"And Don't Forget the Joker!"

By all means sack Gerald Howarth for his crude and insensitive manner, but also for his unfeasibly cack sense of humour too, please:

Ministers want Gerald Howarth dismissed after he reportedly joked about a friend who is "as black as the ace of spades".

Labour said the shadow defence minister’s remarks were "offensive and tasteless" and showed he was unfit to hold his front-bench post.

'Calls to sack Tory MP for 'tasteless' race joke'


C'mon, you must be joking. I happen to know that the Man-In-Whitehall is as pale as a sheet. Thats a non-derogatary allusion, its not racist or demeaning. Nor was Howarth's comment. If you lot had been around in Shakespeare's day English would be a very boring politically correct dead language.


My point was more that the joke was just crap. I don't know why Tory frontbenchers feel the need to load their speeches with jokes (cf. Liam Fox and the Spice Girls), especially when they involve delicate subjects (cf. Ann Winterton and the cocklers), as it's bound to backfire on them. Basically, it's self-proclaimation as being stuck in the era of Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson, two fellows who are as funny as cancer.

Besides, Gerald Howarth's views on General Pinochet are much more offensive than him having a laugh at his bezzie mate's self-deprecation.