Tom Binns, British Radio DJ, Fired After Interrupting Queen's Speech

British radio DJ Tom Binns has been fired after interrupting the Queen's traditional Christmas speech by saying "two words: Bor-ing."

Binns, who had been working in the studio alone at Birmingham-based radio station BRMB, decided to interrupt the speech after the station had accidentally switched to its feed.

The Queen's speech is traditionally broadcast on Christmas day and responds to important events in the year. It has been given most years since 1932. Queen Elizabeth II had been using this speech to pay tribute to soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

When Binns realized the speech was playing, he interrupted, made a joke about French monarchy being beheaded, before playing the song "Last Christmas" by Wham! with the introduction "from one Queen to another" - a reference to Wham! singer/songwriter George Micheal's homosexuality.

Following complaints to the station, Binns has now been fired from his position at the station by BRMB.

Binns claimed that few had complained to the station about the interruption, although there had been one death threat. He told British comedy website Chortle:

One man got really angry, he sent me a message saying I should be sent to Basra and hoped I'd get killed by a roadside bomb. That was so nasty it really got to me, given that it was Christmas and I've seen in graphic detail the effects those bombs can do as I've worked with [forces' radio] BFBS.

This was not Binns' first brush with infamy: Chortle also reports that Binns had previously been fired from another radio DJ slot for "coarse sexual innuendo" during a discussion on bestiality on a breakfast show.

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Comments

[janeycat]

05:41 PM on 01/02/2010

Why have a Queen ??????
All she or any member of the family does is live high on the hog and draw a salary for appearing sometimes....

I should be Queen if she can be Queen ...

[BREWSTERSOWN]

11:29 AM on 01/01/2010

This is a good article and subject because it brings to question the issue of respect. While the D.J. thinks the Queen is boring, he should have let the Queen have the platform that has been afforded her, and then if and when the D.J. is asked or offered his own time to speak his mind he should be free to express his feelings that the Queen is boring. If the D.J. wishes to question the validity of the Queen or her being given a platform from which to speak he could raise these issues and work to see the system changed if the public feels the same as he. In general, too many people feel it necessary and within their right to interject their personal feelings over or against the wishes of the general public, or in a manner that has not been afforded them. Societal respect has diminished in the name of encouraging individual thought. Civility and a civil society is not founded on anarchy of the individual. There are plenty of examples in the world where a lack of civility leads to discrimination, violence, crime, anarchy, murder and misery.

[Philosopher-king]

10:53 AM on 01/01/2010

I would rather live in a constitutional monarchy with universal healthcare than a democratic republic with wide spread financial corruption. We think we are so advance because we don't have monarchs, but we have been fooled. We are starting to end up under a system worst and unintended. So before you go insulting our friends across the pond for maintaining a monarchy, look at what we have over here: A Corporate Consumocracy. Shameful!

[PNOGUY]

11:02 PM on 01/12/2010

I'm sure you would love to live in the British Nanny State, where political correctness has erased almost all sanity from government.

[darleneslee]

09:10 AM on 01/01/2010

The term is civility and the use of the word is respect. This appears to be a global problem and being that we suffer from this dreaded disease, "you lie" I'm glad that he was fired. We have become to lax and unfortunately anything goes.

[ll123]

07:42 PM on 12/31/2009

The Queen didn't order this man to be fired, but the radio station people fired him because he was rude! Don't beat up monarchy unless you live under one and/or live in the 19th century back!!

[cliffhammond]

08:10 PM on 12/31/2009

Well, look at what they do to the pope and no one gets fired.

[BlackYowe]

04:12 AM on 01/01/2010

It's just in bad taste. Honestly it would be so nice if people excercised just a little self control in public.

[Ken516]

12:46 PM on 12/31/2009

God save the queen....?

[jasev01]

09:22 AM on 12/30/2009

I lov e how Brits and the rest of her sub jects come on here and sw ear up and down and arg ue until they are blue in the face the mon archs have no power. Then stuff like this happens and they want to bru sh it off as if it has nothing to do with them its something else, always. Its like the wi zard of oz, don't look behind the curtain.

[Robert Cantor]

11:36 AM on 12/31/2009

nice ... i said it before and i'll say it again, 'why is there a queen?' and not just GB but so many other european nations.

[jasev01]

09:21 AM on 12/30/2009

I love how Brits and the rest of her subjects come on here and sw ear up and down and argue until they are blue in the face the monarchs have no power. Then stuff like this happens and they want to brush it off as if it has nothing to do with them its something else, always. Its like the wizard of oz, don't look behind the curtain.

[jasev01]

09:20 AM on 12/30/2009

I love how Brits and the rest of her subjects come on here and swear up and down and argue until they are blue in the face the monarchs have no power. Then stuff like this happens and they want to brush it off as if it has nothing to do with them its something else, always. Its like the wizard of oz, don't look behind the curtain.

