Thatcher was sacked for refusing to apologise for 'racist' remark, BBC says
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Carol Thatcher's agent has claimed that a member of the BBC had leaked the story because the corporation had a vendetta against the family name
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The BBC launched a scathing attack on Carol Thatcher yesterday, defending its decision to drop the former prime minister's daughter and accusing her of refusing repeated opportunities to apologise publicly for using the word "golliwog".
The 55-year-old commentator was sacked from her "roving reporter" role on The One Show after she used the pejorative term to describe a black tennis player in the show's green room. Ms Thatcher's agent, Ali Gunn, claimed that BBC bosses dropped her client purely because she is the daughter of Margaret Thatcher. Others have accused the corporation of over-reacting.
But yesterday the controller of BBC1, Jay Hunt, dismissed the protests and defended the corporation's decision to fire Ms Thatcher. "What she decides to say at home in private is one thing, but we have given Carol ample opportunity to give a fulsome apology and she has chosen not to do so," Ms Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
She said Ms Thatcher made the remark last week in a hospitality suite in front of the TV show's presenter Adrian Chiles, the comedian Jo Brand and a senior charity worker from Comic Relief. The remark was overheard and reported. The following day an executive producer spoke to Ms Thatcher, prompting an email apology, but she has refused to make a public apology.
Ms Hunt also rejected the explanation that Ms Thatcher's use of the term "golliwog" had been made in private and was meant as a joke. "She still maintains that this was a comment made in jest," she said. "We have ascertained subsequently from the people who were party to that conversation that by nobody's reckoning could it be deemed to have been used in a jokey fashion."
The controller added: "This is not her working in a private space and she was not in the pub with her friends. She was sitting in a BBC green room on BBC premises surrounded by a diverse production team on The One Show speaking to a BBC-booked guest, a BBC-booked celebrity and in the presence of a senior production worker from Comic Relief. In those circumstances she was effectively operating in a workplace."
Last night there were further suggestions that Ms Thatcher had in fact used the term on more than one occasion but there was no official confirmation from her agent. Although sacked from The One Show, Ms Thatcher is still employed by the BBC on a number of other projects, including a radio show on her mother which she is currently recording.
Earlier in the week Ms Thatcher's agent said a member of the BBC had leaked the story because the corporation had a vendetta against the family name. In response the BBC said that at least 12 people, including journalists, were in the room at the time the comments were made and that the story could have come from any one of them.
Many critics of the BBC have been quick to compare the corporation's treatment of Ms Thatcher to that of Jonathan Ross, who was suspended, not sacked, for making obscene phone calls during a radio show with Russell Brand. But yesterday race campaigners spoke out in support of BBC bosses, pointing out that Ross had made a number of full and public apologies. "As far as I am concerned this was no private conversation," said Darcus Howe, a broadcaster and long standing race campaigner. "This was a statement made at a place of work surrounded by people she worked with.
"I also cannot abide by the suggestion that she was somehow making a joke. So many times we've come across white people who try to explain away the use of these words as being harmless jokes, but it's over. These words are simply no longer acceptable as jokes."
Sabby Dalhu, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly Against Racism, said Britain's black community had never seen the term "golliwog" as a jokey, more acceptable form of racism. "Letting people get away with light-hearted racism lets real racists think it is OK to use the much harsher terms," she said. "Racism is racism."
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Comments
Where has all this "political Correct" crap come from?? I am presently living in the "land of the free" but you could be forgiven if you thought it was another third World country!! You just cannot speak your mind anywhere because of the dogooders who seem to stick their noses in everything. I am in my 81 st year and I say to you that I am glad that I am not starting out in life.
Oh, how I miss the 'Good Old Days'. You have to be careful to not be heard calling the people BLACK, They are now ( politically) African Americans!! But aren't they black?
!
Maybe you'd like to bring back slavery as well, yes?
Carol Thatcher should know that calling a black person a Golliwog is deeply offensive to most decent people. She mistakenly thought the people in the room were as racist as she is but it blew up in her face. Would she have said what she said if Mike Tyson or Barack Obama had been in the room? I doubt it.
Adrian Chiles and Jo Brand were right to challenge her and the BBC was right to back them up.
