Gordon in the morning: Following in Steps' steps

This was always going to happen: After the Steps reunion, here comes the S Club 7 reunion. It's not quite out of the blue, as there's already a rump of a band:

J O'Meara, Bradley McIntosh and Paul Cattermole still play gigs at universities and clubs, as S Club 3.

In other words, nearly half of them haven't even got any dignity to lose.

The plan is to copy Steps' every movemake a reality TV show the heart of the reunion.

Reality TV? Yeah, that worked out well for Jo O'Meara before, didn't it?

S Club 7 comeback starts, ends in disaster

Did you know S Club 7 are back? Well, not quite back: it's only three of them and they're just hobbling round doing "a medley of their hits" for drunken students.

Amongst the line-up is Jo O'Meara who either came across as a bully during her spell on Celebrity Big Brother, or else was the victim of cruel editing, depending on if you have a sense of judgement or not.

Drunken students. Faded stars desperately dancing for coins. A person who somehow thought she was the victim when she was outed as being happy to sit around yukking while a person got battered by racist bullying. It's a set-up for disaster, isn't it?

Yes, so it turns out: Jo got hit by a bottle and wound up with a two-inch gash in her head, the set at Tokyo in Bradford was cut short. Even shorter, actually:

Bradley, 27, yelled at the 900-strong crowd: “It takes just one idiot to ruin everybody’s night.

“If you are going to throw a glass, throw it at me...you had to spoil it.”

Police are, according to The Sun, "investigating" to see if the attack was connected to O'Meara's Celebrity Big Brother appearance, although it's not clear why: after all, it's as unacceptable to throw stuff at people as Jo's behaviour on the TV show was. Even if the person who lobbed the bottle did it because they were angry about her part in the goading of Shilpa Shetty it doesn't excuse it, does it?

It's far more likely that the problem is down to a disjunction between what the band think they were doing - playing old hits to fans - and what they actually were doing, which was playing a set at a boozy student night with free entry. It's hard to understand why the club would have booked a turn who have been hovering between target and joke-butt for years, let all-comers in, and then give them drinks in glass containers.

Jo O'Meara: horse whisperer

It's probably unsurprising to see the first signs of a rehabilitation of Jo O'Meara starting, a year on from Celebrity Big Brother; and where better to start than in the pages of the Daily Mail?

O'Meara - who has spent the last year hanging out with rescue animals and has stepped in to offer support for the horses and donkeys which were discovered at Spindles Farm in Amersham - is now pregnant and keeping out of the spotlight. Sort-of:

Jo is not planning to rush back into showbusiness. She says: "I love singing and that will always be part of my life but I'm taking it slowly and I have the baby to think about."

She is considering an invitation to take part in a charity show next month, organised by celebrity voice coach Zoe Tyler.

The prospect of performing on stage after such a torrid year's absence is daunting, but she is considering an offer to work with housemate Jermaine Jackson.

The Mail, meanwhile, does it bit to help along with the recasting of O'Meara, suggesting the whole nasty, racist screeching match was a lot of fuss about nothing:

The baying crowd had already decided she was a racist and a bully, primarily on the strength of one particularly banal and savage argument over a stock cube.

Jo, meanwhile, insists that she's not racist at all:

The thing that hurts most is that anybody could think I was racist. I honestly don't have a racist bone in my body. I may be a bit daft sometimes but I'm not malicious.

Curiously, O'Meara doesn't bother to mention the bullying problem - that she sat hawking away while Goody verbally battered Shetty and, when Shetty appealed for help, she just laughed; that when the row finally abated, O'Meara said "I needed that" and looked like she'd had an enjoyable time.

Even more curiously, O'Meara doesn't explain how "not having a racist bone in my body" squares with the supressed segement of her sitting around having a laugh about limericks with the word 'paki' in them; the Daily Mail doesn't think to ask.

Instead, O'Meara trots out the line again that it was all created in the editing. Since her worst behaviour was quietly dropped onto the cutting room floor, it seems odd that she should object to people being selective when telling a story.

