Chairman Frank McAveety calls a recess and stretches back in his chair; he casually remarks to the guy next to him; “that girl in the audience is nice; very attractive; she has that Filipino look; like a woman from a Gaugin painting” alas like others before him he was still ‘live’ and his remarks were overheard. It's bizarre I have been in Frank's company before and he is a lively quick witted guy who would not cause offence to anyone he is great company and I'm sure those who know him will be utterly bewildered by this unnecessary resignation.
So let’s suspend common sense and join in with the circus for a while. What would the woman have said to him had she heard his comments; would she have been insulted; would she have reported him; what would she have reported him for; who would she have reported him to; how would she have described his transgression. Conceivably she would have gathered her nerve and; through trembling lips she would have said “the swine called me nice; he even called me attractive, the insensitive brute that he is, I’m now seeing my doctor because I’m distressed by all this; women are just not safe with such men around. Gaugin you say? he painted some beautiful women didn’t he? Still he has no right saying such things”
At the tender age of 15 years I arrived at ‘Brown and Polson’s’ factory to start work; I was given a white uniform and a ridiculous wee white hat; the fact that everyone in the place wore one did not help; I felt daft. I was given directions to go and report to the ‘Cube’ building where surprise surprise they made Knorr stock cubes. I strode through the large double doors as purposely as I could and stopped dead as I was confronted by approx. 50 women and one man who; along with me did the heavy lifting in the ‘Cube Hall’ When I read about Frank McAveety today I thought about that first day at work and I can say that if it was right for Frank to resign those women should have been detained. They teased me pitilessly and my face was permanently red for days, I simply could not repeat some of the things and describe some of the mischief they played on me; honestly in a family blog I couldn’t. It was sink or swim and like most of course I learned to swim and the teasing stopped within a couple of days; I became so immune to them that I actually went out with a couple of them. Frank’s resignation is a charade and makes the Parliament look stupid; the ghost of John Knox is around I think; the buttoned up Jeremiahs who are attacking him ought to get a life. If McAveety is wrong to compare this woman to a Gaugin painting would these clowns also ban Gaugin’s paintings altogether? How about this one, “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate; Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, etc. (Oi! You! Wassname, Shakespeare, enough of that you sleazy sod)
I have done a small straw poll among several women to see how they would react to his remarks if McVaveety said those things about them and the answers were predictable; here are some.
Girl1/ I would love to look like that. Girl 2/ He’s cheeky but nice. Girl 3/ His place or mine. Girl 4/ These complainers have never been to the dancing in Paisley have they? Girl 4/ Most women would say he was a charmer. Girl 5/ Who is this Gaugin guy then?
I couldn’t get any one of them to condemn him in any way; this has to be as daft a resignation as we have seen and those who called for it and supported it are a laughing stock as is Parliament.
Latest update 19;00 One of the past members of McAveety's petitions committee Sandra White SNP says that as the committee had dealt with Lap Dancing and Trafficking; Frank McAveety is not fit to chair this committee. Sandra White is a perfect example of the lack of ability and talent in the SNP. The SNP go to inordinate lenghths to keep her locked away, her and Christine Grahame are like two crazy old bats in the attack in a Hammer movie but occasionaly they escape and embarrass the party and themselves; in White's case she also embarrasses women everywhere, they both have "mouths like a clown's pocket" She compares Frank McAveety to Sex Traffickers because he said that a young woman was attractive; Ms. White; that, is the sound of white coats flapping that you can hear.
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25 comments:
Kelly, have you checked the lady's age?
Paraphrasing again are we? Here is the real text, aimed at a 15 year old girl. No doubt because he's Labour it's defensible and acceptable. What does 'put the word out for her mean? what does he mean he's feeling the heat? You justify old men leering after teenage girls. Tells us where your thoughts lie.
“There’s a very attractive girl in the second row, dark and dusky. We’ll maybe put out a wee word out for her.
“She’s very attractive looking. Nice, very nice, very slim. The heat’s getting to me.
“She’s got that Filipino look, you know. The kind you would see in a Gauguin painting. There’s a wee bit of culture.”
Is it not the case that the so called WOMAN in question is a SCHOOLGIRL.
Last night a spokesman for the Green Party confirmed: "The person in question is of school age"
She was doing work experience with Robin Harper MSP.
Couldn't agree with you more.
The people who turned this into a story and the people who have tried to make political capital out of it aren't fit to run a menage, yet we pay them to run the country. I despair!
Jim
PS Thanks for bringing back the great memories of my own tormnent at the hands of older women when I started my working life...
Em, you seemed to have missed out the bit where he fanned his crotch with his papers, and '..put a wee word out for her'?, he presumably knew she was there on work experience?
Also Gauguin painted in Tahiti as far as I know, not the Philippines.
He is a creepy sleazebag.
No.
(Anonymous) 17/06/10
You have a fertile and definitely perverted imagination; you are a gnat aren’t you.
(Anonymous) 17/06/10
What is it you are struggling to say here?
(Mo) 09:45
This story seems to grow and grow doesn’t it. Why do you assume that he would know that she was on work experience?
He said that she looked like a woman from a Gaugin Painting not that Gaugin painted in the Philippines. He also painted in Arles in his native France when he stayed with Van Gogh so what?
Were you bitten by a McAveety as a child or something.
(Jim) 07:39
It is sad and embarrassing that we live in a culture where political opponents and personal enemies can stir up a storm about something as trivial as this and the gutter press latch on to it. A mature and intelligent media would have made a joke of it and let it go at that we are being held up to ridicule again.
