Parting Ways (Derbyshire Fired From National Review)

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. 'Taki' is a known racist, who himself has run close to getting sacked for articles

But in his case, his proprietor, Conrad Black, seemed content to explain at length why he thought it was wrong. From 2001:

The Spectator's social writer, Taki Theodoracopulos, has often graciously referred to me as an indulgent proprietor. Our relations have been cordial for 15 years and we have frequently been each other's guests, have been friendly with each other's spouses and have many mutual friends. Long before I knew him I was aware of his penchant, sometimes entertaining but sometimes excessive, to denigrate certain ethnic groups, most often the Jews. With such a bonhomous character there is a natural tendency to overlook his lapses of judgment and give him the benefit of the doubt that he is only railing against the prissy hypersensitivities of political correctness. It is hard to imagine that a person with whom you are friendly and have had many memorably agreeable times is a racist who wishes and incites violence against innocent people because of their ethnicity or religion….

http://israelinsider.com/Views1/933.htm

The Guardian calling for him to go in 2004 (the editor of The Spectator then was Boris Johnson, now Conservative Mayor of London), now with new owners of the Spectator:

Boris Johnson, who doubles up as MP for Henley and Beano-speaking editor of the Spectator, experienced an uncomfortable few hours yesterday apologising to the people of Liverpool for an insensitive and insulting editorial which appears in the current edition of his magazine. He offered sincere apologies for using "outdated stereotypes" about Liverpudlians and acknowledged the hurt and dismay he had caused. Job done, he hopped on his bike and headed for the train back to Islington.

Boris is a bit of a card and, go on, you can't help loving him. But if he is truly sorry, then one has to ask why he continues to employ Taki, the playboy pundit, who sluices offensive and outdated stereotypes into the pages of the Spectator most weeks. After two girls were shot in Birmingham last year he referred to disaffected young people as "black thugs, sons of black thugs and grandsons of black thugs," adding bravely: "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." Boris admitted this was a "terrible" column, but did not actually apologise. The party leader didn't suggest a penitential trip to Brixton.

In Taki's Spectator musings New York Puerto Ricans are spics - "a bunch of semi-savages ... fat, squat, ugly, dusky, dirty." Kenya is labelled "bongo-bongo land" and black men are periodically referred to as "Sambo". Taki is happy to describe himself as "a soi-disant anti-semite" and has gaily written of the world Jewish conspiracy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/oct/21/conservatives.pressandpublishing

And still at it in 2011:

Last week Gunter Sachs, a 78-year-old German photographer, shot himself. Sachs has the enormous misfortune to have Taki Theodoracopulos as his informal obituarist. Taki is a writer – mostly for the Spectator – who fulminates under a byline displaying a small gnome-like creature with a man-tan and seriously over-whitened teeth. He calls Puerto Ricans "semi-savages", thinks Kenya is called "bongo-bongo land" and believes Jews control the world.

Taki is rhapsodising about Sachs because he was, due to inherited wealth and a brief marriage to Brigitte Bardot, an international playboy, like Taki. It is depressing to see this sorry pile of sun-damaged sex addicts have a last media hurrah so I will have a go at them. Taki would expect no less from a lower middle-class Jewish columnist in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/16/taki-gunter-sachs-playboys

He spent a few months in prison for smuggling cocaine through Heathrow Airport

This shows one of the basic problems with much of the British right wing (note that Derbyshire himself is British), and The Spectator, a supposedly 'respectable' right wing magazine, in particular - they find racism amusing, and keep racists like Taki and Derbyshire around to annoy normal people.