Andrew Marr, the Scottish presenter of the imaginatively titled Andrew Marr Show, used his BBC1 show today to racially abuse the English.
Whilst interviewing the actor, Mark Rylance, about his new lefty liberal hand wringing play about Englishness, Marr interrupted to say “There’s cruelty in the play but there’s cruelty in Englishness too”.
The following a transcript of the relevant part of the interview:
Rylance: I think it’s about the question of what is indigenous Englishness. I think it’s clearer to look at the Welsh and the Irish and the Scottish and grasp … maybe you can’t put words to it but there’s certain kind of things that are very much part of their nation’s character and it’s harder perhaps because of our imperial past and the nature of the history of England to be pleased or proud about being English. We used to have at the Globe a lot of difficulty trying to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday and St Georges Day without the National Front coming in you know?
Marr: Yeah
Rylance: And I remember Ken Livingstone and I think still Boris is trying to figure out how …
Marr: How you celebrate because part of this is very sort of dark and dysfunctional too isn’t it? And I mean just thinking about that ghastly story from Doncaster this week, I mean there is a certain amount of wildness and madness and cruelty. There’s cruelty in the play but there’s cruelty in Englishness too. It’s not just an easy thing to celebrate.
Can you imagine the outcry if a BBC presenter had said there’s cruelty in Scottishness or Polishness or Chineseness?
Why on earth should we allow ourselves to be racially abused by a second-rate Scottish TV presenter for the British Broadcasting Corporation? Well I for one won’t be – the following complaint has been made to the BBC regarding Andrew Marr’s racism and demanding a public apology.
On today’s Andrew Marr Show, Andrew Marr (a Scot) racially abused the English with the following comment:
“There’s cruelty in the play but there’s cruelty in Englishness too. It’s not just an easy thing to celebrate.”
Had any other nationality been described as cruel there would have been an instant apology on-air yet because it is the English he has made a racist comment about, no apology was made.
I demand an unreserved apology on-air from Andrew Marr on next week’s show for his racial slur.
The programme can be watched again on the BBC iPlayer here. Fast forward to about 24 minutes.
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Fully agree with your post. It would be classed as racial slur had an English Man said the likes about another nationality.
Quite ironic calling the English Cruel, when the English financially subsidise the Scottish.
We will see if the BBC bothers to give an apology – I would not hold my breath though!
January 24th, 2010 at 3:42 pmI sent the following
“In this morning’s Andrew Marr Show, Andrew Marr was in discussion with a playwright and actor discussing their play “Jerusalem” the play touched on issues of English identity.
Andrew Marr said the following, when interrupting one of the guests.
“How you celebrate because part of this is very sort of dark and dysfunctional too isn’t it? And I mean just thinking that ghastly story from Doncaster this week, I mean there is a certain amount of wildness and madness and cruelty. There’s cruelty in the play but there’s cruelty in Englishness too. It’s not just an easy thing to celebrate.”
There’s cruelty in Englishness too? This was a broader comment outside of discussion of the play and it is completely out of order, unfair and inaccurate.
We all know Andrew Marr is a Scot and he frequently lets it be known that he’s none to keen on England but this time he’s gone too far. To suggest that there is cruelty inherent in Englishness is racism – brute, ugly and ignorant racism.
If this comment had been levelled at the Nigerian, Palestinian or Irish people for example there would be hell to pay and Mr Marr would be looking for a new job.
I hope the BBC will view this with the seriousness it deserves.”
bbc.co.uk/complaints
January 24th, 2010 at 4:26 pmDon’t recall if ever there being an attack on someone in England for simply being Scottish, yet our “less cruel” neighbours seem to have a problem with violence against us despite the claims of our cruelty.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:19 pmAndrew Marr has had a go at the English before:
http://wakinghereward.blogspot.com/2007/09/andrew-marr-jug-eared-scottish-prat-who.html
I guess the Biggoted Bastards Club wont be apologising.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:33 pmThe dead ringer for Plug out of the Bash Street Kids is not in the studio next week as he is away filming…
Marr is one of those media Scots who come down here, live amongst us in London, get a hell of a wedge for their utter mediocrity – then take every opportunity to tell us just how simply awful we are….
January 25th, 2010 at 10:35 amI think he lives down in East Devon. I’ve seen him in Budleigh Salterton sitting at his easel painting the mouth of the Otter River.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:48 amIt does seem a paticularly dumb comment. Why should the English be any more cruel than any othre people? Idiotic thought. Interestingly, I think Rylance has a point in the challenge for organsiations that quite naturally want to celebrate St George’s Day and Shakespeare’s birthday — which I firmly believe we should – without the ugly overtones of BNP racism creeping in.
But then as many people here have pointed out, there is an ugly side to Scots and Welsh nationalism too. Marr didn’t mention that….
January 25th, 2010 at 11:55 amTim, the British National Party is bound to consist mostly of English people as England makes up 80% of the population of the UK and as nationalists, it’s a fair assumption that they’ll have a lot of English nationalists. However, it’s unfair to suggest that we shouldn’t celebrate St Georges Day because of them as the British establishment and left-wing media suggest.
