Not does the fact that Tsonga is light skinned and has little or no resemblance to the classic Golliwog “look” which is of course a reference to Blackface and Minstrelism. There’s no escaping the fact that CT made remarks that were anti-foreigner and which used Golliwog not because of any resemblance – as Littlejohn says Andy Murray has more of the look – but as repeated shorthand for black. How would “black frog” go down? Half black?

As for the WBA thing? Iain can be quite good on telly but he makes plenty of gaffes and rarely apologises. Here it is noticeable that he is “clarifying” rather than apologising full stop, or apologising for any offence even.

I think Derek is NOT helping the LabourList project by coming down hard on Dale’s ass for this sort of thing. It’s a given that Dale is often a twit. A Tory twit. A typical Tory twit. This is why he is a treasure.

Darryl Pinckney seems to have a sound argument in today’s Guardian.

http://chrispaul-labouroflove.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-and-mablog-giants-bestride.html

POST ON THE STIRRER http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4410&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=20

I’d like to clarify what I meant by my remarks on the Today Programme. I can see why people think I must have been referring to racial comments at the Hawthorns (a ground I have yet had the pleasure of visiting) but I can assure you that is not what I meant. I just meant that at football grounds in general, the ‘banter’ is of a fairy extreme variety, and not a place for those of a delicate nature. I am only too well aware of WBA’s trailblazing record in this area, so I would certainly not wish to cast a slur on the club in the manner which you suggest here, or Bob Piper has now done on his blog.

I deplore racism in all its forms and if I thought Carol Thatcher’s remark was racially motivated I would be joining the people who seem to be delighting in her predicament. I’m not going to rehearse all the arguments here as they have been aired elsewhere.

The reason I want to clarify my remarks regarding WBA is that I recognise how horrible it is not just to be accused of racism, but for it even to be hinted at. I was appalled by the three blogposts on LabourList suggesting that I was in some way condoning racism. I would do nothing of the sort.

Indeed, on two occasions at West Ham I have intervened when I heard a racial comment being directed at a player (on the first occasion it was aimed at one of our own players, Matthew Rush) and asked the idiot to button it. I can’t pretend I wasn’t nervous about doing it, but everyone around me backed me up (luckily!) on each occasion. I would like to think I would do it again but I am glad to say it hasn’t happened since 2001.

A couple of months ago, someone a couple of rows behind me shouted out to an opposing player something which many would regard as homophobic. I couldn’t decide whether it was banter or really was homophobic. By the time I had decided that yes, it was homophobic, the moment had kind of passed and I did nothing. I’d like to think if it happens again I’d have the guts to turn around and say “that’s me you are talking about. You got a problem?” If it does happen, no doubt you’ll read about it.

I’ve posted about this on my WEST HAM TILL I DIE blog http://westham.wordpress.com so it will be interesting to see what my fellow Hammers fans make of it.

Hope you stay up this season. Really!