Kilclooney Drops A Gooley

Partisan behaviour bordering on bigotry and hatred is not new for some in Northern Ireland, so what happened yesterday was not a surprise. But there was considerable disappointment at the behaviour of John Taylor, former Ulster Unionist Party MP and MEP, who in 2001 was given a peerage. He now sits in the Lords as Lord Kilclooney.

John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney

M’Lord has been the originator of racist behaviour before: he infamously asserted that cricketer Moeen Ali was not “racially English”. He doubled down by claiming that “A Chinese born in England is Chinese and not English”. He has referred to former Taoiseach Leo Varadker as “the Indian”, and a “typical Indian”.

Kamala Harris

So it should have surprised no-one when he Tweeted yesterday “What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?” It would have taken just a few seconds to find out Kamala Harris’ name. Still, in for a penny, eh? “I had never heard of her nor knew her name is Harris. India is quite rightly celebrating that an Indian, who has USA citizenship, has been appointed Vice President elect”.

Ms Harris is a natural-born US Citizen. Norman Fowler, the Lord Speaker, was not impressed: “Lord Kilclooney should retract and apologise. This is an offensive way to refer to anyone, let alone a woman who has just made history. The comment is entirely unacceptable and has no place in British politics. I could not be clearer”.

Kilclooney wasn’t having that. “I understand from the media that Speaker Fowler has criticised my tweet about the USA Presidency without having the courtesy of speaking to me beforehand. He is misinformed but I am not surprised!” Try again. “Whilst Biden is proud to be Irish and Harris is rightly proud of her Indian background I certainly withdraw my reference to her as an Indian as it seems to have upset some people. I did not know her name and identified her with the term Indian. Most people understood. Racist NO".

But here a problem entered: he had not said sorry, as the Lord Speaker had urged. Nor was it the only recent time he had caused offence to the victors in the US Presidential Election: after the contest was called for Joe Biden after he was projected to win the state of Pennsylvania, out came the good old dislike of Catholics.

“Democracy is a great institution and using it to become President of the world’s greatest nation is to be congratulated . I wish Mr Biden well and trust that he will not use his Irish Background to offend the U.K. people of Northern Ireland”. He hasn’t said sorry for that, either. Writer and actor Adil Ray summed up his reaction.

“Lord Kilclooney has form. But, nothing will happen. Maybe a delete, sorry IF I offended anyone. I love curry. Line it up with Watermelons, picaninnies, letterboxes & posters. We are used to it”. And, it seems, Kilclooney is not compelled to follow the Lord Speaker’s suggestion that he apologise. So he most likely won’t.

The House of Lords did the UK a great service last night in voting down the Internal Markets Bill. One step forward. But to little avail when one of its members takes two steps back. Perhaps the second chamber will have to become time limited - and elected.

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