← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Dan Dare
Thread ID: 4750 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2003-02-02
2003-02-02 18:53 | User Profile
Some amusing vintage Taki-isms at the end of the piece:
[url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=374473]http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/sto...sp?story=374473[/url]
A racist rant too far? Police investigate Taki the playboy pundit By Sholto Byrnes 01 February 2003
Taki Theodoracopoulos once served four months in Pentonville Prison for possession of cocaine. Now the prospect of a two-year stretch in jail looms for the Greek playboy and columnist.
Taki and The Spectator, for which he writes the "High Life" column, are being investigated by Scotland Yard over an article he wrote in the magazine's 11 January edition.
The investigation was triggered by a complaint from Peter Herbert, a lawyer and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority. The Yard's Diversity Directorate will assess whether the piece incites racial hatred and thereby breaks the Public Order Act, for which the maximum sentence is two years.
Even by Taki's standards the piece was extraordinarily offensive. Under the headline "Thoughts on Thuggery" he wrote: "Oh boy, was Enoch ââ¬â God rest his soul ââ¬â ever right! Now there's a man who was tough on the causes of crime long before the crime had been Blaired."
Referring to the New Year shootings of two black girls in Birmingham he continued: "Only a moron would not surmise that what politically-correct newspapers refer to as 'disaffected young people' are black thugs, sons of black thugs and grandsons of black thugs ... West Indians were allowed to immigrate after the war, multiply like flies, and then the great state apparatus took over the care of their multiplications. The "Rivers of Blood "speech by Enoch was prophetic as well as true, and look what the bullshitters of the time did to the great man."
The article has already caused considerable embarrassment to Boris Johnson, editor of The Spectator and a Tory MP. "It was a terrible thing," said Mr Johnson, who was on holiday the week the article appeared but takes full responsibility for its publication.
"It should never have gone in." Informed of the police investigation, Mr Johnson declined to comment until he heard from Scotland Yard.
Such casual racism is the stock-in-trade of Taki, who is known mainly by his first name. In 1997 he described Puerto Ricans in New York as "a bunch of semi-savages ... fat, squat, ugly, dusky, dirty." In 2001 he called himself a "soi-disant anti-Semite" and has also referred to Kenya as "bongo-bongo land".
Repulsive though such comments are, they are what pass for humour in the Eurotrash plutocratic circles in which Taki mixes. His world skis at Gstaad, goes to the Ascot races ââ¬â a crowd of "society" figures who are slowly departing for the great gambling tables of the hereafter.
Married to Princess Alexandra Schoenburg, Taki inherited a fortune from his father John and divides his time between a $5m house in New York's Upper East Side and Gstaad, where he recently crashed his car.
His strict treatment at the hands of the local police is what prompted his musings on crime problems in Britain.
His friends and acquaintances are the characters that fill his friend Nigel Dempster's pages. The Daily Mail gossip columnist refers to Taki as the "Greek sportsman", a description he has earned through his past participation in the Davis Cup and captaining of the Greek karate team.
He was close to Gianni Agnelli. His friendship with the Fiat magnate lasted 45 years until his recent death. "K", the Aga Khan, was a friend and he boasts an on-off friendship with Mohamed al-Fayed, English aristocrats, obscure European royalty and any pretty girl who chances across his path.
He is famously libidinous and is happy to call himself a "playboy".
His interest in right-wing politics comes from his father, and he is proud of the fact that not much thought has gone into his views. "Why make up your own mind when someone else can make up your mind for you?" he has asked.
Along with the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Portsmouth he was one of the backers of Neil Hamilton's failed libel bid against Mr Fayed, although he was not best pleased when he later found himself being pursued for Mr Fayed's costs.
Taki is happy to admit, as readers of his Spectator column know, to taking a line so right-wing it borders on the fascist. When building a new house he declared that he would name it "Palazzo Pinochet", after the Chilean dictator. General Franco is another of his heroes.
When Mr Johnson took over the editorship of The Spectator there was speculation that Taki would go, being considered a relic of the magazine's past.
Taki even wrote a column announcing that he had been sacked. Unfortunately for his critics ââ¬â and he has many even among the Telegraph group, of which The Spectator is a part ââ¬â he was joking, leading Max Hastings, then editor of the Evening Standard, to remark: "You always know where you are with Taki. Like the Prussians, he is either at your knees or your throat."
One senior Telegraph executive said Taki had no privileged position and that any decision on his future will be "down to Boris".
But Taki has had at least one run-in with Conrad Black, owner of The Spectator. His anti-semite claim so incensed Mr Black that the owner of The Daily Telegraph wrote a two-page letter to his own magazine, condemning Taki.
If the Scotland Yard investigation does find against Taki, Mr Johnson will be expected to sack him. Taki once described himself as "worthless". The question is now whether his editor agrees with him.
The sayings of Taki Theodoracopoulos
Taki on New York's Puerto Ricans
"A bunch of semi-savages ... fat, squat, ugly, dusky, dirty and unbelievably loud. They turned Manhattan into Palermo faster than you can say 'Latino'."
Taki on Africa
"Democracy is as likely to come to bongo-bongo land as I am to send a Concorde ticket to my children."
Taki on Britain's Black Population
"What politically correct newspapers refer to as 'disaffected young people' are black thugs, sons of black thugs and grandsons of black thugs ... West Indians were allowed to immigrate after the war [and] multiply like flies."
Taki on Cherie Blair
"Not that I'm calling Cherie Blair a whore. She couldn't be one even if she wanted to; not good-looking enough."
Taki on Hillary Clinton
"She, too, could not make a living from the world's oldest profession because of ugly looks and terrible ankles."
Taki on Himself
"I'm a family man, a provider, I pay my taxes, I'm white (although always sun-tanned) ... I inherited from my old man ... I employ people, I own a yacht ... you name it, I'm guilty of it."
Taki on William And Jack Straw
"In Cool Britannia we don't send the son of a left-wing prick like Straw to jail for dealing [drugs]; we vote him president of the Oxford Union (sic) instead. (Apparently he is as much of a dictator as his father, and just as phony)."
Taki on Bill Clinton And Tony Blair
"[They] are, of course, the masters of the direct lie, able to look straight into the camera and tell incredible whoppers that would make Mother Teresa blush. The man [Tony Blair] is pathetic, almost on the level of Bill Clinton, except for the hair."
Taki on Ian Hislop
"Hislop deals in ruining people's lives through falsehoods, half-truths and gossip ... When that court high up in the sky gives the final verdict, the poisoned dwarf will come off second best."
2003-02-02 19:06 | User Profile
Taki says a lot of things that are obviously true or obviously funny. The Indepedent's commentary is just a sick joke. If Taki goes to jail for this, we might have to start a new transatlantic weapons trade: not to the IRA, but to ordinary Brits.
2003-02-02 19:30 | User Profile
Dan, I hope he kicks up a real stink about this. He's just the right type to treat this kind of law with the contempt it deserves. Unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if he's fired from the Spectator while the 'investigation' silently disappears.
2003-02-02 21:49 | User Profile
First necks to stretch on The Day, in England at least : the members, supporters and enablers of Scotland Yard's Diversity Directorate.
Its very name is a hate crime against white people and a stench in the nostrils of free men everywhere.
2003-02-02 22:02 | User Profile
Unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if he's fired from the Spectator while the 'investigation' silently disappears.
He needs to do something...anything...to get fired from The Spectator ASAP.
Methinks his association with Conrad Black is hindering his editorial candor in TAC.
2003-02-02 23:19 | User Profile
I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be an indictment or a promotional, but it sure as heck isn't a newspaper article.