‘Racist!” The word is career-ending kryptonite for politicians and public figures — and rightly so, but only if it has been deployed with a degree of sanity. Last week cries of “Racist! In an email written before she took up the role, Wheeler described rough sleepers in her constituency as “the traditional type, old tinkers”. The Big Issue Foundation’s chief executive raged that such language “has no place in this day and age” and so Wheeler should stand down. A Travellers’ charity called her words “racist” and “disgraceful”, adding that “Irish Traveller children should not have to grow up in a society where government ministers…

Source: The Times June 23, 2019 23:04 UTC