So Laila didnt see it as a rascist slur and wasn't deeply offended?

Then why have we had all these posts by people saying it was offensive and rasict? If anyone should know it would be Laila! So the PC brigade got their knickers in a twist for nothing!! Hilarious.

The one to which Anton and Laila was dancing to 'Just in Time' was once sung by Gene Kelly and Julie Andrews and it was loverly: click here for joy.

Yet another 'PC brigade' post.

Not sure if I should or ?

I don't read the newspapers, and I knew what was going on. And that's without being on here as well. I think more people knew what was going on, then knew about the real news stories going on in the world.


I think it would have been just as daft to dredge up the whole thing again, spelling it out just in case.

I think everything was said that needed to be said.

I think going through the details of what actually happened would just have led to more tabloid stories about it and prolonged the ordeal. As they said tonight it happened weeks ago, and they want to put it behind them, and so it makes sense that they don't go over the details put just have Anton apologise and Laila say that she's accepted his apology, and hopefully everyone can now move on.

the action of a person not affected at al is to walk out, isnt it?

tony beak is a racist , how the BBC continue to put up with this whole disgraceful incident and try and brush it off is beyond me

Does enybody else feel like it's Groundhog Day when reading this thread, some people (on both sides) just don't want to let it go.

completely agree but now you have said that, you are going to get lots of people saying they shouldnt move on as its not be properly dealt with.
which isnt me...i'm just warning you.

cant believe this thread is still going.

I'm loosing the will to live on the dsf at the moment.

Have some monster munch darlin and look at that nice thread about dancing *passes crisps over*

Nope, that argument doesn't hold. I have every right to object to someone using a racist word in a public situation. Doesn't mean I want the user boiled in oil or even sacked. But do I have the right to object to its use? Of course I do. If the word is used with impunity it adds to its acceptability.

He did last night on ITT and Laila was there re-affirming her support of him, confirming her acceptance of his apology and requesting that everyone move on from it as she and Anton had (weeks ago) and wish to do so again.

You really want blood don't you?
Henry VIII would have been proud of you!
If you sack Anton for this off air comment, what punishment do you want for an on air sex/age/racist attack? Beheading?

Dancingdog in #1219 - well said!

Sobers in #1218 - you should try living up to your username - what a crock (a la USA)


A very generalised statement and from what I can gather, dependent on the area one lived in circa 1960 or if indeed one was born then.
(I'm not posh - just don't want this to be taken as a comment directed at anyone personally)
Where I live, I was a child at the first influx of non-white people and while there was not a little curiosity, there was no animosity.
We still talk about the p*ki shop but in the same context as the chemist shop - no bitter or anti feelings whatsoever.

When I go abroad it is always assumed by locals that I am English and while it can be annoying to have to correct their assumption repeatedly, I take no offence at that or being called a Jock - until one actually talks to an Asian person, it is nigh impossible to know whether they are Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian - are these two scenarios any different?

As a few posters have said - this has blown out of all proportion; Anton made a blooper and apologised....THE END.

Anyone who continues using or condoning the use of the word P*** knowing it causes offense is a racist.

I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it if people began their posts to you with GOD EXISTS YOU KNOW TRUNKSTER! I'm sure this makes me even more PC than my other posts, but I didn't really appreciate the beginning of your post. Similarly the attitude- he's entitled to his opinion, but if I express mine I'm told to give it a rest?

I don't believe Anton is "telling it like it is". I think he's misjudging an issue of which he has no understanding. There is a psychology involved with weight issues, whether you want to acknowledge that or not.

Insensitive and bloody-minded perhaps, but not necessarily a racist.

But if posts began with the words "GOD EXISTS YOU KNOW" you may decide that the poster was easily deluded or you may not.

Anton is a liability to the programme, you never know who he's going to offend next. Last year he said he had no time for fat people and they should all be shot:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...They-shot.html

I'm still reading through this ridiculous thread, but I was almost rolling on the floor laughing when someone compared him to Hitler. Good god! The man said one word in jest and has since apologised. That's it.

The man said one word - in jest and out of the public eye. The person he said it to has accepted his apology and asked everyone to move on and let them get on with the competition.

The situation was between the two of them - no-one else - and if they (particularly Laila) want to move on we should do so.

If the PC brigade stopped getting all offended on someone else's behalf without checking out how they really felt about whatever was said or done, life would be LOT easier for everyone else.

Someone (one of the cameramen filming training???) saw a way of making a quick buck from the tabloids and that has led to all this.

i am enjoying this thread but dont have the time to read all of th eposts on here


still think if he abided by the code of conduct and his contract he would never have been in this pickle.

hums one republics song " it's too late to apologise it too late"

I do think we should move on for Laila's sake. We mustn't let an ignorant chav like Anton spoil things for her. She has said she is not offended, that may be diplomacy but, whatever, she has moved beyond it and wants to concentrate on her dancing. They are obviously a good ballroom partnership so it would be a good idea for us to just look at that and set Anton's stupidity to one side.

That's quite spectacularly simplistic. You obviously have no understanding of context, nuance, individual circumstance or irony. You also fail to appreciate that language moves on, meanings change, as sensitivity to a particular word waxes and wanes over time. If no one ever used words that someone else found offensive then we'd pretty much all have to have our mouths taped up, just to be on the safe side.

What do you want? An official list of banned words, the use of which automatically results in public shaming/loss of job and income/lynching? Get a sense of proportion and start looking at what people DO, not just what they SAY.

For example, lots of people still use the term 'p*** shop' (thought I'd better use stars there, in case someone accuses me of racism ) to describe an open-all-hours family run local shop; it's not because they're card-carrying members of the BNP, it's affectionately used, by people round here it is anyway.

Heh. maybe we're all just racists and we just don't know it.

I'm at work at the moment. There's five other people in the office and my mate and I we're saying some pretty offensive things to each other. Just banter though.

There you go – I’ve leaked it to the outside world. Can someone please complain to my employer? I’m trying to beat the mark of 487 poor souls who complained to the BBC because they were offended by something they didn’t hear or see!

Yep, it’s a word that’s deemed unacceptable these days and probably everyone present when Anton said it at the very least felt uncomfortable. One of them took it further and alerted the media so now we find ourselves where we are.

Maybe in a couple of decades we can’t call a person from Argentina an ‘Argie’

time will tell tonight how the voting goes.