Forum Topic

This is getting silly! It’s called comedy...

Little Britain has been removed from Netflix, BBC iPlayer and BritBox amid concerns that the use of blackface characters on the series is no longer acceptable.

Georgina Flint ● 2338d18 Comments

Statue of tyrant, Churchill, is coming down next..

Michael Brown ● 2338d

there is so much I would like to say about what is going on but my freedom of speech when it comes to racism is no longer. Making people feel uncomfortable talking about this issue will only make matters worse. Black lives do matter and we have a lot to learn from history.

James Smith-Jones ● 2337d

It started getting silly when they took the golliwog off my favourite breakfast marmalade jar, Georgie. Mr Pastry is lucky he's not living in these rumbustious times.

Roger Talbot ● 2337d

Matt Lucas said that he regrets the sketches involving 'blacking up', and that he wouldn't make the same artistic decisions today.

David Roberts ● 2337d

The same, sickening, age old response of the racist:"Can't you take a joke".

T P Howell ● 2337d

'Matt Lucas said that he regrets the sketches involving 'blacking up', and that he wouldn't make the same artistic decisions today.'And isn't that the point? When you think back to some of the programmes that were made years ago - today we find them appalling and shameful, because times have changed and the world has moved on. I heard that HBO have removed 'Gone With The Wind' from their film list as well, yes, the language used in the film is today very offensive but maybe that's what we need - to be offended so that we can see that things must change. We can't re-write history, we should and can learn from it and there has to be an acceptance that that was how life was lived hundreds of years ago, not right, not pretty but the people were products of their time.Bigotry takes many forms all of them need to be faced and dealt with.

Vanessa Smith ● 2337d

Fears of violence as far-right thugs plan to “defend” statues in London this weekend--- this a headline from a French website.So how are the Police going to handle this one? i can only see this getting out of control. Don't think we are there yet but remember how quickly matters got out of hand in the former Yugoslavia in 1992. Can this govt sort this mess out, i am worried.

James Smith-Jones ● 2337d

I don't think any government can sort this out.Indeed as James and Vanessa have said it's one subject I find almost impossible to talk about, for fear of being labelled as a racist in the almost carefree way T P has just done on this very thread, despite the reluctance to engage in such discussions being an integral part of the issue.Now you've got the braindead hooligan elements of the football fraternity defending statues.  Worrying times.

Adam Beamish ● 2337d

What time does the book burning start?To destroy history is to deny it. Deny it and on what basis do you base your argument?Acknowledge it and seek change.

N V Brooks ● 2337d

If we wait until it gets colder before the book and dodgy art works burnings begin then we can reduce our use of fossil fuels and combat global warming at the same time.

Allan Cousens ● 2337d

Know thyself.  Don't be afraid.Think of others.Be nice.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM

Alastair Banton ● 2337d

Mmmm I wonder about the statue of Bomber Harris. Should it still stand? "Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet, GCB, OBE, AFC (13 April 1892 – 5 April 1984), commonly known as  Bomber Harris, (born April 13, 1892, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England—died April 5, 1984, Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire), British air officer who initiated and directed the “saturation bombing” that the Royal Air Force inflicted on Germany during World War II.

Steve Taylor ● 2337d

That is a stupid comparison, we were at war for gods sake!

Craig David Mcdowell ● 2337d

How things change. This is from 25 years ago...

John Whitworth ● 2337d

Oh yes Roger! I remember the golliwog on the jars. I also had a huge stuffed golliwog as a kid. Sadly the dog ripped it to shreds

Georgina Flint ● 2337d

"we were at war for gods sake!"So he ordered the bombing of civilians for God's sake!!???

Steve Taylor ● 2337d

The satruration raids on Dresden were, in the context of war, fully justified and had been long expected according to friends (actually their fathers and uncles)  I have in Chemnitz Harthau.There had already been a significant number of pathfinder raids on Dresden which had major armaments production facilities on the banks of the Elbe and which was also a major transport hub into most of eastern Germany (two key autobahns and five radial rail lines met in Dresden).The population that could leave, left. However there was a concerted (I guess we would now call it) human shield campaign using both POWs, internees and the local population which was sanctioned directly by Hitler and led by Gottlob Berger.As such, significant civilian casualties were inevitable.

N V Brooks ● 2337d

Steve is a particularly silly and foolish individual but most folk don't take him seriously. He is known to just be the Village Idiot and he makes no positive or worthwhile contribution on any subject.

Richard Greenhough ● 2337d