Remarks deemed insulting to people from Northern England. It is true that people in the Home Counties (S.E. England) tend to look down on people from "North of Watford" and that is apparently what has caused the fuss. Although just about everybody in the S.E. thinks it, you must not even hint at it in public.
The S.E. is generally prosperous and tends to vote Tory. The North is heavily welfare-dependent and tends to vote Labour.
There was once a lot of industry in the North but incessant strikes and go-slows by the workers destroyed most of it. So many Northerners now sit at home and watch TV while being supported by the taxes of the prosperous S.E. You can imagine what people in the S.E. think of that.
"David Shakespeare, leader of the Conservative group on the Local Government Association (LGA), told colleagues that people from the north may “replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards”.
During an LGA Executive discussion on ways to respond to an expected rise in unemployment in less well off parts of the country, he added that it “may be a good thing” if eastern European economic migrants were replaced by those from the north.
Mr Shakespeare is the leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, where he has served for 29 years, and was awarded an OBE.
His words, during a discussion on whether underprivileged areas would suffer from plans to redistribute business rates, were described as “horrible” by fellow councillors at the meeting, and drew angry criticism from Labour MPs.
Michael Dugher, who represents Barnsley East, wrote to David Cameron to urge him to condemn Mr Shakespeare. The letter said: “Do you appreciate how out of touch, insensitive and insulting these comments are? Doesn’t it just demonstrate that the Tories are still the same old nasty party? “Will you publicly condemn and dissociate yourself from these outrageous remarks?
Source
6 comments:
This article simply proves, yet again, that anything coming out of "merry" old England is totally irrelevant. They have now replaced the US as the world's best example of FUBAR.
Yeah - irrelevant to what or to whom - you? - who would no doubt also make a distinction between parts of the US which may be better off than other parts - why not just stop being a total embarrassing prick-worthy zenophobe ??!!
Anon5:52,
What do you expect from a conservatard blog?
In the fedral goverment and with liberals there is no common scense
Someone who thinks every single person sucks in a country he or she has probably never even been to much less researched systematically, is just infantile -and "sucks" is the right word for an infant!
You'll want to add a facebook button to your blog. I just bookmarked this article, although I had to complete it manually. Simply my $.02 :)
- Robson
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