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Shami Chakrabarti (Director of 'Liberty' pressure group) and silly statements.

2 votes
?
by ClicheGuevara

Some of you may have read that Shami Chakrabarti, the oddly attractive Director of Liberty (www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk), got into a bit of strop yesterday.

She has in the last few days been cosying up to David Davis following his one man crusade against the police state.

Secretary of State for culture, Andy Burnham, commented that the two have been having "late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls".

I laughed rather heartily at this. Shami, it seems did not.

We all know how Liberals love to jump up on their highest of horses but ruddy hell, she's so high up the air has got thin and it's sent her a bit doolally.

She's actually threatened to sue him over it! She thinks Burnham is accusing her and Davis of having an affair and says he is 'debasing a great office of state'.

Bloody hell woman, it was a joke! And a pretty good one at that I thought.

Also, the idea of the Director of Liberty sueing someone for saying something she doesn't like. Pretty hypocritical?

ClicheGuevara | 20 Jun '08, 12:02 | Send note | Report this | Reply

no, not in the slightest

she is 1000% in the right


And for anyone that cares, here's the letter she wrote:

I am writing in relation to your recent article in the ironically titled "Progress" magazine. In that article you set out to smear my dealings with the former Shadow Home Secretary. I must say that I find this behaviour curious, coming as it does from a Cabinet Minister; let alone someone with a partner and family of his own.

By your comments you debase not only a great office of State but the vital debate about fundamental rights and freedoms in this country. Indeed you seem reluctant to engage in that debate except in this tawdry fashion.

I look forward to your written apology as I’m sure does Mrs Davis. If on the other hand you choose to continue down the path of innuendo and attempted character assassination, you will find that the privileged legal protection of the parliament chamber does not extend to slurs made in the wider public domain. The fruits of any legal action will of course go to Liberty(the National Council for Civil Liberties).


Seems to be quite reasonably

if a little strongly, worded. To put her down as silly, then, seems to be a little patronising and, together with Mr Burnham's comments, might even be described as subtly sexist?

Who knows? Who really cares?


oddly attractive?

She looks like a little boy. Oh.


she's one of my top 10 crushes

i used to see her about LSE a lot. hot.


I agree with you that it is pretty hypocritical

I've never liked her. Even when she says sensible things. It might be because she's Asian.


i find her oddly attractive also

i made a mental note of this when she was on have i got news for you

and david davis is the most lulz man in politics


she was really crap

on HIGNFY though


also me too

in the finding her oddly attractive.


i dont know who she is?

quick run down please


Take an issue

Any issue. Any issue at all.

She'll be on the news complaining regardless of what action is being taken on the matter


Dianne Abbot

where principles apply to everyone in everything they do all the time, except herself.


a dark skinned woman?

is this a joke meths?


Head honcho at 'look how liberal we are!'

pressure group Liberty, spends her life getting overly irate about things like the above topic on Question Time.

The single most left-wing person in the entire world, to the point where even if I actually agree with the vague thrust of her argument, she makes me want to don a BNP IZ BRILL t-shirt and string her up by the fanny flaps from Brian Haw's nostrils and throw her infront of a Shell tanker travelling at top speed down Parliament Hill.


she has a point that he is bringing the debate down

which is generally what right wing people do when confronted with women who care about things so apparently air-headed as civil liberties. They also bring it down by making comments about the woman in question's attractiveness.


There is absolutely no basis for this statment.

And you look a bit silly.


Why?


the answer is:

he's got a bigger brain than you


shucks


Not really

"Late-night heart-melting" phone calls is pretty obviously a joke about them fancying each other. Which wouldn't be an issue if it were two men agreeing on an issue. Pretty patronising.

But being patronised is not grounds for a lawsuit.


im new here

but the author of this thread is obviously a bit of a dick.


we've all been there.

you may come to appreciate the flavour that he brings to the boards, as often it keeps things interesting.

otherwise take bamos' wise words to heart:
http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/3505532#r3505799


which translates as:

"oh, cod. someone has said something i can't argue with but i have to respond. i'll just tell them they're wrong and look silly. that'll make it look like i have a big penis."


Fine, i'll respond if I must.

'he is bringing the debate down
which is generally what right wing people do when confronted with women who care about things so apparently air-headed as civil liberties.'

Um except, the accusation is that she is having sexy dealings with DAVID DAVIS, the man who is renowned in the Tory party for being able to appease the harder right grass roots of the Conservatives more than anyone else.

Also, Margaret Thatcher? The Tories seemed to quite like her. Don't remember anyone thinking she was an airhead. And she was all about civil liberties, 'rolling back the frontiers of the state' and all that jazz.

Also, 'right wing people'? Burnham is a Labour MP who, I believe, joined the Labour party because of his disgust at the treatment of miners in the 80s and is a member of two trade unions?

That's why the statement is silly.


"Margaret Thatcher was all about civil liberties"

I'm sorry. That really is the silliest thing you've ever written ever. You can't be serious about that one.


I am serious yes.

