OT John Humphreys on Mandela

Apologies all, just need to vent on this arrogant, smug, patronising git without sullying the Mandela thread which should be rightfully respectful of one of the very few great men of our time.

Humphreys has just spent 10 minutes inserting the word 'I' into a report on Mandela's death on the grounds that he reported from South Africa occasionally over the past 4 decades. Most cringe making moment a recording of him interviewing a black lady, very eloquent and in control, who was voting in the first free elections and revealed that she was pregnant, with a boy. 'Perhaps he will be the next black president of South Africa' John (real name Desmond) chortled, before pestering her on how she voted. Back in the present day 'She voted ANC of course'.

What is it with the BBC keeping on this 70 year old and that ineffectual idiot Naughtie (thankfully only allowed to talk about Scotland now) when they have some really good journalists working for Today - Webb, Davies, Monatgue and Hussein are all very professional and knowledgeable, plus nimble and humorous when errors are made.

Humphreys used to drink in the Andover Arms on Dalling Road sometimes when I was a regular there in the mid 90's. He was an irritating git then too, thankfully stopped going when he had a kid in his late 50s.

Yet again that oaf has ruined my day. Just waiting for Chuka bloody Umunna to be asked to comment to send my blood to boiling point.

That's better, thank you for your patience.

 

Today programme much better now Michelle Hussein is on it

 

I used to be an avid Radio 4 fan and was a big fan of Humphreys. I think he just got a bit too self important. Nicky Campbell is much more personable and no less incisive when he wants / needs to be.

Hope your spleen feels vented Sb?

 

I am now serene again, perfect state for driving from Leamington Spa to near Glastonbury, via Richmond on Thames, which is my task for today.

 

Are you talking about Nicky "The Ego" Campbell? He is one self-important, smug git too. Meet him and find out.

 

Never met him but that is not my impression from listening to 5 Live. Always seems reasonably even handed to me.

 

Oh he's very opinionated. I guess it depends how closely his opinions match your own. He does seem to have mellowed a little since moving to Manchester...

 

Don't they all?

 

Haven't heard all that Stan complains of, but I have to say I quite like Humphreys (though not Naughtie). His experience gives him the gravitas that others lack. The Entwhistle interview was a classic. And I sympathise with his "Emperor's new clothes" views about the extreme end of modern art.

 

The platitudes we're hearing are a bit of a removal from not all that long ago when the Tories were calling him a terrorist.

There's a number of people who still do. Northern Irish Loyalist's Facebook pages are in near meltdown such is the fervor to condemn the man of being a "murdering scumbag", "a terrorist who killed millions of his own people", "hopefully he'll rot in hell" etc.

What a jolly bunch they are

 

Mmm.............................Thatcher did indeed call him a terrorist, when put on the spot in an interview.

What should also be remembered is the fact that Thatcher was very influential, when a back-bencher, in preventing Mandela from being hanged!

 

Did she have to call him a "grubby little" terrorist though? Wouldn't "terrorist" have been enough?!!!

 

Humphreys good shout for the Prince of ****s but I am still affected by my meeting with Alastair Stewart at a disabled charity event in Bermondsey.

Little short arse up his own arse micro ****er and that daft cow Kate Silverton who i heard with my one ears say of course i know what its like to have no legs ... I have been in a canoe.

The whole lot of them are awful people

 

Do you have a link to that quote?

 

It would appear that is a total fabrication. My search engine came up with "grubby little terrorist" when I typed in "terrorist". Turns out its just some clown adding his own comments underneath this Article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/from-terrorist-to-tea-with-the-queen-1327902.html

There's no need to add on falsehoods when the truth is already quite disturbing as evidenced by the sentiments of all those MP's in that Article.

I should have verified it before I posted it though so my apologies mate.

 

I didn't think she had said that.
She was cornered on the subject and had no choice other than to call Mandela a terrorist, as technically he was (one man's freedom fighter and all that).

 

20-20 hindsight is a handy thing when judging history. Had the national Party succeeded in eradicting the ANC, or had the ANC's aim of destroying the national Party and bringing down the government by force (the charge Mandela was jailed for) it would be interesting to see how history now viewed Mandela and his colleagues.

There's no doubt that once the ANC renounced it's non-violent opposition strategy, terrible acts were committed by both sides. However, Mandela's biggest legacy is the proof that peace, hope, forgiveness and a determination for change can defeat even the most oppressive and violent opponents. It's a shame that Syria doesn't have a Mandela.

 

Mandela was technically a terrorist?

Care to expand?

 

Don't need to.
As I said.........one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Willy put it very well above.

 

So let me get this straight. On one thread you roll out all the usual piffle about how great he was and on another, you call him a terrorist? Good to see Conservatives are still living up to their name.

That's precisely why I haven't commented on that RIP thread because those kind of things attract the worst kind of hypocrite.

So here's the deal. The Africans who were treated disgustingly and reduced to serfdom in Africa by white Europeans are "terrorists" if they have the nerve to fight back yet the scumbag whites who throttled them down via their laws and Army/Police Forces are not. Brilliant logic there COL.

You see this is what I hate. The people who've been caught on the wrong side of history - yet again - refuse to admit they got it horribly wrong (except for David Cameron to be fair to him). Or worse still, they'll outrageously roll out all the platitudes out of one side of their mouth whilst simultaneously saying they were bad 'uns all along. Where's the humility? It was the same with Iraq. The war-mongers told us all they knew what they were doing yet when it all goes tits up and they're looking around for answers, they still point blank refuse to admit they got it all wrong and take it on the chin the way they should. They keep making the same mistakes again and again and won't look inward. COL, the only honorable thing you could possibly do now is to delete what you put up on the other thread because its stomach churning to read it mate.

And while you're at it, try learning from history would you? Why do you do people continue to make the same blunders repeatedly? Every people who've been put down since time immemorial have been called such names by the elite that ruled them if they tried to break their chains. "Terrorist" is the catch-all phrase of today but go back a Century or two and they were called rascals, ruffians, bandits, mobsters, murderers, criminals, rebels, assassins, thugs, gansters, troublemakers, rabble-rousers, firebrands, malcontents, radicals and on and on and on. And Mandela and his people were no different even though its apparent to all but the most right-wing half-wits (or simply racists in some cases) that it was their oppressors who were the terrorists and thugs.

And then you have that other Clampit who nearly topped himself when a professional footballer was called a name on a pitch but is making excuses for his political cronies who labelled Nelson Mandela and other persecuted blacks as terrorists. Then again, is one to expect anything other than odious hypocrisy from the religious right?

Btw, COL, if Thatcher just blurted that out because she was "put in a corner", what about all the other Conservative MP's quoted in that article? Were they forced into a corner an' all?

You backward-ass Tory bluffers don't half wind me up, I'll tell you.