Lee Anderson has joined the Reform UK political party!

It's that pesky democracy isnt it, people voting in a way that some people dont like.

Sorry to hear nanna8 that you've had such bad news take care.

A lot of Aborigines voted no and went on the tv for their reasons. It is very convenient for people to forget that though, unfortunately. The couple of Aborigine friends I have were very firm ‘no’s’. I think you have to live here to understand what is happening, or at least, like Call. have strong ties.
Sorry I am a bit off just now, just received news of a death in the family and feeling sad and weepy.

but this is how it was reported here

Yes of course it was.

Oh dear.
Not this again.

Many Aboriginal people voted No as well.

Excuse me? In October 2023, didn't Australia vote overwhelmingly not to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution? I don't want to get into an argument about it as it's nothing to do with the topic of this thread but this is how it was reported here:

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/14/rejecting-the-voice-shows-australia-is-still-in-denial-its-history-of-forgetting-a-festering-wrong#comments

Tested= treated

Have to say I’ve never been called a pom even when we first arrived and I had an accent but I have used it myself jokingly. As for the comments about how Aborigines are tested, absolute and complete rubbish. They are totally revered these days, we even pay tribute to them at every single public gathering. I know in the 50 s and 69 s things were not so good but that was then not now. We don’t have many people from Pakistan here so possibly it just hasn’t come up but I wouldn’t see it as racist here because it doesn’t have those connotations. I suppose like you wouldn’t say ‘abo’ here because that would be racist so I can understand.

Well, I've never heard that before TinSoldier
Thank you!

Bloody whingeing Pomegranate 😁

"You a bloody Pom?" can be followed by "Let's have a beer"!

Terribly sad what elements of this country have become.

Thankfully, there are decent, kind people about.

Enter Jimmy Grant

By 1845 immigration was well established in Australia and people began playing with the word immigrant. An immigrant, someone choosing Australia as a place to live, was playfully referred to as Jimmy Grant (or just jimmy). Jimmygrant soon caught on as a slang word, but Australians couldn’t leave it at that and early last century started tinkering with the word some more.

The closest word people could find to jimmygrant (other than immigrant or emigrant) was pomegranateand by 1912, both jimmygrant and pomegranate had come to mean an immigrant.

By 1913 the word had morphed into the term pom or pommie which can be used as both a term of affection or abuse.

concisewriting.com.au/what-do-pomegranates-and-jimmy-grant-have-in-common/

If a word can be taken to mean either affection or abuse then surely it’s better to avoid it in any context where it could be misconstrued?

One of my adult children took a year out of work to travel with her partner. They’d saved and travelled widely, Europe, Asia, India, Africa, north and South America and Australia. They were stunned enough by casual racism in Australia to mention it. Especially towards aborigine people

Hearing yourself constantly referred to as a "bloody Pom" would I imagine be quite distressing, particularly to a young person setting out on a back-packing adventure. I was in my late 40s, and a little more cynical about the world when I discovered I was a goddam Lime

My DD were surprised he couldn't deal with it as they could, politely but robustly.
It's a test in many instances, if you pass the test you earn respect over there.

Callistemon21

Iam64

nanna8

I was wondering why the banned word is considered racist in the UK. It is just a shortening of someone’s nationality and it is not considered racist here. No one bothers. What about ‘Pom’, ‘eye-tie’, ‘af’, ‘Scot’, ‘paddy’’Westie’They would be racist also presumably? No accounting for folks ….

Of course it’s racist. It isn’t ’just A shortening of someone’s nationality’. You may not see it as racist - but it most certainly is used in a racist, derogatory way here and I suspect internationally.
As for Pom, Iti, paddy etc - most decent people don’t use that kind of terminology these days. It’s recognised as being used as a means of othering/suggesting people are less than the person using the terms

I think they do in Australia.

POM is usually preceded by 'Bloody'
A friend's DGS in his 20s who is backpacking was very distressed by this. He's coming home early.
My DD know how to respond in a polite way and that seems to earn respect over there!

I was, back in the late 80s, staying at Cocoa Beach, Florida, and overhead a conversation in a bar where a group of men were discussing (loudly) the merits of various other locations along the coast.

A particular place was mentioned, can't remember the name, and one of the group said in a quite loud voice, "nah, there's too many goddam Limes around".

