My decision not to blog regularly on weekends has left me trailing a tad on the Alun Cairns story which broke on Saturday and picked up a notch on Sunday. Many of my notable blogging peers have already had their say. Not surprisingly no such mention of it from these two.
It would be very easy, if not expected of this blog to go on the offensive and condemn Alun for his comments. Certainly racist phrases such these have no place in our society, and defiantly not in an institution such as the National Assembly. Alun, if he didn’t before, has no doubt now that when you are an Assembly Member you are never off the clock. Clearly here he let his guard down and it has backfired spectacularly. To ignore the comments as just a joke flirts with disarming their meaning and making language like this acceptable. As soon as that happens, the kind of propaganda spouted by the BNP suddenly finds itself into the mainstream. That can never be acceptable.
Having said that I have no doubts that Alun Cairns’ comments had no malice attached to them. He is a very capable and effective politician who has made a major and lasting mistake. He has been punished enough and the possibility of being withdrawn from standing as a candidate in the General election will be yet another blow. After many weeks of riding high it seems Cameron is dealing with pile up of internal issues as Cairns adds to his trouble with David Davis. Labour will be delighted that not only will Gordon Brown finally be getting a bit of breathing space they may just be able to put enough pressure on Cameron to cut of his own nose in sacking Alun Cairns from standing for Westminster, effectively giving Labour a major boost in one of the Tories key targets in Wales.
It would be very easy, if not expected of this blog to go on the offensive and condemn Alun for his comments. Certainly racist phrases such these have no place in our society, and defiantly not in an institution such as the National Assembly. Alun, if he didn’t before, has no doubt now that when you are an Assembly Member you are never off the clock. Clearly here he let his guard down and it has backfired spectacularly. To ignore the comments as just a joke flirts with disarming their meaning and making language like this acceptable. As soon as that happens, the kind of propaganda spouted by the BNP suddenly finds itself into the mainstream. That can never be acceptable.
Having said that I have no doubts that Alun Cairns’ comments had no malice attached to them. He is a very capable and effective politician who has made a major and lasting mistake. He has been punished enough and the possibility of being withdrawn from standing as a candidate in the General election will be yet another blow. After many weeks of riding high it seems Cameron is dealing with pile up of internal issues as Cairns adds to his trouble with David Davis. Labour will be delighted that not only will Gordon Brown finally be getting a bit of breathing space they may just be able to put enough pressure on Cameron to cut of his own nose in sacking Alun Cairns from standing for Westminster, effectively giving Labour a major boost in one of the Tories key targets in Wales.
4 comments:
I get what your saying about it being a mistake but that isn't an excuse for what he has said.
He should stand down from the Westminster seat and if he refuses to do so Cameron should sack him. Anything less and it is a clear statement that racist slurs like this are acceptable in the Tory party.
Why only the Westminster bid? If he's too racist for that he shouldn't be in the Assembly either.
That’s something for the Tory party to decide I guess. I think Cameron should have to take disciplinarily action. I think given the quickness of the apology and the fact that Alun Cairns has proven himself a good and decent politician in the past asking him to stand down from the Assembly is a bit much. However in order to make it clear that this sort of language is unacceptable in society maybe stopping him from standing in Westminster could be correct.
after experiencing the san siro and the way italian 'fans' behaved by urinating and throwing up on the seven thousand welsh football fans below, i don't give two stuffs about them or their national football side any more..
the comments he made actually made me giggle fair play... racist or an opinion based on experience?
viva!
Post a Comment