Saturday 2 March 2019

Lam(my)basting Stacey


The boy is saying, "Don't tell David Lammy!"

There's been an almighty spat this week between David Lammy MP and Strictly winner Stacey Dooley. 

The spat followed the (attention-seeking) Labour MP's critical comments about the (virtue-signalling) BBC star.

The latter had posted images of herself doing her bit for the BBC's Comic Relief, including an image of herself holding a sad-looking Ugandan child whilst smiling radiantly - an image she captioned “Obsessed!”.  

"The world doesn't need any more white saviours", tweeted the Mastermind-losing Mr Lammy. 

He also talked about how black people worry about the "poverty porn" side of Comic Relief, especially in regards to modern, up-and-coming Africa. 

My social media feeds have been full of people taking sides, some finding themselves unexpectedly agreeing with people they don't normally agree with. 

I can see the fine points made by Janice Turner in today's Times in defence of Comic Relief and against the race-separating strictures of Mr Lammy. Janice concedes that Miss Dooley's picture was "crass and self-serving" but she defends Comic Relief in terms of the good it's done and the money it's raised against the "purely destructive" attack from the Labour loudmouth, who she characterises as someone who has "switched from being a nuanced, thoughtful progressive politician to a self-contradicting hot-head".

Still the "poverty porn" charge and the undervaluing of a rising Africa are points that have some truth to them.

And (h/t Fraser Nelson of The Spectator) this piece of Norwegian satire still remains spot-on (and funny):

P.S. Has Sir Lenny commented yet?

6 comments:

  1. There are so many culture wars going on now...it's the children of the (PC) revolution attempting to eat each other.

    We have hard left v. soft left.

    We have Sharia followers v. gay equality campaigners.

    We have TGers v Feminists.

    We have liberal media v religious minorities.

    We have social media v broadcast media.

    We have vegan socialism v meat-eating socialism.

    We have Greens against Marxists.

    And in this case we have race hustlers v virtue signallers.

    Fascinating stuff! Would be great if you could just choose to be an anthropologist studying it all and not have to suffer the consequences of all these "wars to the death".

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    1. I don't know about anthropologist but Mick Hume of Spiked has been studying it and has written a really good article about how we got here with our current obsession with racisn and identity politics https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/02/28/how-macpherson-wrote-identity-politics-into-law/

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  2. I don't go along with all the criticisms of Stacey Dooley. She is not a celeb who just turns up for this kind of charity promotion, as some do. She works all over making documentaries highlighting social problems and deprivation. It's not the first time I've noticed Lammy's cynical use of racial posturing which is worse than anything done by well-meaning people who go to Africa and other places to raise money. A comment I saw on another blog (March 1 at 12 03 am), most of which I agree with, exposes the hypocrisy of the man https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2019/02/28/long-weekend-open-thread-1-march-2019/
    The BBC people have stoutly defended what they do. They would, wouldn't they?
    What I've often wondered though, is how and why the BBC came to be raising money for Africa and indeed for other charitable causes. I never hear any discussion or questioning of that. As far as I understand it, they do two rather large fund-raising events: Children in Need and Comic Relief. I don't watch either of them or indeed contribute to them. I know they also do a Christmas appeal on Radio 4 and I hear other appeals on there from time to time. But they seem small scale.

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    1. Yep - Children in Need...Old Tel used to pocket £70,000 a time to present that! Unbelievable!! The money goes to very dubious projects - the Batman woman got a load of dosh from that I believe. I bet a lot of it is never properly accounted for when it gets to the community projects. Also, I think they've got a huge amount in the bank because they are so poor at doling the money out.

      As far as Africa goes, I think we should concentrate on projects that are as corruption-free as possible. We should be doing things like building roads and rail lines that help the people. Food aid and educational initiatives are probably best left to the UN agencies.

      Lammy is a lame excuse for an MP...just using colour and race to advance his career as far as I am concerned. My favourite Lame Lammy LOL episode was where he says "Look - where are the Police? There are no Police around here!" and you can see a Police Officer standing some distance away unseen by the Useless Lammy. :)

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    2. That reminds me there's been some noise about Children in Need giving money to an outfit that's promoting trans ideology to youngsters and has been listed on the BBC news website as if it were some kind of authoritative source for people needing advice or support, even though it's nothing more than one person and said to be well dodgy. Similar complaints have been made about a lottery fund grant, I can't recall to which organisation or pressure group.

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  3. Stacey Dooley is a self-serving and patronising. A good dancer, I'll grant you, but to suggest that going around the world revelling in violence and poverty and how 'brave' or 'charitable' it makes her seem is in any way virtuous is unconscionable. Lammy was right in this instance IMHO.

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