Commenting on Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton Du Beke’s remarks to Laila Rouass where he said, ’she looks like a Paki,’ Bruce Forsyth says ‘we all need to get a sense of humour.’  He added, ‘if you go back 25, 30, 40 years…there was always a bit of humour about the whole thing.

OK, Brucie, let’s look at what happened regarding racist attitudes 25, 30, 40 years ago.

Racist thugs met up in pubs at weekends and shortly after last orders was called, they then went out for their entertainment of the evening - to go ‘Paki Bashing’.  This, Brucie, is why Asians find the word ‘Paki’ offensive because as these hooligans kicked and head-butted their victims, the violence was accompanied with shouts of ‘you Paki bastard’ and the like.

25/30/40 years ago black people had to put up with racist comedians like Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson.  They called us Chalky, Sambo, Nig Nog, Coon, Nigger.  These comedians thought they were very clever and they packed out a number of clubs.  The only problem was the National Front, a pre-cursor to the BNP, and the Police force, would use the same terms to describe us.  Funny enough the Police and the racists would up their usage of these remarks when they were kicking the living crap out of you on the street or in a police cell.  That wasn’t funny.  Oh no.  We didn’t quite get the joke.  Maybe we weren’t humourous enough, Brucie?

‘Everybody had a nickname’ trills Brucie.  ‘The Americans called us limeys.’  Maybe they did, Brucie, but no Americans came to these shores, got themselves drunk in pubs and then went out ‘Limey Bashing.’ 

Maybe Brucie also finds it humourous to have monkey chants in football stadiums and for the crowd to throw bananas at footballers like John Barnes?  I’m sure he used to chuckle at the Black and White Minstrel show too. 

He says ‘Anton is such a sweet guy.’  Would he be so sweet if he called your wife a Paki or a terrorist, Brucie?

While all this was going on the silence of Strictly Come Dancing judge, Alesha Dixon, is deafening.  I used to really respect you, Alesha.  I liked you in Misteeq and regarded you as an articulate, sassy, intelligent woman.  I was supporting you for being a judge on Strictly.  Buy why so quiet on this Paki issue, Alesha?  Do you think Anton Du Beke should be sacked?  Do you think the term Paki is acceptable?  Or won’t you comment on the controversy because you now have a fat BBC contract and you don’t want to jeopardise your brand?  If that’s the case then that’s a shame.  I kinda liked you when you appeared on the This Week political programme.  You talked a lot of sense and you spoke about issues that concerned you.  As the only ethnic minority on the Strictly panel I find it disappointing that you have nothing to say about the Paki issue.

One last thing.  Brucie, no-one is laughing.