Raducanu: she won the US Open so the racists in UK politics are happy to let this Romanian-heritage teenager be British. What would they have called her if she had lost?
The BBC really is contemptible these days.
Its daily Politics Live programme has just taken time out to criticise Diane Abbott for making a perfectly reasonable point.
After Emma Raducanu won the US Open Ladies Singles tennis final, Nigel Farage was among the many who praised her up.
But arch Brexiter Farage, while campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union, had previously stated that he would not want a Romanian living next door to him.
Ms Raducanu’s heritage is Romanian.
So Ms Abbott was absolutely right to make this point:
Extraordinary hypocrisy from @Nigel_Farage After her triumph at the US Open, he is keen to praise Romanian heritage tennis star @EmmaRaducanu But not so long ago he was saying he wouldn’t want a Romanian family to move in next to him pic.twitter.com/oQBNd1To2r
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) September 12, 2021
And she’s not the only one pointing out the hypocrisy:
Today’s just saying. pic.twitter.com/OJX7nzjBJX
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) September 13, 2021
The verdict on Politics Live?
Led by host Jo Coburn, guests united to say that Farage’s words were in the past and that it is wrong to use a sporting even to score political points.
So it’s fine for politicians like Boris Johnson (and, indeed, Farage) to make hay when sportspeople representing the UK do well – no matter that they personally have expressed racist views that constitute abuse against individuals among those sportspeople in the past?
I don’t think so!
The whole disgrace was encapsulated in a tweet before Ms Raducanu’s victory (that I didn’t save, sadly).
It said that, depending on the result, the Daily Mail would tell us whether she was British or not.
And it’s a good point.
Would these creepy politicians be quite so keen to let bygones be bygones if Ms Raducanu had not won?
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