They have form of course but really, what on earth is going on when police get called in for such a stupid reason. No wonder we have no money for hospitals and schools.

I couldn’t agree more JK.

Joe Anderson, the Labour Mayor of Liverpool, who reported McKenzie to the police for his “gorilla” analogy (ray-cist hate speech, of course), stands exposed as yet another of our intolerant little army of offence entrepreneurs, gleefully taking offence on behalf of others.

McKenzie’s column in the Sun didn’t strike me as racist, especially given the fact that he says he had no idea that Barkley had a Nigerian father. If this is true, and I have no reason to suppose it isn’t, he was not using the gorilla analogy in a remotely racially derisive way.

I personally found his remarks about Liverpudlians incomparably more unpleasant than anything he said about Ross Barkley (Barkley doesn’t look obviously of mixed race to me). I’m not fond of the tendency to take the piss out of people for being poor.

My take on this is that being gratuitously offensive is morally wrong, but should be legally protected. When law enforcement officers start policing language, as they do in their vigilant hunt for imaginary hate words in social media, they seem to me to be acting as agents of today’s custodians of Newspeak: the neurotic PC social justice warriors who want to manipulate language and tell everyone what they are permitted to say and what they must keep to themselves. RIP free speech.

How did these swivel-eyed totalitarians get to be in charge?

yes coppers a waste of time for the ghastly Kelvin..should let time take it's course.

He's a ghastly prat and Rupert really is showing that he's losing the plot by paying the old bore for his rubbish seeing The Sun has lost 1.7 million readers in the last 5 years.

The red-haired one wants to get rid of McKenzie as she thinks he's a waste of space & despite her failings she does know what sells and McKenzie doesn't - he's a dinosaur.

It will be fascinating when Rupert goes to His Maker (his mom lived to 101 but father died young) as sons Lachlan & James will go through all the News' entities like a dose of salts.

I can understand people who don't like Kelvin's approach although, obviously, I have a soft spot for him - he was a terrific Editor during my time as a columnist and the paper was a joy to work for, always paying promptly and respecting copy. But I find this "taking offence at anything and howling with ironic hatred" incredibly silly and further examples of superficial world. Not only is the answer "get over it" 99% of the time but it deflects attention from far more offensive and dangerous behaviour like British police and media and politicians and courts. I'm sure this footballer would be much less pleased to experience a Ched Evans type crime than being mocked by MacKenzie.

Pretty much agree with all of above comments, McKenzie is an 80s relic who should have been put out to pasture a long time ago.

As for the Sun, I have never, in my life, purchased a copy and never will. It's not even because of the anti-Liverpool stuff (or even for that matter the anti-Irish stuff in the 1980s which they 'quietly' dropped soon after Thatcher relinquised power, hmmm, I wonder why!) it's just that to me it has always epitomised the gutter end of the yellow press - its strategy being to deliberately and knowingly appeal to the basest instincts of the worst educated, most bovine, nastiest and stupidest sector of the British populace.

Is that an elitist/snobby view-point? I hope so!

Popbitch last week suggested that they wanted rid of Kelvin who they reported was on �£300,000 a year.

The timing seems perfect somehow.

I was called racist once for ordering black coffee.

Of course if a black man orders white coffee its not racist.

sndrew wrote:
I was called racist once for ordering black coffee.

Of course if a black man orders white coffee its not racist.

IS THIS A CASE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD???

hedda wrote:
yes coppers a waste of time for the ghastly Kelvin..should let time take it's course.

He's a ghastly prat and Rupert really is showing that he's losing the plot by paying the old bore for his rubbish seeing The Sun has lost 1.7 million readers in the last 5 years.

The red-haired one wants to get rid of McKenzie as she thinks he's a waste of space & despite her failings she does know what sells and McKenzie doesn't - he's a dinosaur.

It will be fascinating when Rupert goes to His Maker (his mom lived to 101 but father died young) as sons Lachlan & James will go through all the News' entities like a dose of salts.

Way I'd see it, the inner core of the British establishment have always hated Murdoch and viewed him as an opportunist arriviste usurper.

I would give Murdoch one thing, he has been consistent in his republicanism and advocacy for meritocracy and I still wonder about the kidnapping case of his first wife and who was really behind it.

The knives came out during the Leveson inquiry, I always thought it was interesting that it was the British Royals that were really driving it and not the 'shock outrage' regarding the alleged hacking of Millie Dowler's mobile phone, which was a front story that was put out there to create public shock and outrage.

The family business dynamic is also fascinating. They've had their ups and downs, but they've been a hell of a lot more successful that any other family business I've observed.

None of Rupert's wives have ever been kidnapped but i wouldn't be surprised if one of his wives wish he was.
# I think you are confusing the kidnapping of Muriel McKay who was mistaken for Rupert's second wife Anna Torv.

He's a treacherous old bastard armed with some charm and a smile and a huge dagger to plunge into your back at any time.

Rupert's not a Republican..he's nothing except a power mad loony who manipulates and destroys those he chooses to, switching loyalty to any political party he thinks will grant him privileges and power.
He does however hate the entire British "establishment" from HM The Queen downwards...and thinks the 'ordinary' people who read his rags are "proles and fuckwits".

My 2 fav snaps of Rupert taken with my Box Brownie. The first one keeps selling in China for some odd reason where Rupert isn't very popular. The 2nd was 5 seconds before he said "where are you from" and I told him as he responded.."well fuck off then !"


He'll never come out on top with Jerry though..those Texan gals know how to handle a man !!