Thursday, September 19, 2013



Race row over British soccer club 'Yid' chant

David Cameron has unexpectedly become embroiled in football’s latest race row by arguing that it is acceptable for Tottenham Hotspur fans to chant the word “Yid”.

The Prime Minister’s entry into the debate follows a Football Association statement last week which warned that fans chanting the word “Yid” could face criminal charges and long banning orders.

Cameron, though, drew the distinction between the context of how fans use the term. Tottenham, who have a strong Jewish following, have been regularly subjected to anti-Semitic abuse from opposition fans, notably last season against West Ham United.

In what has been described by the club as a “defence mechanism”, fans have regularly used the word “Yid” themselves, with chants of “Yid Army” and “Yiddos” regularly sung from the home stands at White Hart Lane.

Asked whether Tottenham fans should be prosecuted for using the term, Cameron told the Jewish Chroni­cle: “You have to think of the mens rea. There’s a difference between Spurs fans self-describing themselves as Yids and someone calling someone a Yid as an insult. You have to be motivated by hate. Hate speech should be prosecuted but only when it’s motivated by hate.”

Source

Refreshing to hear some commonsense -- and from the PM too!  He is an economist, not a lawyer so it is interesting that he uses a Latin legal term, "mens rea" (= "intention", roughly).  He is a bright boy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Soccer is just "bread and circuses" for the proles. Let them jeer to their hearts' content. The PM and the political elite should be glad they are not being revolting in another sense!

Anonymous said...

It's become quite obvious that Britainistan has completely done away with free speech, and replaced it with political correctness.

Anonymous said...

Wake up Cameron - this is a good example of why 'hate' speech laws are bad laws.

Anonymous said...

5:19 - you overstate your case, though you probably have before, so you just become unconvincing (sorry to point that out).

hurtin' on the inside. said...

What is hate ?

There are religions that describe in their text how others not born into the religious identity of interest are required by "Law", tiered religious "Law" not universally applicable, to participate under punitive duress in that religious orthodoxies that comprise the religion.

In today's society, questioning certain numerologically derived orthodoxies posited as "truth" immutable can lead to accusations that one is engaging in 'hateful' and antsi behaviour.

Surely, 'justice' is not able to be administered and circumvented until the truth of matters is proven and known . Any thing else is could easily result in a miscarriage of justice and the "law' rendered a comical kangoroo irrelevance.

But offence trumps hard scientific forensic analysis these days.

Anonymous said...

2:51 PM - try typing that again while sober!