More on Sarah Palin …

Following Hugh’s post on the ‘redneck’ item – I listened on the weekend to the views of that people’s tribune Liz Forgan (Benenden and Oxford) on Any Questions.

Ms Forgan’s career took her from the Guardian to Channel Four and then to the BBC, where she was MD of BBC Network Radio. When she left the BBC she became a Guardian columnist and is now chair of the Scott Trust, owners of the Guardian. Do we see a pattern here ?

Let Ms Forgan speak for herself. Apologies for the illiterate transcriber (I found ‘roons’ for ‘runes’, ‘principle’ for ‘principal’ and ‘electrics’ for ‘electorates’).

On Charles Clarke’s attacking Gordon Brown’s premiership :

“Charles has nothing to lose, he thinks he can do that and encourage real debate in the Party. Unfortunately the consequences of his doing so has been absolutely a lead balloon. Everyone is still under the table, with the tablecloth pulled around their ears …”

On male and female equality :

You know you have a vision of a progressive struggle towards a sensible disposition of society and its work and when people choose to roll backwards from that it makes me really very sad … the problem is not women, it is men … and I think that although it is illegal to ask a woman who applies for a job are you intending to have children and what are you going to do about them I actually think we should legislate to compel employers to ask men when they apply for a job do you have children and what is your intention to look after them.

And on Sarah Palin :

I have been a card-carrying feminist for 40 years and this woman has found somewhere in me a little kernel of sexism. She causes me to make a failure of sisterhood. Sorry Charlie but I cannot stand her candy coated philistinism, I hate her crass creationism, I loath her parading of her family about the place, God forgive me I even hate her teenage hair … I do really fear the fact that she touches something deep in America, something real in America I agree with you about that and that makes me very afraid and the only solution I can see to it is that the principal governors of super powers should be elected by global electorates … There is a ray of hope. History shows that people who arrive with a stock in trade of being pure, innocent and untouched by civilisation often end up having terrible skeletons in their cupboards. And I am really hopeful that the dreadful hacks will find them out.

Ms Forgan, as we’ve seen above, thinks of herself as a left-winger and a feminist. Par for the BBC course. But what we’re hearing there isn’t just hatred of Sarah Palin’s politics. What comes over strongly is hatred of Sarah Palin’s class. An upper-class liberal looks down on a hick from the sticks. God, have you seen her hair ?

Once, within living memory, the Left used to have something of a bias in favour of ‘ordinary people’. Whatever happened to it ?

(Much of the US liberal media shares Ms Forgan’s dismay. The phenomenon’s neatly summarised in this Clive Crook FT piece)

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71 Responses to More on Sarah Palin …

  1. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I would be perfectly happy to have the US Presidency decided by a global electorate. Provided, of course, that we get to rule the entire world.

    After all, if these clowns think the US has so much influence over the rest of you, then we’re the de facto ruler of the planet anyway, right? I mean we’re responsible for every war and every plague, and even the current economic difficulties in Britain (which couldn’t possibly be Mr. Brown’s fault, according to the BBC), so why not just let the US run the show and be done with it?

    Then you can have your global election.

    If nothing else, just think of how much money will be saved which can then be redistributed to the deserving masses when grotesque, profligate hellholes like the UN and the EU are disbanded and all the assets sold off. Not to mention the BBC.

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  2. Jason says:

    Assets? Have you been past the UN building recently? I go right past on my bus to work every morning. It looks like it was built by Grimsby Council.

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  3. Pete says:

    I’m amused by Forgan’s silly idea about global electorates voting for heads of superpowers. We’d be treated to the prospect of billions of people freely voting in the US presidential election when they don’t have free elections in their own country.

    And what use would such a system be in the elections of the other up and coming superpower, China? They only allow one party to stand in their elections, but as its the communist party I don’t expect Forgan sees that as a drawback to her ridiculous proposal.

    What a nutcase she is.

