British Journalist Mike Parry is facing major backlash after he said "minorities have to be squashed" during an appearance on Jeremy Vine's eponymous show.
Parry voiced this disturbing thought during a discussion with Vine about Insulate Britain protesters, who have caused significant disruptions on the M25 highway recently.
Protesters have taken to running in front of oncoming vehicles to disrupt traffic and bring attention to their cause. Being that the group is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, it should be no surprise their demands are largely related to climate change.
They want, according to Yahoo!News:
"For the government to fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain by 2025."
"Produce - within four months - a legally binding national plan to pay for all homes in Britain to become low-energy and low-carbon by 2030 with a future aim of fully decarbonising society and the economy."
Parry's objection to "minorities" came after Vine asked about whether protesters should somehow be removed from the roads if they had glued their hands to the road itself.
Guest Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said no, as some amount of protest must be tolerated in a free society.
Parry, on the other hand, took the opportunity to launch into a tirade about how minorities are ruining Britain, complete with table-slapping for emphasis.
"Not to the detriment of millions of other people. The problem in this country in all areas is that minorities always get the upper hand because we're so tolerant."
"And minorities have to be squashed like that!"
You can view clips of Parry's on-air diatribe below:
Mike Parry: \u201cThe problem in this country, in all areas, is that the minorities always get the upper hand cos we\u2019re so tolerant & minorities have to be squashed, like that!\u201d\n\n#JeremyVinepic.twitter.com/fT8yioAnkf— David (@David) 1633081513
A longer clip of Mike Parry being a repellent bigot, in which it is abundantly clear to anyone who doesn\u2019t seek to excuse openly fascist rhetoric that he wasn\u2019t just talking about M25 protesters.\n\nVine doesn\u2019t exactly cover himself in glory either.pic.twitter.com/MZE1uE3VOj— Max Morgan \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Max Morgan \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1633095669
People were outraged at Parry's blatant bigotry.
I\u2019m confused. So are we a \u2018tolerant country\u2019 or one where \u2018minorities need to be squashed\u2019. The two seem mutually exclusive— Anton Emmanuel (@Anton Emmanuel) 1633131492
See he's frantically back peddling on his twitter feed with a "not all minorities" set of tweets.\n"oh when I said minorities, I didn't mean those minorities, I meant different minorities."— Cjmg (@Cjmg) 1633094770
Squashed, in the same way you would squash an insect.\nLovely bit of dehumanisation there. \nGuess it would just be better if we shut up and knew our place, huh.— Louise LaTran. \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83e\udddc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f (@Louise LaTran. \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83e\udddc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f) 1633089527
I dont understand how the presenter tries to joke it off and move on after something so horrific was said. What human being doesn't stop and say "I'm sorry, WHAT did you say? What exactly do you mean by 'squash mjnoritoes'?"— ForzaSchumi (v) \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa #FuckBrexit (@ForzaSchumi (v) \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa #FuckBrexit) 1633100252
I hate Vine with a passion for continually platforming transphobes.— LizC (@LizC) 1633096404
Parry later tried to backpedal on his comment via Twitter.
"1. Can I explain please the context of my comment on the @JeremyVineOn5 show this morning: 'Minorities have to be squashed' It sounds brutal in isolation but it was directly aimed at the M25 protestors and OTHER minority groups who've had a disproportionate effect on life ..'"
1. Can I explain please the context of my comment on the @JeremyVineOn5 show this morning: "Minorities have to be squashed" It sounds brutal in isolation but it was directly aimed at the M25 protestors and OTHER minority groups who've had a disproportionate effect on life ..— Mike Parry (@Mike Parry) 1633093430
2. Before today's show we were discussing wind power/energy sources .. a story we covered .. and I expressed the view: "Fracking could have saved this country from relying on overseas energy .. but once again a tiny minority of protestors stopped it happening. Why? It's mad"— Mike Parry (@Mike Parry) 1633093737
3. I do not regard anybody who is not my religion, creed or colour as a person in a minority group. I'm not even aware that I live in a mixed race society. I just live in our society. To link my "minorities" comment to ethnicity is just silly .. I don't think like that ..— Mike Parry (@Mike Parry) 1633094206
People were quick to point out his own clearly stated words were what led folks to that conclusion.
They proceeded to roast him anew.
It's the fault of the words he said for meaning the things he meant to say! Tricky things words— Gordon_H_Gopher (@Gordon_H_Gopher) 1633111441
You think this tweet is helping?\n\nYou\u2019ve basically just confirmed that you think that any minority group that you don\u2019t like should be squashed.— Terry Tibbs (@Terry Tibbs) 1633097436
"how dare the public assume the words that came out of my mouth mean what they actually mean"— Cole \ud83c\udf83\ud83c\udf42\ud83d\udc7b (@Cole \ud83c\udf83\ud83c\udf42\ud83d\udc7b) 1633094843
Exactly. He was clearly making a broader point about \u2018minorities\u2019 in general. The nonsense he\u2019s now coming out with about only meaning \u2018the minorities that have had a disproportionate effect on life\u2019 (and who gets to decide that?) is clumsy backtracking.— Charles Donovan (@Charles Donovan) 1633108921
He even squashed an imaginary minority— Thucydides1989 (@Thucydides1989) 1633102485
Vine evidently also tried to defend Parry in a now-deleted tweet, saying:
"This would have been totally unacceptable had Mike been referring to members of ethnic minorities. In fact this snippet does not make clear @mikeparry8 was actually talking about the eco-protesters who brought the M25 to a halt. He said they represented very few people in the UK."
He apparently missed the memo "squashing" generally isn't considered an acceptable way of addressing protesters who inconvenience the public.
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