Celebrity Big Brother: Ofcom verdict

Some of the comments on the story we did back during Celebrity Big Brother insisted that Jo O'Meara couldn't possibly have been taking part in racist bullying, because, for example, she sang songs which meant she was "shy" (sorry, sensitively creative), she didn't appear to be doing any racist bullying in the backstage bits of S Club 7 live videos, and because she said she wasn't.

Now, Ofcom have published their findings following complaints about the series. What did they think?

Of course, their remit was not to decide on what was said, but how it was broadcast, but it did fall to Ofcom to investigate the nature of what was said in the first place. Their starting point is some of the transcripts:

Danielle
I just don’t like that. I don’t fucking trust her.
Jo
No, I don’t trust her. I don’t trust her – at all.
(SHOTS IN BEDROOM OF SHILPA AND CAROLE)
Danielle
No buts ay - she’s a dog.
Ian
What did she say? Danielle? What did she say?
Danielle
I need a wee. I need a poo. I need a wee but I’ve got to wipe
her arse.
(Background conversation)
Jo (to Danielle)
Behave yourself, Mrs.
Danielle (in toilet)
Fuck.
Jo
She’s a dog.
Danielle
No, but like me, you and Jade get on.
Jo
Yeah.

Friday 12 January 2007, transmitted on the main show on 13 January 2007

Channel 4 suggests that, while this is nasty, it's not racially nasty, and that Jo might have called Shilpa a dog, she didn't mean it:

There is no evidence, however, to suggest that the insult was motivated by racism or indeed had anything at all to do with Shilpa’s race.

Certainly the editorial team did not then and do not now view it as racist. That is not to say the remark was viewed as pleasant. In any event, at the time it is also clear that Jo, although she laughs at the comment, has some reservations about it - making the comment ‘behave yourself Mrs’ to Danielle.

It is also Jo later on that night and the following morning who makes it clear that she thinks the comments were terrible and urges Danielle not to drink again and to apologise to Shilpa. Accordingly, although not pleasant, the context of the show and the ongoing series made the inclusion of it totally justified by context and within the Code rules.

In addition, Channel 4 points to Jo's role in helping engineer a rapprochment between Jade and Shilpa the next day.

Ofcom suggests that "while offensive to some", this is pretty much par for the Big Brother course:

We therefore do not believe that in light of this backdrop, the term
“dog” would have gone beyond the Big Brother audience’s expectations. In the
context of the day’s events, the comment was clearly made by Danielle Lloyd in the
belief that Shilpa Shetty had somehow had a role in Carole Malone’s eviction. It was,
therefore, used by Danielle Lloyd as a generic term of abuse as opposed to a racial
insult, and would have given viewers an insight into the housemate’s character.

Then, there was the "Indians are thin because of their poor hygiene":

Jo
I said, maybe they cook them differently in India, might do mightn’t they?
Danielle
They probably fucking cook it for, like…
Jo
That’s why they’re all thin, because they’re sick all the time, because they’re ill.
Danielle
They’re ill off Shilpa’s cooking.
Jo
The thing that aggravates me with Shilpa is she fingers your food off your plate. You could see when she was picking the onions, just with her fingers, she’s just done it to Ian as well, she went ‘oh this chicken is fine’ [mimics Shilpa’s accent] and on his plate, started eating his chicken off-of his plate. That grates me.
Danielle
Do they do that in India, eat with their hands or is that in China?
It’s in India isn’t it?
Jo
Not sure, I don’t like all that though.
Danielle
I don’t know where her fingers have been.

Channel 4 suggested that this is merely ignorance, rather than racism:

Channel Four said that Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd were clearly within their rights
to be concerned about potential food safety and hygiene issues if they perceived
there was a risk. By making a crude generalisation that all Indian people are thin and suffer from food poisoning because of the way they cook chicken – particularly in a way that suggests this is humorous – Jo O’Meara’s ignorance of Indian culture is made clear to viewers. Similarly Danielle Lloyd’s comment asking whether it is India or China where people eat with their hands highlights her clear ignorance of other cultures. Nonetheless, Channel Four considered that the comments “…stop short of being clearly motivated by actual racial prejudice”.