Promoting St Georges Day will make it accessible and relevant to more “normal” people rather than nationalists (English and British) and dilute the unsavoury elements such as BNP, EDL and NF that tarnish it.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:21 pmTim, I have been to many St George’s Day events and have never once seen any right wing involvement whatsoever…
If you analyse what Rylance said – it is nothing more than a catalogue of ignorant stereotypical nonsense – this sums it all up really, “And I remember Ken Livingstone and I think still Boris is trying to figure out how”….
Ken Livingstone’s solution to celebrating St George’s Day was to ignore it – to spend 110 grand a year supporting St Patrick’s Day in London and absolutely bugger-all on St George’s Day in England’s capital city.
It is the Liberal Left who insist we should have a problem with our Englishness. It is they who constantly question the valididty of our country and our culture. It is they who always cry ‘racist right wingers’ whenever anything resembling English nationalism gets mentioned.
It is all to do with trying to keep a lid on our nationalism by the Brit’ establishment – because once English awareness is out there, the union is gone – and they know it.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:36 pmComplaint sent to BBC. I have asked for Marr to aplologise on air for his racist remarks.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:48 pmI have also sent a complaint to the BBC.
Racism is unacceptable.
January 26th, 2010 at 2:20 pmdoesn
January 28th, 2010 at 8:20 pmdoesn`t surprise me at all,marr was one of the big changes that occurred when the scottish took over the bbc–out goes david frost in comes a scotsman it didn`t only happen in parliament,it seems you cannot be accused of racism against the english.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:23 pmwaste of time complaining to the bbc–all complaints go through scottish hands–straight into the little round “filing cabinet”
January 28th, 2010 at 8:25 pmHas anyone had a reply to their complaint?
January 30th, 2010 at 8:49 amNo reply yet. They’ve probably been too busy explaining our concerns to Andrew Marr.
Or maybe they think I was being racist against Andrew (the Scot), and decided to ignore me?
January 30th, 2010 at 11:30 amI phoned yesterday to chase it up and they said (in a Scottish accent, of course) that it would take up to 10 working days to reply.
January 30th, 2010 at 11:42 amWe mustn’t forget that they sacked Ed Stourton after 10 years because he was too posh and English.
So its a race and class war they are conducting, and we have to listen to that other Scottish Labourite creep J Naughtie.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:32 pmI’ve had no reply from mine yet – which is as follows…
During Andrew Marr’s interview with an actor called Mark Rylance about a play called ‘Jerusalem’ – a conversational thread about Englishness cropped up.
Aside from the crass ignorance of Rylance and his totally skewed and derivatively flawed ideas, Marr seemed absolutely incapable of letting facts and reality get in the way of the fairy stories being spouted. For example, Rylance whittered on about England’s apparent imperialist past – presumably, he was talking about the Empire…..
It’s funny but in all the books I have at home, the word ‘Empire’ is usually prefixed with the word ‘British’, not English…. but hey, what do I know?
The general emphasis of Rylance’s drift was all about how apparently dreadful Englishness was. How guilty, how right wing, how simply unBritish it all is to even think about celebrating anything English without right wing knuckle draggers queerying the pitch…
Marr nodded, Marr agreed. And using the example of the two torture kids case in Doncaster said “How you celebrate because part of this is very sort of dark and dysfunctional too isn’t it? And I mean just thinking about that ghastly story from Doncaster this week, I mean there is a certain amount of wildness and madness and cruelty. There’s cruelty in the play but there’s cruelty in Englishness too. It’s not just an easy thing to celebrate”……..
So, according to Marr, “THERE’S CRUELTY IN ENGLISHNESS TOO!”
If that was said about any other group of people anywhere in the world then Marr would be collecting his P45 right now. Can you imagine the outcry if he’d said that about the Poles, or the Welsh, or even the Scots? Yet, because it was said about the English by a Scotsman (living in England, obviously!) then this is perfectly OK.
As an ENGLISH licence fee payer, I am heartily sick of the BBC constantly rubbishing me and 50 million others. There can be little doubt that the BBC is institutionally racist towards the English as barely a day goes by without some crass comment being uttered about our culture, our past or our customs….
IT HAS TO STOP AND IT HAS TO STOP RIGHT NOW!
And let’s not forget Marr has previous on the subject of Englishness in the form of his simply dreadful ‘Unmasking the English’ series of radio programmes – where he along with other anti English bigots like AA ‘I hate the English’ Gill were allowed and indeed encouraged to slag off the English at every opportunity…
The next time Marr is doing the AM Show, I expect a full and unreserved apology from him for his ignorance. I would also expect a warning about his future behaviour from BBC management…… but as he only insulted the English, I am sort of thinking it just won’t happen, will it?
END
January 31st, 2010 at 4:00 pmThen there is this at the BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/7327029.stm
“…Scottish and Welsh nationalist movements have long been part of the political mainstream, and are seen as champions of legitimate historical national identities. English nationalism, on the other hand, is more often portrayed as a reaction to non-white immigration and the exclusive province of the neo-fascist right.