Why would you think otherwise?


well seeing as you're on the subject of miners strikes

how about the rights of workers? she deliberatelty prepared, set up, and executed a brutal war against an entire industry. and in the process undermined a fundamental right of workers to organise themselves.
civil liberties isnt all about economic liberalism, its about fundamental unchangeable rights. These do not include making money


Now you've done it

CG doesn't respond to good points


She wasn't

if you happened to be Chilean


yeah i forgot that bit

tou-fucking-ché(guevara puns are not interesting)


right wing people

reffered to you. you are the one making the diatribe.


and

"rolling back the frontiers of the state" was not really about civil liberties. And i dont know Burnhams background, but when you say you "believe" thats why he joined the labour party, do you mean, you're having a guess?


Not sure I agree.

There's a hint of condescension in Burham's words; an implication that if a man and a woman are talking passionately about issues, there must be something going on. Why does it matter that the conversations are 'late-night?' Do male political figures not speak to each other after 10pm?

To this end I'm now thinking about Cameron and Brown talking to each other on big pink novelty phones; lying on their bellies on their respective beds in their dressing gowns; feet raised in the air behind them; twirling the phone cords round their fingers.


I dislike Shami Chakrabarti intensely

She encapsulates much of what I hate about the left: hypocrisy, over-sensitivity and detachment from the real world.


NOT

LEFT
WING


I'm told it is bad form

to want to punch a woman; I claim Shami should be excepted on the basis that she is a massive moron.


Not when she offends

every thinking bone in my body massively! ;)


bones dont think

but maybe your brain's not much competition


She's probably on the news now

citing sexism in you not punching her because she's a woman


This can be sorted out post haste

Give me an opportunity to inform her of my thoughts on her positions on most everything.


my general comment on her:

don't like her. She was an embarrassing twat on HIGNFY.


Yeah, she's annoying.

The worst kind of humourless ideologue with with lots of "principles" and no arguments.


angry indie kids

slagging off the head of a pressure group that campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights.

She must be really upset, such is the level of vitriol.


The sad fact is

she probably is upset. I imagine she goes on a protest if her flatmates polish off the rice krispies and don't go and buy a new pack before morning


Are all the comments on this thread serious?

I pity you all if they are


Pitying people who disagree with you

is a very Chakrabati-esque thing to do.


How do you know I disagree with you?

I stated that some of the posts here are hardly reasoned, serious responses as to why people dislike her

You yourself even have implied that you dislike her because she is asian. Now thats balanced, reasoned arguement


I think most people

have abandoned the idea of having balanced, reasoned debates in CG's threads. I only pop along for the comedy.


HAHAHA

Bucketload of salt required?


You've lost me.

Are you gritting the roads lest we have a frost?


I got that.

I'm just unsure what I'm supposed to be taking with a pinch of salt. Him? You? Myself?

I'm confused. I'm off to visit pocketmouse's room with a loaded gun.


This whole thread

and the number of ridiculous responses

Does CG just post this kind of crap to generate this kind of utter bollox?


It's is reasoned

My reason is - she's Asian.


^ Here's my reasoning

You're a racist dickhead


How am I racist?

Asia isn't a race.


ZING!

Pigfoot wins!


Does he fuck

Bigoted, xenophobic idiots - he dislikes her based on her origins/ethnicity, thats not a reason to dislike anyone


I don't hate her because of her

origins/ethnicity. Stop putting words in my mouth, please. I hate her because she's Asian. In my opinion. That's all it boils down to.


Would you hate her if she were European?

Or American? Or African?


I don't know

I don't think so. I don't see how it's relevant. She's not. She's Asian.


Of course its relevent

You've said you dislike her because she is Asian. Not because of what she stands for, her policies, her idealogy etc. You dislike her because she happens to differ from you because she is from a different part of the world.

You've now stated that you wouldn't dislike her if she were not Asian. Meaning that your reasoning for disliking her is shallow and based solely on the fact that she is different from you.

Sounds like bigotry to me


It's not bigotry

I don't hate her because she's "from Asia" like your ridiculously saying. I hate her because SHE'S ASIAN. Do you see the difference there? Subtle one but very important...


If she were Black/Chinese

You'd still hate her?

There is NO difference in your distinction


Asian - definition of

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Asian

1. A native or inhabitant of Asia.
2. A person of Asian descent.
Usage Note: Asia is the largest of the continents with more than half the world's population. Though strictly speaking all of its inhabitants are Asians, in practice this term is applied almost exclusively to the peoples of East, Southeast, and South Asia as opposed to those of Southwest Asiasuch as Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Kurdswho are more usually designated Middle or Near Easterners. Indonesians and Filipinos are properly termed Asian, since their island groups are considered part of the Asian continent, but not the Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians of the central and southern Pacific, who are now often referred to collectively as Pacific Islanders.


Look at it this way

Osama Bin Laden - prick - Asian
That Korean bloke - prick - Asian
Robert Mugabe - prick - Asian

It's not a coincidence.


Hahaha.

Now I know for sure you are joking, congratulations on precipitating another cringing display of complete ignorance to irony, sarcasm etc.

I never know whether I enjoy the show or not. Sort of like that part in Peep Show where Mark Corrigan wakes up to being raped by a dyke.


You should see how smug I get

when I'm doing it.


doing what?


Doing that ^ up there

Winding people up, like.

I didn't even mean to do it there. I just couldn't be bothered to explain the first comment wasn't serious and then it became a question of how long I could go without him cottoning on. I thought "How am I racist?
Asia isn't a race." would do it, but no. And then it was just a downward spiral.


:D

I hate you.


I don't think someone called Gringo

should be lecturing anyone about these matters.

Now fuck off.