So, suggesting that a nation of people are unhygenic, and sick, and thin as a result is "humorous" and "short of being motivated by actual racial prejudice" - you have to wonder why the channel believes something as nasty as this can be excuse because it's humourous. NF literature used to include cartoons, which didn't make it any less repugnant.

Certainly, Ofcom didn't buy it for a minute:

This [the motivation[ may or may not be the case (and of course, it is not possible to know with any certainty what the motivation behind these comments was), but we considered whether the content of the words were such that they could reasonably be viewed as potentially offensive on the grounds of race, or any other grounds.

There appeared to be two elements to this material which viewers found offensive. The first was the exchange in which Jo O’Meara linked Shilpa Shetty’s cooking to people in India being thin and the second was in Danielle Lloyd linking this personally back to Shilpa Shetty’s cooking, which viewers perceived to be racist bullying. We agree that on the surface, the target of the women’s exchange appeared to be Shilpa Shetty’s cooking. However, their comments extended to generalisations about Indians as a race and therefore had the potential to be viewed as stereotyping Indians as a race and offensive by many.

In considering the exchange, we bore in mind the broadcaster’s response that the above comments needed to be viewed in the context of the day and the growing antagonism over the course of the preparation and eventual consumption of the lunch. However, Ofcom believed that there were other, more pertinent comments (about race and imitations of accents) being made in the House which should have alerted Channel Four to the potential for this exchange to cause offence and the need to apply generally accepted standards.

We agree with Channel Four that expressing a dislike for another person handling the food you are about to eat with their fingers or taking food from your plate with their fingers would not necessarily lead to offence being caused in the broadcast of this material. However, in the context of the remarks which surrounded it (“That’s why they’re all thin, because they’re sick all the time…”; “Do they do that in India?”) and bearing in mind the pejorative way in which such comments could be viewed, Ofcom is of the view that the conversation had the potential to cause serious offence.

Jo O’Meara’s quiet mimicking of Shilpa Shetty’s accent when saying “oh this chicken is fine” also added to the concerns about the offensive nature of this material. This focused the discussion further on race as the issue (and not simply their frustration over the un-cooked chicken), adding to the offence.

We agree with Channel Four that, in the context of a programme like Big Brother, “it was…important that this scene was presented to viewers as a further insight into these girls’ characters”. Notwithstanding that such comments may demonstrate cultural ignorance, the audience’s reaction to this broadcast was bound to be influenced more at this time by concerns that the two women’s comments had the potential to be offensive on grounds of race.

In other words: It might not have been that Jo and Danielle were having a spot of racist Indian-bashing, but it certainly looked like it.

In other findings, Ofcom shares the views of Jo's supporters - for example, that sometimes she managed to do an Indian accent that was just spiteful and vindictive rather than racist:

In Ofcom’s review of all the incidents in which the housemates were broadcast mimicking accents, we noted that many housemates did in fact imitate each other and this was mostly done in good humour. Shilpa Shetty, herself, mimicked others, in particular Jade Goody (for example, she mocks Jade Goody at one point on her pronunciation of the word “whale”). On the whole, where the mimicking was not good humoured, there was no direct evidence to suggest that the motivation was racist. For instance, when Jo O’Meara imitates Shilpa Shetty’s apparent “whinging” to Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd (transmitted Saturday 13 January 2007 on the main show), it is the tone and pitch of her voice that is singled out and made the main focus of the imitation rather than the accent.

So, erm, that's alright then.

The regulator also observed that Jo's reaction during the great stock cube row showed support for Jade's bullying of Shilpa:

This argument was certainly extremely uncomfortable viewing and at certain times shocking. It was made more so, by the comments of Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd during and after the fight, which were regarded by some as supportive of Jade Goody’s behaviour:
Jo:
“I suddenly feel better”
“Jade you’re hilarious”
“Got to say, made my day”

However, the decision on this was that, while the behaviour was "unpleasant", showing it wasn't an error of judgement on the network's part.

