CLEESE WAS RIGHT

In our increasingly politically correct world it was no great surprise to see John Cleese attract a lot of condemnation from the establishment for his recent tweet.  The biggest irony is that a lot of the flak he's received has actually done everything to confirm his observation.  The first thing to remember is that Cleese described London as not really an 'English' city any more, he did not say 'British'.  The English are an ethnic group in their own right.  So take some of the highest profile criticisms of Cleese.

Firstly he was mocked by the ethnic Pakistani Mayor of London in this tweet.  Then on Good Morning Britain there was a discussion about Cleese's comments involving six people, five of whom were black and Asian while the sixth was Russian!  How did the producers not see the irony?

You can watch the exchange below, in which two of the participants have already decided that Cleese is a racist old fool, while he is defended by a Russian guy and former England cricketer Monty Panesar.  Let's also remember that white racists, by and large, don't choose to go and live on a Caribbean island inhabited predominantly by black people.  Cleese lives on the isle of Nevis.

Adil Ray, aka sitcom character 'Citizen Khan', seems to think that someone is 'English' merely by residing in London.  The Russian dude seemed to find this absurd as surely most people watching at home did.

If three Asians, two blacks and a Russian didn't convince everyone that Cleese was right, the man himself was on the offensive today...

I suspect I should apologise for my affection for the Englishness of my upbringing,
but in some ways I found it calmer, more polite, more humorous, less tabloid, and less money-oriented than the one that is replacing it https://t.co/ZntbORfQdW

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 29, 2019

@VictoriaW1212 again rather proving Cleese's point, not only in that London is less English, but in that it also voted to Remain by a country mile.

It might interest those people who seem to think my remarks about London
are racist as opposed to culturalist, to consider that what I like about spending time in Nevis.

Nevis has excellent race relations, a very well educated population, no sign of political correctness......

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 29, 2019

......no sign of Rupert Murdoch, conscientious lawyers, a relaxed and humorous life style, a deep love of cricket, and a complete lack of knife crime

And, of course, wonderful weather

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 29, 2019

And the icing on the cake is that Nevis is not the world centre for Russian dirty money laundering

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 29, 2019

I think it's legitimate to prefer one culture to another

For example, I prefer cultures that do not tolerate female genital mutilation.

Will this will be considered racist by all those who hover, eagerly hoping that someone will offend them - on someone else's behalf, naturally https://t.co/4WbZDFjs3o

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) May 30, 2019

One of the trolls retweeted by Cleese actually deleted her Twitter account as she couldn't handle a counter argument.  The irony.