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Keith E Rice's Integrated SocioPsychology Blog & Pages

Aligning, integrating and applying the behavioural sciences

O’Grady’

A New England from the Racial Abuse of Footballers…?

Many decent people are rightly outraged by the racist abuse heaped on Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho on social media in the wake of them missing their penalty shots in the Euro 2020 final last Sunday. England footballer Tyrone Mings has accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of pretending to be disgusted by racist abuse, after she previously described taking the knee as ‘gesture politics’. Patel had said she was “disgusted” by the online abuse directed at the England trio. However, Mings Tweeted that she had “stoked the fire” by refusing to criticise fans who booed the England team for taking the knee (BBC News). Patel’s boss, Boris Johnson, is also being criticised for not condemning fans booing the England team taking the knee. After England’s final warm-up game, he refused 4 times, when asked by journalists, to condemn fans who had booed players taking part in the anti-racism protest. Thus, when, at last Monday’s Downing Street press conference, he said: “Shame on you [the social media abusers] – I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged” – the criticism appeared to be more a matter of political expediency than being genuinely heartfelt revulsion. Showing… Read More

Enoch Powell: Racist or Prescient?

30 April 2018 In April 2018 there was quite a  fuss about the 50th anniversary (20 April) of Enoch Powell’s notorious ‘rivers of blood’ speech. For example, Powell was described as “quite dishonest” by The Independent’s Sean O’Grady. Sky News’ Lewis Goodall argued at length that Powell was a racist and a populist. As reported by the likes of The Guardian’s Mark Sweeney and the Evening Standard’s Fiona Simpson , the BBC’s Radio 4 came under intense criticism for having broadcast the speech transcript (with critical analysis). Several expert contributors publicly dissociated themselves from the broadcast while former transport minister Lord Andrew Adonis threatened he would raise the matter in Parliament. So, it seemed appropriate to look again at Powell’s speech from an Integrated SocioPsychology perspective, explore how racist it really was, how prescient it was and how the contemporary United Kingdom looks in terms of Powell’s predictions and their impact. How relevant it is to today’s political landscape  is illustrated by Matthew d’Ancona who writes in The Guardian: “Powell was wrong about so much. Yet Powellism found its purest expression in the 2016 EU referendum result, which enshrined the convergence of two of his greatest fixations: hostility to immigration and opposition to Britain’s… Read More

So the Turkeys did vote for Christmas?!?

Well,  obviously it remains to be seen just how much damage Brexit does to the UK – socially, economically and politically. But the initial consequences do not look at all good: Britain’s credit rating downgraded, the pound struggling to get much above the rock bottom it hit on Monday, up and down (but mostly down) stocks and shares (with markets right around the world affected), the banks and many big companies drawing up relocation plans (with consequent loss of jobs), a mooted 25% of companies declaring a freeze on hiring staff, a significant increase in incidents of racial and ethnic abuse, momentum building for a second Scottish independence referendum and Martin McGuinness calling for a referendum on whether the island of Ireland should be reunited. The ‘serious’ newspapers and internet news sites are full of dire predictions of far worse to come. As the so-called ‘Project Fear’ appears to be turning rapidly into reality, it would be foolish indeed to say blandly everything is going to be OK, as Boris Johnson was doing on Monday morning. The pound and the markets were stable he stated an hour or so before the pound hit a 31-year low. Everything is not OK. Not in the slightest. The UK faces an existential… Read More

Bibliography O

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P-Q    R    S     T     U    V    W    X-Y-Z O’Carroll, Lisa (2019): ‘Economy could be 9% weaker under No-Deal Brexit, Government says’ in The Guardian (26 February) O’Grady, Sean (2016): ‘Even though We voted for It, a Brexit won’t happen in the End. Here’s why’ (The Independent) http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-wont-really-happen-second-referendum-markets-value-housing-pound-a7106996.html (Accessed: 28/06/16) O’Grady, Sean (2018): ‘Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech marked Him out as the Prototype Trump’ (The Independent) https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/enoch-powell-rivers-of-blood-speech-50-years-trump-immigration-right-wing-a8299211.html (Accessed: 27/04/18) O’Malley, Padraig (1993): ‘Political Interview: 11 Aug 1993: Hall, John‘ (The O’Malley Archives/Nelson Mandela Foundation) https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv00017/04lv00344/05lv00730/06lv00765.htm (Accessed: 31/12/15) O’Sullivan, Chris & Francis Durso (1984): ‘Effect of Schema-Incongruent Information on Memory for Stereotypical Attributes’ in Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 47/1 O’Toole, Emer (2018): ‘Brexit Deal criticised for trying to ‘cherry pick’ Single Market’ in The Nationalist (6 July) O’Toole, Finton (2017): ‘What connects Brexit, the DUP, Dark Money and a Saudi Prince?’ in Irish Times (16 May) Observer Editorial (2016): ‘Theresa May has No Mandate for her Little Britain. There are Far Greater Issues at Stake’ in The Observer (9 October) Office of National Statistics (2007): ‘Focus on Social Inequality’ (Palgrave Macmillan,… Read More