Ofcom also considered - along with the Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jackiey Budden incidents, the Jermaine Jackson "white trash" moment. This bit, where Jermaine supposedly applied the term to the Jade clan, has been seized on by some as some sort of "balance" to the behaviour of O'Meara and friends, or to suggest that the media has only been interested in the white racism in the house, while turning a blind eye to racism coming from the black housemate.

Even had Jermaine been behaving like that, it's hard to see why a single moment of the use of a common phrase would somehow be comparable to sustained gaggle of racist bullying, but Ofcom hit the dictionaries and watched the tapes and concluded it wasn't racist, Jermaine was only using the term in reported speech, it wasn't said with any side, and he only used the term while explicitly not applying it to anyone in the house:

Ofcom has noted various definitions of the term “white trash” in ublished, as well as online dictionaries. “White trash” appears to be a slang term that is usually used to refer to what some describe as poor and uneducated white people. Whilst we understand that the term “white trash” literally refers to a particular group (i.e. certain white people), we consider it generally accepted that the expression refers to a socioeconomic group, rather than a racial one. We noted that Jermaine Jackson referred to The Jerry Springer Show immediately after his use of “white trash” to expand on what he meant by the term (“Have you heard about the show Jerry Springer, where they bring people and tell all their business and they go crazy? They get people like that because they have no self-respect sometimes…”). Again, this indicated that Jermaine Jackson’s use of the expression did not appear to be concerned with race, but with class and culture.

Nonetheless, Ofcom does consider that the term “white trash” may still have the potential to be offensive to some viewers. However, we believe that the term was appropriately justified by context in this specific instance and therefore not in reach of the Code. It is clear from the scene that Jermaine Jackson was merely reporting the use of the expression by others and he explicitly states that he would not himself apply it to Jackiey Budden (“They brought up the word white trash …and I wouldn’t call her that because she’s a human being…”). Neither did Jermaine Jackson use the term in aggressive or mocking terms.

In all, Ofcom found that some of the material shown was inappropriate for broadcast, and that Channel 4 will have to apologise multiple times on air.

It's noticeable that, despite her press interviews complaining about the way she was "edited" to "look bad", Jo O'Meara doesn't appear to have made a formal complaint to Ofcom on that point. Odd, that.

Jo: I tried to die

Still maintaining that her racism and bullying was something that happened to her rather than being something she did, Jo O'Meara has been telling the News of the World that she apparently tried suicide:

She wept: "I wanted to kill myself. I'd had enough of that show and what it had done to me. I just couldn't carry on living.

"Channel 4 weren't there for me. They left me to die while they counted their pound notes and raved about ratings."

The tormented star revealed she:

# LOCKED herself away and refused to go out.

# FAILED in her suicide bid because a friend came home unexpectedly.

# BELIEVES she was too psychologically fragile to go on the show

# FEELS betrayed and abandoned by Big Brother bosses.

We're not quite sure how the "being locked away" squares with having "friends coming home". Rather aptly, the friend who interrupted her was called Cindy Lazarus.

Obviously, it's terrible that Jo feels such a mess, but part of her trouble seems to stem from her total inability to accept that her behaviour was bullying and racist - instead she maintains that things were "manipulated" and that she'd "come across" ina bad light:

Jo blames the editing of her conversations with Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd for making them look like bullies ganging up on Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty.

But this is just simply not true - the key incident, where Jade was honking at Shetty while O'Meara and Lloyd sat giggling in support, wasn't "edited" to make it look like the three were ganging up on Shetty. The ignorant pieces about touching food with hands, and being slim because they don't cook their food properly: yes, you could argue that the editing picked out the worst bits - but they didn't make them up in the edit.

Her tale is rammed full of contradictions:

"I was abandoned. I was simply chewed up and spat out by Channel 4. I remember when I left that house, and I was in floods of tears, they promised they'd take care of me.

