Anton Du Beke

[flipnflap]

Should he go? Yes or no?

[brionon]

Wrong place ,mate. This is for News not Celeb nonsense !

[Gromit]

No,

The term p@ki was used in a descriptive rather than a racist way. There was no malice attached to the term.

[youngmafbog]

Just wish the whole lot of them would go, but not for what he said.

[sp1814]

He certainly shouldn't be sacked, because he made a full apology for any offence.

I would disagree that the word isn't racist though. Let's say he said "Blimey, you look like a n*gger". Even though the word was used as a descriptive term, doesn't mean it isn't offensive.

The test is, would you use the term p@ki in front of an Asian. If you wouldn't then I suppose it can be can described as offensive.

This story should be put to rest now though. I don't think there's any value in the media continuing to rake it up.

[New Judge]

Who is he, and where is it suggested he go?

More details please.

[anotheoldgit]

The term p@ki was used in a descriptive rather than a racist way. There was no malice attached to the term.

One could also say that Carol Thatcher's description of a certain tennis player as looking like "golliwg", was also descriptive, the difference being she was sacked.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-defends-stance-over-strictly-race-row-1798315.html

[Gromit]

anotheoldgit

The difference being, she would not apologise. Du Beke has.

[sara3]

it's not about the apology, it's about the offence caused.. even if she has the grace to accept the apology.

I knew a Jewish man someone said to him, "you're not a Yid, are you?" descriptive? perhaps. acceptable? no.

things you might have heard/said in the 1970's "Love Thy Neighbour" days are no longer acceptable.

[hc4361]

Anton and Leila seem to have a good working relationship. Sacking Anton would also punish Leila.
Anton apologised at the time, and publicly. Thatcher has always refused to apologise.

[New Judge]

Still nobody has told me who he is or where he is supposed to go!

And now there is somebody else being mentioned of whom I've never heard! Leila?

I take a keen interest in current affairs and usually have a view on most topics, but this has got me stumped. I've looked through today's Telegraph and it does not seem that Anton made his gaffe at the Tory Party Conference. Just who is he?

[Gromit]

New Judge

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/strictly-come-dancing/6262885/Strictly-Come-Dancing-race-row-BBC-fields-complaints-and-calls-to-sack-Anton-Du-Beke.html

[andy-hughes]

I don't think sacking his is an appropriate sanction.

It was an offensive remark delivered carelessly by one tv star to another - hence the massive interest.

I do believe that he should apologise - as he has, and the two people involved have accepted it, and moved on. There is nothing to be gained from sacking people for a simple lack of judgement - or we would all be getting sacked on a pretty regular basis because it is human nature to speak without thinking occasionally - hands up anyone who has never felt the silence left by an inopporrtune comment in a social / work situation.

There is no parallele with Carol Thatcher who it appears saw no wrong in her remark, and refused to apologise for it.

Given that her mother possess both bottomless arrogance, a total absence of a sense of humour, and the utter inability to accept that anyone's alternative viewpoint is worth breathing for, we should accept that she is genuinely bewildered by the uproar her comment caused - but there is no place for someone like that on publicly funded television, so she was offered the chance to apologise properly, refused, and got sacked.

Anto Dubeke was careless and thoughtless, but enough of a mature individual to accept his offence caused, and make ammends. None of us can really expect, or in the same situation, do any more than that.

[jno]

don't even go there, New Judge. It's a slippery slope. Start watching this sort of thing and soon it's Celebrity Big Brother. I've found it perfectly possibly to survive without watching any of them, as I expect you have. The actual issue here is whether television performers should mind their tongues, as andy hughes says. Yes, they should; it appears this chap didn't but apologised. The Carol Thatcher case made even bigger headlines because she was related to somebody famous, but it was different in one important respect, as others have said. The regulation of standards on TV is an issue worth discussing.

[VHG]

I watched a Only Fools and Horses a few years ago when Uncle Albert came in and said he had "just gone down the P@ki shop".

How come it was ok to say "p@aki" just a few years ago and now it is the worst thing anybody can do.

We have become unbelievelbly sensitive nowadays.

[sp1814]

VHG

It's because language changes to reflect the times. What msy have been 'acceptable' in the early 80s isn't acceptable 25 years later.

What waxacceptable in the early 70s (c00n, darkie etc) became unacceptable by the 80s.

In 1972, you may have used the word 'bird' to describe a woman, but does anyone still do (anyone under the age of 60, that is).

Language moves on. It adapts and changes. So should we.

[minimonkey]

loads of people use the word 'bird' - including me and i am one and (only) 33

[sp1814]

Lucy,

I think you may have misread my posts. If you re-read them you can see that I said that the issue had been dealt with and that the media should let it go.

My last point was about the development of language.

I assumed I was being clear.

Perhaps I wasn't.