Good For You Ann, Why Should You Apologize, It Was The Name For A Very Popular Toy.

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7780539/Brexit-Party-candidate-former-Tory-MP-Ann-Widdecombe-refuses-apologise-golliwog-WhatsApp.html

[david small]

Golliwog Golliwog Golliwog. So there.....

[pixie374]

She used it in exactly the context she meant. Fair enough. Just as we use the word demented for people with dementia. It is only insulting if you use it as an insult.

[andy-hughes]

Looking back over my previous posts, I should clarify -

Although I believe that Ms. Widdicombe should possibly think a little more carefully before throwing contentious terms around, when clearly she should, and I believe she does know better -

I don't think for one moment that she should apologise for what she said - as Pixie points out, she used the word in context and no offence was meant.

Although I never subscribe to the audience that meaning no offence is not actually a defence when offence is legitimately taken, on this occasion, anyone offended by the use of the word 'gollywog' as Ms. Widdicombe used it, is simply looking to be offended for the sake of it, and should not be indulged with an apology which is clearly not appropriate, and credit to Ms. Widdicombe for having no truck with it.

[Unsureme]

Climbed down a bit there,Andy.LOL.

[anotheoldgit]

Crikey give it a rest Andy comparing the use of the word Gollywog with children up chimneys etc is just plain ridiculous, now if she had said a certain black person looked like a Gollywog that would have been different, but she didn't.

[andy-hughes]

Unsurename - // Climbed down a bit there,Andy.LOL. //

I don't agree.

I stand by my earlier comments, that Ms. Widdicombe is fond of 'plain speaking' as an excuse for being rude.

That said, on this occasion, I think she was probably more careless than intentionally offensive - which is something she could have avoided had she been willing to remember that it is 2019, not 1959.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - // Crikey give it a rest Andy comparing the use of the word Gollywog with children up chimneys etc is just plain ridiculous, now if she had said a certain black person looked like a Gollywog that would have been different, but she didn't. //

I am not 'comparing' the two at all - I am illustrating that society evolves and develops, and practices and metaphors that were appropriate years ago are not appropriate now.

Ms. Widdicombe could have made her point without using the term 'golliwog' - and although there is nothing inherently wrong in using the word, as a politician, she should know better than to put herself, and by default her party, in the firing line by simply being non-PC for the sake of it.

[Mamyalynne]

Sigh.

[hereIam]

^ Ditto.

[dannyk13]

PC gone mad, yet again. What is said must be tempered with common sense and context.

[andy-hughes]

danny - // What is said must be tempered with common sense and context. //

No argument here.

And if those two provisos can be considered by the speaker in question, in advance of speaking, that would be a distinct improvement.

[ludwig]

I do like the fact that she hasn't apologised.

Usually these things follow a familiar pattern of somebody says something, someone else says it's offensive, and then the first person is eventually forced to issue a fawning apology to try and save their career after the media jumps on it and kicks up as much controversy as possible.

I admire the fact that she's sticking to her guns about it, irrespective of what it was she said.

[douglas9401]

Now if she'd shouted 'gollywog' in a crowded theatre.........

[naomi24]

Me too, Ludwig. Sick of all the kowtowing to other people’s foibles and claimed sensitivities. It’s a doll - a child’s toy - and it’s called a golliwog. Deal with it.

[Zacs-Master]

Indeed. Why should a figure clearly portraying a person of afro carribean heritage with exaggerated lips and frizzy caricatured hair possibly be offensive to anyone?

[naomi24]

Or a Barbie doll for that matter. Nothing exaggerated about her.

[andy-hughes]

naomi - // Or a Barbie doll for that matter. Nothing exaggerated about her. //

Come on naomi, that's stretching, and most unlike you.

Comparing a contentious cultural caricature with an exaggerated child's dressing up doll is not really valid, in my view.

[Ken4155]

Didn't Carol Thatcher once get in hot water for saying that a French tennis player looked like a golliwog. Never apologised, either, as i recall.

[douglas9401]

She did apologise, just not enough for the ultras at the BBC.

Maybe drew the line at nails instead of rope.

[anotheoldgit]

I wager that there are many little black children that love their Gollywogs to bits.