Friday, August 18, 2006

Inigo Wilson and Celsius 7/7

Just finished reading Michael Gove's Celsius 7/7. No stunning insights or shocking revelations, he's just catalogued the milestones to surrender very neatly. After reading it, I was more pessimistic about our future (was that possible ?)

The surrender to force which was the Danish cartoons affair, when no British newspaper would publish them, and then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw actually apologised for them, will be in the minds of the Orange board when considering the case of Inigo Wilson, the Orange employee suspended by his company after writing a Lefty Lexicon which defined an Islamophobe as someone who objected to being blown up on public transport.

I'm quite sure that this is a board-level issue for Orange. And I'll be amazed if the Muslim Public Affairs Committee don't win this one. If an entire democracy is attacked and deserted by allies like Britain, how will one multinational company perform ?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Orange, like any other company is market driven. It will look after the interests of it's clients.
Some islamic van drivers in the USA have been caught with large quantities of cell phones in the back. Cell phones apparently make good detonators.
Could it be that all these phones are subscribed to Orange? Is orange the islamist's choice for cell phones? Do they offer discounts for bulk buying? Is the orange slogan "Boom or Bust with Orange"?

Anonymous said...

Yes, LGF showed a picture of the remains of an IED built around a Nokia mobile phone, but, also, weren't the Madrid train bombs triggered by text message?

Anonymous said...

"I'll be amazed if the Muslim Public Affairs Committee don't win this one."

If so, it'll be in no small part because Mr Wilson is an idiot.

Yes, he should have free speech - no-one is denying that. But he posted what he did in his own name, including what he did for a living, and brought his company into it as a result. I can't help but feel a little sympathy for Orange here. If he had something in his contract about 'bringing the company into disrepute', then he's pretty much bang to rights...

If he'd been sacked for passing this joke list around the company on email, in breach of their email rules, would people still be queuing up to defend him?

Yes, MPAC are trouble-stirring despicable little shits, agreed. But in this case, they've been handed their victory on a plate by their victim.

Anonymous said...

Juliam. If you are right, a good bollocking would have been appropriate, but to pander to MPAC who represents those in sympathy with threatening murder to innocent people, is Quislingesque, and on a level with our appeasing NuLab government. Whats up with Britain? Not one publication in Britain published those Mohammad cartoons. Free speech is great with the MSM until they have to stand up and be counted.

Anonymous said...

juliam

I agree that, given the job he has - or had, Wilson was misguided to think that he could do what he did with no repercussions. However, to hand the shite (that's not "shit" - "shite" is the bit that's sticks to the shoe) at MPAC a bloodless victory as, I think I can confidently predict, Orange will is another step down the road to ruin. Rest assured we'll have a chorus of "on the one hand, on the other" blather from the MSM but they nailed their standards to the mast of dhimmitude over the Motoons affair.

Anonymous said...

I agree with umbongo. This man was breathtakingly foolish and egotistical. He was clearly proud of his rather dreary and predictable little piece, and that is what motivated him to take the chance and run it under his own name. He wanted people to know how "clever" he is. Oh, dear.

The company will not stand by him - not because they think he's going to lose them giant swathes of cellphone customers (he has probably gained them at least an equal number), but because the British are cowed.

MPAC is malevolent and it spotted a chance to cause trouble, and Orange will give in. Surrender is the new British way of fighting the enemy. I was stunned and ashamed when every British paper feared to the the Motoons, although the French, the Spanish and the Mexicans ran them. As well, of course, as doughty Denmark.

The only chance Inigo has is, if they sack him for "racism", as ignorant people term a dislike of Islam. He didn't commit racism and could make a few thousand out of that point.

Anonymous said...

"...another step down the road to ruin.."

Maybe, maybe not. Orange are obviously concerned about their image as a company, that's clear, and it's hardly surprising. If sacking him provided too much bad publicity for them, then they may rethink their approach.

So the email campaign that some are encouraging might be a way to snatch the victory from MPAC's grasp.

Anonymous said...

"I was stunned and ashamed when every British paper feared to the the Motoons.."

Me too. But I was heartened to see that a lot of blogs linked to them.

Anonymous said...

Inigo Wilson, job: Local Community Consultant for Orange.
From his definitions "Counsultation - a formal system for ignoring public views while patronising them at the same time. London’s Congestion Charge for instance."
And he left a trail to Orange and himself. This comment alone means he is unemployable by Orange, whatever the twats at MPAC think.
Arrogance and stupidity combined...Inigo, Inigoes, Iniwent.

Anonymous said...

Laban

I heard Gove speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Tuesday and bought the book. I was impressed by him and not only because he gave a plug for blogs!

What was interesting on Tuesday and at other political events I've attended is that the Moonbat community seems to have somewhat less public support than this time last year. Now, why could that be?

The Pedant-General said...

Julia M

"But he posted what he did in his own name, including what he did for a living, and brought his company into it as a result."

No. He didn't. He did NOT mention Orange. His name is sufficiently esoteric to show up with an orange email address in a google search (now swamped with blog postings, but it is there).

Your casual dismissal of the assault on his rights in particular and free speech in general is, in fact, simply a result of his choosing to post whilst being in possession of both a funny name (one reason I use a pseudonym) and sufficient balls to use it.

The real irony is that his "Islamophobia" definition is being turned against him in exactly the way he is complaining about: he has been accused of equating Islam with terrorism, when he did precisely the opposite: his definition reflects on the ridiculous situation where anyone who objects to being blown up is labelled as an Islamophobe for their trouble.

Squander Two said...

JuliaM,

> If he had something in his contract about 'bringing the company into disrepute', then he's pretty much bang to rights.

Bollocks. Disrepute with whom? What if he'd said that black people have every right to live in the UK and the BNP had organised a campaign against him? That'd be disrepute. When one group of people detest another group of people, you can only please one of them; say anything stronger than "Nice weather we're having" and you will invite disrepute from someone. Or are you saying that people with jobs should not be allowed to express any political opinions whatsoever?

> If he'd been sacked for passing this joke list around the company on email, in breach of their email rules, would people still be queuing up to defend him?

No, but what if he'd emailed it to a bunch of people who had nothing to do with the company, in his own time? Which is approximately what he did.


Verity,

> He was clearly proud of his rather dreary and predictable little piece, and that is what motivated him to take the chance and run it under his own name.

Yes, but the fact that expressing an opinion under his own name constituted taking a chance is precisely what some of us are pissed off about. The UK has turned into a country where opinion must be anonymous for it to be safe.


Matthew,

>job: Local Community Consultant for Orange.
From his definitions "Counsultation - a formal system for ignoring public views while patronising them at the same time. London’s Congestion Charge for instance."
... This comment alone means he is unemployable by Orange


Oh no! He made a joke about his own job title! Eek!

Presumably, according to your... well, I suppose we'll have to call it "reasoning", anyone who works in marketing or computer engineering and also has a Dilbert screensaver is unemployable.