Em, I don't think it is the story that was 'growing and growing'!
He is a sleazebag.
Councillor:
How is Michael Sigge a "Genious?
Advertising?
I clicked on your link expecting to be enthralled and came up with a big fat nothing....
There again, hardly surprising coming from this blog.
(Dazed And Confused) 18/06/10
Michael has moved on since that link went up. If I told you why he is a genius them I would have to kill you.
(Mo) 18/06/10
I don’t think you can arrive at that conclusion based on this incident; perhaps you know something that I don’t; share it with us.
“A son of an unemployed welder accused (by a someone who labels himself a socialist) as being a member of the "ruling class".dear, oh dear.”
Dear oh dear indeed; someone who professes to have some knowledge of the subject but doesn’t seem to know that in Ulster you can be as poor as a church mouse and still be a member of the ruling class, depending of course on which foot you kick with; you appear to be either a fool or a liar or perhaps both.
“a Protestant clergyman”
F.F.S.Man Paisley’s a Protestant Clergyman! Talk some sense.
“Your thoughts?”
Utterly depressingly predictable. Plenty of conspiracy; anecdote and hearsay; nothing more than the sound of an empty drum being banged. I had a fair idea you would not last long.
“Armies cannot stand against an idea whose time has come” (Leon Trotsky) Your time is up; there is no going back, the N.I. genie can’t be put back in the bottle, get used to it.
Terry,
I take on board some of your views, can I ask you to clarify a point, when you conducted your straw poll, was it by any chance these Ladies listed bellow that you asked:
Lady 1. Lorraine Cameroon
Lady 2. Wee Fish wife Sandra White
Lady 3. Tracey Spacey McGee
Lady 4. Wee Kenny McLaren.
I feel that this point should be clarified, because I can assure you that two of these listed are not Ladies????
Cheers Mate
Sam France.
You said ' What is it you are struggling to say here?'
I am not struggling at all. I think you are trying very hard to kid on you don't understand the problem. Let put it another way - How would you feel if it were your 15 year old daughter ?????
If his comments are perfectly fine why was he whispering? He obviously understood that his was being furtive and sleazy, and this is clear from his own actions and manner. People enjoy being furtive and sleazy now again. As you imply-no big deal! But, you seem to have missed the point that it is not only the phrases but the context that shames this man.
I worked in a packing warehouse for Avon for a year and the comments from the women working there were way wild-but would I direct such phrases at my teenage daughter's school friends while fanning my crotch and say, sitting in a council meeting?
There is such a thing as the dignity of a setting! Would I engage in sex in a war grave cemetary? No! but I don't have anything against people who enjoy sex outdoors! I don't swear in front of my gran-but do I think that people who swear are bad?Course not, I do it plenty myself. I just don't do pub talk in the wrong place! Try and think about what the Greeks termed 'fittingness'.
Dave
(Anonymous) 07:34
“If his comments are perfectly fine why was he whispering?”
Who said his comments were perfectly fine or that he was whispering? You are off to a bad start. You are trying to no avail to make this in to something that it is not.
As you say you do these things yourself but; only in certain places that means you are a hypocrite; the difference between your behaviour and his is that he was overheard saying and acting in a way that is familiar to most people.
(Anonymous) 20/06/10
“the problem” is easy to understand some people don’t take these things too seriously and some; mainly because they have their own agenda like to magnify them.
One of my daughters is a school teacher and she runs the school shows and takes part in them; on one occasion my wife and I sat at a show behind a group of teenage boys who were her pupils; when she appeared as the good fairy these boys started telling each other what they thought of her which was very complimentary and nothing to do with her abilities as a teacher; Mr. McAveety would have blushed to hear them.
Later we went for a drink and I related the story to her; without the gory details of course and we all had a good laugh about it; perhaps I should have reported them to the Head Teacher? It was a few years ago and had I done that my daughter would still not be talking to me.
You sound like a sanctimonious po-faced reactionary and if you have a 15 year old daughter then she has my deepest sympathy.
(Anonymous) 20/06/10
All of the above would possibly think like the ladies from my straw poll but they would deny that and react in whichever way would be most damaging to McAveety just like the absurd Sandra White SNP MSP.
I fear you have made a mistake with number 4; the last time I looked Kenny was definitely male. I assume that your use of the term ‘Ladies’ alludes to well mannered courteous women; I couldn’t possibly comment on that.
Dave makes a fair point that you first ridicule and then accept. You say you omit 'the gory details' when you recount the phrases to your daughter. Why? Perhaps because you felt it was inappropriate. That seemed to be Dave's point to me. I do hope your not a 'hypocrite'. If it is OK to leer after under age young women then why not just say it out loud? Why not permit foul mouthed and shallow-minded blather on your blog? Maybe its just not the place for such stuff right?
But like others, I do have a question for you that I really am at a loss to decipher. What does "put a wee word out for her" mean?
(Anonymous) 21/06/10
I would not feel comfortable repeating such phrases to my daughter; if you think that makes me a hypocrite then I will live with that.
You have decided that McAveety knew that this young woman was ‘under age’ that I’m afraid makes you one of those with their own agenda you are a liar and doing this to have a go at McAveety / Labour; unless of course you can tell me how he knew this.
what does "put a wee word out for her" mean?
No idea.
What would The Harman make of it... drives a coach and horses clean through her 'Empowerment For Women' movement.
Personally, I think she'll be buying a blunt knife to use on the dirty wee B****r. Probably claim it on expenses too.
(Byeck) 27/06/10
How very PC of you; who would have thunk it?
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