Calm Lammy Puts Racist Caller in Their Place

Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy MP has been praised by politicians from across the political spectrum, including senior figures in rival parties, for his calm and measured, polite and conciliatory but firm tone when dealing with a racist caller during a phone in broadcast on the talk station LBC last week.  The Guardian newspaper reports that the caller to the LBC station claimed that black British people such as Mr Lammy could not describe themselves as “English”.  Mr Lammy gave a concise and polite history lesson to show that the concept of Englishness had changed radically over time, and that many different ethnicities were included under the banner of historical Englishness.  He also showed the caller that contrary to her claims, many white people in the Caribbean described themselves as Caribbean people.  Praise for Mr Lammy’s handling of the caller came from politicians as diverse as Nicola Sturgeon for the Scottish Nationalist Party and Sajid Javid for the Conservatives.