Good evening.
I read this article run in the Guardian written by Peter Honkyslayer Herbert and my first thought was to blog an open letter to him. But just about all I wanted to say had been said on here. And in the some 150 plus comments that responded to him on the paper’s website at the footer of his piece.
So I got his email from his website and sent a request to interview him. The email bounced back a day later with the message, ‘The recipient server did not accept our requests…’
What I wanted to address with Mr Herbert specifically one particular wild assertion (of many) that he made.
The link between the appalling incidents in Rome and the “Y” word chanting is obvious. The chanting of the word simply legitimises antisemitic abuse by other fans.
The abysmal truth is not as simple and as cartoon like you imply Mr Herbert. It is grim, bloody and revolting. Football fans were drinking the night before a game in a civilised manner. The patrons of the bar they were in were not exclusively football fans. The Drunken Ship is situated in a popular area attracting tourists and locals alike.
Prior to the attack neither the owner or the staff had cause for complaint, no unruly behaviour reported.
What happened next was an unquestionably premeditated, well organised and quite sinister an attack on people who were guilty of no more than ‘having a beer’.
The men that stormed The Drunken Ship bar were armed to the teeth. Baseball bats, sticks and knives. They were wearing helmets and had scarves wrapped about their faces to partially obscure their identity and were pumped up to do physical harm to those in the bar.
The result of the attack hospitalised several people. It seems safe to say at this stage that at least a couple will carry the physical scars of that night for the rest of their lives.
You say the link is obvious yet crucially fail to explain how so. I want you to explain to me how the use of the Y word, in the context of ownership, identity and pride is responsible for a men being scarred for life?
You also mention Mr Baddiel in your piece. I heard him interviewed when he launched his ‘Y Word’ campaign some time ago. He said that was specifically inspired by an incident at Stamford Bridge where a man in the Chelsea end sat behind Mr Baddiel stood up and violently screamed, ‘F___ off you Yid C___!’ towards the Tottenham supporters.
What both these incidents establish beyond any doubt is that the problem is racist scum are frequently incapable of controlling themselves.
It is no great extension of your logic that those seeking align themselves with anything racists don’t like ought to try to ‘blend in’ and not provoke trouble. I read about people being asked to ‘blend in’ during the 1940’s. My grandfather’s response was to repeatedly drop bombs on the ones doing the asking and thanks to his efforts and millions of like minded others that ‘blending in’ idea was cancelled.
You have been accused relentlessly of being a self publicist. You have been widely perceived as a conspiracy theorist. Your email doesn’t work and judging by the pictures on your typo ridden website you only own one suit and one sports jacket. I would suggest to you that while you might have decent ideals at heart, all people are seeing is a man desperately looking for a career springboard but you cannot see that this is not it, Mr Herbert.
A CCTV image football fan singing racist songs on a train was published today in the Evening Standard. Another football fan has been identified from a picture taken a game this weekend of posturing like a monkey towards a black player. The investigation into fans singing about Hitler on Sunday continues.
What is tragic is that whilst it would be unfair to assert that football is inherently racist it absolutely does have a racist element that nevertheless need urgently tackling. But you seem woefully incapable of spotting the bad guys.
Top drawer
Has anyone seen that inglethorpe has left us to join Pool
Can you repeat that please?
You cheeky monkey you.
I posted that about week or so ago-I’m really surprised as Alex has been with us for ages-and has a proven record in bringing the kids through. Given the expenditure on Bulls Cross, I’d have thought keeping one of the main men would’ve been a number one priority?
Has anyone seen that inglethorpe has left us to join Pool?
I’m sending that one off to Bletchley Park.
The guy’s a menace.
With racism on the rise, Peter Herbert decides to focus on the one example that isn’t racist at all. What utterly poor judgement.
It’s now reached a point where he appears to be more interested in building his own name than furthering a particular cause. He wants to be known. He wants to get better seats at the restaurant. Preferential treatment from his peers. And this absurd cause celebre is his means.
If he’s the SoBL’s top man, well, forgive me if I seek representation elsewhere.
For a lawyer-as you say,he’s chosen the wrong hobby horse. If he’d been a clever lawyer-he should have emphasized the fact as to why Spurs fans chose the title and focused his attention on those who hurl the abuse, but again it wouldn’t have got the coverage I guess…or is that cynical of me?
I made a diatribe on DML, and I will re-post it here for the benefit of all.
What Peter Herbert insinuates with these comments is that the cause of this anti-Semitic abuse is due to the mere existence of Jewish Tottenham fans. And what would Mr. Herbert suggest, that Tottenham sever ties with its historically Jewish support? That the fans be forced to adopt a new culture and be ignorant, just because they may be the target of anti-Semitic abuse? Not only is this ideologically counter-productive, but it is both quite anti-Semitic and ignorant.
And on another note, Judaism is not a race. It is an ethnicity at most, and both terms to describe those of the Jewish faith is politically correct. And I say this being Jewish myself. To say Judaism is a race would be to generalize a group of people based on their religion. And that is what we would call prejudice/racist/ignorant/bigoted/, or whatever term loosely defined.
As for me, I am both proud and honored to be a Jewish Tottenham supporter. I have been for years, and I will until I perish. I will proudly say that I am of the Yid Army, and I will stand with anyone else – be it black, white, Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other – who makes up the Army of the club that I love.
Judaism is a religion not a race and as you say an ethnicity at most.
To me the whole discussion is so littered with poorly thought out generalisations about this thing called ‘racism’ by people who mainly say whatever they think the world should hear. They ignore all the vagaries that go along with putting large groups of human beings into convenient little boxes marked this or that.
Look at the Old Firm in Glasgow, you basically aren’t allowed to support one or the other based on the faith you were born into. It’s part of the identity of both clubs to exclude another group of people. What does Mr Sherberts intend to do about that then?
In India, they consider people of lower class to be ethnically different from people with more wealth and you can never marry out of that class. My point is, bigotry exists everywhere on all sorts of different levels and you can only really stamp it out where it spills out into offending others and in a society like ours that can and has the resources to deal with it. Black people can be racist towards whites and it happens. Do you ever see any of that end up in court etc? It’s almost so complex that if feel my head’s going to explode!! I’ve had enough already!!