[EnPointe]

03:18 PM on 12/30/2009

A., Quit repeating yourself. Especially when you have a rambling, incoherent comment; it's three times as stu pid.
B., I'm not a Brit, I just happen to like and have respect for them.
C., If you could read and comprehend the article, you'd see that the DJ was fired because of public outcry. Very much like how we (excluding the Repubs) were so outraged when the congressman from South Carolina shouted, "You lie!" during President Obama's speech. Same thing, public outrage. Know what you are talking about before getting silly.

[Fudgefase]

07:59 AM on 12/30/2009

The Queen's Speech IS dated and boring, and only designed to let the monarchy think they're still relevant. The George Michael crack was lame. He shouldn't have been fired though - oh, sorry, forgot. The UK doesn't recognise free speech anymore. And the guy who issued the death threat should be arrested for inciting violence.

[jasev01]

09:23 AM on 12/30/2009

Not when it comes to the queen lady

[reasonshouldrule]

10:30 PM on 12/30/2009

RE "The UK doesn't recognize free speech anymore."

You (and many others) misunderstand what free speech in a society is. Free speech means you and anyone else are free to say whatever you want to whomever you want, with some restrictions, in a public or private place. Those who use the airways to speak are subject to the laws of the relevant country as well as the policies of the station involved. What this DJ did had nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with bad judgment in using this station's airways. Of course, the judgment wouldn't have been considered "bad" if no one had complained or if lots of people had responded positively.

[deluk]

07:19 AM on 12/30/2009

Referring to George Michael as a 'queen' is tiresome boring and dated, esp. when a large chunk of our armed forces, and police force appear to be made up of ladies and gentlemen of a Wildean persusasion. Never mind the queen the guy should've been fired for being soooo last century.

[jasev01]

09:14 AM on 12/30/2009

What were you saying about the queen and her lack of power a few weeks back?

[deluk]

10:34 AM on 12/30/2009

Exactly the same as I'm saying now, the guy being fired has nothing to do with the queen. His employer fired him for being a boorish unamusing prick. I very much doubt whether the queen even knew of the incident.

[RobertFromMN]

06:58 AM on 12/30/2009

The fa$cist regime:
http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/queen_nose_pick.jpg

[v eyepete]

06:25 AM on 12/30/2009

Sometimes a man has got to do what he has got to do. Perhaps there was a bit too much Christmas cheer going on that loosened his lips. After all, he has lived in his country from birth and he may have just been fed up with things. Perhaps the royal speech writer could liven things up a bit, there are ways to actually reach your audience and not put them to sleep.

[deluk]

07:26 AM on 12/30/2009

Yes. Perhaps a 'wardrobe malfunction' a la Janet Jackson.

[Arch Angel 71]

06:17 AM on 12/30/2009

If he had said "you lie" instead "bor-ing", he would now be raising money off it and in a few months he would have had his own record company! ;-)

[brummie]

05:19 AM on 12/30/2009

This is a non-story really. Because (1) Binns is a nobody DJ on a local radio station. We're not talking Howard Stern here.(2) Only a relatively few people complained, it didn't cause a local or national outrage, and (3) most British people don't revere the Queen as some sort of god. They don't stop everything they're doing, shut up and listen to the Queen's speech. Many if not most people watch or do something else instead.

Binns wasn't sacked because he dared utter a word against the Queen. Britain isn't some totalitarian monarchy where the people and press aren't free to speak against the Queen, on the contrary throughout Britain and the Commonwealth there's long been criticism of the monarchy, the Queen, the royal family, etc.

Reading the comments here, it seems that many Americans are stuck in 1776 and think that the 'Queen of England' is a mad tyrant like like King George III.

Much of the Queen's role is ceremonial and traditional. The Queen's Xmas speech is simply one of those traditions. There are quite a few other nations where the Head of State (presidents, kings, and queens) makes a Xmas day or holiday speech.

So don't worry, there's no need for a 18th century American or French style bloody revolution. A small time DJ, the Queen's speech - it's all no big deal really.

[Fudgefase]

08:00 AM on 12/30/2009

It's possible that if the US invaded the UK, it'd be the quickest and easiest victory they'd ever had...

[brummie]

09:11 AM on 12/30/2009

Yes, because the most powerful and advance military ALWAYS defeats a small and less advanced opponent in a war. E.g. USSR vs Mujahadeen in the Soviet-Afghan War, or the USA vs the North Vietnamese. It's always a walk in the park for the USA, just like in Iraq and Afghanistan. No body bags or pyrrhic victories for the USA.

It's never as simple as big advanced country beats small less advanced country. It's that kind of assumption about military might that leads to arrogance and over confidence, resulting in poor military and security strategy.

Anyway, what's any of that got to do with the Queen's speech?!

[chicagomike]

04:43 PM on 12/30/2009

It's also possible that yours is the most meaningless post I've read here in a long, long time.