I think all MPs received this email today as it's not from a constituent.
Dear Kerry McCarthy
Harriet Harman's Hate Speech
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday July 9th 2008 Harriet Harman made a comment which was offensive and discriminatory. Describing what will happen if she becomes Prime Minister, Harriet Harman said that ‘There aren’t enough airports in the country for all the men who would want to flee the country’.
Many attempt to hide their hate speech by stating it was only a joke.
There is a very good definition of Hate Speech on wikipedia. The definition includes intimidating or attempting to incite prejudicial action against a group of people based upon various criteria, including gender. Think about that for a moment. In my humble opinion, Harriet Harman’s statement is intimidating, and a statement of intent to take prejudicial action against men based purely on their gender.
If you still do not think it is hate speech, try this simple test. Say out loud ‘ There aren’t enough airports in the country for all the X who would want to flee the country’ Now repeat that remark a few times, replacing X with a different word each time from this list: Men, Women, Asians, Jews, Gypsies, Moslems, Black people.
Harriet Harman has already stated her intention to take positive action (i.e. discriminate) against men in the job market. It is enough to make one wonder what else Harman has in store for us.
Can’t say I fancy being intimidated into leaving the country just because of my gender. This sounds like another step towards Bully Britain to me!
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Labour Candidate for Bristol East
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Kerry McCarthy
Labour Candidate for Bristol East
A Future Fair for All
My blog = my rules!
As Monica says in Friends, "rules are good, rules help control the fun!"
First: if you're after a detailed response, please email or write to me. If you're a constituent (or perhaps a very special case), I'll respond; if you're not, you'll have to contact your own MP. Ditto if you want to introduce a subject which bears no relevance to my original post.
Second: I don't have a problem with trenchant criticism of me or the Government, or vociferously expressed opinions, but if I regard your comments as offensive I won't allow them to appear. (I don't like having to moderate comments, but have reluctantly come to the conclusion that people cannot be relied upon not to abuse my good nature!)
First: if you're after a detailed response, please email or write to me. If you're a constituent (or perhaps a very special case), I'll respond; if you're not, you'll have to contact your own MP. Ditto if you want to introduce a subject which bears no relevance to my original post.
Second: I don't have a problem with trenchant criticism of me or the Government, or vociferously expressed opinions, but if I regard your comments as offensive I won't allow them to appear. (I don't like having to moderate comments, but have reluctantly come to the conclusion that people cannot be relied upon not to abuse my good nature!)
Thirdly: I might just randomly delete comments from certain people because I'm getting thoroughly fed up with them and want them to go away and annoy someone else for a while. You know who you are.
That's all - although I reserve the right to create new rules as and when I feel like it. My blog = my rules!From under the floorboards
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4 comments:
So you support all Harman's anti-father and anti-male policies /views?
She clearly has it in for men and fathers and her outdated extremist feminist views seem to be the only thing influencing her policy making.
If any politician held such views about any other group (blacks, women, Jews etc) they would have long since lost her job and no doubt you would be one of the first calling for their resignation.
It was a joke!
Can you clarify what you are talking about when you refer to 'anti-father and anti-male' policies?
Clearly you didn't even bother reading that email beofre posting it here.
Yes it was a "joke" - the email you received also agrees 100% that it was a "joke". There is no disputing that fact whatsoever and no one here is trying to do so.
However, jokes can still be totally inappropriate, extremely offensive and can also be hate speech.
What if a modern day Enoch Powell "joked" about there not being enough airports for the blacks to use if he became Prime Minister? Would that be funny too?
In your world it's ok to joke about men fleeing the country but jokes about any other group (blacks, women, Muslims, jews) require an immedite apology/resignation.
Just like week Boris Johnson's aide resigned for a comment significantly less offensive than Harman's (no doubt he was joking too).
It wouldn't be so bad if Harman didn't have such an anti-male agenda. For example:
1. Trying to legalise discrimination against men in the work place rather than promoting having the best candidate for the job.
2. Trying to stop the only decent piece of recent pro-father legislation - that of having Father's names on birth certificates.
3. Writing reports questioning whether fathers are actually an asset to families and belittling the contribution fathers make to society as a whole.
4. Completely ignoring the problem of the Family Courts when working as the Minister of Justice.
5. Constant lies to attempt to cover her tracks - just the other week she claimed that Father 4 Justice had never even requested a meeting with her!
What really rubs the salt into the wounds is that despite Harman's track record and extremist views, she is in fact supposed to be the Minister for Equality!
Now that really is a joke.
It seems someone has recycled and circulated an article from my blog with some wording changes.
The original article that I wrote can be found at the address pasted in below, should anyone wish to compare the wording.
In my humble opinion, the joke could be argued to be borderline to hate speech, and has given offence to some people.
... Talkjack
http://talkjack.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/does-harriet-harman-think-discrimination-is-funny/
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