Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is leading the first British business delegation to Iraq in over 20 years.
Representatives from 23 companies are accompanying the business secretary on a one-day trip to Baghdad and Basra. The group will meet Iraqi government ministers to discuss how they can contribute to the economic reconstruction of the country…
Lord Mandelson stressed that the reconstruction of Iraq continued to be a good business opportunity.
“British business and expertise can play an important role in the development of the Iraq economy,” he said.
- BBC News
Just like they did in its destruction.
The choice of the Business Secretary to head the trade trip should be a fascinating test of diplomatic relations with the new Iraqi administration, given that Islamist preachers in Britain want Mandelson to be stoned for his homosexuality.
56 Comments
Wow, what a bizarrely homophobic tone you’ve taken. Would you, say, not send a female delegate in case you offended men? What about a Jewish delegate?
You totally obscure tour otherwise excellent point about British business in Iraq.
Actually, Mandelson is half-Jewish, AFAIK.
I don’t think DEM is suggesting Mandelson shouldn’t be sent., but just making a point about the homophobia he will have to face.
It really shouldn’t be an issue what Mandelson’s sexual preferences are, but sadly I think there will be some of the Islamist persuasion who may find it problematic. I was going to say that there is a difference in Western and Middle Eastern values, but I don’t think the differences are that stark on further reflection. I note that Mandelson was “outed” in the UK, and much was made of it. Obviously it’s hard to be gay in both societies.
DEM might be making that point, but seriously, what a childish and homophobic way to make it. And you still don’t answer the question of why Mandelson’s sexual orientation OR religious beliefs are relevant to British trade in Iraq. An entirely different post would focus on Iraqi homophobia, not Mandelson “taking it up the ass” – which is quite simply homophobic and inappropriate.
This reminds me of the 1950s handbook on posting female diplomatic staff – young women may add “charm” but older women are “hatchet-faced” and they “shriek” so obviously they will be inappropriate diplomatic staff – judged by the misogynist standards of the day. Judging Mandelson as a gay man and hiding behind “that’s what other people will think” is exactly the same thing.
Half-Jewish? Which half?
Mike – silly expression, I know.
Technically, he’s not Jewish actually (as Judaism is passed on through the mother). But if you’re anti-Semitic (which some Islamists are) then that kind of a technicality doesn’t matter.
So…you’re trying to say that the cartoon is actually satirising homophobia?
But the homophobe that’s criticising Mandelson is an English guy, in England. What does he have to do with Iraq? And how does Mandelson leading a trade mission there relate to him being a “Queen” and “taking it up the ass”?
Mandelson is an unpleasant person who has misled the UK and European parliaments over his finances, abused his office for personal affairs, and meetings with oligarch Oleg Deripaska. There are plenty of things to be critical of Mandelson for – the fact that he’s gay shouldn’t be one of them.
The day cartoonists and humorists have to be fair is the day the world stops laughing.
I have always detested PC in all its forms and this is no exception. I actually can’t see any homophobia in this cartoon, but even if there were, I wouldn’t care. DEM’s brief is to be funny. End of.
/libertarian
If you want a good laugh about people misunderstanding humor, then read the “Success in the United States” part of the Wikipedia entry on Barry Humphries. It’s great.
What’s PC about saying this is an offensive, unfunny and downright stupid cartoon? If DEM’s brief is to be funny, s/he’s obviously failed here.
Oh God… If I have to start explaining every one of my funnies this is going to get boring fast.
Yes the post title is very pointed, SL describes ones like this as “indulging my inner Sun subeditor”. Yes I am very aware that there is more than one way to be gay (yadda yadda yawn)…
To decode: The choice of Mandelson makes sense because
a) he is Business Secretary (as it says on his folder in the picture)
b) he has a history of being given thankless assignments (Northern Ireland Secretary, anyone?) and
c) the history of antipathy between Brown and Mandelson make him even more likely to be given an assignment that is so clearly on a hiding to nothing. Mandy is famous for once describing Gordon as “psychologically flawed”. Gordon told a Tribune rally in 1996 “Peter asked me for 10p to phone a friend the other day. I said: ‘Here, take 20p and ring them all.’ If you didn’t know that they didn’t get on, where the hell have you been for the past ten years?
The beardy chap is Anjem Choudary, the british “hate preacher” who is the one that says Mandelson should be stoned if he admits to committing homosexual acts. He also led the recent “Butchers of Basra” protest at the Luton homecoming parade for 2nd Battalion, the Royal Anglians on March 10 (the one where the police ended up having to protect the protestors from the public). If anything the main target of the funnie is Islamic homophobia in general and his in particular.
Given the resentment of Iraqis to the invasion and subsequent occupation of the country by British (and American) forces, ANYONE attempting to promote promote British business activity there is going to end up proverbially “taking it up the ass”. We’re not popular.
