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Labour urged to sack councillor for 'racist' Cameron caricature
Last updated at 10:07am on 11.12.06
The offensive picture of David Cameron as a black and white minstrel
Labour councillor Bob Piper
Tony Blair was urged to sack a Labour councillor last night after he published a picture of a 'black' David Cameron on his website.
Bob Piper was reported to the Commission for Racial Equality after using the image of the Tory leader portrayed as a black and white minstrel.
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Mr Piper, a member of Sandwell Council in the West Midlands, was unrepentant over the picture and denied he was a racist.
The image ridicules Mr Cameron's attempt to make his party more inclusive to ethnic minorities by showing him blacked-up next to the words: 'Take the homeboy test. Yo niggahs. Is it because I's black?'
It was originally published by an anonymous internet blogger on the website www.ministryoftruth.org.uk last week.
But Mr Piper caused outrage after reproducing it on his own blog on Friday under the title: 'There's votes in them thar ethnics.'
He wrote: 'Now for your delight and delectation, the Ministry of Truth is proud to present the first screenshot from the Conservative Party's upcoming "Sort-It" campaign on Race Relations - we're sure it'll be a roaring success.'
The picture triggered a series of complaints on the website. A blogger using the name Mens Sana said: 'Is this sort of distasteful crap "just Labour"?'
'PragueTory' said: 'This doesn't contribute to good race relations and actually drives a wedge between communities. I am afraid these postings are a typical example and if this is what you are prepared to say in public, God knows what you say in private.'
But Mr Piper insisted the image was satire along the lines of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters Borat and Ali G.
He wrote: 'If you think this image is designed to attack black people you need to study the art of satire, because it has clearly passed you by.'
He said the image was 'designed to show the way in which Cameron trys [sic] to adopt a chamelon-like [sic] approach to "get with it" with young people, black people, wimmen, environmentalists in a totally false way.
'This is the man that wrote the last Conservative party manifesto banging on about immigration. He is a wealthy, right-wing, reactionary Etonian trying to fool people into thinking he feels their pain. In other words... he's a con man.'
Ironically, Mr Piper's website includes a link to the anti-racism body Unite Against Facism.
The row comes a month after a Tory councillor was suspended from the party after sending an email telling foreigners to 'p*** off - we're full.'
Ellenor Bland, who stood as a parliamentary candidate in last year's election, was reported to race relations watchdogs.
Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party's vice chairman for campaigns, said of Mr Piper's website: 'It is pretty tasteless stuff and plumbs new depths.
'I cannot think what possessed him to put it up there. We are calling on him to remove it and apologise for the offence caused.
'I find it extraordinary that the Labour Party are not taking tougher action against him.'
Conservative MP for Monmouth David Davies said he was reporting Mr Piper to the Commission for Racial Equality and the Local Government Standards Board, which oversees councillors' conduct.
He added: 'If any Conservative politician had done this there would be calls for his resignation and rightly so.
'This is an absolutely disgraceful attempt to make fun of black people in order to score a political point. If the Labour Party had any principles left then they would throw him out immediately.'
But a Labour spokesman insisted the matter had nothing to do with the party's high command. He added: 'The views expressed are not those of the Labour Party.'
Mr Piper removed the image from the website after Derrick Campbell, the chief executive of Race Equality Sandwell, said it was offensive to black people.
The councillor said: 'If the image and words on my site have offended black people, no matter how unintentional, then I apologise unreservedly to them.'
Reader views (7)
Another juvenile Labour Mp trying to get noticed - he wasn't the same one that imitated Cameron on a YouTube video was he? You would have thought they'd have realised these cheap slanging tricks don't work, and how insulting to the voter - do they think we're totally thick?
- Isabel, Woking, England
Obviously satire. Has everyone in this country lost their sense of humour?
- Libertine, London, UK
I find it indredulous that Mr Piper finds it funny that the Conservatives are trying to include ethnic minorities. No matter what the campaign is, at least the Conservatives are starting to realise that you cannot run a multi-cultural Britain with an all-white, mostly-male, middle class government. I suppose I will be voting come next election but it will not be for Labour, since the minority vote is not important to them!
- Makingacomment, London
well done, Mr Piper...
I like Labour idiots who do the Conservative's work for them.
- Roger Macnamara, Lymington,UK
Councillors do politics... not satire. Piper should apologise and be disciplined by the Party. The caricature of Cameron is personalising politicians to an inappropriate degree; its the policies we should be attacking.
- Dhanraj, Basildon, Essex
RIP "parody".
- Al, Europe
What's the difficulty in kicking him out of the party? Labour scream to high heaven when a Tory puts a foot wrong. People of all races and across the political spectrum were complaining about his use of these disgraceful epithets since Friday afternoon. Only this evening when his boss said the same thing as everyone else did he take it down. The man should never have been a councillor. Do as I say, not as I do. Typical Labour.
- Ron Drummond, Wolverhampton, UK
