>What is the factual basis for said belief? What was the 'Freedom Organisation' he represented?

http://www.searchlighteducationaltrust.org/Handbook/2_4.html says of Norris's bunch:

Freedom Association (FA) The National Association for Freedom (NAFF) was formed in December 1975 and changed its name to the Freedom Association in 1979. It immediately became involved in the fight against trade union rights and generated much publicity through its intervention in a number of industrial disputes. In its own words, "our work has helped to determine the nature of modern trade unionism". The FA has campaigned against equal opportunities policies and has recently concentrated on anti-Maastricht activity. It has always denied that it was either racist or fascist. Its chairman is Norris McWhirter and its director is Gerald Hartup. It publishes Freedom Today and occasional policy pamphlets.

You can check them out yourself at http://www.tfa.net/

When Mike Gatting, or some cricketer, got into trouble for touring South Africa in the 80s, the FA tried to support him in a legal challenge to the sporting ban (the Gleneagles Agreement), saying it amounted to an unlawful restraint of trade.

I think they still exist, but since M.Thatcher implemented most of the things they wanted, they don't have much to say. Might now be active in the eurosceptic movement.

NW did also complain about Spitting Image using a subliminal image of him.

>NW did also complain about Spitting Image using a subliminal image of him.

Subliminal? How would that work?

I remember a great routine on Lionel Nimrod which referred to his crypto-fascism in near-libellous terms. Armando Iannucci played Norris, who asked Lee and Herrring to provide samples of their urine. 'It's to make sure we're not using illegal substances in our record-breaking attempt isn't it, Norris?'; 'Ah yes, that'd be it. Yes.'

In Robert Thingie's book about Python censorship, there is a solicitor's opinon about "The Bigot" page in the Monty Python Bok, which was credited to Sir Harry McWhirter, as I recall. Maybe this concern about possible libel action was prompted by Mr Norris's activities?

>I think they still exist, but since M.Thatcher implemented most of the things they wanted, they don't have much to say. Might now be active in the eurosceptic movement.

Very active - try a web search.

And R McW's right-wing opinions are the reason he's no longer with us (Far Right organisations being in bed with Unionist extremists, or at least small boys procured by them).

Perhaps Mike could see if Foyles have a copy of 'Ross - the story of a shared life' by Norris McWhirter (Churchill Press, London, 1976) for the purpose of his illumination. It's a corking good read, and my copy had an application form for a Franklin Mint-style bronze bust of RMcW - only £54.95 in easy instalments. Unfortunately the offer expired in 1977.

>And R McW's right-wing opinions are the reason he's no longer with

Assassinated, wasn't he? Thing is, how did they know they got the right bloke?

Some of "Two Schools Of Thought"'s views on the European issue can be found here:

http://www.keele.ac.uk/socs/ks40/eunazi.html

For a couple of years I've kept that in my bookmarks, now I know why.

Do, do, do correct me if I'm wrong, but was there not a case of mistaken identity at the heart of this assassination? ISTR reading it somewhere...

I'm sure he's not racist, as he never displayed it on Record Breakers...he was equally officious with all creeds of "attemptee".

Is this Freedom Association the group that gets its people to scour letters pages in newspapers for letters of a political nature and then puts the names of these letter writers on a sort of black list, for employers?

Or have I been totally misled by the internet?

>>And R McW's right-wing opinions are the reason he's no longer with
>
>Assassinated, wasn't he? Thing is, how did they know they got the right bloke?

Shot on his doorstep by the INLA in late 1975 (I think that's the year). Leading to the "He holds the record for the execution victim with the most bullets in his head" joke.

Ross was particularly anti-republican and a close compardre of Airey Neave (who was later killed by the INLA when he was likely to become Thatcher's NI secretary if she was elected). There was an incident that lead to Ross calling for an extreme response to the latest republican killing, and in a slow news month this resulted in headlines. This was at a time when killings in Northern Ireland (back in 1974) reached their highest level. The INLA were trying to make themselves known outside of Ulster and so picked on Ross as a high-profile target. Both of the McWhirters had been making noise about the newly elected minority Labour government and were politically active in a way that would never be tolerated for childrens' TV presenters now.

I remember that they had already filmed the "Record Breakers" Xmas special before Ross was killed, but they still showed it with an introduction by Roy Castle that unsuprisingly avoided the political subtext. Ross had a thinner, meaner face, though having read things about the twins I'm convinced Norris was the real bastard and probably lead his younger brother (by 12 minutes) astray.

I once attended a Whitaker's Almanack contributors' party, and while leaving the toilet bumped into Gyles Brandreth and Norris McW. Took me a while to get over it.

Someone who worked on one of our tv shows also worked on Record Breakers and they said that Norris was notoriously racist and everyone hated him.
My secret source said that they used to engineer situations where he would have to be surrounded by black people and would watch the fact obsessed Nazi squirm with fury. Ha ha.

Obsessed with facts he may have been, but he only ever used a stockpile of, oh, about ten. As far as I can remember, most episodes of the McWhirter segment of Record Breakers went like this:

KID: Norris, my Dad got stung by 148 bees last week, is this a record?

McW: Well, I don't know that, but I can tell you that Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest man alive.

KID: Cheers.

Roy Castle: We-heyyyy!!!

IN-HOUSE BAND CRANK UP A VERSION OF THE 'ROBERT PERSHING WADLOW' SONG, SUNG BY ROY.

He never seemed to know that much really. Still, at least I now have an indelible image of Robert fucking Pershing Wadlow in my mind. Thanks for that, Norris.

Stephen Fry memorised the entire Guinness Book of Records as a kid.

He insists it wasn't that hard.

(Incidentally, the only time Norris ever got stumped on the spot was by the question "Which tree has the most leaves?" - a brilliantly childish unanswerable question - but otherwise he was pretty good*.)


*at facts, that is. Not "good" in the sense of morally defensible.

>Stephen Fry memorised the entire Guinness Book of Records as a kid.

>He insists it wasn't that hard.

He never invented it though.

Yes. And his sister's still alive.

I think we can all draw a lesson from that.

>>Stephen Fry memorised the entire Guinness Book of Records as a kid.
>
>>He insists it wasn't that hard.
>
>He never invented it though.
>


Wasn't it invented by some pissed Irishman who wanted to know how fast a bird went so he could shoot it? Not sure how the exact imperial dimesions of the world's largest ball of string in Great Falls, Montana, followed by the metric dimensions in italic, would help in this matter, but there you are, that's the pissed Irish for you.