Come on people, this is the Skepticlawyer site… keep up!
To add: especially if his/her point is to say that British business is giving to Iraq up the ass, as usual.
I could have said that the invasion of Iraq had “queered the pitch” for British business there, but you might have misunderstood.
It would have been clearer (and funnier) than what you did say – especially as British business has been damaging Iraq for many decades, rather than vice versa.
{yawn}
Being a nice convent-reared gal myself at first glance I was, I admit, a bit taken aback at the stark crudity of DeusExMacintosh’s expression.
But having thought about it I think it bears stating that for many of us the prospect, or actuality, of being fucked in the arse is not something we personally could ever aspire to or desire – for a myriad practical, experiential, sensual, aesthetic and other reasons. And to state this, in so many words, obliquely or by inference, is not homophobic, but is simply delineating a perfectly legitimate personal preference to reject and yes even ridicule an otherwise acceptable and admittedly quite popular sexual practice.
For (your) god’s sake, this is satire, you know the thing that has been going on since cave painting and before Aerosal cans.
Quill and Parchment, the Book of Pillows, Jesters, the Bible, the Koran, Tattoo ,
Testaceous is the beckon to satire, long live the lampoon.
Okay, as a policy decision I have decided I am no longer going to explain my funnies. You’ll either get it – or you won’t.
I’ll just copy the Barry Humphries quote here.
“”If you have to explain satire to someone, you might as well give up.” “
Being funny in the first place would have headed off any discussion of whether it was homophobic or not!
“Being funny in the first place would have headed off any discussion of whether it was homophobic or not”
With due respect , that would have been humour, this is the following of Juvernal,Dickens,Amis.and so on.
The noblesse lays with the reader.
Give me a homphobe anyday over these two shrill sanctimonious ponces. Here’s a heads-up for you decriers of “inappropriateness”. Pillow-biters simply adore ‘taking it up the ass’. Some happen to be very good at it. If any are reading this, please contact me toot sweet.
What’s PC about saying this is an offensive, unfunny and downright stupid cartoon?
Crickets.
I must say although I think I get what was intended, in this case I too think that the mark was more than a little missed…
And to point that out is in no way being “PC”… if something’s not funny or inadvertently conveys the wrong message, don’t shoot the messenger when it’s pointed out.
Anyway. DEM, I usually enjoy your stuff! And good policy on not explaining, methinks.
Wow, what a bizarrely homophobic tone you’ve taken.
.
A. Bollocks
B. Homophobe is a really dumb word that means fear of the same.
C. That’s a double entendre. Take it up the arse means at least two things.
D. Gay guys are probably the worst when it comes to that kind of humour.
E. The language police will be slaughtered when the revolution comes.
I’m homophobic.
I fear that this lacklustre supermarket porn decade will persist into the next one and that five years from now I’ll miss the good old days when Lindsay Lohan was considered an actress and [insert manufactured RnB tripe here was supposedly music.
John G -
I don’t think this a place to go cruising.
Adrien – LOL – I actually do have a few gay friends who check out this blog, and are lovely. So you never know your luck in the big city.
John G, Gore Vidal is way out of your league and far too young for an old man like you but he’ll give it to you if you insist though he himself always pooh-poohed being penetrated, sensible man. Like the Roman aristocracy he knew that was just meant for abject slaves.
Posey – Meow!
Posey
Thanks ever so, for the dating advice, but allow me to assure you that anybody who could write Myra Breckenridge is no hold-out when it is time to play Hide The Sausage!
Also, a minor quibble; I DID specifically request those who were very good at pillow-biting, not vice-versa!
Mind, buggers can’t be choosers.
John, re the fabulous Vidal and his personal sexual preferences, all is revealed in http://www.amazon.com/Palimpsest-Memoir-Gore-Vidal/dp/0140260897
Of course, he could have been lying, but he’s always been fearlessly honest and forthright, to a fault many lesser beings and Philistines would say, so don’t see why he would have said otherwise about this.
Posey, this seems to be your Special Topic, so please don’t think I am being impertinent when I ask, “do you Strap-On”?
John, I thought you’d never ask, man. But sorry to disappoint. Believe it or not I never even knew what that term meant until you first spoke of it on some blog or other and I’m still not sure of its exact meaning.
I’m a simple soul sexually. Like most people, certainly most women, I don’t need multiple extraneous apparatuses, mechanical hoists, blindfolds, whips, or mundane material fetishistic objects like shoes or ties (ugh) to help me experience sexual bliss.
The mind and its imaginative, sensual properties is the greatest and only necessary aphrodisiac. As all the great poets – and lovers – know.
Well then all the best to you, my dear Posey. What a feat of well-oiled engineering splendour you sound. Imagine how history might have changed had the young Gore Vidal made your acquaintance at the Kennedy’s White House party instead of becoming boorish and evicted in his drunken stupor!?
p.s. I unreservedly withdraw my earlier accusations that you and [BUGS BUNNY] were the same person. How could I have been so cruel to you!?
