Would-be parliamentarian Esther Rantzen has had a foretaste of how the press and public are a lot less forgiving when politicians have foot-in-mouth moments.
The saintly status of the former BBC presenter took a knock when she appeared on Question Time and speculated on what lay behind a spate of attacks on Romanians in Belfast in recent weeks by suggesting that “It's as if it gives them [local people] a sense of identity because they only know who they are if they know who they hate."
Needless to say there is divided opinion on Rantzen’s contribution with voices backing her unequivocal attack on racial intolerance whilst others criticise her for fostering the type of insensitive stereotype that the province is trying to leave behind. Of course, there is also a third and slightly more cynical viewpoint that an independent candidate seeking to broaden the scope of a single issue campaign needs to start somewhere.
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