A moronic comment. He should stick to the spuds.

Perhaps he was trying to be more original than simply mentioning that other well-known Turkish foodstuff?

I think he should be sacked.

I can't see what is racist about the comment. Irritating for the recipient - fair enough but hardly racist.

Would it be racist for someone to tell me to 'stick to the potatoes'?

In a certain context, yes it would Baldrick.
How would you react if an English Minister in the house of commons said that the Irish should stick to Spuds ?

baldrick

of course it was a racist remark. he should be ashamed of himself.

IMO, it is definetly a sacking matter

Conor Lenihan is the Fredo of his political dynasty; it was just a matter of time. He's issued a non-apology apology, but Liveline is crammed with callers calling for his head.

and in any other country would go, but the odds are he'll stay.

This is a guy who called me a left-winger during an RTE show. Cop on is not his strong suit.

edited CG

Comments like that tell us something of his attitude to foreigners and he should go.
However, he can be reasonably confident that FG won't call for his resignation as their own leader has some form in this area. With FG neutered Lenihan will brazen it out.

Southern politicians have a long history of not falling on ones sword.

He should go but he will not

Richard, ball not man ;)

Minister for Overseas Development, indeed.

Of course he should bloody well be sacked. It's grotesquely racist, disgustingly dismissive of the mistreatment of migrant workers, and an outrageous comment for any politician to make, let alone a minister of state responsible for relations with the developing world. FF's true colours showing through.

A disgraceful, nasty, smart-arsed comment by Lenihan. He should resign without a doubt. He's a racist.

Let me get this straight. 'Muppet' is over the ball not man line vis a vis an elected official who is being called that and far worse on the national broadcaster as I write this?

And, moreover - this is a question for Mick - anyone with login rights gets to decide that?

Ambrose began this thread. Chris wades in? I've got a login here. Does this mean I'll be able to start editing randomly?

Rubbish.

Lenihan can be accused of a lot of things in relation to this, and he should be sacked, but it's sad to see people so quick to be judge, jury and executioner with what is one of the most serious accusations that can be made nowadays, i.e. accusing someone of being racist.

It usually puts an end to what could be a useful discussion, and every now and then it means a totally innocent person is labelled as racist because the politically correct are falling over each other to be the first to condemn.

If Joe Higgins had been defending the publicans who wish to allow smoking in their pubs, and Lenihan had said "stick to the cigarettes/pints", which -ism would be be guilty of? He obviously wouldn't be guilty of racism.

What if Higgins had been defending Irish immigrants to the U.S.? You can't really be accused of racism against your own racial group.

Occasional, if you don't see a difference between what Conor Lenihan said today and the other examples you give, why do you think he should be sacked?

As far as I'm concerned, the main issue is not the word 'kebab' itself but it is the context in which the word was used. It was completely racist.

Aren't we over-reacting? Is there any other evidence that this Mr.Conor Lenihan is a racist, or is one glib remark enough to finish your career these days?

It was just a wee joke, I know TDs shoudln't make wee jokes like that, but how many people calling for his head haven't told something at some point that they've regretted.

I should have summed up my comment by adding:

There are plenty of non-racist motivations for criticising a politician for his/her choice of which issue to take up next.

Richard, his motivation may or may not have been racist, but it was quite an ignorant and incompassionate thing to say about the rights of some of the most vulnerable workers.

Of course he should be sacked.

The issue is not after all, simply that he used a stupid and racist stereotype, which may be forgiveable with an apology.

No, he quite clearly was attempting to demean his opponent by deliberately bringing up his association with an ethnic and racial group, and equally clearly, he saw such an association as a matter worthy of rude public scorn. It is the scorn of the racial group which is simply unacceptable.

his obvious ignorance may be temprarily allowable. His equally clear contempt for these turkish workers is not.

He should resign immediately. And Joe Higgins deserves all the praise in the world for the brave manner in which he has dfended the rights of exploited workers throughout this whole GAMA saga.

The words were said off mike, and were probably meant to be witty. Granted not exactly the highest form of wit, but nonetheless not exactly Ron Atkinson territory

"Ambrose began this thread. Chris wades in? I've got a login here. Does this mean I'll be able to start editing randomly?

