Lawrence Fox candidate for Mayor of London

maddyone

Woke

Whatever it means or however it is used, it obviously completely passed my husband by as yesterday he asked me what it means.
Do you think he’s the only person in the country who doesn’t know?

? no! My OH said this week that he’s heard the under 25s are wok. I said sorry??? Wok says he. Heard it on the radio. Do you mean woke? Yes that’s it. Never heard of it. What is it? After banging my head on the table a few times I gently explained. Ah says he, so I’m not woke then? No love. No. Ps I consider myself woke. I’m awake, aware and interested. Good enough I think.

Really ? Never mind the dangers ? Why not just stick to the plan/roadmap for a bit longer in the hope we can get nearly everyone vaccinated.

Fortunately, I don't have a vote in London so don't have to decide. But can't see why LF is any worse than any other candidate.

And if opening up in London on May 6th led to opening up the rest of the country on May 7th then I'm all for it.

LF may have had a privileged background and education but my understanding is he was expelled from Harrow for being aggressive and disruptive. I would say it is debatable as to whether he is especially well educated - though some people do tend to associate a "posh" voice and background with intellect.

If we are going to diagnose everyone who comes out with weird political statements that we don't agree with as 'mentally ill' then I nominate Farage. Fox is quite simply an overprivileged 'dick' ( as my DD would say) with a very high regard for himself. Mind you, looking at some more profile politicians, that seems to include an awful lot of them.

Lucca

I don’t mind “woke”. However I do feel when it is teamed with “brigade” it is sneery?

I expect it was intended to be sneery. It certainly reads like that in context.

But the UK doesn't have political correctness "in the extreme". It's the Tories who are fanning the flames of a culture war and making issues of equality divisive. It seems as though they've been successful in conning a few people.

One advantage of Fox's attempt is that it will split the Tory vote. Good!

Well he's certainly got a lot of backing and admittedly he does talk a lot of sense too re. democracy or the seriously lacking of it, losing the plot on freedom of speech.

When you have political correctness in its extreme it will bring out people such as Fox who is educated enough to know that this isn't the right route to go in forming a less divisive society, in fact it's proving the opposite.

Lucca then there's no problem.

Woke

Whatever it means or however it is used, it obviously completely passed my husband by as yesterday he asked me what it means.
Do you think he’s the only person in the country who doesn’t know?

Goodness me I don’t feel it’s a problem that needs discussing!

Lucca As that's how you feel I guess we could either discuss it over PM if you feel it's a larger problem or just leave each other alone? Whichever suits you.

I am a bit wary of woke because it's so vague, there isn't a lot of clarity of what it means.

I don’t mind “woke”. However I do feel when it is teamed with “brigade” it is sneery?

NellG

Lucca Quoting my post made it appear to be directed at me, so I addressed your comment because my posts over time seem to have been a particular problem for you.

Yes I blame my lack of clarity.

“my posts over time seem to have been a particular problem for you.”

I feel it is vice versa though !

Woke didn't start off as a derogatory term though, it just became that way when everyone got righteous and stopped communicating with decency and started flinging mud. On both 'sides'.

Lucca Quoting my post made it appear to be directed at me, so I addressed your comment because my posts over time seem to have been a particular problem for you.

Woke is the derogatory term for anyone who is anti racist.

NellG

Lucca I wasn't making a dig on this occasion, only towards LF in all honesty. In fact I'm not sure I've ever made reference to them/her on any other threads other than the one's started for that topic. At least I don't think I have, you may be able to tell me different. I've certainly never started a thread on the subject. If anyone ever starts a fun interesting thread I will respect it and either stay off or post accordingly.

And I wasn’t referring to you, it was a general comment.

I know much of the country regards Londoners as stupid, privileged white southerners, but the chances that we'll vote LF as our mayor really aren't that great. London is the most diverse area of the whole UK, none of your 85% and above areas of 'whiteness' here. In the 2011 census just over 44% of Londoners were white. We really aren't that daft. Yes we voted Boris as mayor, then Khan, but that was more due to the opposition, we voted for the least bad option.

I don't think jennifereccles was being facetious in her admiration for Laurence Fox's stated disdain for what is often sneeringly known as wokeness.

They were being facetious Eloethan. I was just being judgmental and insulting towards an unpleasant and potentially politically disruptive man.

I expect, in days gone by, people who stuck their necks out and suggested that there should be laws to prevent women and ethnic minorities from being discriminated against in employment, housing, etc., would be called "do gooders" or some such label - perhaps the precursor to "the woke brigade".

Being white, posh and male does not, as a general rule, impede a person's journey through life. Whereas being black, poor and female most certainly does. (No doubt somebody will now mention all the poor, black females who have had fabulous success - but that is the exception rather than the rule).

Using posh, white boy as a description of someone is making certain assumptions and could therefore be described as stereotypical and prejudiced, but I think it would be misleading to call it racist. My understanding of racism is prejudice plus power. Anyone can be prejudiced against whomever they like but not everyone can put that prejudice into practice by affecting the life potential of another person.

Luvaduck what has this guy done? We don’t hear about it here, only see him as an actor. He seems to have engendered a lot of dislike/hatred.