Iain Dale is worried he is being seen as a racist – it is up to him to clear his name

By Derek Draper

This morning, after his shameful appearance on the Today programme, and equally shameful blogpost, LabourList removed Iain Dale’s Diary from our blogroll. We said:

“10.00 am Ashcroft sock puppet Iain Dale has defended Carol Thatcher and the use of the word “Golliwog”. See, even the nice seeming ones are nasty underneath. On the Today programme he said Adrian Chiles must hear much worse every week. No, Iain, he doesn’t. Because he doesn’t make a habit of hanging out with racist Tories. Until Dale thinks again we are suspending his listing on our blogroll. Come on Iain, do the decent thing and admit you got this wrong. Listen to Dale here.”

Iain has now responded, and below is his e-mail, along with our reply. We think the exchange speaks for itself, and we hope he reconsiders his position:

From: Iain Dale
To: Derek Draper
Sent: Wednesday, 4 February, 2009 10:45:44
Subject: RE: fyi

Sorry, but that is pathetic. I have never said that golliwog is an acceptable term. Throwing around accusations of racism like this ought to be beneath you

From: Derek Draper
To: Iain Dale

Sent: Wednesday, 4 February, 2009 10:55:24

I replied:

Subject: RE: fyi

Iain,

I have not accused you of racism.

I have accused you of getting this wrong.

You know you have deep down, so get out and make that clear.

You said:

“The logic of the BBC’s argument is that the very mention of the word ‘golliwog’ is considered racist. Utterly preposterous.”

In what way does that not mean golliwog is an acceptable term?

Iain, i have no reason whatsoever to think you are a racist but you are in danger of defending people and terms that clearly are.

Yhe web and blogging are a fast moving business, when we make a mistake we should accept that.

Take this chance to show you really are the nice guy you seem.

With all personal best wishes,

Derek

UPDATE:

Iain Dale has posted this explanation on his post. I am afraid I had to tell him it was specious:

“Apparently it is this sentence which Draper has latched onto, which I wrote last night…

The logic of the BBC’s argument is that the very mention of the word ‘golliwog’ is considered racist. Utterly preposterous.

The key words here are “the very mention of the word”. So context doesn’t matter. It should be a non word, should it? I studied linguistics at university and one thing I did learn is that you cannot “uninvent” words. You can try to ban them, but it never works. You can make them socially unacceptable and that is what has happened with this word. It’s a word I don’t use either. But the point of my article was that Carol is not racist, something my co-interviewee accepted on Today, and we are told it was a jocular remark. So I completely stand by that sentence. It doesn’t mean that I regard the word is acceptable, it just means that I don’t agree that every time it is mentioned it implies the person saying it is racist. Otherwise there were an awful lot of racists on the 5 Live Phone In this morning.”

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