Rubbish."

Richard I have been asked to moderate, I am not posting on slugger therefore I intend the moderate where I see the need.

If you have a problem with that then see Mick.

Muppet is not the most serious but surely you can advance your argument without resorting to name calling

Moygashel, normally i would agree that a rush to judgement should be avoided. I wasn't in favour of Kevin Myers being publicly flogged, sacked or prosecuted for incitement to hatred.

There is however no doubt about what Lenihan said, and little doubt about its intent, which Beach Tree has just admirably explicated. And he's in charge of Overseas Development aid. On political, not moral, grounds, he should lose that gig.

His fitness to represent Ireland on the international stage is in severe doubt as a result not just of the remark, but the slithery non-apology apology that fails to acknowledge that the remark was wrong, or why.

The most productive thing to happen - which Higgins has cannily hinted at - would be for Lenihan to apologise in person to the GAMA workers, and to actually lobby for a resolution in their favour.

But as he's a ______, that's unlikely.

Listen lads calm down. I've not written up guidelines for moderators yet.

Can you just hold fire for now?

Chris, i hadn't known you'd been made moderator. Congratulations. But your editorial judgement here is dead wrong.

"Chris, i hadn't known you'd been made moderator. Congratulations"

Go raibh maith agat

"But your editorial judgement here is dead wrong."

I call it as I see it ;)

1 it's racist

2 he should resign

3 if he doesn't he should be sacked

A stupid, smart-arse comment. However, I think in being morally outraged and labelling a silly thing like this racist, we trivialise the very real racism that exists in Ireland.

Speaking as someone who has the 'pleasure' of having Conor 'The Brain' Lenihan as a local T.D, this remark is not surprising.

I'll try and play the ball as much as possible here, but to be fair Conor wouldn't be the sharpest tool in the Shed. That said he has several things in his favour in terms of political advancement in ROI politics.

1. Conor is an ex-Journalist and gets a fairly easy ride from a number of his ex-colleagues.

2. He is part of a political dynasty.

3. Giving him a junior ministry was pure bertie politics. He didn't give his more able brother a Senior portfolio because he views him as a possible threat, but he softened the blow and deflected any 'anti-lenihan' allegations by giving the 'idiot son' a junior ministry.

4. He has, in the best FF tradition, a neck like a Jockey's Bxxxxx, with regard to his hearse chasing and other parish pump staples.

A fine example of FF lobby-fodder.

oh for goodness sake ,are there still people out there who can envisage any circumstance ,situation or revelation no matter how bad that would force any of those corrupt people to resign.drink driving ,computer vote fiasco ,brown envelope ,tax evasion in mayo,care home overcharge,judge brian curtain etc etc etc

Curcles

Ball not Man/Woman

Exactly Sean - in the great scheme of things he's done very little wrong :)

He should resign because the remark is most definitely racist; he should be sacked if he does not resign because the remark is not only racist but demonstrates exactly the wrong attributes required to fulfil his post adequately.

IN a normal society where people thought normally he would be forced to resign ,but lets face it his racist comment is in harmony with what the majority of people in the south think ,make no doubt about it the southern Irish have their own forms of bigotry -- towns,villages even cities where your still regarded as a blowin for ten generations,the mac dowell citizenship referendum passed by over80%, those suspicious looks when they hear a northern accent ,the little comments northerners get -are u glad to be out of there,the north should be cut off and let float out to sea etc etc.he should resign but he wont

From what I've seen of the junior Lenihan, I'd be inclined to go along with what pswaine said above. He frequently gives the impression of not putting the brain into gear before engaging the mouth. But he'd hardly be alone in that in the political world.

Should he resign because of the remark itself?

I'm not entirely sure. I doubt if he was intending to refer to the GAMA workers as "kebabs". It was a stupid remark from someone who opened his gob before he thought of the consequences. Joe Higgins (not in the least bit stupid) had referred to the FF backbenchers as "lambs", and I imagine that the younger Lenihan's brain performed a bit of impromptu word association in an effort to be "witty". He has issued an apology.

