BBC Question Time sparked major fury last night as panellist Ash Sarkar compared people who are furious about illegal migrant arrivals to men with “small penises”. The journalist and political activist was quizzed about small boat arrivals in the English Channel on the September 24 episode of the BBC programme, hosted by Fiona Bruce.
Tense clash over racism and thuggery
During a tense clash, she fumed: “I’m sorry, I feel like I’m going completely nuts, because there are mobs of men styling themselves as paramilitaries and both of you have had more to say about refugees and asylum seekers than you have had racism! Which I just think is completely obscene!
“Wherever you stand on the issue of immigration, there’s a variety of opinions and they’re all legitimate. We all want to see rule of law. We all want to see people protesting within the law.
“And all of us in this room, I think, object to the violent, thuggish racism that many of these hardened far-right activists espouse. I don’t think that they’ve got anything to do with patriotism, despite styling themselves as patriots.
“I think that this is small penis behaviour, quite frankly. This is a bunch of guys who want to feel like big men because the missus says they can’t see the kids anymore.
“What I think is absurd is that when we’re talking about individuals being made to feel unsafe where they live, when we’re looking at boats being slashed on camera, children chanting into megaphones, ‘Let them drown’, you guys are saying well, it’s about the small boats. Well, maybe it’s also about the racism and the thuggery!”
Audience reaction and social media backlash
She was met with stilted applause from the audience, but on social media viewers were furious. One tweeted in response: “Yes groups of people dressed in black and balaclavas is not the best look to protest, but just maybe ask 25 of them at random who they are and what they are protesting against and then just maybe she and others will understand why they are protesting and not far-right thugs.”
Another posted: “Your whole rhetoric is racist against patriot men trying to defend our shores from invasion and to keep our women and children and you safe. People are bored with the word racist being used to undermine British Scottish Welsh and Irish patriots.”
While a third said: “You’re classed as far right if you work, care about your country, prefer self-determined law-making, are family-oriented, want to stop mass unvetted immigration and want welfare reforms.”
