Bristow’s comments are loathsome and he is an odious individual but, regrettably, is representative of a proportion of the UK population; to be more specific, the english population and a proportion which is more than many would wish to acknowledge.

Exactly. If you go down to my local any evening, (which is by no means some type of flat-roofed shithole) you’ll hear opinions exactly the same as this openly being expressed by the blokes (and they’re ALWAYS blokes) sat at the bar. As well as why everything is the fault of ‘****’s’ ‘queers’ and ‘****. Its why I (and a lot of other people) don’t go in there. I suspect though its pretty similar to a lot of peoples local boozers all over the country.

And in our brave new post-brexit world, where Nigel Farage is crowing over his ‘victory’, and is now setting the agenda for the party in power, these opinions are increasingly legitimised and freely, openly expressed

Do they pay any guests and do they publicise what and who they pay?

No, unless things have changed a lot since I was there. Doesn’t stop the w***** asking though.

these opinions are increasingly legitimised

Legitimised is the wrong word they are no more legitimate now but people who hold them are more recently emboldened.

These types of opinions have unfortunately been legitimised. The Leave campaign cynically, in the most shameless and cavalier fashion imaginable, exploited blatantly racism sentiment to suit their own ends. And have since done absolutely nothing to change that, or the national mood ( Enemies of the People, anyone?)

These people are in government, and are crowing over the ‘victory’ that this casual flirting with intolerance has delivered them, and look like they’re only warming to their nationalist xenophobic theme.

If that isn’t legitimised then I don’t know what is

None of what you said makes the word “legitimate” appropriate imo, but its a minor issue.

Remove the oxygen of publicity from Bristow and others – and terminate any/all media contracts.
This will not remove the vermin or eliminate their views but it will be a start.

Not that I’m against any of those suggestions but is that the start of the suppression of free speech? Free speech unfortunately works both ways, we have to allow comment from people we agree with and people we don’t.

Can’t decide if Bristow saying what he said to a wider audience is
a) good, because now a lot of people will realise the kind of person he is, or
b) bad, because he is confirming what other likeminded people also think.

We have to allow comment but we don’t have to listen to it or be prevented from condemning it, either.

Rachel

We have to allow comment but we don’t have to listen to it or be prevented from condemning it, either.

Completely agree.

The more stupid arguments and ideas can be refuted the better for all of us.

he is what i like to call a ‘weapons grade bellend’

+1 to what breatheasy says. Look at American TV, the main broadcasters are so restricted (both by federal regulation and by fear of lawsuits or advertisers leaving) about what can be broadcast that it’s incredibly bland. As a result you get the extreme right-wing shock jock stations appearing that essentially feed the intolerant views of their viewers and listeners.

Compare with the UK where national broadcasters have a freer hand and there’s much less shock-jock style stations. I don’t know of any but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

LBC has farage and hopkins

And what do we do when confronted with it?

“You are a stunningly unpleasant turd of a man” would seem to cover it…

Piers Morgan not taking any shit, Suzanna Reid biting tongue and Fat Bristow demonstrating that he is indeed a prize bellend.

Morgan meets his intellectual equal and the irony of him telling Bristow not to call Reid “darlin”

He’s on the tellybox in the morning with Piers Morgan, that’ll be interesting.

An unedifying experience, I don’t know about ‘interesting’. Thankfully, morning TV is something I’ve never found myself in the position of actually being able to watch; the desire to watch it isn’t something that would ever enter my mind.
Just having Piers Morgan on the screen would have me scrabbling for the remote, otherwise I’d be tempted to throw things at the screen; not a good idea.

I listened to the interview this morning and have just read the comments on the page linked above.
How the hell can anyone stand up for the man?
I don’t particularly like Piers either, but when faced with an odious **** like Bristow spouting all kinds of rubbish, how can you not want to have him publicly humiliated for his lack of humanity?
If there was one person who would not give up until he got a public apology from him this morning, it was Piers.

According to some bloke in the spectator bristow has a very good point, while acknowledging pretty much everything he did actually write was wrong, he says the underlying subtext which Eric meant (something about not going to the media about clandestine abuse) was bang on the money.

