Were you offended?

Not especially - he could probably have found a better word, but politicians are in the spotlight all the time and cannot always get it right. I say this as someone who would never and has never voted Tory, and I have no liking for David Cameron.

Nope. There are other words he could have used but swarm fits just as well as throng or horde or crowd....

What is the point of "being offended"? I've never worked it out.

I thought immediately of a swarm of locusts and hope that was not what Cameron had in mind.

I am always a bit reluctant when the media seem to be inviting me to feel something - we can all think for ourselves.

No. One of the dictionary meanings is given as 'move somewhere in large numbers'.

The media love to claim the moral high-ground when politicians of any hue use a word which would be considered perfectly reasonable if used in any other walk of life.

On the news it showed an aerial shot of a largish group of people running, and they did look like a swarm.
No, I wasn't offended.

He was actually referring the numbers who are crossing the ocean to get to Europe, not those in Calais.

what anno says- I hope to. I was not offended but I was shocked by his use of a word normally used for a plage of insects. Not easy to speak to the camera always though.

bags I've also wondered what the point of being offended is. Stephen Fry says:

'It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. "I'm offended by that." Well, so fucking what?' —Stephen Fry

I wasn't personally offended - I was not one of the people referred to as part of the swarm - but I thought it was extremely offensive to the asylum seekers.

In the 1940s the Nazis propaganda machine made a film called “The Eternal Jew” "One of the film's most notorious sequences compares Jews to rats that carry contagion, flood the continent, and devour precious resources."*

Politicians really need to be careful what they say; some of the rhetoric we hear from them and also from some of the right wing press is not a million miles from this.

*http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007819

Exactly. I've just watched the news footage, Cameron referred to 'a swarm of people' - i.e. people moving somewhere in large numbers.

No problem with the use of "swarm" at all. The first I heard of it was an email this afternoon from a supplier that I deal with in California who said that it has been reported in their news, and asking what I thought about it.

IMO it's somewhere between political correctness gone mad, and journalists needing something better to concern themselves with. (Are we not building up to what was referred to as "the silly season", reporting/newspaper wise?)

I told him that if he really wanted to see controversial journalism he should take a look at Katie Hopkins!

(my post was in reply to Grannyknot's btw, not Gracesgran's)

What a storm in a teacup. Methinks too many oeople these days are too easily offended. Get a grip.

One could draw unfortunate comparisons with Katie Hopkins "cockroaches" comment, but the situation is so dangerous and so tragic that evryone's efforts should be going into finding a solution rather than nit picking about words.

What did he actually say about the large numbers of people?

A swarm of bees is not a plague. Bees swarm when they're looking for somewhere new to live. Sounds like the perfect word to describe large groups of people who are looking for somewhere new to live.

I suppose he could have called them a flock, then the associations would be with birds instead of insects. Not that it matters.

gknot, thank you for the Stephen Fry reference. Yes. Exactly. It's just a picky objection aimed at the speaker rather than at what is being said – c/f farnorth's comment asking what is was he was actually saying.

The point is that the use of 'swarm' made it sound as though there were many more would-be immigrants than in fact there were - not an outright lie, but qestionable nevertheless.

As for anyone being 'offended' - that's their problem. Nobody has the right not to be offended.

On this occasion, even I don't feel the slightest inclination to criticize Cameron!

Our Oxford Shorter's definition of 'swarm' goes even further than the definition already given by Ana, as one entry specifically mentions people leaving a place in large numbers, looking for somewhere else to live.
(I should add that I've had to paraphrase that from memory as I don't have access to the dictionary at this moment to quote it word for word, but it gives the gist.)

I was a lot more offended - well, annoyed anyway - by Harriet Harman's reaction!

I reserve the right to not to be offended feetle. I wasn't offended and think it was a good description. Flock brings to mind lots of sheep bags which could also offend someone looking to take offence!

It was not aimed at me/us so I the question of whether you or I were offended is irrelevant. I do agree though that politicians in particular should think what they are going to say before they open their mouths.

Gracesgran has made a very valid point about "The eternal Jew" propaganda as an example about how insidious derogatory language is in general.

When there was the serial killer in Hull a few years ago, I and a few others had rung BBC to complain that the press were saying stuff like. " A prostitute has been murdered," instead of saying, "A woman in Hull who was working as a prostitute has been murdered.

That person is a woman first and someone's child or mother. whatever difficulties have driven them onto the streets, to just dismiss them as a prostitute is wrong.

The difference in the inference in this two statements is great. We need to see those people as women first not as "just prossies". In general women sex workers out on the streets have had tough times in their lives one way or another.

Of course I wasn't offended. It's just 'people' making a mountain out of a molehill. I agree with MamaCaz, Harriet Harman's self righteous reaction yesterday was not the best. In one mouthful she complained that DC and the Gov weren't doing enough to sort out the situation and in the next, she was criticising him for using an appropriate metaphor. I'd like to know just how she and her motley crew would deal with it - and how, I wonder, would she describe on the spur of a moment, a large group of migrants?? I can think of far worse words......
The whole situation is tragic and the media and politicians are worrying about one word

Not offended and considering what was happening at the beginning of the week 'swarm' would seem to be a very appropriate word. Let's hope they get on with sorting the problem instead of indulging in' he said, she said' .