Jenny Tonge fired
January 23rd, 2004
Yesterday, Damian Penny posted his outrage at British MP Jenny Tonge’s comments that, if she were Palestinian, she would consider becoming a suicide bomber.
Damian was far from the only one to be outraged. Latest reports are that Tonge has been fired for her insensitive remarks:
Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge has been sacked for saying she would consider becoming a suicide bomber if she were a Palestinian, remarks that caused widespread outrage.
Speaking late on Thursday, eight days after a Palestinian woman suicide bomber killed four Israelis at a Gaza Strip border crossing, Tonge said she understood the attackers’ “desperation”.
“There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism,” Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said in a statement on Friday, announcing Tonge’s dismissal as party spokeswoman on children.
“Her recent remarks about suicide bombers are completely unacceptable.”
Nice to see that at least some people in Britain still have a moral compass. I don’t necessarily agree with firing people for their comments – it has that unpleasant odour of censorship – but I do think that there are certain lines that an elected representative of the people shouldn’t cross. And Tonge crossed one of them – to a great enough degree to piss off the Liberal Democrat party enough to fire her from a job involving putting forth party views.
I wonder if Svend Robinson is paying attention…
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