Gammon vs gammon
Controversy raged over whether calling an angry, white, right-wing man a ‘gammon’ is racist. The insult is first recorded in Charles Dickens’s novel Nicholas Nickleby in 1838. But what of people really called Gammon?
— There are about 2,500 Britons with that surname, which originated in Cornwall. Their politics are not all right-wing: in the 2017 Cornwall county council elections a Jacquie Gammon stood for the Lib Dems.
— In the US, two Gammons are recorded as delegates at National Conventions: Lemuel Gammon representing Colorado for the Democrats in 1916 and Gussie Gammon representing North Carolina for the Republicans in 2008.
— Not all Gammons are white: 7.3 per cent of those in the US are African-American and 2.2 per cent are Hispanic.
Caught at sea
Operation Atalanta, the EU’s mission to tackle piracy off Somalia and the Horn of Africa, may relocate its headquarters from London to Spain after Brexit. How is the fight against piracy going? Incidents worldwide have fallen in recent years:
2013: 264
2014: 245
2015: 246
2016: 191
2017: 180
The waters off Somalia are far from the world’s most dangerous.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in