"Tebbit claims 'cricket test' may have stopped blasts"

[mrfrapp]

The London bombings may have been prevented if Lord Tebbit's suggestion of a 'cricket test' to gauge the integration of migrants in Britain had been heeded, he has claimed.

The former Tory Party chairman provoked a storm 15 years ago when he questioned loyalties of immigrants who continued to support the cricket teams of their countries of origin rather than England.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=359738&in_page_id=1770

Islam is so unreformed there have been no real advances in art, literature, science or technology in the Muslim world in 500 years, Lord Tebbit says.

The ex-Tory chairman also told the e-politix website multiculturalism was in danger of undermining UK society.

In the 1980s he questioned the loyalty of immigrants who backed cricket teams from their countries of origin.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4163484.stm

A former Conservative party leader in Britain Friday revived his controversial idea of a 'cricket test' to gauge Asian loyalty, claiming the London bombings would have been "less likely" if his idea had been acted upon rather than dismissed as racist.

Norman Tebbit had come in for strong and widespread criticism in 1990 for suggesting that Asian immigrants did not show primary loyalty to Britain.

Tebbit had said: "A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test. Which side do they cheer for? It's an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?"

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050819050300&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0

Isn't one of the July 21st suspects from Morroco? Correct me if I'm wrong but Morroco doesn't have a cricket team for anyone to support.

When we remember that Tebbit thinks that the July 7th and July 21st bombings are proof that Enoch Powell was some sort of prophet the full extent of Tebbit's bigotry is revealed. Powell's proclamation was a repsonse to the immigration of West Indians so according to Tebbit, West Indian immigrants who support the West Indies are potential terrorists. What's wrong with this clown?

Oh, and Tebbit doesn't think this is racist. Luckily for us he's insignificant and no-one appears to be taking him seriously.

on edit: grammar

[ikri]

1. Maybe

There's a requirement for a new area of neurological disorders to study - Tebbit's Syndrome.

The inability to speak to the media without spewing far right-wing drivel that would make Mussolini cringe with embarrassment.

You could make it into a new game show on ITV Tebbit Speaks. Contestants listen to (the mad) Lord Tebbit talk about the issues of the day. The winner is the one who lasts longest without a) slitting their wrists or b) rolling on the floor in peals of laughter.

The man's a nutter, best left in a home for the mentally unstable, or the house of lords, whichever is nearer.

[LeftishBrit]

5. We need to come up with the cure and FAST!

'There's a requirement for a new area of neurological disorders to study - Tebbit's Syndrome.

The inability to speak to the media without spewing far right-wing drivel that would make Mussolini cringe with embarrassment.'


Whoever comes up with a cure for this disorder - and its American equivalent, Cheney's Disease- will deserve the Nobel Prize both for medicine and for peace!

[malaise]

2. This rubbish came up

during the 1970s when the West Indies cricket team anhilated England with tasteless haste. Indeed England did not win one test series against us for 31 years in England and for 36 years in the Caribbean.

It sure upset conservatives that West Indians in England supported the West Indies. Likewise Indian and Pakistani Brits supported teh cricket teams from their mother-country.

What Tebbitt and the other moron Powell ignored was the complete alientation of non-white Brits in the most English of sports. That alienation continues.

Had they attempted to make minorities feel at home, they may not have maintained their cultural specificity. On the other hand, even in the Caribbean, Indo-West Indian fans often support India and Pakistan when they tour which merely suggests that people often identify with their mother-country. In the old days more than a few creole Englishmen supported England and not the West Indies when the two teams met. Maybe they too were terrorists.

Last year when the West Indies team won the ICC Champions Trophy, the majority of West Indians who attented those matches were born in England. Are they terrorists or were they just fans sharing in a Caribbean moment.

Perhaps more interesting is that since the England team is improving, the spectators at the Ashes this summer are about 99% white English fans. It is very strange to see no minorities on the English cricket team these days and there are a plethora of articles discussing this. Why should people spend their hard earned money to watch sport and support a team when their chidlren are not welcomed into cricket.
Football is way more integrated than English cricket. Maybe Tebbitt and Powell's descendants should study integration and football.

The bottom line is that racism is live and well in England - ask that poor Brazilian.

[Greeby]

3. Thing is

You don't wanna speak ill of a guy who has spent 20 years looking after his paralysed wife (paralysed from the Brighton bomb), but when he comes out with crap like this...Just let him have it.

[non sociopath skin]

7. He's an old, bitter, largely forgotten man ...

... only remembered for his risible "on yer bike" and "cricket test" cliches.

This should have been left on the obscure website where it was originally deposited.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

4. Tebbit, ugh!

'so unreformed there have been no real advances in art, literature, science or technology ... in 500 years'



I think he actually was trying to describe his own image of an ideal Britain, and got it mixed up with Islam!

The man is NUTS NUTS NUTS!!!

At least it reminds me that the Blair government are not absolutely identical with the Thatcher government - even Blunkett's not as bad as Tebbit.

[...of J.Temperance]

8. Blunkett's

NEARLY as bad as Tebbit, or he would be given half the chance. I'd bet good money on it in fact.

[Kipling]

6. God, is he still alive? Where's that Steve Bell cartoon?

"Then, the intruder is trapped in a pit of Tebbits."

[lockdown]

9. At least he's honest

Tebbit may be a deranged odious scumbag, but I don't think his views are far removed from those of many tory types who prefer to couch their bigotry in superficial civility and use phrases like bogus asylum seeker.

I'm English and sometimes root for whoever the England football team are playing against (ye olde club v country, international football is shite debate). Good job I'm white, else he'd see me as a terrorist too I suppose.

[Kicked in the Taco]

10. Further proof that only the good die young.

[tjwmason]

12. Welcome to D.U.

Always good to have another Brit around here.

You'll find that there's a few nutters near-by, but the U.K. forum is normally a totally safe bastion of civility and sanity. :hi:

[Kicked in the Taco]

16. thanks

:hi:

I was genuinely surprised at just how many British members there are here at DU- a truly multicultural community!

[tjwmason]

11. I went to one of the England-Bangladesh o.d.i. matches

There were a goodly number of Bangladesh supporters there - I'm betting that the vast majority live in London.

Yet, I'd much rather have those guys watching my back than the typical (or perhaps the cliched) supporter at an England football match.

They came, watched their team get utterly trounced (we won by 10 wickets); held their Bangladeshi flags with pride, cheered when their team hit a good shot, and applauded politely when our did something good.

[Taxloss]

13. He's a man who makes me seriously rethink pacifism.

Embarrassingly, I've seem him shopping in th street market near my home. Grrr.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

14. He's a reminder of the bigotry and imperalism which personifies the Tories

Tebbit's ramblings sound like a crackpot theory thought-up over a lunchtime drink in a pub.

[T_i_B]

15. "no-one appears to be taking him seriously"

Now I hate to say this but there are plenty of Tories out there who consider Tebbit some kind of ideological standard bearer for their cause. And that most certainly includes his loathing of "multi-culturalism". Just look at the rantings on Sterling Times for proof of that.

[Briar]

17. Not just Tories

I know a lot of people who identify as centrist, liberal or leftie who think he and Howard are (they say to their surprise) talking sense. They are for shoot to kill (so it seems is the Labour party) and against immigration, multiculturalism, mixed marriage (as they quaintly put it) and homosexuality (has anyone here yet mentioned the rant against gays which Tebbit shifted seamlessly into on the Today programme earlier this week?). It seems good old fashioned racism (and homophobia) is still alive and kicking throughout British society, and Tebbit, Howard, Blunkett etc know just how to stroke it. It makes me feel very alien and vulnerable in my liberalism.