Oh how righteous of you,
Are you saying that because Britain was the first country that took steps to abolish slavery that its okay for you to call a black person a golliwog.
The mass exodus of people from their homeland to a foreign land where they were treated like animals and families and nations broken is nothing to you. Because as far as you are concerned the fact Britain took the first steps to abolish slavery - means that calling someone a golliwog is okay.
Well thank sir -
The good thing about what Carol said is that it unearths closet racists like you!
Let?s first establish the dictionary meaning of golliwog - A doll fashioned in grotesque caricature of a Black male.
Also the imagery and concept of Golliwog was produced during a time when racism was blatant in the UK and United States.
This word is implicated in racist discourse and it has associations with a time when it was acceptable to poke fun at images of black people.
Lets not forget that books containing golliwog were removed from public libraries because of how offensive they were.
In school, I did have kids referring to me as a golliwog which was rude and racist. So I am offended when people trivialise issues like this and pretend that history never happened.
We need to look at the representation of this object and the social and political landscape in which it's imagery was produced to fully understand why people would take offence.
Mr Bardor - ignorance is not a defence for racism - and you ask what has she done that deserves the sack. It is her total disregard for the offence caused and her failure to apologise.
She says it was a joke and that it was meant to be funny. I would like to ask Carol Thatcher what is so funny about calling someone a golliwog ? I personally challenge you to explain what part of that is funny.
I have experienced racism, my parents have and so have my children.
Due to Carol Thatcher re-introduction of this word, my niece was taunted on her way back from school by a group of boys calling her 'golliwog'.
If you do not understand something then I suggest you go and read about British history, so that you understand how the word and its image came to become a symbol of racial insensitivity.
Racism or not - it is disrespectful and Carol failure to apologise shows how deep rooted her prejudice is.
Her failure to apologise shows for disrespect for her colleagues and that is why she was sacked. I would not put up with racism at work, or people using archaic racist language that belongs in the past.
To your comment about - "people of all races are capable (and guilty) of racism". What has that got to do with anything? We all know that people are capable of racism ? what is your point??
Of all the words in the world to use, why did she choose this one to describe the tennis player ? also the most important thing is that the person in question (the tennis player) since hearing of this abuse has said that he is deeply offended and finds it racist.
If the BBC were to ignore Carol?s blatant disregard for the offence caused then they too would be implicated in the racist slur.
I remember when we had Jam with a Golliwog on the label and I did not hear a word of protest from the people who, in those days, were regarded as 'Wogs. Nor from the "Dogooders" either. But what has that to do with this lady getting sacked?? I also remember how it was for the German people rightup to 1939. What had they lost? Freedom of speech!!!Is that what the peo-ple who have replied to my comments want for us now? .
The golliwog was produced during these times and was implicated in racial slur and mockery. Because you were priviledged enough to grow up in a world where you have never been looked at as a second class citizen or discriminated against because of your colour. Then you can easily dimiss how offensive the word is.
If you do not understand the context that the image and its imagery was created - then please shut up
Well said!
The last time I heard someone use the word "honky" was probably in the 70's, and it just didn't have the same sting as golliwog, or that other even harsher word that I'm sure you're more familiar with hearing and using. When your own race has the majority of power and prestige in your country, those kinds of terms just don't have the same effect on your self-esteem.
I live in the U.S. also, and we have much better ways to practice our freedom than by insulting people because of their outward appearance.
By the way, "they" are not black in color, but many different shades of brown from pale to dark. Just as whites are not white, but many colors from dark tan to pale pink. Silly that complicated creatures like humans should be categorized by such a superficial quality.
This is very dangerous thinking because if people accept mild racism what else do they accept? Like the saying goes, first they came for the Blacks but I'm not Black so I said nothing. Then they came for the Jews and the Irish but I'm neither so I said nothing. And when they came for me there was nobody left to say anything.
People condoning any form of racism and prejudice should be careful as they could be next.
One can not erase the golliwog from history, as though it never existed. And if it existed, then people must be allowed to refer to it, provided it's in a non-hurtful or racist manner. Some people appear to be saying that the word should not be used in ANY circumstances!
