Condemnation of Sepp Blatter, who has caused fury with his suggestion that racism on the football pitch can be settled with a handshake, seems to have been almost universal. (Readers may also remember that last year Blatter suggested that gay football fans should refrain from sexual activity if they visited Qatar.) Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of the anti-racist campaign group Kick It Out, commented:
“To say Sepp Blatter’s comments are unhelpful is an understatement. He has no understanding of what racism is, the ideology behind it, the damage it causes and how it subjugates one group of people as inferior.”
Rod Liddle’s been getting into trouble for his bizarre article about the Stephen Lawrence case in the Spectator. I looked at this quickly – it’s now been taken offline – and the central point (that the defendants can’t expect a fair trial) is not made convincingly, and the piece is full of tendentious comments about Lawrence himself, and the relationship between race and crime more generally. Although Liddle has gained the approval of Stormfront – who claim that he has ‘hit the nail on the head’ – the trial judge is furious, and has asked the Attorney General to consider charges against the publication.
Jai can always be trusted to keep an eye on the EDL. In a recent post he discusses an administrator’s comment on the EDL’s facebook page which implies racial motives for their campaign. Here’s a typical passage:
And unless we find our backbone and stand up to the ones who are committing crimes against the English people we shall continue to be subjected to slavery by a British elite aided by outside influences whose only intention is to destroy us from within and wipe us out as a race.
As discussed in the ensuing thread, I thought Jai’s post was perhaps slightly too emphatic – and this may actually make it easier for the EDL to face down the problem. This clearly isn’t the official EDL ‘line’ – so it’s fairly easy to disown – but it certainly reflects a significant current within the EDL.