"They know full well how much I've suffered in the last few weeks but they've done nothing for me.

That does, indeed, sound terrible. Except:

CBB makers Endemol sent a psychologist to visit her three days after her release. Furious Jo claimed: "He said I should never have gone on that show because I wasn't mentally stable enough."

So... Channel 4 have done nothing for you, but then where did this psychologist come from?

Channel 4, for their part, suggest they've tried to help:

A Channel 4 spokesman said last night: "A senior producer and the psychologist have maintained regular contact with Jo through her representatives. The psychologist has made additional offers of support which Jo has not yet taken up. Her fee is being processed."

Apparently forgetting that we've all seen the programme, Jo tried to suggest that a couple of weeks in the Big Brother house is on a par with Guantanamo:

"Some days they'd lock you in a room for hours to provoke reactions between people and then we'd be woken by sounds of babies crying, people vomiting or wailing animals. It was mental warfare.

"They control your lives like they are God. They knew we were vulnerable in there and shamelessly exploited it. I was put through the meat grinder and almost lost everything for this poxy show."

If only it had been on twice a year every year for the last half decade, you might have had some idea what you were letting yourself in for, eh?

We're stil a little puzzled as to how Jo has been unable to work and unable to go out, and yet has somehow managed to be together enough sell her story to the News of the World. Let's hope the payment saves her house.

Save idiots like me from myself, begs Jo

In her continuing attempts to try and spin her racist bullying as somehow being something that happened to her, rather than something that she did, Jo O'Meara has called for Big Brother to be banished from the screens:

"I feel if this is what a TV show does to people, then it shouldn't be a TV show," she told Sky News.

"The whole thing has been so unfair and so cruel," she added. "I've not been portrayed as the person I really am."

But, Jo, the programme has a live feed. Your sitting around laughing like a hyena wasn't a creation of editing. Your suggestion of Indians being thin through poor hygiene wasn't created in the edit suite. Your conversation about Shilpa touching your food, that wasn't dreamed up by Endemol.

"I'm not a racist person, I never ever have been," she said.

"None of it makes sense. I don't know how this has all happened."

Whoever is coaching her is doing their best - engaging with the charges of racism, which require an element of second-guessing motivation, in the hope that everyone will forget the bullying she was part of.

"I don't think you can get much lower," she told Sky News in a recorded interview shown on Sunday.

"They say you have to hit rock bottom before you can build yourself up. I just hope I'm at the bottom now."

O'Meara said she had contemplated suicide but had been "too wimpish" to go any further.

If that's true, it is terrible. If it's not true, she might have just found a way to make herself even lower than her appearance on CBB managed.

Jo's sorry now

Of course, the people showering Jo O'Meara with death threats are as bad as she is, but that doesn't make her right. Having had some time to think about things, she's finally got round to saying a sort of 'sorry' via a statement issued through her tour manager, but it's more "sorry for myself" than sorry for what she is:

"I have been asked why I did Big Brother. It was simply because I needed the money," she said.

"I did have a successful singing career in S Club but that was several years ago. I may lose my house and the fee offered was a lifeline which I took."

Well, Jo, nobody thought you were doing it because you fancied three weeks sharing a shower with Leo Sayer.

"I felt like the rabbit in the headlights with nowhere to hide and no-one to talk to," she said.

"I am totally shattered and after the death threats am scared to go home.

"Am I the first person in the world to make a mistake or say regrettable things?

"I am devastated, sorry and honestly have no idea what to do next,"

Well, no, Jo, you're not the first person to say regrettable things. Maybe, though, if you'd found space in your statement to explore what you said - or maybe if you'd not given an interview a week ago saying that Indians should take your idiotic burblings as "a compliment".

Jo, of course, blames the producers:

"I think that as a group we would all have coped better if some of the surprise stunts hadn't been pulled by Big Brother.

"Jade and her family entering the house late and the introduction of a slave/master culture is bizarre by anyone's standards and automatically creates tension and a divide.