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  4. Cassandra says:

    David,

    The socialists/leftists can only thrive among the so called victim classes and the creation of of the victim class is a socialist priority!
    Create a victim, instill hatred and jelousy of a scapegoat class blaming the scapegoat for the ills of the victim class!
    This breeds division,hatred,bitterness and gives the victim the excuse to blame someone else,all over the world the leftists thrive on this class hatred/class jelousy after all, happy confident people dont need socialism do they, so the leftists actively create the conditions for a distressed and unhappy population while setting themselves up as the saviours of the victim class!
    The Nazis/Soviets undertood the need for the scapegoat class in the form of the counter revolutionary/Jew/capitalist etc, oh yes the socialists feed on misery and hate like a vulture feeds on a carcass!

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  5. Jason says:

    Cassandra:

    I agree – the first agenda of socialists is to pay people to stay poor.

    Their next is to encourage everyone to stay strictly within the tribe they’ve been assigned to at birth. Thus, in the Seattle school system’s now infamous web page on “cultural racism” (since pulled due to a wealth of complaints), one example they gave was that black and Hispanic students are made to endure lessons geared towards “planning for the future” and “being an individual” – when it is obvious to everyone (socialists) that blacks and Hispanics are more culturally disposed toward lives of instant gratification and collectivism and should have lessons specially tailored with this in mind.

    To the leftist, a minority is a slave to their tribe and should never venture outside.

    I once worked on a construction site alongside a horrible little snot nosed Marxist who could not believe it when a black electrician on the job told him that he preferred Tears For Fears over Bob Marley. You could tell the little shit wanted to tell him he was being disloyal to his tribe, but he kept his mouth shut for obvious reasons.

    This tribalism nonsense is one way in which socialists like to encourage unity of thought, which is of course the best way to cultivate group grievance (left wing ambrosia).

    Of course every tribe must remain true to their “roots” except whites, who must denounce their culture, their history and everything about their way of life – only apologies are acceptable.

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  6. Allan@Oslo says:

    JBH – excellent article skewering Liz Forgan and The Guardian. Some time ago, I had offered you assistance with your legal projects. Send an e:mail to DV and he’ll forward my Norwegian e:mail address to you.

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  7. Rob says:

    “..that makes me very afraid and the only solution I can see to it is that the principal governors of super powers should be elected by global electorates …”

    Good luck with that, love.

    I’m pleased to see that the extreme Left is now concentrating on simple, achievable projects and not the ludicrous pie-in-the-sky ones they used to favour.

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  8. JohnA says:

    David Presier

    If there was global voting you should stand – we’d rig the ballot boxes for you !

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  9. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    The crackpot notion that the world should have a voice in the U.S. election was, of course, first mooted by the Guardian, in its G2 “Clark County” campaign issue of October 13th 2004.

    B-BBCers will recall that the Guardian made available to its readership the contact details of electors in the key marginal Clark County in the key marginal state of Ohio. The Guardian urged its readers to write personal letters urging them to vote for Kerry in the forthcoming election. The thinking being, that tipping Clark County to the Democrats would tip Ohio their way too, which would then put Kerry in the White House.

    Not surprisingly (that is, to any one with any sense) the campaign was a massive screw-up. Americans really don’t take to pompous foreigners telling them how to vote. Accordingly the Guardian was forced to terminate it pronto, citing as their reason supposed attacks on the paper’s computers by right-wing hackers. (Yeah, right.)

    Accordingly the October 13th 2004 issue of G2 is prized by all sensible people with a sense of humour.

    As a special service to B-BBCers, I have made it available for downloading – – from here – – together with a close-up of the main paper’s masthead bearing the trail: “What you can do to beat Bush – with a little help from the folks in Ohio” – plus a hilarious Mark Steyn commentary.

    Enjoy.

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  10. Martin says:

    No doubt if we had global voting the UN would put Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Zimbabwe in charge of it. All overseen by red Ken.

