A Reform councillor wanted to melt down Nigerians and use them to fix potholes…

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:02]Hello again.

[00:00:05]Two years ago, a man called Glenn Gibbons, who was elected as a counselor for reform in Sunderland on Thursday, greeted as follows.

[00:00:15]Can't believe the number of Nigerians in town could melt them all down and fill in the potholes.

[00:00:24]This has inevitably led to accusations that tears are racist and should therefore resign.

[00:00:31]I'll address that point in a moment because there is something far more shocking about this tweet than mere racism.

[00:00:39]I give a link to it in the description to this video. And oh dear, just look at it.

[00:00:46]can't is spelled C A R N T with no apostrophe and a needless letter R.

[00:00:56]Nigerian is a proper noun and should accordingly be capitalized but is not.

[00:01:03]Finally, pothole is a single word, not two separate ones.

[00:01:08]Whatever else he may be, Glenn Gibbons is clearly illiterate, which should in itself be enough to debar him from holding any public office.

[00:01:18]But what about the idea that he reveals himself to be racist by saying this? In other words, forget the form. What of the content?

[00:01:28]James Cleverly, a member of the shadow cabinet, has been quick out of the traps with an accusation of racism, saying, "How hard is it for Richard Ty to say that racism directed at Jews is wrong, and racism directed at Nigerians is also wrong."

[00:01:48]I give a link to a news item about this from the BBC where Le's quote may be seen.

[00:01:56]A typical example of a category error where somebody switches seamlessly from one type of thing to another and if you're not careful, you will miss the slight of hand.

[00:02:10]You see, Cleverly begins the sentence talking of Jews who are an ethnicity and ends by speaking of Nigerians who are a nationality.

[00:02:23]See the problem there?

[00:02:26]You can certainly be racist where Jews are concerned, but you cannot be racist about Danish people or Canadians or Nigerians.

[00:02:35]You can be nationalist, of course, which some people object to, but this is a completely different thing from racism.

[00:02:44]If Glen Gibbons had suggested melting down black people in general as a group, that would certainly lay him open to a charge of racism. But by specifying a nationality, one which embraces at least five different ethnic groups such as Ebo and Yoruba and so on, the idea of racism falls flat.

[00:03:07]In short, I'm disgusted with Glen Gibbons for his appalling ignorance of the correct forms used in written English, but I am more appalled by James Cleverly's deliberate attempt to muddy the waters by confusing racism and nationalism.

[00:03:23]I think that this calls for a video devoted to the difference between racism and nationalism because I often see the two terms used interchangeably lately, which is foolish and confusing.