"I may have made some mistakes but I have apologised for them and, in the context of the three weeks of Big Brother, I honestly believe that I was not a horrible person every day throughout the series."

No. Not every day. But we do like the idea that it was all Endemol's fault for creating a vacuum into which Jo's caustic personality leaked out. The school bullies should remember that one for when they're up in front of the head next - "I did tie him to a drainpipe and set fire to the bin I'd stood him in, but it was because the teachers hadn't set enough quadratic equations to keep me busy..."

Shilpa Shetty has used her post-CBB interviews to simultaneously absolve Jo from charges of racism while twisting the knife in a polite way:

Shetty insisted Goody"never thought before she spoke" and pop star Jo O'Meara had"personality issues".

Channel 4, meanwhile, have been denying the existence of footage of unnamed housemates singing racist songs.

And as if to prove that you should be careful what you wish for, the news pages at JoMeara.org (missing an 'o', surely?) make for interesting reading.

On January 9th, they posted this:

I'm sure some of you have noticed the lack of Jo footage we seem to be getting from BB recently, which to be honest isn't good enough. Since 'The Goodys' have moved in, the show seems to be focusing on certain housemates much more than others, especially our Jo who seems to be suffering the most when it comes to air time. [...] So we urge all the fans out there to get e-mailing various Big Bother addresses to say how we feel, however we need support in this as it will probably take a lot of seperate emails to get our point across and get something done about it. I know we can do it as we have succeeded before we just need to pull together as a community. We certainly do not want a repeat of tonight's highlights show where we saw a grand total of about 30 seconds of Jo, and then nearly a whole hour focusing mainly on Leo and Jacquie and their temper tantrums. There was so many 'Jo' moments from yesterday which could of been aired today. From tears to late night laughter to piggyback rides in the garden! All of which included Jo and none of which was aired on the hour show. There are several addresses below you can try e-mailing and It also might be an idea to e-mail radio stations as they seem to cover BB alot and read out viewers comments, especially Heart Radio.

Well, Channel 4 certainly did get round to finding space for Jo in the highlights show...

Who will speak up for Jo O'Meara?

Jo O'Meara's steadfast refusal to apologise for her idiocy has won her few friends. Remember, of course, it only looks bad if you edit out all the hours she spent not being a racist bully and left in the times she was.

Even the BNP seemed reluctant to embrace her, suggesting instead that Big Brother contestants should be shot:

[S]pokesman Dr Phil Edwards said: 'The comments made should not be classed as racist.

'They (the housemates) have been making comments about the way people live in other countries.

'The show is trivia, people should stop getting upset and start talking about the real problems in Britain - mass immigration, about the number of foreigners here.'

He added: 'They should close the programme and shoot the lot of them.'

With most people you'd put the call to shoot the contestants down to overstatement, but the BNP have probably already earmarked the sports stadium it'll be using to work its way through its list should it ever seize power.

In the Daily Telegraph, Shyama Perera declared Jo to be worse than Danielle and Jade, possibly put together, but does offer her an excuse:

Jo, the last of the gang of three, is the one I find it hardest to excuse, though her comments about Indians being thin were clearly ironic in the face of Shilpa's shambolic attempts to cook. Looking at her, the only one of the group with a natural talent, the worry is that she's as good as it gets. I can only feel despair, not anger.

Should Jo then try "I wasn't being racist, I was being ironic" as a response? And if the remarks were an ironic jibe at Shetty's cooking rather than the entire stereotyping of a nation, why did she suggest "Indians" (rather than Shilpa) were thin because of bad cooking?

But good news for Jo this morning - she's finally found someone to stand up for her.

The bad news is that it's Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Andrew Windsor. While "not endorsing" what Jo has said, Ferguson believes that it's time "she should be removed from the stocks":

"I didn't watch the show and I don't condone anything she has allegedly said or done.

