Posted by BIFFUK on Friday, 09 March 2007 06:00:15

What a monumental gaff by David Cameron to sack Mr Mercer.

A man speaks the truth about his past and life experiences and he's sacked.

I was an active striking miner in the 80's when Mrs Thatcher destroyed the mining industry & whole communities with it.
Should I be sacked as a worker now for talking about my experiences of the strike at work?

A total disgrace, go onto the bbc website "have your say" and see the reaction David, because this is one big boob you've dropped.

The everyday working person doesn't like the P.C brigade (The reason why David Cameron has been poorly advised to sack Mr Mercer) and as soon as you politicans sit up and realise this the better.

Posted by spivver on Friday, 09 March 2007 07:36:26

Cameron's idiotic decision to sack Mr Mercer will have greatly helped swell the ranks of the British National Party. Well done Cameron.

For those who are sick and fed up with these idiots in politics who stifle debate using 'political correctness', then do read the excellent book 'The Retreat of Reason: Political correctness and the corruption of public debate in modern Britain' by Anthony Browne.

You can find it at http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prcs47.php - and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Posted by orpman on Friday, 09 March 2007 08:33:25

I entirely agree with all the above comments.
Neither Mr Mercer nor the army is racist and Cameron's rash action has definately been severely damaging to the party.
I do not disagree however, that Mr. Mercer's comments were not as well thought out as they could have been and he should have been made aware how dangerous his comments could be when used out of context by all rival political parties, including the BBC.
It should also be noted how many soldiers have lept to Mercer's defence, including a number of black soldiers who were promoted, and proud to have served, under Mercer.

Posted by Votedave on Friday, 09 March 2007 18:10:03

A no-win situation. Imagine the reaction if he had not asked Patrick Mercer to resign. You can never please everybody all the time in politics.

Posted by Splatfly on Friday, 09 March 2007 20:07:09

Votedave > "Imagine the reaction if he had not asked Patrick Mercer to resign."

Exactly the same kind of knee-jerk reaction from the narrow minded, PC mad people you'd expect to jump up and down about the truth.

Posted by Bobfm on Saturday, 10 March 2007 10:28:46

The problem as always is that the truth these days is seen as an Is'm of some sort. Mercers case has been ably defended by former colleagues. David Cameron is showing himself to be an inept leader who responds to the populist agenda rather than thinking things through before as someone says, make another 'gaffe'. My son is in the Navy and we were discussing recruitment and training and whilst he has only been in the service for 6 years he complains that the airy fairy PC approach to training is turning out second rate recruits. It seems to me what Mr Mercer said was probably true but in no way could it have been construed as him personally being Racist. Mr Cameron has certainly cocked up again.