This makes public discussion of English identity politics difficult… as accusations of racism and appeasement of minorities are exchanged.”
February 1st, 2010 at 2:11 pmI can’t see who/where I can complain about this. No author or link. Anyone help?
Try this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/
Good luck. They are gradually becoming aware that the English are at last beginning to behave like a nation. The problem is that like all other areas in England the Scots, Irish and Welsh have become an infestation so expect to be stonewalled.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:50 am“The problem is that like all other areas in England the Scots, Irish and Welsh have become an infestation so expect to be stonewalled.”
Thanks Bobby .. and that isn’t racist then ?
February 4th, 2010 at 9:44 pmEnglishness – what is it ?
I’m Scottish – you guessed that from the name – I have worked and lived in England for over 20 years and I have my own view of what I consider to be Englishness, and yes it did involve ale and morris dancing.
Please take the time to read this article .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jul/05/bradford-englishness-jb-priestley .. I found it very thoughful and it certainly made me think again about Englishness and what it means to be English .
Marr’s comment certainly was wrong, either because he’s an idiot or because he has an outdated view of Englishness.
As a Scot please accept my apology for having to put up with this overpaid quasi intellectual moron.. even better ask the Beeb to sack him.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:26 pmAs an Englishman I can assure you your apology is accepted. Rest assured that it’s clear Marr speaks for himself not every last scots man.
PS. Englishness is a verb
February 5th, 2010 at 5:59 pmOdd, they told me that i’d recieve a reply within 10 working days, yet I’ve recieved nothing….
February 9th, 2010 at 11:57 pmHave some comments been ‘lost’?
February 10th, 2010 at 4:58 amEnglishness is a verb
William Shakespeare was perhaps the first to use the term ‘English’ as a verb (‘To be Englished rightly’ The merry wives of Windsor 1.3). Englishness is not a fixed state, but rather the dynamic ‘beingness’ in being specifically English. To BE English is thus to embody Englishness and consequently know it from the inside. That Being and knowing are not necessarily seperate has been articulated by philosophers such as Heidegger (1962) and Gadamer (1975), who connect ontology and epistemology as interdependent concerns. If we try to catch a river in a jar we just end up with cloudy water – yet we can still know the river.
February 10th, 2010 at 7:03 amThe BBC have got back to me. Is this a standard reply that has been given to everyone?
Thanks for your e-mail about ‘The Andrew Marr Show’ on 24 January.
I understand you had concerns with regards to comments made by Andrew Marr with regards to ‘Englishness’ which you found to be offensive and I also appreciate you feel the BBC is racist against the English.
We forwarded your concerns to ‘The Andrew Marr Show’ Editor Barney Jones who explained in response that:
“Our presenter certainly did not mean to cause any offence and having discussed the issue you raise with Andrew Marr, it’s important to clarify that he was trying to explore some of the themes of the play. He referred to ‘St George’ and ‘Old England’ and suggested to Mark Rylance that…. ‘There is an early English identity still to be grasped’. Mark Rylance responded that the play was examining ‘Englishness’ and went onto make reference to Welsh, Irish and Scottish traditions.
When Andrew said: ‘there certainly is cruelty in the play and certainly cruelty in Englishness too’, he didn’t mean to imply that cruelty is particularly or exclusively associated with England or being English. He agrees that it would have been better to say ‘Englishness as with many other countries’ and it was this generality that he meant to imply.
Andrew is proud that he was born and schooled in Scotland but he chose to go to university in England, has worked almost all his adult life in England, married an English woman and has lived happily here with his family. The place where he spends most free time when he’s not in London is a little village in Devon. It’s simply not true to suggest that he is in any way ‘anti-English’.
In the course of a live broadcast people don’t always express themselves in precisely the way they intend. Andrew accepts he could have phrased this better but he is at pains to point out that he was trying to explore the themes of the play. He was responding at one point to the remarks raised by Mark Rylance about some of the implications of England’s imperial history.
Andrew also stresses that he did not mean to cause any offence and apologises to anyone who felt slighted in the way they interpreted his remarks.”
I can also assure you that your comments have been fully registered on our audience log which is made available to all members of the BBC, including senior BBC management.
This ensures that your comments and others we receive are considered across the BBC.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Regards
Nicola Maguire
February 15th, 2010 at 7:01 pmBBC Complaints
Some of the paragraphs are exactly the same as my reply but I didn’t get the bit about him living in Devon. They’ve obviously made some attempt to give individual responses… but its not a public apology is it?
The point for me is that, until one or other of these comments made by high profile individuals results in a very public apology, the media will still consider racism against the English as a non-issue.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:26 pmI thought it was BRITAIN’S imperial history, not just England’s? Trust the BBC…
February 16th, 2010 at 2:46 amSorry, Any Apology from Andrew Marr is not accepted by me, Andrew Marr is RACIST and he knows it or he would not have said it and for a public apology, we’ll wait and see. PARASITE…
February 17th, 2010 at 3:30 am