Tory MP Morris should resign for using word even a child would find offensive
The use of a racist word by Tory MP Anne Marie Morris sadly underlines the repellent nature within elements of the political Right.
Her “apology” only accentuates the regressive nature of our post-brexit society and suggests she is anything but apologetic. A seven-yearold child would instinctively know this word is unacceptable within a humane society and I do not believe, for a moment, Ms Morris’s remark was“unintentional ”. as anmp it is assumed she is an educated person and explicitly aware of how language defines us as individuals. It would seem Ms Morris knew exactly what she was saying amongst likeminded Tory Eurosceptics and was testing the boundaries of what is, in the light of the Brexit referendum, socially acceptable.
Theresa May’s perfunctory condemnation of the remark does little to discourage such behaviour and merely shows how low the Tory Party has sunk in recent years.
Anne Marie Morris has proved she is unfit for public office and should resign immediately.
D MITCHELL The Glebe , Cramond, Edinburgh I despair of the delusional standards in public life that can see Anne Marie Morris MP suspended by her party for using an archaic and disgraceful expression, whilst parliamentarians who are economically illiterate or a threat to the nation’s security prosper.
Take the claim beloved of all left wing politicians that the country is suffering from austerity. Given that the national debt is over £1.7 trillion and is growing each year by more than £50 billion, the claim is simply false.
Worse still, any government taking this false claim as a starting point would quickly lead us to national insolvency and being forced to seek assistance from the IMF, as we did in 1976.
Nobody who is both honest and economically literate could make such a claim, and yet there no sanction for the endless repetition of what is in essence a dangerous lie.
Or consider the long, disreputable and well-documented association between several leading politicians and both violent Irish republicans and anti-semitic terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Nobody campaigns for these scoundrels to be shunned or expelled from their party.
In this decadent age, we seem to expect little of our politicians other than the abilities to mouth platitudes and avoid causing offence to liberal opinion; this can only end in tears.
OTTO INGLIS Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh