IT'S QUESTION TIME

Back in the book of the living, as those who watched Question Time last Thursday might have noticed. No, Miriam is not a pseudonym for Margaret Hodge, nor Pierce Morgan, for that matter: I was merely in the audience, but I had my say. Please read my post before you watch my performance here (link to full programme, but I comment on the first question. It's available until Thursday, 15.3).
I commented on the panel's comments on Cameron being a 'good leader' by firing Mercer. My comment was not well formed, and I still cringe thinking about it. From the comfortable armchair of hindsight there were a million ways I could have sharpened my point of view into a deadly, stabbing tool rather than that bland, whingey piece of poo I ended up throwing at the panel.
I hadn't read the papers that day, so I had no idea someone had been fired for allegedly racist comments. What prompted me to comment was the overly politically correct stance of the panel. What is overlooked is the fact that a huge proportion of people, army personnel or otherwise, don't think their racist views are wrong in any way. How do you go about changing that? Contrary to what Pierce Morgan said on QT, what goes on in the barracks and elsewhere is precisely the point of this whole debate. My comment was rubbish, but I have to say I was equally dissappointed by the silly, PC, and politician-centered views of everyone on the panel.

Cameron was perhaps a good leader for firing Mercer, but he was a 'good leader' in a way that befits a politician. I don't think firing a mere messenger was quite the right thing to do. I think Mercer should have had the chance to explain his views, not necessarily as a way of apology, but to explain what he knows and thinks of the racial divides as he has himself experienced and witnessed them before being fired under pressure from the press and political adversaries. I would welcome a non-London based discussion on public opinions with people who actually hold these banned opinions. They are many.
I witness crap like this all the time. Just the other day a guy came over to fix our chairs and mentioned how he couldn't stand pakis. I was mortified, but this wasn't the first time I've heard stuff like this. Will I report this guy to the landlord for being racist? Well, no. What good would it do? He'll be the same man with the same opinions, if somewhat more bitter if he got fired for his views.
This is the worrying bit: Politicians are asked to do the 'right thing' in every way, but no-one ever asks who defines 'right' and 'wrong' nowadays. Although politicians are really quite benign creatures (really), they operate in an environment that is relentless to any faults, and it takes a hell of a lot to keep your wits in that kind of a side-wind. But why are politicians so scared of being, well, human?
Is it Westminster? Fleet Street? The Red Tops? The Guardian? (okay, that last suggestion was NOT a joke). Please do not let your MP fall into the PC trap.

Few people here initially realise I'm foreign. It's usually about 10 minutes into a conversation before they pick up on the foreign in my high pitched and weirdly nasal southern posh-ish accent (I've heard it myself on QT now... ) and my patchy cultural knowledge, and even then (and I'm never too sure how much emphasis to put on these things), I'm white, but I'm not Polish. That, apparently, is a good thing.