Under a Twitter banner that advertises yet another series of The Apprentice, and with a mugshot suggesting he tried to sneak out a fart and ended up following through, businessman and occasional Government advisor Alan Sugar dispenses his pearls of wisdom to his 5.3 million followers, telling it like it is and making sure everyone knows that he is not at all racist, and certainly not misogynist.
His problem is that his recent targeted abuse directed at someone who just happens to be both black and female suggests otherwise. And as the target also happens to be shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, that abuse is coming to the attention to a rather wider audience than The Good Lord’s adoring Twitter faithful.
So what’s he been up to? This from Ms Abbott just the other day: “This man repeatedly posts ‘disrespectful & offensive’ msgs & photos of me. This is ‘targeted harassment’. He has a history of ‘abusive’ tweets about me i.e. sexist poetry. I reported him to [Twitter] hoping they take all complaints seriously, no matter who the twitter user is”.
Is she right? As Cilla might have said, shall we have a look and find out? The latest Sugar tirade began last Friday with a Tweet asserting “If Jeremy Corbyn wins election Diane Abbott would be in charge of immigration, Policing, MI5, national security matters. Let that sink in!” You mean as opposed to Priti Patel, who was sacked for conducting her own foreign policy? Sacked by the woman who presided over the Windrush scandal?
Ah well. Moving right along to last Sunday and another shaft of wit: “Yes Diane has some concerns over UK manufacturing and claims nothing is made in the UK now days [sic] . She just bought a new flat screen TV that stated BUILT IN ANTENNA. She asked where is ANTENNA”. Laugh? I thought I’d never start. But there was more.
After he was called out for that, Milord retorted “There is nothing racist in my criticism of Diane Abbot [sic] I am entitled not to like her and you are pri.. [?] to interpret it in any other way. So here is tip for you [sic] shut your mouth”. The grammar ain’t making it. But he kept right on going the next day. “Diane ........Rocket scientist”.
And, inevitably, we had to get that Nick Ferrari interview next. “Who remembers this eloquent explanation of how [Diane Abbott] was going to fund police recruitment . I am told by the trolls she is a Cambridge graduate and quite bright. Clearly mathematics was not her subject”. She makes a better stab at English than you do, matey.
Coming on top of Sugar’s appallingly racist swipe at the Senegal football team (the BBC’s report diplomatically offered “Lord Sugar criticised for tweet comparing Senegal team to 'beach sellers in Marbella’”), and Dawn Butler observed “The fact that Lord Sugar couldn’t seem to comprehend why it was offensive demonstrates how deep-rooted racism is in our society”, it should surprise no-one that he was once again called out.
Priyamvada Gopal asked The Good Lord “A little side dose of racism with our tea, Lord Sugar?”, while Ash Sarkar took one look at Sugar’s meme warning that Ms Abbott would be in charge of Policing and concluded “That’s why I’m voting Labour, dummy”.
Alan Sugar is not at all racist. But you can see it from there.
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4 comments:
A disgusting individual, which is why he's employed by disgusting individuals at the BBC.
The fellow's an unreconstructed spiv with the morals of a guinea pig.
From that antenna line I see that his twitter 'jokes' are on a par with the scripted ones he dishes out during The Apprentice. Of course, you can't complain to the BBC about his racism because they'll simply say they have nothing to do with how someone in their employ expresses themselves on social media...but if that's the case, can they explain Danny Baker? Give Sugar enough rope on this and he may just hang himself. Surely the BC can employ another semi-retired businessman with lots of time to spare to front their gameshow?
Hey, whats wrong with Guinea pigs ! Youre crediting him too highly
Sugar's tweet to John McDonnell last March after Sugar tweeted a mocked-up image of Corbyn with Hitler, and then removed it.
'You need to get Corbyn to make a firm statement about antisemitism. There is no smoke without fire in Labour.'
Any firm statements to make now, Sir Alan?
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