Scrutable

Once again, the Tory party finds itself in the bizarre position of refusing to call a racist spade a racist spade.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... y-donation

Obviously, this time it's complicated because the spade is worth £10m.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:19 am

Once again, the Tory party finds itself in the bizarre position of refusing to call a racist spade a racist spade.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... y-donation

Obviously, this time it's complicated because the spade is worth £10m.

You're mistaken. He can't be racist.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/tory-donor-n ... peer-says/


Mr Hester "does a lot of business in Jamaica, he does business in Malaysia, in Bangladesh and places like that so he's not a racist."



I guess that might not be a cast iron defence as I guess similar could have been made for Cecil Rhodes

'Places like that'...mhm

https://www.reddit.com/r/Leeds/s/KFr3p6tGkn


Sounds lovely

discovolante wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 1:08 pm

'Places like that'...mhm

[On a separate occasion in 2019, Hester called everyone who was “foreign” among his employees to a meeting where he defended himself against online reviews said to be from former staff accusing him of racist remarks.


In that meeting, he said: “I make a lot of jokes about racism, about our different creeds and cultures. But I just want to assure you that it is just the most abhorrent thing.”

He added: “I want to clear the air and make sure we all know where we are, what we stand for, and we take the piss out of the fact that all our Chinese girls sit together in Asian corner, which they do.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... lack-women

jimbob wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 1:48 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... lack-women

From that article

Figures ... show that the government, NHS and local authorities have paid more than £440m to TPP companies since 2016. Hester, the sole owner, collected dividends of £33.5m for the last five years for which accounts for the TPP Group are available.

jimbob wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 12:45 pm

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:19 am

Once again, the Tory party finds itself in the bizarre position of refusing to call a racist spade a racist spade.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... y-donation

Obviously, this time it's complicated because the spade is worth £10m.

You're mistaken. He can't be racist.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/tory-donor-n ... peer-says/


Mr Hester "does a lot of business in Jamaica, he does business in Malaysia, in Bangladesh and places like that so he's not a racist."



I guess that might not be a cast iron defence as I guess similar could have been made for Cecil Rhodes

Or the whole British Empire

Or the Royal African ompany if you wanted to make the point very clearly.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:22 pm

Or the Royal African Company if you wanted to make the point very clearly.

Stoopid typo.

I’ve never heard of the Royal Africa Company until today. I wonder why?

Isn't "Man receiving large NHS contracts pays ruling political party large amounts'" quite a story too? Post-covid scandals, I would have thought it had traction.

Allo V Psycho wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 8:29 am

Isn't "Man receiving large NHS contracts pays ruling political party large amounts'" quite a story too? Post-covid scandals, I would have thought it had traction.

Yup and the call for violence.

jimbob wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 8:48 am

Allo V Psycho wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 8:29 am

Isn't "Man receiving large NHS contracts pays ruling political party large amounts'" quite a story too? Post-covid scandals, I would have thought it had traction.

Yup and the call for violence.

And if as one of the take-downs reported, he has received something like £400m s'worth of government/health service contracts and has been able to take something like £355m s'worth of personal profit because it's a private company and he is the sole owner; then hasn't there been a bit of overcharging going on? And wouldn't the people who awarded the contract know that he was overcharging? (And not least because, hey, he was able to donate £10/20 m to the tory party every now and again out of his loose change?) And if they didn't know then aren't they a bit crap at their job?

It seems Sunak has conceded that it is in fact racist. All the Tories parroting yesterday's line that it wasn't must feel right tw.ts this morning.

JQH wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:22 am

It seems Sunak has conceded that it is in fact racist. All the Tories parroting yesterday's line that it wasn't must feel right tw.ts this morning.

Maybe he has worked he can keep the donation, because the fact that the donor once said something racist isn't enough to make them unacceptable donors. Lots of people once said something racist, and were able to carry on being Duke of Edinburgh, etc.

bjn wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:58 am

I’ve never heard of the Royal Africa Company until today. I wonder why?

Same here. Was it similar to the East India Company? I shall look it up later. Calling it a Company makes it sound quite benign.

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 10:08 am

bjn wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:58 am

I’ve never heard of the Royal Africa Company until today. I wonder why?

Same here. Was it similar to the East India Company? I shall look it up later. Calling it a Company makes it sound quite benign.

For about 70 years, (roughly 1660-1730) the RAC, under various names, was mainly interested in trading slaves. It had a monopoly of the west African slave trade for about half that time. It was set up as a joint venture involving the Royal Family. One investor was called George Frideric Handel. Colston, whose statue was recently tipped into Bristol harbour, was a director of the company.

It doesn't really show Britain in its best light. And that might be why somehow it failed to get any mention at all when I studied the relevant period - Charles II, the Glorious Revolution, and the rise of the House of Hanover - in history at school.

Whereas the later period of the British Empire is often seen as Britain's Glory. Which might be why I remember studying that aspect of Britain's overseas empire-building (Warren Hastings etc) in some detail in history lessons.

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 10:08 am

bjn wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:58 am

I’ve never heard of the Royal Africa Company until today. I wonder why?

Same here. Was it similar to the East India Company? I shall look it up later. Calling it a Company makes it sound quite benign.

It was a company formed by Charles II and others (including Samuel Pepys) to extract gold from the Gambia. It's also the company that transported and sold more slaves to North America than any other organization.

IvanV wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 10:43 am

It doesn't really show Britain in its best light. And that might be why somehow it failed to get any mention at all when I studied the relevant period - Charles II, the Glorious Revolution, and the rise of the House of Hanover - in history at school.

We didn't study any British history between the Normans and the industrial revolution at school.

We did study the settlement of the American West - with no mention of slavery or the US civil war.

Royal Africa Company was the one Edward Colston was involved with (and ran for a period). He sold his shares to the king.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 11:04 am

We did study the settlement of the American West - with no mention of slavery or the US civil war.

We did this and the history of medicine at GCSE. We didn’t do any UK history at all.

He's apologized and Sunak reckons that's good enough to keep the £10M... so all water under the bridge... move along... nothing to see here.

TopBadger wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 2:29 pm

He's apologized and Sunak reckons that's good enough to keep the £10M... so all water under the bridge... move along... nothing to see here.

"We've drawn a line under this and are moving on..."

TopBadger wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2024 2:29 pm

He's apologized and Sunak reckons that's good enough to keep the £10M... so all water under the bridge... move along... nothing to see here.

He's waiting until another donor turns up with £10m as it's very likely it's already been partially spent.

Seeing people start to say Abbott should get the Labour whip back in solidarity, which makes no sense whatsover. The racist and sexist comments against her were terrible and she should have sympathy for that, but they don't change the reason she lost the whip in the first place.