[SOONED by Admin]
Erm, SL and/or LE, could you do something about this please? Ta v much.
Nah, on second thoughts, don’t worry about it. It’s not as if anyone who matters will care.
Sorry about that PC – my daughter just did wee all over the floor and have been trying to clean that up for the last half hour, as well as get her back into clothing (she’s running around shouting “You can’t catch me, I’m noo-noo!”).
I’ve Sooned it anyway.
Nyaaahhhh, what’s up, Doc?
Wee all over the floor strikes me as some sort of objective correlative here.
Reminds me of an anecdote about George Reid (Prime Minister of Australia 1904 -05). He was a very large man.
Wikipedia recounts the anecdote thusly:
Apology accepted John Greenfield.
I always knew you were only tweaking my tigerish tail.
could you do something about this please?
.
Why? It’s hilarious.
.
Posey – the various technology of the modern bedroom are products of the mind yeah? Just a thought.
Anyway. Carry on with this fine discussion of
the sexual tastes of American men-of-lettersBritish foreign relations with IraqAdrien, one thing certain voluble censorious omnipresent denizens of the blogosphere will never have is a sense of humour. Far too self-absorbed and self-important is the agreed diagnosis.
Of course the various technologies of the bedroom as you so romantically put it are products of the mind. And the mind has mountains. Just sometimes those constructed, imitative mountains seem a lil’ redundant. Though I wouldn’t deny their place, meaning and right to exist for a nanosecond.
Problem was not with conversation about Gore Vidal, but with a personal comment JG made about another blogger.
Alas the burka of Presbyterian feminazism descends for a visit
By the way Posey, if you have not done so already, I BEG you to read Vidal’s Myra Breckenridge. Save yoy three years of Gender Studies classes, that’s for sure!
Of course the various technologies of the bedroom as you so romantically put it are products of the mind.
Well I could put it romantically but people might get the wrong idea. I don’t personally think much of a lot of that technology. If you’ve seen Burn After Reading you might know what I’m getting at.
I’m not sure who you’re alleging lacks a sense of humour. But I’ve got one. Your exchange with John G reminded me of it.
I love a good Beatrice and Benedick routine.
John G – Alas the burka of Presbyterian feminazism descends for a visit
Well I never. Your mouth has an appointment with this young man. And then it’s off to Pastor MacKinnon for a sermon on the one true God.
John G, I should read MB but perhaps the moment for it has passed. I cannot, e.g imagine re-reading Dostoevsky or any of the French – Balzac, Gide, ok Flaubert for sure – now. Over 18 is simply too late for some of the masters and mistresses. And yes I know we both agree with Camille Paglia about Vidal, the over-riding importance of the study of the classics, literary and philosophical, and the utter uselessness and distortion that is tertiary level gender/cultural studies. A certain blog is an unfortunate typical/predictable end result of that, no?
Adrien, you have a consistently sweet sense of humour, even if it goes missing very occasionally.
It’s not the burkha getting you hot John, it’s those thigh-length leather jackboots. =8-)
Posey – That’s sweet. Thanks.
DEM – You’re very naughty for a Quaker.
Adrien – Just means I’m not allowed to spank anyone.
Better to receive than to give ‘ey?
Hmm, I’m not sure what the Quaker peace testimony has to say about BDSM…
Well the Catholics say it’s wrong of course and at the same time practice it in schools on a regular basis. Hell they invented it.
Having given it some thought, the dominance/submission behavioural pattern wouldn’t get past the Equality testimony so I guess it’ll have to be a distinctly vanilla sex life for me…
The Equality Commission for Sexuality. I think Andrea Dworkin tried to start that one.
Trying to get ‘equality’ in that arena without law is like trying to make waves symmetrical. Ye cannae help but play master and servant. Thing is both of you play master and servant. Unless there’s three of you. Then only one carries the whip.
That was fun.
I’m gonna drop it now or it’ll get too weird.
Happy sundaes.
2 Trackbacks
[...] readers may not be aware that Anjem Choudary (who has featured in our funnies before) is not only behind the group convicted in Luton, he also masterminded the Danish Cartoon protests [...]
[...] So here’s a special single frame. The photo is taken from his days with Anjem Choudary, the islamist preacher behind the now proscribed group Al-Muhajiroun who you might remember from the Danish cartoon protests (the “Behead those who insult islam” placards probably ring a bell) and threats to protest military funerals through Wootton Bassett. Supposedly this little charmer didn’t feel that successor group Islam4UK – the ones rescued by the police when they turned up to protest the Royal Anglian Regiment homecoming parade in Stoke – or poppy-burners Muslims Against Crusades - were extreme enough for his taste. The Home Office disagreed and they’re now banned too. Anjem has come up in my cartoons previously. [...]