Apparently.

Oh and all you lot slagging him for being a bellend are just a lynch mob promoting self censorship and killing free speech.

Okay….here goes, never been on the receiving end of abuse as a child, there was the usual pushing and shoving from the playground bully but an adult never sexually violated me.
Maybe it does something to the victim mentally so that they are never able to face down and exact revenge/justice on the perpetrator despite growing up bigger and stronger than the former attacker….is there a power dynamics there that is hard wired and virtually impossible to break?

My own life experiences where people have intentionally tried to get one over on me either by doing the dirty on me career wise, a previous girlfriend who had an affair or a business/tradesman ripping me off have all resulted in the same thing from me….a cold, delayed well thought out response that has ranged from the perfectly legal setting someone up for a fall and making them look incompetent at work to burning down the outbuildings and cars of the chap my ex had her affair with….i’ve also used anonymous websites like crimestoppers to draw attention to people who have crossed me and i know are uo to no good, ditto the HMRC when a former boos screwed me over but was also playing fast and loose with all her employees finances.

There are ways and means to get back at people, Bristow was clumsy with his comments but i get where he’s coming from….why do victims of child abuse seem so slow to come forward for help/revenge even as adults?!

why do victims of child abuse seem so slow to come forward for help/revenge even as adults?!

Because you have, as you put it, been violated. It is the most painful and traumatic memory of your young life. You may have been told by someone with power over you that your parents would be hurt if you told, or that no-one would believe you, and feel shame despite it not being your fault. You are alone trying to cope with it. So you stick it away as deep as you can in the furthest recesses of your memory, and try to live day to day as best you can.

With respect, it’s not the same as being ripped off financially or betrayed by a partner.

deviant – you’ve hit the nail on the head

You haven’t been a victim of child abuse so you have absolutely no idea whatsover what happens to the psychology of the abused child as they become an adult

Your experiences of ‘trauma’ imposed by others upon you as an adult are as far away from child abuse it’s possible to get..

Like the difference between stubbing your toe on your ikea coffee table and getting disembowelled by a bear whilst stranded alone on the arctic tundra

I also have no experience but from what ive heard – A lot of the abusers are in positions of authority either professionally or a trusted member/friend of the family. People of authority have a big effect on children*, the children also know they are already in authority so more likely to be believed than you. In later life there are also all sorts of long lasting psychological effects that people react to very differently.

Some abusers no doubt do grow up and exact their revenge & which could well land them in prison, others will grow up and report the abuse and depending on whether the abuser is still in a powerful position may not be believed.

I’m sure its very complicated and sweeping generalisations don’t help.

* hence why people get so worked up if teachers start imparting dubious “knowledge” to their kids

I would guess as child being abused by someone who threatens to murder your family is both terrifying and confusing. As that gives way to young adulthood there’s probably no clear line where the childhood fears disappear completely.

By the time the boy has become a man large enough to enact revenge a lot of time may have past and mental barriers or coping mechanisms might have been put up. I’m sure there have been cases where the victims of child abuse get revenge on their abusers but it’s probably few and far between.

as I understand it, the abuse is not neccesarily the violent act that we assume it to be

the paedophile can convince their victim that the relationship is healthy and loving..

the paedophile can convince their victim that the abuse is a result of the victim’s failings as a human being..

the paedophile can convince their victim of anything that they want to
all of this can be mixed in with threatening and violent behaviour

the victim then has to take all these terribly confusing thoughts into adulthood in secret and deal with them alone
this can lead to a misplaced sense of loyalty to the paedophile, a crushing sense of shame and guilt, self loathing, you can imagine the sort of confused thinking

or it may just simply be a case that the victim has made a life for themselves and is unwilling to subject themselves or their family to a perceived sense of stigma and media bombardment, or it may just be that they don’t want to burden anyone with the horror of their feelings, or that they don’t want to relive the ordeal

this sort of stuff doesn’t take a genius to work out

I’ve seen big tough men reduced to whimpering wrecks at the thought of confronting their abuser

as I understand it, the abuse is not neccesarily the violent act that we assume it to be

the paedophile can convince their victim that the relationship is healthy and loving..

