And can you guess why?

I'll save you the effort.

None of the cast in the episode were white.

Or to put it another way, all of the cast were black.

250 complaints.

Hats off to the BBC press department though, for this terrific response.

Honestly. Why bother complaining?

Because they are twisted, hateful fuckers.

This is why the BBC should pay absolutely no attention to complaints. The way they crumbled over the Jonathan Ross thing pissed me off monumentally. I would have come out and said "we got 3 complaints, those other people never heard the show". Now every comedy performer has to second guess what he can say on the channel, when it should really be up to the editor to take bits out that go wrong.

What IS unusual about it is that it's the first time in precisely 24 years that the cast in an episode of Eastenders has born any kind of resemblance to the ethnic makeup of the East End of London.

A colleague of mine raised this, yesterday, as he saw it had been listed as a text vote in the Metro last Thursday. He looked up the results on-line (I think they scan the paper in a leave it on-line for a few days) and was concerned to find:

"Do you think Eastenders was right to broadcast an episode with an entirely black cast?"

YES: 45% NO: 55%.

I am greatly disturbed by that result.

Yep, old-fashioned racism is back in fashion. The most cursory glance at Sickipedia is enough to confirm that. Luckily for society, the BNP are too stupid to take any sort of advantage from this.

Oh, how I wish that were true. These times are shortly to be their best "prospect" since Enoch Powell; barely a day goes by when I'm on one site[1] or other when I don't get treated to some pro-BNP sermon/tirade by a total stranger. Doubly offensive, given that these totally random people seem to all assume that *I* would have some empathy with this...? (I know I'm white, burly and bald, but for heaven's sake)

The latest rant seemed to be suggesting that, in places like Rochdale and Preston, some 60%+ of all private housing are classed as 'places of worship' by their (presumably Muslim) occupiers, and as such are exempt from Council Tax, pushing up the rates for everyone else. Is there any truth whatsoever in this claim, or is it just another example of racist myth?


********* IMPORTANT EDIT:

[1] "site" as in Building Site, not website! Cripes, just realised this error... I don't frequent racist websites or chatrooms... Er.

Me too, there should be a "Why does it even matter?" option.

Before we get too worried, we should consider what kind of people respond to such polls, and how many responded - if it's 45% and 55% of anything less than about a thousand (I think), then we don't consider it representative.

Having sat through that particular episode, it didn't really matter if it was all black asian or white, as it wasn't particularly great anyway. They had a plot about Patrick being involved in the 1958 riots and a Racism subplot that was simply inane and heavy handed. Mind you it was Shakespeare compared to the episode where Shirley and Heather broke into George Michael's gaff. Now that I would have complained about as it was fucking shit.

Close, if they wanted to do something like that they should have had an episode that focused on the Masood family rather than the Trueman's, but I'll give 'em' a 3 for effort.

In times of greater hardship incidents of racism rise, so this doesn't surprise me.

It depresses me, but then, so does the fact Eastenders is broadcast[1] at all.

Top marks to whomever came up with the "all-white cast" line though, that did give me a smile.


[1] Three month suspension of the show perhaps, given the number of complains? No? Pity.

I'm going to go with "no."

Oh please don't get me wrong, I am fully expecting this to be utter tosh. I just wondered if there was even a scintilla of truth to it, that's all. Sounds very much like BNP type scare mongering to me.

My ham-fisted 'research' drew a blank.

I think it's absolutely disgusting that there was an all black episode of Eastenders.

Mind you, I think it's absolutely disgusting that there were all white and even some mixed race episodes.

I just fucking hate Eastenders.

I'm having my kitchen designated a place of worship.

*belch*

Mohhh. Should be worth a few quid of the ol' rates then mate, bonus!

I genuinely thought that said "kitten" for a moment there.

Cavey's quite right - economic crisis and even more incompetent and fucked up government than usual? Prime time for fascists making big promises. The BNP are potentially more dangerous now than ever.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't doing the flippant dismissive thing to you, but towards whoever was making the suggestion.

For one, there's no way on Earth that 60%+ of homes in Preston are Muslim. Also, (and it doesn't seem that easy to find an all-encompassing, easily explanation - that's tax for you, hrng,) it looks like for a 'place of worship' to be granted tax exemption, it has to be public and non-domestic.

Can I just say I meant "site" as in building site in my original post... not website, as per edit.

I'd hate to think of anyone presuming I hung around nasty BNP-type websites and/or chatrooms etc., erk.

I've just realised this faux pas...

Cavey

Cavey hangs around nasy racist BNP-type portakabins. Spread the word.

Meh, cheers mate! :D

And even then, it would have to be from a random selection, not a self-selecting poll response.

Does it? Burn the lot of us then, if it's still so ingrained. Me included, and neither my girlfriend nor I noticed until this volume of complaint hit the press and internet.

I normally spend the duration of Eastenders trying not to cry mind - tears of my own failure to break - nay, even dent - her habit after all these years. Woe!

Just going from historical precedent. People looks for someone to blame, and for some reason, many humans find it easier to blame on people "not like them," where the difference is skin color.

That said, this is the kind of thing that traditionally drags out the hard core -- and with the internet, they can spread the word, so to speak. Even given that, the Metro poll only managed 55/45, and 250's way under that BNP membership list (which was ~12,000, I think?), so we shouldn't despair too much yet.

