SubscribeSad to read that Cllr Bob Piper has been cowed into supporting James McGrath, who has been sacked as Boris Johnson’s chief political advisor after being recorded on tape saying of London’s African-Caribbean community: ‘Well, let them go if they don’t like it here.’
To be fair, McGrath may not quite have described the Caribbean as black Londoners’ true home, but echoing this racist mantra is unforgivable nonetheless.
Britain is home to the people James McGrath was talking about, most of whom will not have set foot in the Caribbean. Not only will they have born British, their parents are likely to have born British too. To say, we should ‘let them go’ is to promote the idea that they belong in some foreign country, with a foreign culture (most often portrayed as less developed or backward). It is to deny Britain’s true multicultural culture; something of which we should all be proud.
Bob Piper’s faux pas was to reproduce a satirical cartoon of a blacked up David Cameron; an image that mocked the Tories’ attempts to shake off their racist reputation. This was twisted by a malicious individual who bragged about taking scalps, while cowardly hiding behind a cloak of anonymity.
