Reply to: UKIP election candidate yadda yadda

[minestrone]

Ok, I'll reword.

I dare say he will be a Somalian again when they find evidence of his drug taking.

We are getting warmer.

[kal]

After the whole Lenny Henry debacle I was already wavering but after seeing their election literature today I've made my mind up, an offensive bunch of lies that the BNP would be reluctant to propagate, think I will give Dave another go (hopefully without those Lib Dem monkeys meddling)...

[Scruff]

I am a British South African Russian Dead Sea Pedestrian Spaniard. Makes me eligible for many dodgy passports. Doesn't make me an Eastern Bloc athlete, nor an academic of Levant. I'll settle for a seafaring peasant of African persuasion. Too many non-sequiturs...

[Brussels Slumdog]

As you probably know I'm not a UKIP fan, but technically speaking he's African because he was born in Africa. The fact that he is now a British citizen doesn't rule out that he can be a British African.

Why can you say British Asian, British Caribbean and not British African?

I am a British South African born in England . I Feel British but not English and I speak French at home in Belgium. If Mo feels more British than Somalian and feels happy running for Britain then he's British.If Mo was born in Ireland most people would not be questioning his origin but because he has african roots there seems to be a problem for UKIP supporters.

[Mich the Tester]

Any other way of dealing with nationality would lead to heavily pregnant women desperately trying to travel the world to have their child gain their desired nationality.

There are many tales of heavily pregnant women crossing the pennines to give birth in/avoid giving birth in Yorkshire.

[Uncle Albert]

What happens if your parents acquire nationality? Should their original Nationality be denied when they have acquired a 'better' one? (as I'm guessing happened here).

If I gain Somalian Nationality then have a babies do my Babies become Somalian? Does that mean we can't mention they were once British for fear of causing offence? Do I a tubby white guy have to describe myself as Somalian and deny my English heritage?

Sounds a little ridiculous to me.

anyway as Mich says Chill!

There's no reason to deny your original nationality and some countries will allow you to hold dual nationality.

If you as a tubby white guy apply for and get Somali nationality, then yes, you should describe yourself as Somali. You can also describe yourself as being of British origin. I don't know Mr Farah, but I'd be very surprised if he had a problem with being described as British of Somali origin.

As for your children, yes, they would get your newly adopted nationality. They might have a chance to apply for British nationality when they were older, but initially they would be Somali.

One of my sisters was born in the Middle East. She's just as European as I am.

Any other way of dealing with nationality would lead to heavily pregnant women desperately trying to travel the world to have their child gain their desired nationality.

[petergriffin]

unless he's a cretin

I am sure millions can relate to him.

[Mich the Tester]

"African" is not a nationality, it means you were born in Africa. I don't think Mo Farah would complain about that.

Like I said, you can say "Asian" or "Caribbean", why not African?

I don't think the term 'African' is the problem. The problem is a person who's a candidate to govern people in Britain asking an apparently rhetorical question to which he should surely know the answer, and imo in a very suggestive way; after all it isn't difficult to google 'Mo Farah', naturalisation, or any other information about how a person born in Somalia might run for the British team. Wycherley clearly wasn't looking for an explanation, unless he's a cretin, which is I suppose also a reasonable hypothesis.

[vetran]

Your nationality comes from your parents rather than from where you were born. As an example, I have 2 sisters and a brother. We were all born in different countries yet are all British.

Some countries will allow you take on theier nationality as a result of having been born there but it's by no means automatic.

What happens if your parents acquire nationality? Should their original Nationality be denied when they have acquired a 'better' one? (as I'm guessing happened here).

If I gain Somalian Nationality then have a babies do my Babies become Somalian? Does that mean we can't mention they were once British for fear of causing offence? Do I a tubby white guy have to describe myself as Somalian and deny my English heritage?

Sounds a little ridiculous to me.

anyway as Mich says Chill!

[petergriffin]

Your nationality comes from your parents rather than from where you were born. As an example, I have 2 sisters and a brother. We were all born in diferent countries yet are all British.

Some countries will allow you take on theier nationality as a result of having been born there but it's by no means automatic.

"African" is not a nationality, it means you were born in Africa. I don't think Mo Farah would complain about that.

Like I said, you can say "Asian" or "Caribbean", why not African?

[Uncle Albert]

As you probably know I'm not a UKIP fan, but technically speaking he's African because he was born in Africa. The fact that he is now a British citizen doesn't rule out that he can be a British African.

Why can you say British Asian, British Caribbean and not British African?

Your nationality comes from your parents rather than from where you were born. As an example, I have 2 sisters and a brother. We were all born in different countries yet are all British.

Some countries will allow you take on theier nationality as a result of having been born there but it's by no means automatic.

[Mich the Tester]

so its perfectly OK because it makes money? That's what I thought was going on!

It's a bit like contracting. Have fun or have a bad day, but make sure you invoice. Today!

[petergriffin]

Because in PC terms some things are more racist than others

What? African is more racist than Asian or Caribbean?

[vetran]

Sport doesn't matter to some people. It´s quite big business though. Nationality doesn't matter to some people, or at least it matters less to some people than others.

As for sport being about 'the best team Britain can put together... or the best team of British people' I think a lot of serious sportspeople would choose the first, simply because the reality of competition at the highest level in most sports now is that it involves a combination of money, advanced training facilities, equipment, sporting talent, scientific talent, coaching talent, sponsorship, technology and so on and it's rare for a single country to have all of this in place with all the people and companies involved being of that nationality. Put simply, if you limit the effort in all those fields of work to only British born citizens, you ain´t going to win much. A couple of huge countries like the USSR and the USA and possibly China would have all the resources and the rest would be stuffed.

As for the 'spirit of things'; come on, this is an amateur attitude from a bygone era and I'm trying hard not to laugh. Top level sport is (mostly) not amateur nowadays or about the 'spirit of things'; it's about winning and for the sponsors it's about selling stuff. I know my attitude might seem unromantic, but I've seen that world from the inside myself having experienced the transition of rugby from shamateur to professional and I have friends competing in cycling and speed skating at the top level; I and they will tell you it's nice when things are done in a good spirit, but really we'd all rather just win, not at any cost, but certainly at the cost of 'the spirit of things' if that's necessary.

so its perfectly OK because it makes money? That's what I thought was going on!

[vetran]

As you probably know I'm not a UKIP fan, but technically speaking he's African because he was born in Africa. The fact that he is now a British citizen doesn't rule out that he can be a British African.

Why can you say British Asian, British Caribbean and not British African?

Because they don't like the person saying it. If it had been Germaine Greer or Diane Abbot saying it no one would have misunderstood it on purpose and manufactured outrage.

UKIP have to be stopped so the papers are on a witch hunt. I would imagine Tory Party central have had a chat with the editors.

It's such a pity UKIP aren't mature enough to only have people who know the score.