I think it was predominantly an editorial failure. These types of comments get said a lot during live shows and live recordings, and it's up to the editorial team to decide if it's suitable for broadcast or not. They made a mistake and let it go through. I wouldn't have because I don't think it was suitable for broadcast, especially at tea time on Radio 4 (and I'm probably one of the few people on this forum that listened to the show as it went out).

That said, it is slightly ludicrous to think that a somewhat obscure comedienne in her fifties would have the power and influence to inspire people to go and chuck battery acid in Nigel Farage's face.

A further irony is that Farage himself is a brazen populist who has happily whipped up the masses in hatred against foreigners and anybody who isn't British, helping to foster an atmosphere in which it's more acceptable to abuse people who are different. So maybe he and his ilk need to tone down their rabble-rousing rhetoric too.

Quote: chipolata @ 15th June 2019, 10:12 AM

I think it was predominantly an editorial failure. These types of comments get said a lot during live shows and live recordings, and it's up to the editorial team to decide if it's suitable for broadcast or not. They made a mistake and let it go through. I wouldn't have because I don't think it was suitable for broadcast, especially at tea time on Radio 4 (and I'm probably one of the few people on this forum that listened to the show as it went out).

That said, it is slightly ludicrous to think that a somewhat obscure comedienne in her fifties would have the power and influence to inspire people to go and chuck battery acid in Nigel Farage's face.

A further irony is that Farage himself is a brazen populist who has happily whipped up the masses in hatred against foreigners and anybody who isn't British, helping to foster an atmosphere in which it's more acceptable to abuse people who are different. So maybe he and his ilk need to tone down their rabble-rousing rhetoric too.

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It may have been more aimed at Tommy Robinson, certainly she didn't mention Farage by name. It went out at 6:30, which is not tea time. I would say that's about 3 or 4? Controversial stuff, I know.

Quote: chipolata @ 15th June 2019, 10:12 AM

obscure comedienne in her fifties

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Well, she's certainly a comedienne.

Whether she's obscure and in her fifties are different matters entirely.

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 15th June 2019, 11:27 AM

It may have been more aimed at Tommy Robinson, certainly she didn't mention Farage by name.

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Her remarks were aimed at what she described as "certain unpleasant characters" (plural) so she clearly had at least two people firmly in mind.

Something that appears not to have been picked up on but which I find hugely significant is her description of these characters as "very, very easy to hate".

Her use of "hate" together with the double use of "very" make me think there might be a very very sinister side to Jo Brand.

(Do you see what I did there?)

It was a one-off comment, and typical of Jo's humour. If you start worrying about how everyone reacts to every single comment, you'll never perform again. There are people abusing minors, torturing political prisoners and blocking food on the way to Africa. Give her a break.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 13th June 2019, 7:03 PM

I assume Nigel Farage will be taken to task by the BBC the next time he says something offensive. . .

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I don't think the word 'offensive' is correct - it's more a case that her words could be of 'threat' (I don't agree with such a thing btw).

Freedom of speech has long since been f**ked - especially in comedy.

Jo Brand has the right to express her opinion and she can be as edgy as she likes.

All I ask is some consistency from the Beeb - and the far-left hypocrits who seamingly thing violence is accepting (something which they accuse the far-right of doing every day).

Jo Brand is seriously left-wing and a seriously staunch opponent of anyone and anything right-wing.

About 10 years ago, she was a celebrity guest on "The One Show" and, in the green room, was watching tennis on TV when Carol Thatcher said that tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (who had just let his hair down) looked like "a very huggable golliwog".

Jo went absolutely ballistic, gave Carol a mouthful of abuse and stormed out of the room.

It should be noted that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a very fit, handsome man with the sort of skin colour that millions of white British people dream of acquiring. Accordingly, Carol's remark was almost certainly not intended as a racial slur.

In any event, Carol was dropped from the show and subsequently refused to apologise for what she considered an entirely benign - indeed even complimentary - remark.

It is widely believed that Jo Brand "grassed her up" to BBC management partly because the remark was politically incorrect but also because she was the daughter of Margaret Thatcher.

