26 February 2009
22:0916288I can hardly believe the scale of this!! To bring it back to basics - Roger, don't go!!! I have belonged to this forum for a couple of years, proudly, and you are such a fundamental part of it. You are needed here to balance out the old lefties like me!!!!! Please keep posting.......I need you for the sparring!!
Guest 661- Registered: 16 Mar 2008
- Posts: 241
26 February 2009
22:4016290Roger PLEASE DONT GO always look forward to your postings, you are one of the most unracist persons I know. I don't normally read the jokes and never read the politics page, this is the first time out of curiosity ,you were only telling the truth if unfortunately in a joke form whoever made like an aero and bubbled you wants putting up against a wall and shooting because they don't know the kind caring person you are to any one from any walk of life, I am really annoyed about the the fact that anyone could think you are racist it just isn't true.
A dog is just not for christmas save some for boxing day
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
26 February 2009
23:0016295good to hear that our own mr beano will be supporting roger.
we must getup a media campaign "free the dover one".
got a ring to it.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
26 February 2009
23:0516297I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind and supportive postings.
I truly am very very grateful and appreciate every single one of them.
Jean is quite poorly at the moment and the continuous phone calls this afternoon have really stressed her out, so I do hope that the media fuss has passed.
Thank you all once again.
Roger
Guest 661- Registered: 16 Mar 2008
- Posts: 241
26 February 2009
23:1016300Roger sorry to hear about Jean, Giver her our love and keep your chin's up both of you it will all come right in the end.
A dog is just not for christmas save some for boxing day
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
26 February 2009
23:1116302it was to be expected roger.
differences aside, we all know that you always work hard for dover.
i did wonder how jean would take all the furore, hope that you she recovers soon.
Guest 650- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 542
26 February 2009
23:2716305Roger, I'm very sorry indeed that Jean isn't feeling too bright just now. Please give her our regards; we are thinking of you both.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
27 February 2009
05:5816311Best wishes to Jean, Roger.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
27 February 2009
09:5116318i hope jean gets better soon,keep your chin up and look on the bright side.
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,025
27 February 2009
09:5816319I have phoned Roger privately ,however i will post a message in support of Roger .I must say it was not my sense of Humour but hey we are all different .Roger is a very sincere man.I feel very sorry for Jean .When I have been attacked in the press and indeed on this forum it can be hurtful to close friends and family .
It is never easy being in politics if Marek or Ian had posted that joke there would be less of a hue and cry .
Every move you make or every word uttered or said can be taken out of context
Some one out there is making politac capital out of this .Roger you have many friends .I found when I was wrongly presented in the press last year my true friends supported me .
Two of my favourite expressions ,"It will come back to haunt you "" MY stand on the screen ,and when Im defending myself "you wouldnt want to meet me on a dark night ".
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
27 February 2009
10:2416322Sue
I think we have all been through this media attack, sadly I did raise this some time ago that local politicians who are in fact very nearly volunteers
will just turn people off running for councils, and thats a sad state
But it has continued.
On Roger I hope Jean is soon better, as Sue says it affects your wider family.
Im interested to know where this has all come from, it is one of those difficult areas freedom to express your opinions against upsetting people and gfivinhg them a bad life.
As I said in earlier posting Ia rarely agreee with Roger buyt he has a viewe on making Dover a better place, and has passion in so doing.
Its those energies i look to.
Get well soon Jean
Post away Roger, keep up the passion, im happy to challenge you, dont get offended, jus-t stick in there
you have a voice raise it
good luck
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
27 February 2009
13:5816331Ive only got back this morning, and cant believe it Roger racist NEVER a nicer man you would not meet in a million years. Whoever complained about him is the lowest of the low. I cant help wondering if this is the start of a smear campaign against him on political grounds and has nothing to do with his joke at all. Barry if you know who complained name and shame they were gutless in the extreme. Roger i think i speak for most on this forum when i say you have my full support in whatever you decide to do.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
27 February 2009
15:3716336Roger, please give Jean our Best Regards and we hope that she gets better soon.
Sid Pollitt
27 February 2009
16:0016339A good post there from Keef, I concur.
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
27 February 2009
18:1616344I hope this silly fuss pass's quickly for you both and hope your wife get's better soon. Wish you well.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
27 February 2009
20:5716360scum comes to mind.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
27 February 2009
23:4016370who on earth are you referring to brian?
