Fat lady Clarissa Dickson Wright sparks Muslim race row

Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear.

Outspoken celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright, known for delivering controversial comments sans censor, has caused a stir among the Muslim community.

The tartly dame has been spouting off about multiculturalism, saying she “feels like an outcast in her own country” - naughty, naughty.

Clarissa, button it. Surely you know you can't make comments likethat??? 

The row kicked off as she publishes a book  about her travels through our green and pleasant land.

It seems she found out, much to her dismay, that some parts of our land are not as green and pleasant as she was expecting.

The cook, one half of the television show Two Fat Ladies,  was shocked to find herself thrown among the Islamic community of Leicester during a chance, and unplanned visit to the city. 

She doesn't recall the experience favourably.

And her observations have sparked a row of Biblical proportions (am I allowed to say that?).

Instead of just smiling politely, apologising for arriving bare-faced, and making a sharp exit, she started pestering people for directions.

When they didn’t respond, she is woman unknown to them after all, she became irritated.

She accused them of ignoring her because she is an English female, complaining that someone could have at least stopped and helped after she became lost in the city after taking a detour away from the traffic-clogged ring road.

The cheek of her. 

Did you for one moment stop to consider it might be against their religion or cultural beliefs to talk to you in all your un-shrouded brazenness Clarissa?

She tells of the streets being filled with men in Islamic dress, women swathed from head to toe in black.

The men ignored her and the women were no more forthcoming than their husbands as they followed the required three steps behind.

She described being stranded in a “ghetto” and questioned the whether the extent of “multiculturalism” she witnessed was a good thing.

“I  found myself in an area where all the men were wearing Islamic clothing and all the women were wearing burkas and walking slightly behind them,” she writes.

“None of the men would talk to me when I tried to find out where I was and how to get out of there because I was an English female and they don’t talk to females they don’t know, while if the women could speak English they weren’t about to show it by having a word with me.

“I have many good acquaintances and even some friends among the Muslim community, yet here I was, in the heart of a city in the middle of my own country, a complete outcast and pariah.

“If multiculturalism works, which I have always been rather dubious of, surely it must be multicultural and not monocultural.

“However, everything has an upside and one of the results of this is that Leicester has a very good selection of Asian restaurants.”

How could you have not seen the backlash coming from that one?

Sure enough, it didn’t take long to ruffle burkas, the Muslim Council for Britain has already been on the phone venting their  fury.

Assistant secretary general Ibrahim Mogra said: “When she says that she was in the ‘centre of a city in the centre of her own country, I take objection. 

"This is also my country and this is also my city.”

Quite right too, she should have known better.

Might I at this point offer you a piece of advice Clarissa.

Gone are the days when you can speak your mind freely in words or on paper, especially   about race, culture, colour or creed.

That rule applies double on Twitter – a misplaced rant has landed many before you pondering their words behind bars at one of Her Majesty’s grand hotels.

Don’t worry though, there are still some things you are safe to slag off freely - our monarchy, the Government,  the country, the NHS, our benefits system not being generous enough.

But if you suspect you may stir up the wrath of the PC brigade, or worse, trigger being labelled with the ‘R’ word, the safest rule of thumb is to keep your trap well and truly zipped.