Another Conservative candidate in abusive comment controversy

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Another Conservative candidate in abusive comment controversy

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th April 2010 - 10:20 am

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Political Scrapbook has the story:

The election is providing no shortage of time-lapse gaffes, where online activity of some vintage has come back to haunt candidates and activists alike. It’s no surprise that Stuart Penketh, the Conservative candidate for Ellesmere Port and Neston, tried to delete his Grey Funnel Line blog.

When not describing third-world debt relief as “letting tyrants off the hook”, it seemed Penketh used his blog to sling around racist insults. Likening the town of Radcliffe in Greater Manchester to war-torn Vietnam, Penketh uses the word “gook”, a derogatory term for South-East Asians:

You can read the full post here.

Read more by Mark Pack or more about conservative party, ellesmere port and neston or stuart penketh.
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6 Comments

Alec 30th Apr '10 - 10:47am

Oh, dear, someone else who said silly things on the Internet.

When not describing third-world debt relief as “letting tyrants off the hook”

That has the basis of a reasonable argument, and is beyond the pale only if you think tyrants are deserving of respect…or if you’re Bob Geldof.

Likening the town of Radcliffe in Greater Manchester to war-torn Vietnam, Penketh uses the word “gook”, a derogatory term for South-East Asians:

No it’s not. It was a derogatory term for VC fighters which was extended to refer to Vietnamese in general, and that’s exactly the context he used it in. If anything, it was derogatory to Radcliffe. Ill-advized, certainly, and even tasteless, but this devalues the term racism only marginally more than calling Gillian Duffy a bigot does.

I always felt the Isle of Dogs reminded me of war-torn Vietnam. A prize to anyone who knows why.
burkesworks 30th Apr '10 - 11:37am

I get the reference Alec; not even Stanley Kubrick could make Millwall look like Saigon.
ColinW 30th Apr '10 - 11:41am

More racist than abusive, I’d say….
LiberalHammer 30th Apr '10 - 1:44pm

Agree with what Alec said. Thought the original post was an attempted pastiche of what would a GI might say, that was all. Seems that Political Scrapbook (and LD Voice) are just being mischievous.
Alec 30th Apr '10 - 2:49pm

Biscuits everyone!

Checking up, I see the word has been in use for over a century, starting with the US annexation of the Philippines; and may have had a misogynistic root before racist. Although it came to refer to any non-soldier (a too wide brush for racism), it undoubtedly become most associated with Korea and Vietnam so could, I suppose, be race-linked.

Yet, there isn’t the same level of institutional race-hatred in the US towards Orientals as there is, say, towards Blacks (it would be different had he used the n-word). When McCain used the word, he was speaking from a time when less-than-glorious deeds were perpetrated against Vietnamese by individuals such as him… in Britain it’s just as word, like “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”.

I see this as no worse and no better than those T-shirts with thugs like Che Guevara, and *definitely* milder than those who supported Ho Chi Minh.
Paul 28th Jul '13 - 12:33am

Lib / SDP / Lib Dem for over 30 years but Penketh was a council candidate then councillor for my ward in Bury for a term. He worked tirelessly for the residents here before and after getting elected, the most active and hard working councillor I’ve ever seen on the mundane stuff we all want fixed. Now we’re back to Labour and the councillor is invisible again and the streets are filthy. I took up a silly comment on that blog with one of his canvessors and 20 minutes later he visited and explained himself. He’s young and a bit naive but cares about his electors and what they think, which is pretty rare for any party. The Lib Dems normally get my vote but I would give it to Penketh if he stood here again because of his genuine and non-partisan record of hard work, despite some stupid blog comments I’m sure he regrets in hindsight. Having met and spoken to him for some time, bearing in mind that in party politics I am the “enemy”, I found him very courteous and earnest and find it hard to believe any racist intent.