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  11. Laban says:

    If you google Ms Forgan you may also find minutes of a meeting with heritage organisations, where she approves of the new training being set up in conservation skills, but laments that although women are over-represented (a Good Thing) the trainees are hideously white (a Bad Thing).

    http://www.constructionskills.net/news/speechesandpresentations/dame%20liz%20forgan%20speech.asp

    “If I had one criticism to make, it is that we have been disappointed at the lack of ethnic diversity among trainees: although there was a good age range • between and 19 and 52 – and over half of the trainees are women, the vast majority of recruits have been drawn from the white British audience traditionally associated with heritage conservation.”

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  12. Peter says:

    Liz Forgan is “hideously white”,she must correct this immediately.

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  13. BobCat says:

    Laban | Homepage | 10.09.08 – 12:44 pm

    the vast majority of recruits have been drawn from the white British audience

    Anyone would think that the ‘vast majority’ of people in Britain weren’t white.

    Which is it now 92% or 93%?

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  14. George R says:

    Liz Forgan, re-Sarah Palin:

    “I loath her parading her family about the place..”

    Liz Forgan, in an interview about her own relationship:

    “SHE was more upset by coverage of her personal life, notably her long-term relationship with Rex Cowan, a married older man whose wife apparently gave it her blessing. ‘It’s not my kind of journalism,’ Forgan says. ‘I don’t like it, and though I don’t consider myself a public person, there is no aspect of my life that is a closed book.’ (An interview with David Rowan, 5 years ago). She is now 64.

    http://www.davidrowan.com/2003/12/interview-liz-forgan-scott-trust.html

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  15. Jason says:


    Liz Forgan is “hideously white”,she must correct this immediately.
    Peter | 10.09.08 – 12:50 pm | #

    A nice steaming bucket of pig shit will do the trick.

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  16. PeterN says:

    What would Forgan’s desciption of Sarah Palin been had she been a Democratic candidate? Methinks the ‘little kernel of sexism’ is nothing more than left leaning prejudice.

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  17. Verity says:

    Is Ms Forgan ugly? Do I have to ask? Why would she resent Sarah Palin being an attractive 45 year old? Why bring Governor Palin’s looks into anything?

    Forgan’s an old gargoyle. Sarah Palin’s husband stands on the hustings with her and applauds the points she makes. She has the support of a man! How sickening! She has five children! She’s the Governor of Alaska! She’s been put forward for Vice President of the most powerful nation the world has ever known.

    Did “feminism” accomplish NOTHING? Were all those marches for NOUGHT?

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  18. Verity says:

    Another little point for Liz Forgan – and she should try to remember this – is, no one in the United States, except a few lefties in the North East, like DC (I know DC’s in the south, not the northeast, but it’s the mindset) and New York, no one has ever heard of the BBC in the United States. Except as a TV company that has late night comedies, like Fawlty Towers and so on.

    No one knows it has news. And opinions! They’ve got their own lefty news broadcasters and, unlike Britain, they also have right TV broadcasters and thousands of talk radio stations. The BBC simply is not a thought in anyone’s head in the United States except Matt Frei, who I sense is in meltdown. (Terminal, one hopes, but ugly nevertheless.) The BBC seems to sincerely believe Americans are interested in the views of foreigners.

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  19. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Verity | 11.09.08 – 1:42 am |

    Judging from how the BBC describes the broadcast itself, and from how Frei Boy presents himself, they believe that we need the opinions of foreigners on our own domestic issues. That’s why they created the programme in the first place, and that’s how they perceive their job.

    Frei and Katty Kay have said things which echo Fogan’s and Brand’s belief that if only we knew what the world wanted, we’d do the right thing.

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  20. Laban says:

    Be fair, Verity. It’s the ugliness inside that counts. We can’t all be Anna Ford. I can’t anyway.

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  21. Verity says:

    Well, Laban, we have some things to thank God for, then!

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