It is sad that people are so hung up on skin color though.

EE is without doubt enough to make a grown man cry for many, many reasons. Still, if that's her biggest failing... <G>

I'd imagine if push comes to shove the Tories can be counted on to do enough sabre rattling to sweep up all the facists into their pocket while not actually gassing the Pols when they get into power.

It's protectionism, rather than specifically racism. The desire to look out for yourselves and those most like you - whether that's colour, class, neighbourhood, or whatever.

No less unpleasant for that, mind.

Wilders [party now largest in dutch polls :(

I seriously doubt it - can't see too many fascists swelling the ranks of David Cameron's forthcoming government somehow.

'Go home but we'll give you a hug you first' ...? :D

Seriously, it's pretty daft to in any way equate mainstream conservatism with fascism. The former is a perfectly legitimite, inclusive, pragmatic, very broad and laudable policial ideology whereas the latter is the precise opposite on all fronts. Plenty of good hearted, decent people hold conservative values, indeed I would say these views are (very broadly) the 'natural' stance of the majority of the English population, a few northern urban cities excepted.

If it wasn't for those damn Scots and Welsh with their useless, lame duck, discredited Socialist politics, we wouldn't have been saddled with this useless, lame duck, discredited government, who have shamelessly and successfully courted this part of the UK electorate in order to gain and hold power. And how much better off we would all doubtless be right now. :D (Joke obv., but you catch my drift!)

Really? Shit... that's very surprising and awful news. :(

I know you shouldn't stereotype, but I always regarded the Dutch as very liberal, tolerant and all round goog eggs. How can anyone in their right mind think along these lines, do they learn nothing from human history?

It just beggars belief, frankly. :(

You know, I can't agree with the second part of that at all. Mussolini and Hitler just gave fascism such a bad name that nobody gives it a chance any more...

Are you serious, Stu? Fuck me. :o

It seems odd that Europe is trending to the right even as America is making its biggest shift to the Left since LBJ (and possibly even FDR...). Counterbalancing, perhaps :)

Well I don't think we can categorise a populist return to outright facsism as simply a somehow benign 'trending to the right' Peter?

Germany 'trended to the right' in the early 30s and look where that led. Fascism is in my view the greatest evil that the world has ever known, i.e. is a metapolitical issue concerning the very worst of innate human nature.

Hold your horses, tiger. Equating the right with fascism is a classic mistake of the lazy debater, and one more commonly made by those on the opposite side to you, ie those pesky lefties. The state portrayed in "1984", for example, is unquestionably fascist, yet rooted in socialism. And the distinction between Stalin's "communist" USSR and a fascist state is so abstract as to be meaningless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Political_spectrum

Sorry, I was talking in the general case, folding in Germany, France, and Italy! Didn't mean to imply otherwise!

Whilst I am unquestionably a 'lazy debater' by my own admission (not least due to time constraints), I don't buy that. You are confusing totalitarianism with fascism in my view. And whilst it's been 25 years since I read 1984, this quite clearly depicted a communist regime very much along the lines of the USSR. (See also Orwell's Animal Farm)

God help you if you are disabled, mentally ill or non productive living in a Fascist society, which purports to be the ultimate embodiment of 'efficiency' and 'survival of the fittest', in all respects - unquestonably 'ultra right wing' concepts minus any safety nets.

Sorry Peter, naturally I didn't think that you of all people was sanguine about the prospect of BNP type politics becoming mainstream in the EU. I was just questioning the terminology 'trending to the right' in the specific Dutch example.

Stu is right in a sense; the whole left/right mainstream descriptor does rather go down the pan at the extremes. No, the swing to Fascism is in my view borne of base human tendencies coming to the fore in times of ever increasing scarcity - scapegoating if you will - rather than actual, bone fide politics. Hence my coining the term 'metapolitics'.

I'm sure the fact that those same scarce resources were the catalyst for Germany's descent into madness back in the 20s and early 30s won't be lost on you either. All very worrying to be sure. :(

That's exactly the point, though. Oceania is by any definition and beyond any rational doubt a fascist state. Making a distinction between "fascist" (when used to mean right-wing) authoritarian totalitarianism and "communist" authoritarian totalitarianism is a deeply foolish pursuit. They are, in every meaningful sense as far as their subjects are concerned, identical. Orwell notes this himself in some detail in the book. Perhaps you should have another flick through it - it is without question the most relevant and pertinent publication to our times currently available.

Hmm, well I know it's been a long while since I read the book, fair enough, but one key factor I think is Orwell's description of the treatment of the proletariat, for example.

In 1984, 'the proles are free', surely a Communist aspiration, certainly not a Fascist one. In the case of the latter, the concept of a debauched, non direct controlled rump of the lower order classes being allowed to basically freely pursue 'non productive' activities as long as they have no aspiration to impinge upon 'The Party' is an anathma to Fascism, which above all preaches an almost puritanical self discipline, most especially to the lower classes, 'efficiency' being absolutely key.

So basically I still maintain that 1984 was surely more to do with a futuristic, nightmarish vision of the evolution of Stalinist Communism/Totalitarianism, than Fascism?

So, a bit like being a labourer working on a collective farm, then?