All centuries but this, and every country but his own.
In the original version, and many subsequent ones, of the most parodied aria in Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, the Lord high Executioner's song, Ko-Ko includes on his "little list" of people for the chop
"the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own."
That perfectly describes the attitude of a certain type of (small l) liberal.
Where this becomes particularly irritating is when they are very quick to accuse others of racism and prejudice and them say things about their own country which they would be the first to describe in such a way if said about anyone else.
A classic example this week came from Lord Kerr, who has been a British Ambassador, Deputy Chairman of Shell, Treasury mandarin and was one of the authors of the Lisbon Treaty.
At an event hosted by the Institute for Government, Lord Kerr argued for a less restrictive immigration policy on the grounds that
‘We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people, young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time.’
Source: here.
This from someone who also accused the Leave side of salving their consciences by ‘cleverly outsourcing xenophobia and racism’ to Nigel Farage.
Not, by the way that I approve of what Farage said during the referendum - I simply think it is hypocrisy to accuse him of racism and then make remarks like the one above about "native Brits" which amount to racial abuse.
I suspect that Lord Kerr's chosen wording as quoted about the case for immigration above may have been intended as a "joke."
But if such a thing had been said, even as a "joke" against almost any other race than "native Brits," what would have been the reaction? He would have been accused of racism in the lead story of the TV news and by virtually every newspaper.
It's time to retire the use of that kind of comment against everyone - including British people.
"the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own."
That perfectly describes the attitude of a certain type of (small l) liberal.
Where this becomes particularly irritating is when they are very quick to accuse others of racism and prejudice and them say things about their own country which they would be the first to describe in such a way if said about anyone else.
A classic example this week came from Lord Kerr, who has been a British Ambassador, Deputy Chairman of Shell, Treasury mandarin and was one of the authors of the Lisbon Treaty.
At an event hosted by the Institute for Government, Lord Kerr argued for a less restrictive immigration policy on the grounds that
‘We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people, young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time.’
Source: here.
This from someone who also accused the Leave side of salving their consciences by ‘cleverly outsourcing xenophobia and racism’ to Nigel Farage.
Not, by the way that I approve of what Farage said during the referendum - I simply think it is hypocrisy to accuse him of racism and then make remarks like the one above about "native Brits" which amount to racial abuse.
I suspect that Lord Kerr's chosen wording as quoted about the case for immigration above may have been intended as a "joke."
But if such a thing had been said, even as a "joke" against almost any other race than "native Brits," what would have been the reaction? He would have been accused of racism in the lead story of the TV news and by virtually every newspaper.
It's time to retire the use of that kind of comment against everyone - including British people.
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