So I was thinking about what I could write for my next blog, what motivates me, where do my interests lie?
Last night on the news I heard about a woman who had been prosecuted for a racist rant she had on the London Underground. Some guy recorded it and handed it to the police and charges were brought against the woman.
It reminded me of a similar case of a woman also making a racist rant on the tram in Croydon. You must remember this? She sat with her child on her lap as she slated ethic minorities and blamed them for her own down fall, when in actual fact what her downfall was really down to was copious amounts of illegal drugs, smoking, alcohol, sex with random strangers and a failure to take responsibility for her actions.
I remember this night well, Facebook went viral. Everyone was all over this. Some people wanted to smash her head in, some thought it was hilarious, others took a passing interest, I thought the whole thing was fascinating. Not just what she did but also the reaction from everyone.
The general consensus was that she should have been arrested and have her children taken away, this is what interests me.
First things first. How many of you reading this blog have complained about the immigrants in this country? I’ve done this and it is wrong. I’ll still do it, probably, knowing it’s wrong. How anyone can determine who is an immigrant and who isn’t just by looking at them is a little extreme, an immigrant is a person who does not have British nationality, they are from another country, they’re not criminals. I’ve even heard immigrants complaining about the number of immigrants in this country.
The “shouty tram woman”, as she came to be known, was just repeating what a lot of others were thinking or will say in close circles. The shock and awe, I think came from the swearing and the fact that she was saying it so vociferously in public.
A lot of other people thinking it does not make it right, it just means that if a lot of others disagree then they need to take a look at what they really believe in.
Taking a look at should the woman be hung, drawn and quartered I think this is a little far fetched. I think she should have been allowed to say what she liked to whom and however loud.
Shocked!? The reason is because we live in a democracy. In a democracy people are allowed to hold whatever opinion they wish to. If we all have a referendum in this country to ban immigrants then so be it, that would be democracy. It would be voted on and the people that live here can control what decisions are made by those in power. How many of you would love that? To boot out certain elements of society because they don’t look right? Imagine if you could get rid of the wheelchair ones, the black ones and the ones whole ones who don’t use English as their first language?
One of the Facebook comments said "My Grandfather fought to shut up idiots like her". What I'm thinking is that this person's grandfather would have fought in World War Two in which case I'll lightly brush over the ironic thought of someone fighting on one half for people's free speech but on the other to shut some people up.
The grandfather in question, if he did fight in WW2, fought against the tyranny of a dictator who threatened to take over all of Europe and bring it under his dictatorship. Thankfully the grandfather was on the winning side and because of that people of the ilk of Adolf Hitler have the right to air their views. It's only after it has been debated can we decide on what is better for everyone.
In some areas of the world the woman from Croydon would have been applauded for her views, some countries don’t allow any ethnic minorities in at all. Perhaps that is democracy? If a dictator wants to allow everyone in and give them equal rights but most of the people only want people of their own skin colour in then who is right? It would be fascinating if this ever happened.
What I really loved about the video though was the fact that nobody agreed with her, even the teenage mother shouted her down! This means that either the rest of us are cowards or that we don’t hold an undertone of racism within us. Unfortunately I think it is the former. Ignoring the fact that the girl was clearly coked up to her tits at least she had the guts to sit there and tell us what she really thought. .
The debate, as that is what it turned into, is democracy in action. A number of people getting together to decide what is best for the majority. The only rules to democracy is that democracy rules.
To be honest I do love the immigrant debate in this country, firstly because if everyone manged to track their ancestors to back when we were fish we'd really find out where people "should come from".
Secondly is because whenever this debate is played out it is always mentioned in the same breath of St George, an immigrant from Iran who fought for the Roman Catholic Church, not England or Britain, in the crusades. George isn't even a British name.
Quite why he was made the patron saint of England would take a little bit of research, a quick delve into Wikipedia should do the trick. It might have something to do with the fact that he was willing to stand up and say what he believed in, the imbodiement of his spirit to not be one of the flock by following everybody else and a little bit of character to stand out from the crowd, so a bit like "shouty train woman", really.
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