Recalling that, some time ago, Conservative life peer Baroness Warsi claimed Islamophobia has "passed the dinner-table test" - in other words, that it had become acceptable in polite society - Ms Wyatt pertinently observes:
"Let me ask her this: are there any councils in Britain that have banned all books published in Muslim states?
I can imagine the justifiable uproar at Westminster and in the Press if West Dunbartonshire had taken this course."Ms Wyatt, daughter of the famous journalist and broadcaster Woodrow Wyatt, who was also a Labour MP and later a Tory life peer, continues:
"If any prejudice is passing the dinner-table test it is one that is worryingly close to open anti-Semitism."Barbara Amiel, the staunchly pro-Israel journalist and wife of Lord Black of Coldharbour, reported similar experiences.of course, and she's not the only one. Someone else, a London musician, has noted that “At middle class dinner parties these days no one has a good word to say about this Israel” and “Israel has become a dirty word, something you just don't mention at dinner parties”. http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/11/where-elite-meet-to-bleat-damaging-lies.html
I experienced it myself in 2007, while a dinner guest at a gentlemen's club in Pall Mall, from a former Whitehall adviser, as I mentioned in an early post:
"Just as the second course arrived, the man on my right (who despite my very Jewish surname had insisted on extolling to me, and not jocularly either, the virtues of the menu's pork, which he proceeded to order) was asked by the man on my left what he made of the Iran naval affair. To my astonishment, the reply was an invective-laden denunciation not of Iran, but of Israel - which, he claimed, was responsible for all of the ills of the Middle East."To return to Ms Wyatt. She continues:
"Too frequently I hear remarks, at otherwise jolly social gatherings, that the Jews are to blame for everything."As an example of the trend, she recalls what a life peer said to her as she socialised with him on a terrace at the House of Lords:
"The Jews have been asking for it, and because of the atrocious way Israel behaves, we can finally say what we think."Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2002477/PETRONELLA-WYATT-Bigots-Id-throw-book-them.html#ixzz1P5vfJFKp
This is the, very, upper-class, upper middle-class dinner party cafe klatsch who thinkl that they are the people.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of us, when we can afford a diner party - too busy paying the taxes that support the liberal elite - talk about all manner of things, but NOT Israel. We know that a small nation cannot be the cause of all the world's woes, unless it's the UK. Israel and the UK! Ain't nobody here but us chickens! Fee - Fi - Fo - Fum...
Have you seen this article?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/we-re-no-nazi-book-burners-scottish-council-hits-back-after-false-reports-stir-up-global-jewish-fury-1.1105343?localLinksEnabled=false
Indeed, Ian! And the last time I went to a dinner party was meeting friends in Wetherspoons!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Infidel - I'll have a look at that link.