the paedophile can convince their victim that the abuse is a result of the victim’s failings as a human being..

the paedophile can convince their victim of anything that they want to
all of this can be mixed in with threatening and violent behaviour

It’s standard behaviour in any abusive relationship I think. Considering how frequently it plays out between adults (transpose the word “paedophile” with “partner/spouse” above), the ease with which adults can manipulate children is a magnitude greater. Of course, it is also during the part of the life where they are growing up, so they don’t necessarily know it isn’t normal therefore the persuasion element is even smaller than that required by adult to adult abusers.

I’m kind of staggered that there is such a lack of empathy to victims of all types of abuse really. It’s the age old “Why don’t they just fight back?”, “Why don’t they ask for help?” and all the rest of the victim blaming responses that get churned out. When really we should be asking “Why did the abuser rape/abuse?” difficult question to answer though.

yunki

as I understand it, the abuse is not neccesarily the violent act that we assume it to be

One of the victims said he forced two boys to perform sex acts on each other and if they didn’t comply he would murder their parents.

I just picked my kids up from school and it reminded me of some things. I had a P.E teacher who regularly punched us, I even remember he lifted one boy off the floor by his throat for forgetting his kit. They boy pissed himself he was so frightened. Things you just forget. Well, years later I went back to the school to visit my old art teacher and the same P.E teacher was now Principal.
He saw me first and made a bee line toward me, started aggressively demanding to know what I was doing there and despite the fact that I was then a man in my 20s, 30+ years his junior, he used aggression and his position of authority to wrong foot me and intimidate me into leaving very very quickly.

Obviously this is absolutely not comparable to the case we’re discussing but looking back on it now, I’m amazed how I let him intimidate me like that. I just thought he was being his usual asshole self, but he knew exactly what he was doing.

Ahh, glad I missed the 70’s in the UK..

If you’d been there you’d know that it wasn’t very different. Take look at the EU referendum thread and tell me Brits are any less xenophobic.

Have a look at male/female stereotypes in adverts and tell me we’ve moved on from the Pirelli calendar. Chests are scantily covered now but women are still portrayed as mothers or bimbos (see Breitling ads).

The difference IMO is that Britain is now divided between those that know how to hold their tongues because they know they shouldn’t be saying some things and the Bristows. Underlying attitudes haven’t changed and more thugs have a sense of impunity. In fact I’m tempted to say there’s never been as much hate in Britain in my lifetime and statistics support that: Racism on the railways Homophobic hate crimes increase (by 147% according to Washington post)

I’d broadly agree with Edukator there.

Piers Morgan not taking any shit, Suzanna Reid biting tongue and Fat Bristow demonstrating that he is indeed a prize bellend.

Just read the comments under the video – Jesus there are a lot of idiots out there! 😯

Just read the comments under the video – Jesus there are a lot of idiots out there! 😯

Some of the deeper analysis threw up some good points.

stephen f 1 day ago

His flabby neck is truly disgusting
😆

Some truly disturbing reading – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38218377

Bob Higgins officially a risk to children and yet they kept employing him at football clubs.

I heard the Redknapp interview on the radio this morning and I thought it was disgraceful. “There were rumours but I wasn’t at the club at the time and surely someone would have done something about it and if Lawrie McMenemy had known he’d have done something and there was no evidence and…..”

It’s always someone else’s job. I’ve said this a few times recently, about society in general in respect of Graham_S being reported to social services, about standing up to people parking on the school zigzags, and yes (can of worms I know) about the creeping rise of racism / xenophobia post you-know-what.

It’s not someone else’s job, Harry, it’s OUR job to make sure this kind of thing is not tolerated. Leaving it to someone else is almost like accepting it.

If we want society to exist WE have to create it.

Bystander apathy, there’s a lot of it about – see Kitty Genovese, and it’s not just ‘Arry, it’s not just other people, it’s all of us (well, most of us. Including me, I’m crap).