Guest 643- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,321
28 February 2009
09:2116375Was anyone else, like me, disgusted at the way Roger was spoken to by the female DJ on Radio Kent yesterday morning? How Roger kept so calm I don't know, she was so rude to him, not letting him speak then when she did she was interupting him and more or less poo pooing everything he said. Well they lost a listener in me. I shall continue to listen to Steve Ladner til 7am then it goes off. I think she should have been reprimanded for her treatment of an innocent and lovely man and made to apologise to him. I am so angry.
Roger keep your chin up and know we are all behind you in this. Talk about trial by media, but you know by now that we are all behind you and love you for all your very hard work for Dover and its people. I hope Jean is feeling a bit better now, please give her my love and tell her not to worry because we all know the truth.
There's always a little truth behind every "Just kidding", a little emotion behind every "I don't care" and a little pain behind every "I'm ok".
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
28 February 2009
11:3016376Thanks Jacqui and thanks to every one for their support; it is helping me get through this, what I can only describe as, media character-assasination.
I was pretty devastated by the report in the KOS Media's Saturday Observer and the editorial, so much so that I have written personally to Marijke, whom I always thought was a decent person without malice.
I am very close to packing it all in; all the support on here has been very uplifting for me, but this article is the last straw. I hate to think what the Mercury and Express will produce next week - and all over a bloody joke and it wasn't my joke, I didn't write it, I only wanted to make people smile for a while.
I have asked PaulB to remove the joke from the Forum twice now, but it's still there.
I don't feel I can continue working on promoting Dover or anything while this is going on.
I was hoping to work on having a leaflet created, promoting Dover to the people of Boulogne, Le Touquet and Dieppe, with not only historic sites and attraction, but our quality shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants, all centred around LD Lines who ferry people to and from Dover, Boulogne and Dieppe.
Like the joke I posted, this may lead to some comment, but here is the email I have sent to Marijke - I'm sorry Marijke, but I really was so disappointed.
"Dear Marijke
I've just read the Saturday Observer and am very disappointed over the slant of the article on that fairy joke.
I thought from our chat on Thursday that you agreed it was a mountain out of a molehill and I shouldn't worry.
Why use the word "offensive", not even "alledgedly"; and offensive to whom Marijke ?
All, without exception, of the emails I have received and the vast majority of the postings on the DoverForum, are supportive of me, saying it is not racist and not offensive. I do feel that anyone, if they wanted to, can find offence in anything if they disect the joke enough, but why not just accept the fact that that's all it was, a joke, why go in for character assassination ?
I was probably more disappointed with your editorial - are these comments just to sell newspapers or do you really feel what you've written ?
I apologised unreservedly for any offence it caused and immediately asked Paul Boland to take it down - twice now but he hasn't; nothing I can do about that.
Yes, Marijke, you can turn it round and blame me for posting the joke in the first place, but the intention, as I have said so many times, was to make people smile or laugh, not to cause offence.
The KM group on their web-site reported it - straight, no character assassination or negative slant, as your's is.
I spend every working day (and some week-ends) on ways to help move Dover forward; I can hardly do this now, with your negatively slanted article and editorial.
I am sorry, very very sorry Marijke, not only for any genuine offence the joke may have caused, but that you have painted me so badly; I am not a villain and I'm not a racist, but no one would believe that after reading your two pieces.
Roger"
That's it - but thank you all.
Roger
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
28 February 2009
11:4716377Roger I am sorry to hear you have had some bad reviews on both Radio Kent and with Marijke who 's picture is at this moment on our frontpage.(has anyone got a link to Marijke's article?)
But...
a couple of points re NOT taking the joke down.
1. If the joke wasnt there, and its a mild joke, if we had taken it down so that nobody could see it for themselves, then the whole world by now would have assumed it was the worst racist joke of all time. Leaving it there clears your name. So Im convinced this is the right thing to do.
also
2. If I take that joke down we are giving in to probably the one person who complained..where the other say 1,000 didnt. I have received NO COMPLAINT about the joke from anybody. As I said elsewhere...all the jokes on our Jokes Page could be construed as mildly offensive to someone, but thats the nature of jokes.
If I took that joke down, I would then in all fairness probably have to take all the jokes down, so it would result in the loss of our Jokes Page completely. Is that right??
That cant be right!
