Not Racist? Not the Point

Last night on the news, and on various Tory websites today, we've had people defending Patrick Mercer.

The defence, which came from black soldiers he commanded amongst others, is that "he's not a racist". I've no doubt that's true, but its not the point. Nor was he simply stating a fact, that racial abuse went on in the army, as some claimed.

What he said was that racial abuse went on in the Army, and that he thought this was OK.

Its that attitude that need banishing. Its not about free speech or political correctness, its about people thinking its OK to be racially abusive. If nothing else, the effect this will have on Army's recruitment will be significant, at a very difficult time.

However the real problem for Cameron isn't that Patrick Mercer said what he did, its the fact that he thought it. How many other Tory front benchers think racism is OK, but have enough political sense not to say so?

Same old Tories.

Comments

[Tom Papworth]

You have a good point. There is nothing wrong with saying that racial abuse is common in the army, but he should have added that it was regrettable and should be discouraged, not that it was all par for the course and should be tolerated.

I do wonder if in the future skin colour will be as passe as hair colour, so that calling people "black" is no worse than calling them "ginger", and it all becomes a harmless form of joshing. If so, it will be a happy time. For now, skin colour/race remains a hot potato and there should be no place for racial abuse.

I dispute one thing, though. This is not a difficult time for army recruitment. In fact, there is no evidence that either Afghanistan or Iraq has affected recruitment. The problem isn't too few recruits; it's too few posts to recruit to.