Danny Baker should be sacked immediately

Obviously on a losing quest there so I'll now bugger off and leave you all to be outraged at me as well as wotsisname.

Bloody arrogance Baggs bloody arrogance.

He has been. It has just been announced.

Just while we are discussing what it commonly known, *SirChenjin, "Or are all these coloured people just too sensitive nowadays hmm" I believe that word 'coloured' is not acceptable either.

I'm not going to attempt to answer any more questions/accusations/ridiculing comments but I just remembered this. It might help someone understand where I was coming from in my ignorance of DB and "common forms of racism".

When Minibaggs was born she had hairy ears, just like a baby chimpanzee or orangutan, we said. We were "comparing" her to other primates that are closely related to Homo sapiens. No racism was involved.

Baggs I am usually at one with you but this time I am sorry we part company.

Where have you lived all your life not to know that describing black people as monkeys as a form of denigration is as old as the hills, going back hundreds of years and to describe it as widespread is to underestimate its commonality. Why do you think it is offensive to talk about black people and bananas, or has that form of insult also unknown to you? The explanation is simple. Monkeys eat bananas therefore if black people eat bananas they are monkeys.

If any more racist insults occur to me that you may not know about, I will make sure I let you know before you end up before your local magistrate on an unintended race hate charge.

I understand Baggs' concern that there are times when relatively innocent comments are made to sound racist - I am sure that this does happen. But comparing a mixed-race newborn to a monkey is cut and dried racism in my book.

We "compared" her to a baby orangutan here too. This is why I don't think comapring human babies to chimpanzees or other apes is intrinsically racist. If it's meant nastily then obviously it's nasty.

So Minibags is mixed race? Oh come on , stop digging. If he’d tweeted that photo when Charlotte was born it would have been a totally different issue - context as you so often opine is everything.

Nonnie I'm well aware of that, I was being ironic in the context of a thread about overt racism.

The baby he was relating the photo to was mixed race - are you being deliberately obtuse?

If you saw the Disney 101 Dalmatians film, do you remember when Roger was walking Pongo in the park and he was watching other dog owners walking their dogs and they were drawn to look like the dog they owned e.g. a scruffy hippy with long hair and a pointy nose with an Afghan Hound and a little fat woman with a flat face and an upturned nose with a pug. Of course, these were all white people so it must be okay to caricature them!

However, Danny was stupid in this age of non free speech to do what he did without expecting consequences. When my own elder daughter was born she too was covered in thick dark hair and I though she looked liked a little monkey!

He wasn't being racist. It was a picture taken of them in Africa where they were walking along holding a little chimp's hands between them. He was making fun of the way the royals dress their children. Apparently it never occurred to him to relate it to Megan's ethnicity. I believe that. There is no way he would have deliberately put his job on the line by being deliberately racist.

Well I like Danny Baker. His comedy series about his family -"From the cradle to the grave" was hilarious. His fight against cancer was incredible. He is very funny but shouldn't have done it, and I don't think its a sackable offence.

Apparently, the online abuse of Meghan Markle is so acute, it is suggested that this is part of the reason the whole family has been offered a move abroad for part of the year with a new job for them in South Africa or Botswana. I think they will be glad to go.

Well you know GG the bottom line is he deserved as a national broadcaster on £300k to be sacked for sheer thoughtlessness at the very least.

I have no idea who Danny Baker is actually. I have heard his name though.

I would have liked to have seen the tweet. And heard his explanation ( straight from the horse's mouth)Can't really judge him without.

I don't think he can be stupid to have got where he is. Wherever that is.

trisher have you read /listened to his whining self pitying response to his sacking ? That more than justifies why it was the right decision as he just doesn’t ‘get it’ And I’ve no idea what his fight against cancer has to do with any of this at all.

It’s all over Twitter GG

If someone in his position, living in a very diverse city and being the football fan that he is didn't know that superimposing a photo of a monkey on the face of a child of a black woman wasn't racist then he doesn't deserve to be to be in the public eye.

Of course he knew. He just didn't expect to be sacked for it.

You could say it is the bosses at the Beeb who have been racist, in the way they have interpreted the tweet. But I guess it is judgement by the masses.

No you really couldn't say that - unless you were hard of comprehension or being deliberately obtuse.

Is it really in the forefront of anyone's mind to think of Meghan as black?

It's not a case of 'thinking' she's black.