It wasn't a 'fashionable' bar - one mostly frequented by the locals (hence its appeal to us) and I believe we were the only tourists (let alone British tourists) in there, so I don't think he said this to annoy. It was simple, casual racism.

When you are the victim of such 'relaxed' racism, it stings a bit, and comes as a surprise - not that we lost any sleep over it... the locals we chatted to were very friendly indeed.

I think it came as rather a shock because I probably have a streak of 'British Exceptionalism' in me, TBH!

Hearing yourself constantly referred to as a "bloody Pom" would I imagine be quite distressing, particularly to a young person setting out on a back-packing adventure. I was in my late 40s, and a little more cynical about the world when I discovered I was a goddam Lime.

Iam64

nanna8

I was wondering why the banned word is considered racist in the UK. It is just a shortening of someone’s nationality and it is not considered racist here. No one bothers. What about ‘Pom’, ‘eye-tie’, ‘af’, ‘Scot’, ‘paddy’’Westie’They would be racist also presumably? No accounting for folks ….

Of course it’s racist. It isn’t ’just A shortening of someone’s nationality’. You may not see it as racist - but it most certainly is used in a racist, derogatory way here and I suspect internationally.
As for Pom, Iti, paddy etc - most decent people don’t use that kind of terminology these days. It’s recognised as being used as a means of othering/suggesting people are less than the person using the terms

I think they do in Australia.

POM is usually preceded by 'Bloody'
A friend's DGS in his 20s who is backpacking was very distressed by this. He's coming home early.
My DD know how to respond in a polite way and that seems to earn respect over there!

nanna8

I was wondering why the banned word is considered racist in the UK. It is just a shortening of someone’s nationality and it is not considered racist here. No one bothers. What about ‘Pom’, ‘eye-tie’, ‘af’, ‘Scot’, ‘paddy’’Westie’They would be racist also presumably? No accounting for folks ….

Of course it’s racist. It isn’t ’just A shortening of someone’s nationality’. You may not see it as racist - but it most certainly is used in a racist, derogatory way here and I suspect internationally.
As for Pom, Iti, paddy etc - most decent people don’t use that kind of terminology these days. It’s recognised as being used as a means of othering/suggesting people are less than the person using the terms

Well! What a surprise!!!

nanna8

I was wondering why the banned word is considered racist in the UK. It is just a shortening of someone’s nationality and it is not considered racist here. No one bothers. What about ‘Pom’, ‘eye-tie’, ‘af’, ‘Scot’, ‘paddy’’Westie’They would be racist also presumably? No accounting for folks ….

I think 'Paddy' and 'Westie' can be deemed sometimes to simply be 'affectionate' terms.

The abbreviation for those from Pakistan - not so much. It was a word used by racists and was meant as an insult.

I was wondering why the banned word is considered racist in the UK. It is just a shortening of someone’s nationality and it is not considered racist here. No one bothers. What about ‘Pom’, ‘eye-tie’, ‘af’, ‘Scot’, ‘paddy’’Westie’They would be racist also presumably? No accounting for folks ….

growstuff

Galaxy

I would be astounded if GN are using AI, they arent usually at the cutting edge of tech, and I say that with fondness

That kind of "AI" which isolates single words in social media posts has existed for decades. Essex County Council installed it in its schools' networks. "Sex" was identified as a banned word, even when it existed as part of a word. Unfortunately, it mean that anything with "Essex" was banned, which was inconvenient, to say the least.

🤣🤣🤣

Nicenanny3

No thank you I've seen your posts calling Lee Anderson a thug.

What's wrong with telling the truth?

They cant do that with all posts though, some would legally have to go.

HPQ I would like to see GN adopt a system as they have on other forums where a post which breaches Talk Guidelines is greyed out rather than removed. It can still be read but one has to work harder to see it. In that way it doesn't break the continuity of discusssion as it does now, often rendering subsequent comments nonsensical.

I did post above that I believe Iam64's deleted post has been reinstated - page 7 @ 9:59.

I didn’t think for a moment that you reported Iam. I’m sure I’m not alone there. Even if we don’t always see eye to eye, we get to know one another’s ethics and integrity.

Can I just point out, seeing as a previous comment of mine has been quoted several times.....I most certainly did not report Iam64, or anyone else for that matter. I prefer comments to be left for all to see, even if some choose to misunderstand them as happened with Iam64.