby Telegraph, December 22:
Support for a councillor accused of racism has flooded into Grimsby Telegraph offices.
On saturday we reported that North East Lincolnshire's Jim Tattersdale has been reported to the Standards board for England and Wales.
The Independent Yarborough ward representative is alleged to have brought NE Lincs council into disrepute by making a comment at a Children's Services Scrutiny Panel meeting last month.
He said of the tragic eight-year-old Victoria Climbie: "Had she not been allowed into this country in the first place then she would still be happily playing in the warm African sun, eating a banana."
But the people of Grimsby were able to see through this 'slur' to the real message, and they made this evident with keenly written and insightful comments, such as:
This is just another example of the Mad Crazy World of Political Correctness we live in. Coun Tattersdale was absolutely correct in his comments. Anon, Grimsby.
Yet another example of the crazy ploitically correct lobby getting in a spin over nothing. No doubt if they had their way, she'd be eating a perfectly straight banana which had been genetically modified by those overpaid Brussels bureaucrats. Stop whingeing about "racism", the "environment", so-called "war crimes" etc and wake uip to the real issues people! Jon Rowett, London.
You can always rely on the provicial press to provide the real stories at Christmas.
There has been a terrible, terrible mix-up here. At least I think there has....
Posted by: Jon Rowett | May 28, 2006 at 11:19 PM
The problem is that for some people 'irony' is something to do with metalwork....
Posted by: mynsterpreost | May 30, 2006 at 11:46 AM
ha ha ha, I'd forgotten all about this. Sorry Jon, I hope I haven't misrepresented you. I believed your response was in jest, but I thought it too good to ignore. No one reads this anyway...
Posted by: thomas conolly | May 31, 2006 at 01:45 PM
maybe Jon Rowett could guest post to set the record straight?
Posted by: AJE | May 31, 2006 at 02:41 PM
A fine idea. How would he go about doing that?
Posted by: TC | May 31, 2006 at 03:21 PM
I would welcome the opportunity to clear my name.
Posted by: JonR | June 01, 2006 at 09:44 AM
Jon - send an article by email to [email protected] and i'll post it as a new article, and link to it from this one.
I look forward to hearing from you
Posted by: AJE | June 01, 2006 at 10:06 AM
What if this isn't the real Jon Rowett, but some right-wing imposter posing as him?
Posted by: Julie Burchill | June 01, 2006 at 10:21 AM
did jon ever write a defence?
Posted by: joolz rowett | June 04, 2006 at 11:25 AM
Ah, the eternal question of identity. Who IS the real Jon Rowett? Alternatively, was the Odyssey written by Homer, or by another Greek of the same name?
Posted by: mynsterpreost | June 04, 2006 at 08:53 PM
Setting aside Ms Burchill's musings on the nature of identity, visitors to the ancient Viking settlement of Grimsby might ask after the fate of the licensees of 'The Oberon' pub. Even parody fails in some circumstances.
Posted by: mynsterpreost | June 04, 2006 at 10:11 PM
They fell in love with Bottom?
Posted by: TC | June 05, 2006 at 09:06 AM
They fell in love with Bottom?
A gem, quite made my evening. Now back to work
Posted by: mynsterpreost | June 06, 2006 at 08:18 PM
Seriously though, what did happen to them? I know it was a gay pub and didn't last long, but not much more.
Posted by: TC | June 06, 2006 at 10:16 PM
Didn't the locals chase them out of town with pitchforks in the end? I remember my mother stocking in up in Pennells on pitchforks at roughly the same time, though that might have been an unrelated matter.
Posted by: JRWB | June 06, 2006 at 10:22 PM
i had a friend in grimsby who once said he "hated all gays, except freddie mercury". in grimbarian context that made him a lefty pinko.
i also knew of a woman who stood outside another friend's house and kept screaming that (my friend's) mother was a "gay breeder".
Posted by: joolz rowett | June 08, 2006 at 11:43 AM
Ah, now, this is a common misconstruence. During the late 1990's "Key Concepts in Medical Sociology" by Jonathan Gabe was a hugely influencial text, but some found its critique of the National Health Service provision somewhat contentious. This provoked a fience reponse from the general populace with many savage letters of indictment to Sage Publishing. There was also a grassroots movement against the text, frequently characterised by name calling and manic street preaching - the most common taunt being "Gabe reader! Gabe reader!".
Was this 'woman you knew' perchance a follower of Graham Scambler's 'Sociology as Applied to Medicine'? I'll bet she was.
Posted by: tc | June 08, 2006 at 12:11 PM
too good for me.
although to be quite honest i'm not sure either of the women in question could read.
Posted by: joolz rowett | June 09, 2006 at 10:38 AM