Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Racism and rascist



The MSM and some local councillors are apparently up in arms that some Taxi drivers have the temerity to declare that they speak English. Apparently this is racist.

Telegraph.

A group of drivers of licensed cabs in Southampton put up the signs because they claimed passengers complained to them that some drivers cannot speak English.
The matter came to a head in a meeting with drivers and the city council last week when some drivers told the council of the alleged problem. 
Now the city council has said any cab that has the sign or a St George flag put up will have their licence suspended if they do not take them down within seven days.
This is because they need the permission of the authority to put up any sign. 
Councillor Royston Smith, deputy leader of Southampton City Council, said: ''Members of the public and the taxi trade have expressed their concerns to us that these stickers are inappropriate so we are asking any taxi drivers in the city who are displaying these to take them down. 
So flying the flag of the country you reside in is again racist, as is apparently being able to speak English and announcing you can do so.

Mail.
A racism row has broken out after a city's taxi drivers started displaying stickers in their cars saying they are 'English speaking'.
Up to a dozen drivers have been showing off the notices bearing the St George's Cross on the back windows of their cars in Southampton, Hampshire.
The small red and white sticker declares the cab is being driven by an 'English speaking driver.'  
Campaign group Show Racism the Red Card demanded the stickers be taken down from the cab windows.
Chief Executive Ged Grebby said: 'I don't have a problem with displaying the cross of St George because this is a symbol we have managed to reclaim from the far right.
'But the "English speaking driver" part is where it crosses the line into racism.
Since when has the Flag of St George been racist Mr Grebby? The Union flag is the banner of the BNP and other nationalist groups, not the Cross of St George, it's never had to be reclaimed at all!
And would the racism bandwagon be hounding shop owners of Indian or Pakistani descent if they had a sign in their door saying Urdu/Telugu/Punjabi/Hindi spoken here? Or how about Middle Eastern stores announcing that Arabic was spoken? How about a sign saying Swahili spoken here?....................Somehow I think not.
What is wrong with someone announcing that they can speak English? It's not as if it's tied to the English, anyone who can do so could have that sticker, the Taxi drivers in the Medway area have a number of Sikh drivers who's command of the English language would put many locals to shame, I doubt they'd have issues with a sticker saying they speak English superimposed on an English flag. They often have one flying during the football anyway.

This is clearly a classic "offended in my name" moment where the Righteous cannot wait to impose their view on the majority and so end up offending everyone and doing race relations no favours at all.


I think by now the English know who the real victims of racism are.

8 annotations:

Anonymous said...

I'm with the council on this one, QM. Not because I agree with them, or even because I disagree with the Anglophone taxi-drivers. I'm with the council because the taxi-drivers showed a grievous lack of subtlety. Had they posted signs like:

"The driver of this vehicle is capable of easily-comprehensible running commentary on the glorious city of Southampton and its environs."

Probably would have got grants from the council for that.

subrosa said...

Unbelievable! What they should do is encourage the non-English speaking drivers to have a sign saying 'No English but Urdu spoken in this taxi' as you suggest.

Racist? The word used by those lacking in the ability to check out its meaning in the Chambers dictionary.

Anonymous said...

www.marchforengland.co.uk Bring back common sense, our long lost friend....

Anonymous said...

It happened in Edinburgh too when a person working at our national galleries was told to take down the flag of Scotland and the Scottish articles on his desk (in an office not used by the public) incase it should offend an English co-worker.

Amazing.

Quiet_Man said...

It's crazy, I don't get offended by a Saltire in Scotland (or anywhere else come to that) and I doubt most Scots are offended by the Cross of St George flying in England.

TheBoilingFrog said...

It's all getting a bit silly, it reminds me of a similar incident a couple of years ago when a driver was stopped by the Police and told to take the St George flag off his parcel shelf.

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/2288512.motorist_told_flag_could_be_racist/

That said, I have a flag pole in my garden and happily fly both the Union and St George flags and no-one yet has complained. Probably because, I suspect, they know what I would do with said pole if they did.

Alfie said...

Boiling Frog - the guy holding your flag should have come from this country - you shouldn't be using a Pole....

Don't they teach flag holding in schools anymore?

Anonymous said...

QM. I love it when I see the St George flag in England. Far from being offended, I think it is wonderful. I see it more and more these days.