Foreign office minister Jeremy Browne was accused of racism by a heckler on Question Time last night after remarks about the French. Talking about the Anglo-French defence treaty signed by the prime minister and President Sarkozy this week, he said: "We're not merging our Army with France. Our soldiers won't be required to speak French or wear onions round their necks or stripey t-shirts, or ride bicycles."
Foreign office minister Jeremy Browne was accused of racism by a heckler on Question Time last night after remarks about the French. Talking about the Anglo-French defence treaty signed by the prime minister and President Sarkozy this week, he said:
“We’re not merging our Army with France. Our soldiers won’t be required to speak French or wear onions round their necks or stripey t-shirts, or ride bicycles.
“Don’t believe every thing you read in the newspapers.”
Watch it:
Yesterday, Left Foot Forward looked at whether Anglo-French co-operation on nuclear warheads, covered by the treaty, was legal.
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21 Responses to “Lib Dem foreign minister’s French slur”
Simon
To be fair it was obviously a joke aimed at those who really do have that sort of prejudice – he was not espousing it himself. I have no love of the lib-dems or the tories either but this sort of pathetic character slur of a statement taken out of context is worthy of the daily mail – I’d like to think we were above this?!
Dan Benson
He sounds like an amateur compared to Phil Woolas
Pete James
It was a rather adolescent remark to make, but making hay about it does suggest you’re dining on scraps.
Incidentally, as you claim to be fighting aginst greed and corruption I look forward to your forthcoming post about Phil Woolas and the judgement passed today against him.
13eastie
Left Foot Forward only find racist jokes funny when Hattie Harperson tells them.
But even she wasn’t hell-bent on stirring up real racial tension for personal gain.
Which is what no less than two high court judges seem to think Labour front-bencher and and (former minister for immigration of all things) Phil Woolas is guilty of.
If you’re going to play the racism card, take a look in the mirror first.
The Guardian has a nice picture of his disgusting campaign leaflet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/05/phil-woolas-immigration-leaflets-oldham-east-rerun
Simon
Disappointed to see @leftfootforward in ridiculous character slur following #bbcqt. http://bit.ly/a3cdKN Lost a lot of my respect for this