Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Campbell strikes the wrong note with Songs Of Praise BLM remark
DUP man ‘enabled’ racists
A DEMOCRATIC Unionist MP has been accused of enabling racism after labelling an edition of Songs Of Praise as the “BBC at its BLM worst”.
In a Facebook post on January 31, Gregory Campbell accused the corporation of bias against white people after he claimed the religious programme featured too many black faces.
The East Londonderry MP’S post stated: “Just watched BBC TV Songs of Praise which this week was Gospel Singer of the year semi final.
“This I’m afraid was BBC at its BLM worst. There were five singers, all of them black. There were three judges all of them black and one presenter who incidentally was, yes black.
“The singers were all very good but can you imagine an all white line up with an all white jury and presented by a white person ? No, I can’t either.”
Reacting to the post, the North West Migrants Forum said it is “an issue that transcends political concerns and goes to the heart of what kind of society we should all be living in”.
A spokesman added it was “deeply worrying that Mr Campbell can confidently display such conscious and unconscious bias on his social media page”.
They added: “His implicit comments enabled the explicit racism below his post, legitimising explicit white supremacism from the Donald Trump playbook. It is abhorrent and irresponsible.
“Mr Campbell should withdraw those comments and reflect on his own actions and attitudes toward difference.” Sinn Fein MLA Caoimhe Archibald condemned the comments and called on the DUP to “take action” against its MP, adding “there can be no place for racism in society”.
She added: “Gregory Campbell’s disgraceful comments don’t reflect the views of vast majority of the constituents he’d purport to represent.
“Racism, systemic and explicit, needs challenged and called out at every opportunity.
“I have reported these comments to the Westminster Standards Commissioner.
“The DUP need to take action following these offensive comments.”
It’s not the first time a senior DUP politician has been caught up in a race row.
In 2014, the then First Minister Peter Robinson caused a storm with what many viewed as inflammatory remarks about Muslims.
He said: “I wouldn’t trust Muslims to give me spiritual advice, I wouldn’t trust Muslims who are following Sharia law.
“However, I would have no difficulty in trusting Muslims to go down to the shop for me, to give me the right change, to do a lot of other things.”
Mr Robinson’s wife Iris was accused of homophobic slurs when she said in 2008 “homosexuality, like all sin, is an abomination”.
The former MP for Strangford was later exposed as having conducted an affair with a teenager.
Mrs Robinson later resigned claiming that she had been suffering from poor mental health.