JOHN TERRY AND LUIS SUÁREZ are being disciplined for racial abuse. Suárez has been given an eight match suspension while the police are to investigate Terry, making his ‘crime’ the more serious of the two.
Overpaid and overindulged footballers will find little sympathy for whatever outrageous behaviour they engage in. Whether it is a bar room brawl, an affair, or just a knee trembler in the back ally of some night spot in London or Manchester. In all circumstances they act as if we owe them a living, and their fans treat them as if they are Gods; and if you treat someone as a deity, then you cannot expect that ‘someone’ to behave as a mere mortal.
I love football – the game that is. But I have little time for those preening, self-regarding and at all times boorish professional footballers.
The beautiful game is just that; but it is sad that its beauty is undermined by the behaviour of its players. It is not all their fault of course. The fans themselves are partly responsible for their heroes’ gigantic egos, which the heroes believe sets them apart from the common herd.
But I do not believe in any kind of witch hunt, whether I sympathise or not with the hunted. Both John Terry and Luis Suárez are being made an example of - but for what? In Terry’s case, the authorities believe he has committed what is known in these troubled times as a hate crime.
I do not know what it was that John Terry said to Anton Ferdinand, the QPR defender; but let us assume that Terry used the ‘N’ word, as this word appears to be the most serious word in the lexicon of the hate crime manual - for why else would he now be facing prosecution?
THE TERM RACIST, FOR WHICH I believe neither of the two players are guilty of being; has become the modern equivalent of the 17th century witch-trials. Indeed, such a term is now seen, in these liberal times, as being almost the equal of paedophile; a comparison which both Terry and Suárez would find appalling. But, in our Multicultural society, such a comparison is deemed suitable by the hate police.
Name calling is as old as homo-sapiens. Name calling is meant to cause offence, when, in times of anger and frustration, it is better deployed than the fist. Paki, Nigger, Wog, Paddy, Jock, Limey, Yank, Nip, Crout, Hun, Frog, Taffy…you name it. There is an offensive term for almost any skin colour or nationality.
Name calling is just that and should be reciprocated instead of involving the law. But the law has been given the power by politically correct politicians to prosecute all name calling deemed racist within the compass of Multiculturalism.
John Terry reacted in a way that upset the liberal establishment, and is now being hauled before the courts to answer a charge of racism. Has anyone bothered to ask those black Chelsea players who play with him week after week whether they deem him a racist?
Of course not, all it requires today is for a black player to report comments to the authorities to incur for the accused - a prosecution.
What this will mean in future is that, any black player can play the race card in order to gain an advantage for his team.
Multiculturalism has been responsible for the passage into law of the ‘hate crime’ and John Terry is its latest victim. He now faces an appearance before a court to explain himself, and I hope Anton Ferdinand is happy. For if Anton cannot bare being called a N****, which I am only assuming was the worst case Terry scenario, then he should seek out and live in a country where he will never hear the term being used.
I MYSELF SUFFER with Ankylosing Spondylitis; it is a painful hereditary disease that effects all joints in the body. But, in particular, it attacks the spine. It is a form of rheumatism that causes a fusion of the spine leading to a curvature; which in its advanced stages causes a hunch-back like posture.
When I was younger the name calling happened; ‘hunch back’, and Quasimodo were hurled across the street at me. I was embarrassed more than hurt, but to consider such name calling as a hate crime was preposterous. To waste public money in bringing a prosecution against my tormentors would have done more harm than good as far as free speech was concerned.
All that will happen if we continue along the path taken by the authorities in their pursuit of John Terry, and others who share his fate in the future; is resentment leading eventually to a backlash of a similar type described by Enoch Powell.
Instead of criminalising terms deemed offensive, the authorities should stand back and allow social evolution to eliminate them. By using the law to try and prevent (in John Terry’s case)human emotions from erupting into unpleasant forms of abuse, will only pour petrol on the flames.
Our politicians have, as good multiculturalists, been the architects of the ‘hate crime’ legislation, and, like everything else they have attempted ‘for the common good’; unintended consequences will be sure to follow.
Hate crimes and political correctness have been the practical accompaniments to the ideology of Multiculturalism…a foolish enterprise to begin with.
THE WHITE BRITISH ARE not racists; but if they were, the law could not stop it. Only time and a social out-casting of those who indulge in such behaviour can bring about its demise; and such an outcome can only be delayed by any resort to the law.
To a politician, the law is like a magic wand that can deliver whatever they deem fit to convey to the population. As lawmakers, the politicians have an exaggerated view of what they can achieve…if this is not so – then why the stupid and impractical ‘hate crime’?
John Terry faces the new witch-finders with little sympathy coming from supporters of clubs other than Chelsea. Last night he was booed at White Hart Lane; but would have been so anyway regardless of the Anton Ferdinand incident. For he has a track record regarding adultery… as well as being the bane of all Chelsea’s opponents.
John Terry and Luis Suárez are the ‘pioneers’ (for want of a better word) of a new form of persecution. Neither of them are heroes; they lashed out at an opponent through feeling hard done by. It is a common phenomenon of not only the football theatre, but of life generally. But the law does not make allowances for a ‘hate crime’.
Soon, I fear, Nigger, Rag-head and Paki will become synonymous with a term of imprisonment surpassing that of GBH. For this is what we have come to. Even the word ‘coloured’, to describe a person with black skin, has been added to the lexicon of hate, despite its use as word replacing black by its users for fear of offending…blacks!
I have heard a black person describe another as nigger (which, in America at least, is somewhat common when name- calling between blacks): but it is only when a white person uses such an expression that it causes an offence and a prosecution resulting, in extremis, in imprisonment. What kind of system of ‘justice’ are we living under?
Freedom of expression is vital if we are to remain a democratic nation. Causing offence is part of such a freedom. The law has enough to worry about with more important criminal activities other than name-calling; and I wish that every police authority in the country would make it plain to their political masters that there is far more important work to be done on behalf of the British people.
Sadly, however, the police authorities were ‘Borged’ by the last Labour government. They now see all forms of insensitivity to minorities as their main focus. Whether they are racially inclined, or perhaps sexually so. Whatever the race, gender, cross gender, or sexual preference. The police have now made way for diversity training within their county bodies and only treat such abuses as worthy of their immediate attention…or so it seems to the rest of us.
WHATEVER THE OUTCOME OF Terry’s fate, the authorities had better take cognisance of what they are creating, if they seek to pursue every indiscrete use of the English language used by the common heard such as myself and John Terry.
Offensive language is exactly that – offensive. If we cannot tolerate this then it is better that a person hits out, than for the law to become involved - and when I use the expression ‘hit out’, I mean just that; a physical thumping… or, as a lesser punishment, reciprocal verbal abuse.
Anything is preferable to the involvement of the scales of justice. Such an involvement would only infuriate the people and make them even more distrusting of their politicians.
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