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Evelyne Tsonga Says Carol Thatcher Has Brought "Shame On Britain"

Monday, February 23, 2009

Evelyne and Didier Tsonga, parents of French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Carol Thatcher has brought ‘shame on Britain’ by describing a French tennis star as a golliwog, the player’s mother said last night.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s mother accused Baroness Thatcher’s daughter of displaying ‘a racist, colonial attitude’.

Evelyne Tsonga said Jo-Wilfried, her eldest son, was ‘deeply hurt and upset’ by Miss Thatcher’s comment and praised the BBC for sacking her.

She told how the French-Congolese player had experienced racism in the past and said Miss Thatcher’s comment could encourage prejudice.

Mrs Tsonga said: ‘Nobody deserves to be described as a golliwog, least of all my son.

‘Such language is extremely unwelcome, but perhaps not surprising considering the kind of background which Carol Thatcher comes from.

‘Mrs Thatcher was famous for her imperial, Britain-is-best view of the world, even fighting a colonial war in the Falklands 27 years ago.

‘Such ideals should not be relevant in the modern world, but Carol Thatcher clearly still holds true to them.

‘Perhaps Margaret Thatcher passed these views on to her children, but this does not make them right. Carol Thatcher should be deeply ashamed of what she said.’

She added: ‘It was the same with Prince Harry calling a colleague a Paki, and Prince Charles calling a friend Sooty. They might claim that it is all harmless, friendly fun but it is not.’

Mrs Tsonga, a teacher from the town of Coulaine, near Le Mans, south-west of Paris, is married to Didier Tsonga, a former handball champion who was born in Gabon



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I Guess Foreign Diplomacy Doesn't Run In The Family: Carol Thatcher Needs Some Home Training

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Baroness Thatcher and her daughter Carol in the Royal Box at The Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, London. Photo: PA


"I cannot say I have. However, I have seen on many occasions, especially in soccer, expressions of racism. At the end of the day, stupidity cannot be controlled. You can only hope to contain it."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga


The daughter of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher has lost her job on the BBC One programme after making the comment backstage to presenter Adrian Chiles and guest Jo Brand.

She was discussing the Australian Open, in which Tsonga lost to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals.

Tsonga, 23, shot to international attention last year when, as an unseeded player, he reached the Australian Open final, beating Andy Murray along the way. He scored a stunning 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Rafael Nadal in the semi-final, eventually losing to Novak Djokovic.

Fans have long pointed out his resemblance to boxer Muhammad Ali. He was marked out as a promising talent when he won the US Open junior title in 2003, only for injury to put him out of the game for the next two years.

He is mixed race, born in Le Mans to a white French mother, Evelyne, and a black Congolese father, Didier. Sporting talent runs in the family - his father, who moved to France in the 1970s to study for a chemistry degree, was a handball international and his younger brother, Enzo, is a basketball player.

Asked in a recent interview if he had ever experienced racism in the tennis world, he replied: "I cannot say I have. However, I have seen on many occasions, especially in soccer, expressions of racism. At the end of the day, stupidity cannot be controlled. You can only hope to contain it."

Tsonga is known on the circuit as a polite, serious man devoted to his family. He has said of his upbringing: "From my mother I've inherited my coolness and my serenity. From my father I've inherited respect for the rules and respect for the people around me."

His second cousin is Charles N'Zogbia, the Premiership footballer recently embroiled in his own controversy over "offensive" remarks. He refused to play for his club, Newcastle United, after manager Joe Kinnear called him "Insomnia" during a television interview. He signed for Wigan Athletic on Monday.


Source



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