The Life Scientific

[Bazile]

I was listening to the life scientific on BBC radio 4 this morning .

The subject was professor Geoff Palmer - probably the best-known professor of brewing in the world.

//After gaining a 2:2 in biology, Palmer applied for a sponsored MSc. The interview panel included Keith Joseph, later the guru of Thatcherism, who was unimpressed by Palmer's inability to distinguish wheat from barley. The two staple crops had not been considered "decent" plants for study at Leicester, although Palmer can now distinguish the two through a train window while travelling at 125 miles an hour. With a cavalier disregard for geography, Joseph suggested that Palmer return to Trinidad and grow bananas. Instead, he went to the labour exchange on Seven Sisters Road and got a job peeling potatoes in a restaurant.//

It's a good job ( especially for the brewing industry ) that he did not take the advice of Keith Joseph .

I was just thinking that we have come a long way in this country with regards to attitudes like that .

Or have we ?

Is that sort of attitude still there and just that it has hidden/suppressed ?

What do you think - have you come across anyone still with that sort of attitude ? ( apart from extreme political groups/parties )

[Zacs-Master]

Some on here can very subtly hide such attitudes and dress them up as 'for the good of Britain' or some such nonsense and then claim it's nothing to do with skin colour / ethnicity.

[sevenOP]

I only heard bits of the interview Bazile, but it is covered in 'Pick of the Week', along with many similar topics in what was an excellent show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064xc2r