Should he have been given a Ministry - any Ministry - in the first place?

Simple answer. No. And today illustrates why.

the bottom line is that people will vote for him in even greater numbers as will be the case with roundabout mc daid .strange mentality ,but it has precedents =lowry -when my car repayments were overdue by 50 the bank of Ireland were treatening repossession garret fitzgerald had a loan of 3oo,oo wrote of by the same bank, last week i got fined for a tyre that was slightly bald ,what would happen if i got drunk and drove down the wrong side of a roundabout. im rapidly coming to the conclusion that anyone who had any integrety from the 26 left years ago

His remarks were certainly racist, and unacceptable, he should go.

Off topic and removed [moderator]

Comment removed as offending post to which you were responding has been removed [moderator]

HAVE ALL THE BLOGGERS TAKEN THE NIGHT OFF THE, WHERE IS EVERYONE

Exams

ILL LET U STUDY IN PEACE THEN ,GOOD LUCK TO ALL BLOGGERS SITTING EXAMS IN NEXT FEW WEEKS

Chris

Exams have nothing to do with the topic being discussed

Can a moderator remove his own posts ?

A question was posed an answer was given :p

In relation to "your" question, which is also off topic=yes ;)

Chris

Only jesting

It is getting a bit ridiculous,though.

http://dictionary.reference.com defines the word ‘race’ as including:
A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: e.g. the German race.

I would suggest that the republican movement in Ireland has been conducting a systematic and violent campaign against the British race. Does this not constitute racism?

I stand to be corrected, and indeed enlightened, but I fail to understand why my previous comment was considered off topic, and deleted. Do only silly words by a careless politician count as racism?

To answer the question, should he resign? I would say, Not at all. Many politicians in the north have done a lot worse things, and yet we are expected to let them have positions of power.

"I would suggest that the republican movement in Ireland has been conducting a systematic and violent campaign against the British race. Does this not constitute racism?"

Would you agree that the reverse is also true.

We are discussing the remarks by Mr Lenihan and whether he should resign. Whataboutery is off topic, as were comments about ID cards. Suggestions for blogs should be sent to Mick by e mail. The problem wasn't with the suggestion, but with the comments that followed which could have taken the thread onto a totally different subject. Moans about censorship will be deleted. If anyone thinks they have been unfairly treated, contact Mick.

There was a Turk on RTE at lunchtime laughing off the incident ; in Turkish, 'kebab' applied to a person translates roughly as 'fool'. What Conor was really saying in his own inimitable Turklish way was 'stick with the fools'. That sounds even worse in some ways.

I still think though hes more to be pitied than fired ;barracking like that goes on in the Dail regularly but most Ministers leave interventions'like that to backbench troops

Gama workers meet as Lenihan faces pressure to resign

"Last night, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, in whose department Mr Lenihan works, said he believed the apology was the end of the matter and there was no need for the junior minister to resign."

THE PRESSURE SHOULD BE KEEPT UP ON HIM TO RESIGN TO PREVENT RACISM BECOMMING IN ANY WAY ACCEPTABLE BY THE BACK DOOR ROOT OF "ONLY JOKING" THERE WAS NOTHING REMOTLY FUNNY ABOUT THAT SLUR AND CANNOT BE CONSTRUED IN ANY OTHER WAY THAN AN IGNORANT RACIST REMARK. PUBLIC PRESSURE SHOULD BE KEPT UP NO MATTER WHAT SMOKE SCREEN THE FF RS TRY TO DISTRACT ATTENTION WITH. ITS TIME THESE ARROGANT GOBSHITES WERE TAUGHT THEY CANNOT DO OR SAY WHAT THEY LIKE WITH IMPUNITY

Martin - please don't put entire post in Capitals.
And try to avoid words like gobshites.

The hideous fact of the matter, noone really cares what he says about Turks or whomever.
Having read some of the racist slurs bandied around on Slugger over the past few weeks, I truly doubt the sincerity of some of the "outrages".
Nothing will happen, c'est la vie.
Sol