I really really object to the action the BBC has taken..publishing a remark which was made off and away from camera and thus shocking and offending huge numbers of people including myself,a white middle class individual from the home counties
Well most black people don't call white people Honky outside 1970s Blacksploitation movies . And those "do gooders" (ie those who find racism offensive) might not comment on it because it is white people
who have been the abusers and black people and other races who have been at the sharp end of slavery, colonialism and our latest slaughter in Iraq and Afganistan.
Its just not consistant
I accept that some words and phrases are now offencive I understand that. But those same people who are offended should remember that we used these words every day in the past as just part of our normal life. Not as racist comments but just words we had grown up with. In Thatchers case I would describe her as careless not offensive in this case. Younger people who have been drilled in the equality topic should remember that older people have not, and we do not have the same horror of such words.I think we are more tollerant of such things where as today people are so easily offended.
Sort yourself out BBC and return to reality. If you had had the nerve to remove J Ross & Brand permanently then you would have had my and many others full support.
I vote for the return of Carol who injects life into a good show.
Nobody is suggesting that she is guilty of Nazi warcrimes for the things she said, but she should be woman enough to realise that her comment was inappropriate and clearly offensive.
And johnnynorfolk, I'm afraid that just because something was commonplace in the past, that doesn't mean it is acceptable now. Nor that it ever was.
Thought I was a reasonably aware person but am completely lost here.
Can anyone help me ?
It's situations like this that give power to words.
Intention is everything, expression is nothing....
@*%* everyone : )
I feel I am quite broad minded, however, there are still lots of things on TV and radio I find offensive, however, I do not jump up and down and scream "racist", "ageist", "sizeist" every time this happens. I think this country needs to stop being so precious and concerned about offending some group or other (race, religion, wieght, age, etc) and just get on with life!
I suppose that Mr Chiles and Ms Brand would like to rewrite history, have all people who owned a golly sacked, assume my mother to be racist, and come and raid my house to liberate poor golly. Would they love hom or destry him?
More than likely the whole business is because Carol is Margaret Thatcher's daughter and that rankles the array of pinkies who inhabit the upper ranks of the Beeb. The corporation has become more and more PC ever since it was told that it employed too many 'Honkies.'
I will not be watching the One Show again for a long time.
I was born and breed in Birmingham, but for the past 38 years incidents like this make me feel like an alien.
Like Mr Darcus Howe I am so tired of hearing white people come out with excuse after excuse, when all I ask for is some understanding. The word is offensive to me and so are the excuses.
I know this will be like water off a duck's back to a lot of people, but thankfully there are a lot of white people that understand where I'm coming from. To these people I will be forever grateful as you keep me from going insane.
Imagine for a moment a world in which nobody is allowed to cause offence. Whatever you think of Carol Thatcher (who I think looks rather like Jimmy Saville in drag-- come on, who's offended?), we (if there's any humanity left in us whatsoever) should resist any attempt to get us to self-censor in the name of "tolerance" because that, Comrades, is the road to utter totalitarianism.
Let's face it being Mrs Thatcher's daughter must have its own range of problems, so I don't even feel the need to denigrate her even more. Hopefully she will realise just how much she has let herself (and her mother) down. I can understand therefore why she feels the need to refuse to apologise, she is maintaining her stance. What a sad, sad, sad person she is, and much to be pitied.
The whole episode was blown out of prportion by Jo Brand, Who is the most ignorant and hipocritical person I have ever listened to, just trying to look good, I think it is a witchunt and should not be publicised, it's all just for show anyway J Thomson Somerset
I believe the comments were (although my sources are not necessarily correct) "he reminds me of a golliwog" this is not calling him a golliwog. Stupid thing to say but not that offensive.
This is not political correctness gone mad this is just over-reaction - racism and racist comments are un-acceptable in any walk of life and people need to know that - however, because ignorant people do not pay attention to what comes out of their mouths- mistakes are made - once again - in the same vein as Manuelgate, it is the press that has blown it all out of proportion and caused the controversy, this should never have been given column inches.
What a surprise you think this way.
It reminds me of a girl I once went out with. She came to my home and one of the first comments she made was "nice wog box", referring to my stereo.
When I challenged her on this her reply was "that what we call them in Somerset"
This was around 10 years ago, so I glad to see this haven't changed much down there :-).