"It's not a coincidence that fascist regimes deal so badly with satire. Humour and common sense can deflate these fools in a second."

so i'm still interested in why my post got deleted? Did you do it yourself, Lee, or was it done by the editors?

or even - the less power they have.

i'll wake up later.

oh ok.

[removes the picture of Richard from the cauldron]

did you read it before they deleted it? *I* thought it was amusing anyway!

Richard Herring, thank you for your kind response. I agree with "standing up to these people" but racism is well entrenched around the world. As long as politicians are willing to manipulate people through their weaknesses and ignorance, it will always be an issue and a problem.

Although "humour and common sense can deflate these fools", as with 'gnuneo' I have found that it and truth are not always welcome on media blogs, even on NS. That, of course, is a problem with the pretentious perceptions of the moderator and how they wish to apply their rules.

Well, one good joke deserves anotther, eh? Yours was misconstrued - as you have apparently also misconstrued mine. Still, it is a good excuse to continue the conversation.

Now forget about Lewis Hamilton's dad and enjoy your weekend with this clip from a popular TV show of a supposedly fascist regime which obviously doesn't deal so badly with satire, etc after all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PNklpaJCA (Didem is actually an ethnic gypsy).

You all miss the point. I have heard it so often, you
don't like me because I am coloured, well may be I
don't like you because you have a chip on your
shoulder. I hope you all realise in a free country one
should be able to express oneself. Is this fellow a
"good sport.".? I wonder...
Your comments on the Spanish people are quite
obnoxious, you should not throw stones when you live
in a glass house. Ann

The Spanish people are just trying to boost their self esteem due to their inferiority complex.

What awful, feeble article this was. I've never heard of this "comic", but I'm now well warned to keep clear of him. I can't believe I wasted a few minutes reading this.

I got censored here because, they probably did not understand the incident I referred to . I talked about this episode in India, last year, when a huge part of the stadium made monkey noises at a Black Person.
The BBC did not dwell too long on this!

The thing is, Lewis Hamilton is a lying, arrogant prick.

His race is irrelevant. He's a horrible person - reflected in how few fans he has.

hey, leave him alone! OK, so not one of his best efforts, but a damned sight more amusing than most of the critiques of him have been.

i'd like to see you racists try to come up with an amusing article once a week - actually scrub that, i can already imagine what kind of low-brow grunting unfunniness would result.

I look at that photo and wonder what the surrounding members of the crowd thought of these comedy geniuses.

Is this kind of behaviour such the cultural norm in Spain that most crowd members were nonchalant to it? Were they complicit by remaining in close proximity and not stopping these 'japesters', their inaction being just as much a part of the problem.Or were they ignoring them the whole time in silent disapproval and focusing on the race and not giving them the attention they deserved. Which side of the moral mark were they? Did someone nearby in fact voice their disapproval at some point and thus have a revelatory positive effect on them forcing them to see the error of their ways? Or after having words were they mocked or threatened in return? Alternatively did a group of people beat the seven shades out of the racists outside the stadium(I hope this option happened), and far enough away from the threat of arrest. I find it interesting because you can look at a photo in so many different ways and extract so many plausible different interpretations.

I'm inclined to think it might be a mixture of lots of things, but most people are scared to intervene these days. I don't know what I'd do until I was in it. Cop out I know. I don't think we as a nation can feel smug though because it wasn't that long ago we were guilty of monkey chants on the terraces. Incidently did anyone see these photos of the spanish olympic basketball team during the recent games:

http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2008/08/this_undated_photo_provided_by_...

If these people are as stupid as you say they are, why do you dedicate an entire column to them, giving them more publicity and actually raising their profile. This article probably says more about you than it does about them.

i can't believe my post got censored! WTF?!?

Racism sucks, but the less exposure we give them the better . Instead we should focus on the positive elements of the event and leave the morons to self destruct.The Spanish, very much like the westernized people of India, are among the worst offenders, who unashamedly display their sense of inferiority simpl;y because the little extra pigment they have been endowed with simply won't go away, despite all the scrubbing with all the detergents available. The so called 'white man" still refer to non-whites as various shades of black ( olive for the spanish, i suppose ), much to their chagrin!! The indians at the time of apartheid were so happy to eat the crumbs of the white man's table so long as the white man would give the Indian the privilege of being the white man's coolie, and would designate the Indian as coloured and not black. The same with the Spanish and generally with all the racists in the world. As the article accurately points out, racists are generally ugly specimens of homo sapiens, desperately unable to love themselves because of their own perceived inferiority.

"...isn't racist, because the Spanish are not a race..."

That's all right. They just hate the English - even if the English aren't a race, duh.

The again, perhaps they are mocking the (white) English by wearing black faces and thus emulating being black, ha ha?

After all, its widely known (at least to the Spanish - or to some Spanish) that the English are stupid..... so how would they know they are being mocked anyway?

But its also incorrect to say that "...it's hard to think of any racists who aren't pathetic physical and mental specimens..." unless the English also fit into that category..... which they usually do quite easily.

So, who is the real idiot, then, Richard Herring? Some English hombre who looks "like a right prick now"? Anyway, waht has any of this got to do with God or the Spanish?

Those people in the crowd in Spain hadn't been racists at all - they were just admiring Hamilton's performances on the track.

And what about the Herring "family" (herrings in')? You should dress up (in tomato sauce) as a poor satire of yourself, wearing a T-shirt saying "I am (fishy) mee"..... LOL

You lot need to take your heads out of your anus. I thought it was the funniest thing i have seen in a long time, superb - genius.