"But I know what it's like to be vilified. She is a broken girl. All I'm saying is that she should be removed from the stocks," Sarah Ferguson said

But Ferguson was vilified because she was (widely perceived) as a freeloader, on account of her, erm, freeloading. Jo's troubles are slightly different, and brought on herself.

Fergie's intervention is all the more puzzling because it came via a phone call to GM-TV. Apparently, she'd been watching Jo sobbing on the GM-TV couch and ordered her assistant to phone up and offer some support.

O'Meara still seems to think that by being exposed as a nasty, bullying piece of work she's been somehow tricked:

"I just feel that Big Brother had a TV show to make and they have to do what they can to make good viewing and unfortunately I was a guinea pig. It's ruined my life."

No, Jo - the minutes where you sat laughing your head off as your chum Jade honked and honked at Shetty weren't "good viewing." They were bloody uncomfortable to watch - not least because, clearly, you and Lloyd felt not discomfort whatsoever. Big Brother hasn't ruined your life.

Your behaviour has. And your inability to even see why people are disgusted with you reveals more about you than the cameras in the house ever did.

Jo O'Meara: naked defiance and the victim mentality

In a way, you could almost be impressed with Jo O'Meara - rather than take Jade Goody's journey of attempted rehabilitation through stunts (trips to India, crying on TV), O'Meara has decided to adopt what my aunts would identify as a "hard-faced madam" approach. Today's Sunday Mirror bellows:

I'm Not Sorry And I'd Do It Again

It takes a special talent to make things worse than they were before, but Jo's going for it. The comment that "Indians are thin because they don't cook their food properly", for example? Jo thinks British Asians should be thanking her for the compliment:

But Jo yesterday refused to take back those words and said: "If anything, I look at that as a compliment. It's nice to be thin. It's what everybody wants to be."

O'Meara still tries to pretend that Goody honking "You're a liar and a fake" over and over for ten minutes while she and Danielle sat there giggling was "an argument" rather than an attack - and, despite having turned to her co-tormenters and saying "That's made me feel better, I must say that's made my day" as Shilpa withdrew, O'Meara claims she was "nervous":

I was aware Jade was being aggressive, but thought I would sit there and hide away. Afterwards when the bickering continued, I did think it had got to stop. I was bullied for years at school over my love of music.

"I had verbal and mental abuse - so I am dead against it. I now think BB created that tension and conflict on purpose to make the show interesting."

Leaving aside for a moment the "duh" of that last sentence, in what way is sitting there laughing your head off while someone is bullied being "dead against it". You might have been bullied at school, Jo - which, yes, is very sad, but was years ago. It doesn't give you a "get out of jail" card when, as an adult, you turn into a bully.

But is Jo racist? She falls back on that old fall back, "I can't be racist because I've got black friends":

Does it mean I hate Bradley from S Club because he's black? Him and me were incredibly close. We were like brother and sister, we still are and I know he will back me up 100 per cent. I was probably closer to him than anyone else in the band.

And, of course, she trots out her "Indian family", too:

"I have been accused of mocking Shilpa's accent, but that's not racist. My cousin married an Indian and I make fun of their kids's voices. Then they make funny Cockney noises back at me. It's just a big game."

Trouble is, Dilip Drayan, her cousin's husband, isn't impressed with Jo, either:

"Jo should never have said that Indians are skinny because they don't cook their food properly. That was a racist comment. It was wrong. She needs to take it back and apologise.

"The way she behaved was disappointing and sadly showed her true colours."

"I'm not going to stick up for Jo. She needs a ticking-off for some of the things she said.

"Jo has been bullied at school. It was so serious she took an overdose of pills and moved to a new school. So she knows what it is like. The situation in the house was bullying and Jo was a part of that. Jo is a vulnerable person. She was being influenced by powerful personalities like Jade Goody. But everyone is responsible for their own actions."

He added: "I'm disappointed in some of her characteristics including how much she was smoking and swearing."

Dilip crystallises the behaviour in a way many commentators have failed to - it's not that Jo, Danielle and Jade were necessarily attacking Shilpa because she was Indian; they were bullying her because they didn't like her, and using her race as a tool.

