Anti-Taffy Taaffe

[Gob]

It's a tiresome insult that Welsh people have endured for years.

Now an Englishman on holiday in Wales has been convicted of racism for using the phrase. Anthony Taaffe was fined £150 after calling security staff at a holiday park ‘a bunch of sheep s******s’.


The 47-year-old claims he was using the term to describe ‘people living in the countryside’. At a special weekend court in Llandudno, North Wales, he admitted to racially aggravated disorderly behaviour. The court was told that on Thursday last week Taaffe appeared drunk and had been shouting and swearing at staff at Presthaven Sands holiday park at Gronant, near Prestatyn.

Prosecutor Gareth Parry said he was annoyed about having property stolen from his holiday home. A Welsh off-duty police officer told Taaffe to calm down but the defendant responded by saying ‘f*** off’. Security staff intervened but Taaffe became more aggravated and called them a ‘bunch of sheep s******s’. Police were informed and arrested him. Court chairman Rod Bowden told him that his language, in front of children, had been ‘unacceptable’.

Taaffe, from Bolton, also pleaded guilty to a second similar offence when he called an officer at the police custody unit a ‘Welsh sheep s******’. Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, said Taaffe – who has epilepsy and receives benefits – was holidaying with his sister, who has cancer, and that he was being restrained on the ground when he made the remark.

In November last year, a woman who described her neighbour as ‘a stupid fat Australian’, was fined £110 for racially aggravated public disorder. Czech-born Petra Mills, 31, of Monmouth, South Wales, flung the insult at New Zealander Chelsea O’Reilly during a drunken tirade. In 2011 Coventry postman Darren Swain was convicted of racially aggravated criminal damage after scrawling graffiti at a sorting office in which he called Scottish tennis player Andy Murray a ‘useless Jock’. Coventry Magistrates’ Court ordered Swain to carry out 200 hours of community work and pay £3,000 in costs.

[Lord Jim]

We certainly have our share of ridiculous laws in this country, but I'm very thankful that we don't have this particular brand of nonsense....

[Rick]

Taaffe, from Bolton, also pleaded guilty to a second similar offence when he called an officer at the police custody unit a ‘Welsh sheep s******’. Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, said Taaffe – who has epilepsy and receives benefits – was holidaying with his sister, who has cancer, and that he was being restrained on the ground when he made the remark.

Restraining sheep to the ground is what one does before they are S****** isn't it?

Maybe they were just trying to improve their technique...

[Gob]

A Welsh woman was convicted yesterday of racially abusing her father's mistress by calling her an 'English cow'.

Prestatyn magistrates heard that Elen Humphreys, 25, went to Angela Payne's house in Rhyl to collect some of her father's belongings and told her: 'Leave well alone, you English cow'. Ms Payne reported Humphreys to police, saying the comments were the 'final straw'.

Humphreys was ordered to pay Ms Payne £50 in compensation and was given a 12-month conditional discharge after pleading guilty to racially aggravated harassment at court.

[Lord Jim]

Laying aside the odious nature of "speech crimes" as a concept, just when was it that "Welsh", "Scottish", "Australian" and "English" became "races"?

[Guinevere]

Someone is confusing/conflating "race" with "national origin."

[Gob]

Hate speech laws in the United Kingdom are found in several statutes. Expressions of hatred toward someone on account of that person's colour, race, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, or sexual orientation is forbidden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speec ... ed_Kingdom

[Econoline]

Laying aside the odious nature of "speech crimes" as a concept, just when was it that "Welsh", "Scottish", "Australian" and "English" became "races"?

Jim, I believe that the denizens of that part of the world have always viewed these groups (along with "Irish" of course) as separate "races"--and of course there were many more "races" for peoples in the rest of the world.

I think the real change (over the last century or two) has been the American way of narrowing the definition of "race" to bring the total number down to a historic record low.

[Lord Jim]

As I think about it Econo, you're right...

In fact it was probably in the 19th century when this concept of a hierarchy of many "races" (defined along basically tribal lines) probably reached it's zenith in European philosophy...(it was this interpretation of humanity that laid the predicate for a lot of the racialist views of the Nazis)

Of course that doesn't explain why some 21st century British jurists are seeking to revive it....

ETA:

(along with "Irish" of course)

Actually, I believe they were considered a separate species....