Another day, another complaints drama. And this time it’s Chris Moyles who's at the centre of it, for some comments he made about Polish people on his Radio 1 breakfast show. “I just find that if you're Polish, you're just very good at ironing, and prostitutes. Very good at, also, fixing cars,” he reportedly said. Even though his remarks were broadcast a couple of weeks ago, they’ve just come to the attention of various Polish internet forums and funnily enough, the Poles aren’t impressed, accusing Chris of “nasty stereotyping”. Thirty-two people have now complained, forcing the BBC to apologise. One Polish journalist wrote this on a news website in Poland: “Chris Moyles is a very well-known radio DJ in the UK. His opinions influence a lot of people. Statements he has made on his show [are] greatly damaging to the image of the Polish community in the UK. Instead of fuelling prejudices and dividing Great Britain, the BBC should educate people in the UK about Poland and who Poles really are, so that we can all live in harmony.” However, Radio 1 Head of Communications Caren Matthews disagrees. “Chris was poking fun at ridiculous and unfair stereotypes, and making a nonsense of generalisations based on nationality,” she says. “At no point did he say that Polish people were involved in prostitution – he separately joked that prostitutes were good at fixing cars and ironing. These comments were made in a live broadcast and were definitely not meant to cause any offence.” Chris himself is yet to comment – but it’s not the first time he’s been accused of racism. You may recall that during an interview with Halle Berry earlier this year, she said, “Are we having a racist moment here?” after he did an impression of “a fat American black guy.” So, as yet another complaints hoo-ha surfaces, what we want to know is, do you think Chris is out of order, or was he just being silly?
Now Chris is in trouble