Back to Jo, though - who is, of course, the victim in all this: She's even complaining that Davina McCall was "harder" on her than Jade. Maybe - although it's hardly like the interview was a Paxmanesque grilling. Indeed, by focusing purely on race and ignoring the bullying altogether, McCall handed O'Meara an opportunity to dance through an "I'm not racist" defence. Jo was allowed to focus on the room for argument (just how racist she is) rather than having to engage with inarguable (that she's a bully who sat by watching her mate attack someone.)

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Jo: I'm not racist, honest

Unsurprisingly, during her eviction from Big Brother last night, Jo O'Meara insisted that, you know, she's not racist at all:

After being shown TV headlines about the furore and clips of her behaviour, O'Meara admitted: "It does look very bad, it does."

But she told host Davina McCall the edited version of events distorted what really went on.

"Looking at it like that, it looks absolutely terrible and it didn't feel terrible in there," she said.

"I'm not a racist person at all. My cousin is married to an Indian man for one, and my cousins are half-Indian and their family is with me all the time."

We're not entirely sure why your cousin having chosen to marry an Indian bloke would somehow "prove" you're not racist, any more than if you had a cousin who was a Neo-Nazi would mean that you would be a flag-waving fascist. Being able to demonstrate that you spend time with one person of a different background isn't proof of anything. Paul Dacre's Daily Mail managed to run a decent campaign calling for justice for Steven Lawrence, but even Dacre wouldn't try and suggest that this somehow cancels out the newspaper's usual xenophobic stance.

Pushed - as much as Davina McCall can push - over the way she treated Shilpa Shetty, Jo tried to demonstrate how much she loves Indians:

"I'm not going to deny that Shilpa did aggravate me a lot - I don't know why. You can't click with everybody you meet.

"It's not because I'm racist at all. I think she's a very beautiful, very elegant woman."

Davina asked Jo why she sat there cackling during what Channel 4 seem now intent on describing as an "argument" between Shilpa and Jade Goody (Goody's diatribe, more honestly) rather than trying to calm the situation down - O'Meara suggested, somewhat lamely, that she giggles when bad things happen.

Oddly, she wasn't giggling when she was shown the newsreel of global reaction to her behaviour.

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Jo O'Meara digging deeper

The discomfort at Celebrity Big Brother's racism and bullying has continued to grow: there's now been nearly 5000 complaints to Ofcom, and - following Jo Sclub's suggestion last night that "Indians are thin because they're always ill as they undercook their food" - Keith Vaz has brought up the issue in Parliament.

Interestingly, Shilpa's manager tells the BBC it's unacceptable:

Shilpa's UK manager, Jaz Barton, told BBC Radio Five Live: "She didn't come into the house to have that sort of harassment.

"She came in there with the full intention to actually embrace the public at large and to be proud of her culture and her heritage and who she is, and now she's faced with all this sort of harassment."

Earlier, though, her publicist has taken a more laid-back approach for the MediaGuardian Organ Grinder blog:

Interestingly, Shlipa's publicist, Dale Bhagwagar, took a relaxed view of complaints of racism. "Shilpa is God's child. Jack is God's child. All human beings are ultimately connected by a single abounding energy. So, how does it matter who belongs to what race, religion, country, colour or creed?"

But, in case you're wondering, it's okay to call a woman a cunt:

Channel 4 has also confirmed that Jack Tweed called fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty a "cunt", not a "Paki".

The broadcaster was responding after bloggers and the Indian media picked up on comments made by Tweed about the Bollywood star.

On the Celebrity Big Brother highlights show in which the incident featured, what Tweed said was bleeped out, fuelling the controversy about alleged racism on the programme.

But a Channel 4 spokeswoman has confirmed that the word in question was "cunt", not "Paki".

It is understood that if Tweed had used a racist term of abuse, it would probably not have been censored for editorial reasons, in order to highlight an aspect of his character.

So, erm, that's alright, then.