Carol Thatcher Fired for Racist Remark

[Loyalist]

Carol Thatcher will no longer work on The One Show after being reported for making an off-air remark, the BBC has announced.

The former prime minister's daughter referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog" backstage during filming of the BBC One programme.

However, the 55-year-old will not be banned from the BBC as a whole.

The corporation said it had hoped Thatcher would issue an unconditional apology but she had declined to do so.

Her spokesman told The Times she made the remark in a conversation with the show's presenter Adrian Chiles back stage and it was "meant as a joke".

"Carol never intended any racist comment," he said.
"She made a light aside about this tennis player and his similarity to the golliwog on the jam pot when she was growing up.

"There's no way, obviously, that she would condone any racist comment - we would refute that entirely. It would not be in her nature to do anything like that.

"It is disgusting that we've had a leak of private conversations in the green room - the BBC has more leaks than Thames Water.

"Carol is mortified that anyone should take offence at a silly joke. She has summarily apologised."

According to press reports, the comment was made during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament, in reference to a player who had recently been knocked out of the men's singles draw. (Continues)

Source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7868401.stm)

[Pino]

thats ridiculous how can anybody be fired for such a subtle remark in a private conversaiton?

[Beorn]

"We understand she has not made the unconditional apology that they sought, and as a consequence of that, her position on The One Show is no longer tenable.

A racist remark or a slightly humorous racial recollection; either way the fact that Carol has not apologised shows exactly who she took after in the family.

Balls of iron, that one.

[Pino]

A racist remark or a slightly humorous racial recollection; either way the fact that Carol has not apologised shows exactly who she took after in the family.

Balls of iron, that one.


Yeah atleast when Maggie said somthing she ment it, not like Gordan Brown who changes his opinion on matters everyday depending on opinion polls.

[Fortis in Arduis]

Well...

That was exactly what I called someone to his face at a recent party, and he looked just like one too. :p

[Treffie]

A MIDLAND shop manager says Golliwog dolls are selling out in the wake of last week’s BBC racism storm.

TV star Carol Thatcher, 53, was suspended by the Beeb earlier this week after comparing a male tennis player to the controversial black dolls.

But Georgie Haywood, manager of The Pied Piper in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, says she is still selling the toys and demand is higher than ever.

“Our customers have all been really supportive and we’re doing a great trade in Gollies,” she said.

“They are collectable but not cheap as they go for anywhere between £38 and £140. We’ve sold at least 10 this week because so many people want them.”

Thatcher, daughter of former Prime Minister Maggie, was crowned Queen of the Jungle three years ago after winning ITV show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

But she was dropped from her roving reporter role on BBC’s The One Show after making her “golliwog” comments backstage.

The dolls, which used to feature on the front of Robinson jam jars, were popular toys in the 50s and 60s but have since come under fire from anti-racism campaigners.

Yet Ms Haywood, 33, said she believed the controversial dolls still made great gifts.

“We do sell a lot of gollies anyway, but this week in particular some people were worried that they might be taken off the shelves, so we sold more,” she said.

“They’re just nice black dolls. Why have a white toy and not a black one?

“I think it would be more racist not to sell them and we only ever get good reactions from black customers. We’ve sold lots of the dolls to black customers and they have no problem with them.

“It’s political correctness gone mad.”

Adrian Chiles revealed what the ex-PM’s daughter had actually said and claimed her comments referred to French tennis player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“Carol was in full flow, talking about who’d win the Australian Open,” Midland-born Chiles said.

“‘You also have to consider the Frogs,’ she said. ‘You know, that Froggy golliwog guy.’”

He added that Thatcher went on to say: “If I was Prince Harry, I’d get shot for saying that.”

Last night her brother Mark Thatcher was quoted as saying that his sister “hasn’t a racist bone in her body” and accused the BBC of “behaving like the Stasi”.

It is not the first time that the dolls have sparked controversy.

In 2006 we told how a Midland artist ignored the threat of prosecution by creating an Asian Gollywog with the blessing of Muslims.

Stuart Redfern, of Worcester, had designed a new range of the controversial toys, which also included gay, chav and convict dolls.

He said: “I don’t believe Gollies are racist at all. The people who find them offensive are usually white and middle-class.”

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2009/02/08/golliwogs-selling-out-after-carol-thatcher-bbc-storm-66331-22878173/

[Beorn]

He said: “I don’t believe Gollies are racist at all. The people who find them offensive are usually white and middle-class.”


That's what people have to realise. These acts of "racism" are hardly perceived as such by the actual people that are supposedly targeted.

All worked up about nothing. :rolleyes: