Mike Dickin may not have been a right wing thug, and I'm sure would never have wanted to physically harm anyone, but the trouble is that people who hold the views he did, and that he verbalised to the lady caller regarding her sexuality, almost begin to legitimise the behaviour of those who wish to act as thugs and bullies in the way that the lady described from her past life being made a misery. Others with more violent intentions will always take views like Dickin expressed on that radio show as a very misplaced green light for their own pathetic agendas. If he were to say that on a radio show tonight, or if anyone else was to, I think they'd be fired almost immediately. I wonder if he would have dared say that to her face, or was he using the safety of his microphone? This is something I always wondered about Dickin. Would he really say these things to a person face to face given the same chance. Apparently he did in a 1981 radio studio, but 20 years later?


In this case he must have been full of self loathing then, because the rant towards the lesbian lady over her sexuality and the subsequent rambling about her intellect as the call ended suggests somebody equally foul mouthed and poorly educated on the face of it.

He was one of those odd characters to listen to. When he was good he was very good, but when he was bad he was very bad indeed, infact appalling and embarrassingly so. There was no middle ground.

I don't think I used the word 'brave' but I do think it took courage to express that Diana's accident was not quite the accident we have been led to believe it was.

I said earlier that I always felt the reported circumstances of his death sounded not quite right and until somebody somewhere provides the circumstances of the crash in fuller detail, I will remain of that view.

Just to help you with some details of the crash involving Dickin, which I believe was a pile up of a few cars, the one car that triggered the accident being a white fiat uno which subsequently drove off unscathed and has never been traced.

Just to be clear about a few things:

I didn't know Mike personally but I'm well-connected in radio circles and I know several people who point to acts of kindness he carried out. Mike liked a drink, he was a bit rough and ready on the outside, but get beyond that and he was a kind man and a superb broadcaster.

Mike made no secret of the fact he believed homosexuality to be a perversion and an unhealthy, unnatural lifestyle choice. This is a view shared by millions of people in Britain (virtually all Muslims and many Christians would agree, and, for that matter, so do I). However, at no time did he condone hurting them, and acknowledged their entitlement to make that choice. In the final years of his time on talkSPORT, his views on homosexuality were sailing a bit close to the wind as far as OFCOM was concerned and he was asked to stay off the issue, which he duly did. A 'phobia' is an irrational fear. Mike certainly wasn't frightened of homosexuals.

Mike also had no time for the EU, the modern Conservative Party, the Royal Family, or the yobbish, loutish place modern Britain has become. He would've emigrated by now had he lived.

Can you call me an ambulance (you're an ambulance) as my sides are terminally splitting.

Shocking.

Sexuality is not "a lifestyle choice". You deal with what you are given, full stop. You no more choose to be hetero or homosexual than you do to be green, blue or brown eyed, or have ginger hair, or black or white skin for that matter. Whether straight or gay, or even bi, do you ever remember making an active choice about what to be? Of course not! There is no choice in the matter and I cannot believe people still think there is.

That aside, your final line regards Mike Dickin is one I could wholeheartedly agree with him on.

Er no ... no they don't. I don't wish to stray way too off-topic for a radio forum, but I can't let that go unchallenged.

The hierarchy of said churches may disagree with homosexuality, although there is a variety of opinion (in Scotland, for example, the Catholic Church being dead against while the Church of Scotland remains officially against, but has changed its views markedly in the last few years and is now to allow gay ministers). But plenty of people who go to church have absolutely no issue with homosexuality, and many Christians I know are absolutely appalled by their church's position on the matter.

Going back to Mike - safe to say he wouldn't have appealed to me then.

You know what realwales - apologies. I misread your message. I thought you were claiming 'virtually all Christians' believed homosexuality was wrong, which would certainly have been wrong. It is without a doubt that many Christians believe that to be the case, as much as I disagree with their opinion. I can't speak for those of the Muslim faith, I don't know enough people of that religion to comment.

I miss him greatly. I used to listen to his show very often and his style was pleasantly brusque and no-nonsense. For ages I thought he had gone because his health was failing (he sounded very short of breath in his latter days) and I didn't know of his death for quite a while.

My guess is he was afraid of homosexuals or his own sexuality otherwise he would not have an obsession with it. And if homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, when did you choose to be straight?

I'm happy to debate this issue with you, but this forum isn't the right place for it. I believe homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, as did Mike. Neither of us make any secret of this view.

How can someone be frightened of homosexuals?

Some people don't like them, but frightened?

Sorry to disagree with you but i think Mike Dickin was and is the best radio Talk show host ever, whilst people may not have agreed with him he deabted robustly, and his views may not be that of many today but Mike's generation had different beliefs which i think he expressed,he is still sadly misssed.

Certainly he was not Sad or Sick.

But its easy to slate the dead.

It is NOT!

There is no meaningful debate needed on the issue. It's not like choosing wallpaper, paint or a carpet for the house!

You have to wonder how any son or daughter of Dickin may have been treated if they themselves had been what he so disliked.

An offensive and idiotic statement. Answer the question put to you before: when did you choose to be straight?

There is no way I ever want to join in a row over something like this but after reading so much regarding it the past 48 hours I simply find myself totally unable to keep out of it any longer.

Not in twenty million years is homosexuality a lifestyle choice, you simply don't decide to be gay it doesn't happen end of, it's a biological development determined before your even born.
I'm no expert and I am not gay but these are my honest felt views.

PS..
I thought Mike Dickin was very very wrong how he treat gay callers and when reading emails from gay people, it was one of the things that used to really put me off him.

I wish I could choose to be gay: I get on much better with guys than gals!

It was 10 years ago today that the legend Mike Dickin died, his final show from the previous Saturday www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqF1UKF_nH0

10 years Sunday. I only know that because it was my Birthday!

Thanks for the reminder. It was a real shock to hear back in 2006. I still remember him on the radio the Friday night before that fatal crash, I had the radio outside with me as I put some Christmas lights up and he was lambasting PM Tony Blair. It was more or less the last thing I heard him say.