the social intelligence to not say, and he apologized for doing so.

Case closed.

How fucking old is this man!? 150?

If he was Labour you'd be on your highhorse about it.

Is that not enough for you?

visit to racism rehab a la Jade Goody

1. For not even understanding how emotive that word is (it's probably the single most offensive word in the western world at the moment.)
2. As a Lord, he's supposed to represent the country. Including black people. And in my experience, they don't tend to like people using that word. It's pretty demeaning.

Whether it's racist or not is kind of a side issue. I think it is personally, but it's a very unhelpful (for the Tories) reminder of the sorts of people who still populate the party.

old people can just be silly sometimes.

hed have stepped down by now.
But because hes a lord, and henceforth unelected, he gets away with it.

Seriously. It's a fucking offensive phrase and an offensive word. Do people commonly swear in the House of Lords? Have you ever been called a nigger by some skinhead threatening you with an iron bar? No. So just fuck off. This is a fucking non-issue.

He shouldn't have used that word.

That's pretty much the end of it. I don't really care if he gets sacked or not. I've never heard of him and I've no idea what he does, and I don't want to get involved in party politics debates that are largely pointless.

It's just plain and simple to me that he shouldn't have used the word.

but he won't get sacked because everyone knows David Cameron and the rest of the tories are massive racists themselves.

may see the escape from slavery as a noble and positive thing the phrase itself doesn't.
His use of the phrase is to illustrate what he sees as the hidden negative aspects of the bill:

"The Homes and Communities Agency is not a body to which we object in principle. As the minister has explained, it is an amalgamation of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships. Of course, the nigger in the woodpile, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has already pointed out, is that it still incorporates what I call the hangover of the new towns legislation. If it were not for that, we would have little difficulty with the foundation of this agency."

The last sentence of the quote only goes on to enforce this view.
Although it, of course, does not mean that he has any feelings of hatred or suspicion directed toward the black population of this country.
It's an old turn of phrase that he really shouldn't have fallen back upon and whose dual meaning was probably never even considered for a split second before it left his lips.

Perhaps he should be sent on one of those Diversity and Equality Workshops that local gov't is so mad-keen for. ;)

My thoughts:

the phrase is undoubtedly racist, there is no question of that

BUT

the bloke is old, he seems sincerely apologetic for saying it and I'm not sure it's right to condemn someone outright for embodying the attitudes of the times they grew up in, particularly when they were very quick to acknowledge that those attitudes are outdated and grossly offensive.

he'll be dead soon

I believe it was reported that the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council used THE SAME PHRASE a month or so ago in a Council debate and had to apologise. APOLOGISE?! Now, you can perhaps excuse Lords cause they're largely a bit mental and excentric and haven't a clue whats going on (if I were DC I'd boot him out, and I think he will, but thats not my point), but the leader of a Council?!

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133965&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133948&contentPK=20807521&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Let the punishment fit the crime: He should be lynched.