Quote: chipolata @ 15th June 2019, 10:12 AM

A further irony is that Farage himself is a brazen populist who has happily whipped up the masses in hatred against foreigners and anybody who isn't British, helping to foster an atmosphere in which it's more acceptable to abuse people who are different. So maybe he and his ilk need to tone down their rabble-rousing rhetoric too.

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Has he whipped up hatred against foreigners? I don't think so but lefties seem to see things that aren't there.

I don't hate foreigners but feel we can't be told what we can or can't do in this country by dictatorial Europeans.

Jo didn't make the comment as a joke because she was giving an opinion on a current topic and not doing a routine or delivering a gag. Any suggestion by Jo or the BBC that it was a joke taken out of context is untrue. I don't think Jo wants to see acid attacks and she was just saying that these people who throw milkshakes are pathetic because their actions gets them no-where. It doesn't change anything so they need to think of more effective ways of demonstrating and it was unfortunate that she mentioned acid and that is was broadcast at a time when there have been high profile cases of acid attacks. I don't dislike Jo but have never found her funny although I like her as a host on panel shows.

All this fallout could have been avoided if Jo and the BBC apologised the next day and used buzz words for the moaning masses like "sorry" and "mistake". The great British public are appeased when someone eats a thick slice of humble pie.

Jo Brand shares one important characteristic with a great many other members of the PC Brigade: she hates, loathes and despises people who disapprove of people and things that she doesn't think deserve to be disapproved of.

If Mr A disapproves of immigrants, the PC Brigade don't simply disapprove of Mr A: they hate, loathe and despise him.

If Mr B disapproves of homosexuality, the PC Brigade don't simply disapprove of Mr B: they hate, loathe and despise him.

If Mr C disapproves of the BBC's diversity initiative, the PC Brigade don't simply disapprove of Mr C: they hate, loathe and despise him.

The thing is that disapproval is a relatively mild emotion that a person might indulge in while sitting quietly at home listening to some beautiful music on the radio while sipping a cup of tea.

In stark contrast, however, hating, loathing and despising are very powerful emotions which on many occasions lead people out of their homes into the streets in order to do serious harm to the people and things that arouse in them those emotions.

I am therefore convinced that the average member of the PC Brigade is a considerably more f**ked-up specimen of humanity than is the average person who, by virtue of his currently unfashionable beliefs, incurs the PC Brigade's displeasure.

PS. It goes without saying, of course, that I myself am a huge fan of immigrants, homosexuals and the BBC's diversity initiative.

As the so-often oasis of sense in an ever-increasingly preposterous world, Peter Hitchens, says in hiss Mail on Sunday column today:

"The alleged comedienne Jo Brand should not be prosecuted or investigated by the police for her crass remarks about battery acid. But she should be asked, persistently, on a public stage, to say out loud what she would have done to, and said about, a Right-wing person who had said anything equally moronic."

Quote: Rood Eye @ 12th June 2019, 5:12 PM

It wouldn't surprise me if a great many yobbos were now collecting battery acid for just such a purpose and I await with increasing horror the first evidence that any such creature has taken Jo's advice.

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According to newspaper reports, a man has been rushed to hospital with burns after being doused with an 'unknown liquid' in a public toilet in Oxford.

Two black men in dark clothing are said to have thrown an 'unknown substance' from a clear bottle at the 42-year-old victim at around 11.30 on Sunday morning, 16th of June.

A report in the Oxford Times suggests the response team on the scene included seven police vehicles (including three special response units), four fire engines and four ambulances.

Blessed are those who quote themselves (with smugness),

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 17th June 2019, 12:46 AM

Blessed are those who quote themselves (with smugness),

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I may have a few faults, Tarby, but being wrong isn't one of them.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 16th June 2019, 10:51 PM

"The alleged comedienne Jo Brand "

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Anybody who says "alleged comedian" as an insult is frankly pathetic and can get in the bin.

The idea that Jo needs to apologise for this or did anything wrong is preposterous. Her point was essentially that the milkshake thing was a waste of time and was illustrating the extent to which she dislikes most politicians. If Bill Hicks or George Carlin had said this back in the day people would be creaming themselves. This whole argument tends to be about some people simply not liking Jo and wanting to use this as an excuse to silence her. I'm sure the politicians will get over it.