I really envy Devils Kitchen's ability to bang out 3,000 words every day. He is also more humorous than I'll ever be, the bastard! Maybe when the Tories are in power, the left (including me) will regain their humour (a bit like when a football crowd sings 'we'll score again, don't know where don't know when...' when their team is losing 6-0. God, I hated the Eighties under Thatcher but at least Ben Elton was funny then. I suppose Devil's Kitchen is safe as a UKIP supporter because there will never be a UKIP government to defend to dampen his arden (bit like supporting Birmingham City and expecting to win something).
Talking of which, just saw that Devils Kitchen bloke on Blogger TV (part of Ian Dale's massively funded Tory TV empire), I was absolutely gobsmacked, I could have swore (and that being the operative word when referring to this guy) that he would look 14 like his photo on his blog but he looked at least 19! One of the Tory bloggers on there (the one with the improbable silly name - something like Dan Smartguy or John Flashcar or something) said us lefties are 'too earnest' - too bloody right we are. It must be easy to be funny when you can seriously claim that people 'earn' a million pounds for a few hours work or that the country will collapse if we have a minimum wage, PR etc. etc.
This article on 'incivility' is good. I know I am always quoting the Guardian comment is free stuff. I need to get out more I know and read other papers (good job Polly does the nasty work for me and reads the Mail etc).
Just left a nasty comment on a BNP blog (where every paragraph started 'I bet black people wouldn't be treated like this...blah..blah..persecution complex..blah..blah. I wonder if they will be out to kill me now. They really are scary loons - but reading BNP blogs isn't much different from the persecution complexes of the average Daily Mail reader or Tory bloggers - burningourmoney etc - these BNP guys just bring their racist prejudice into it a bit more often.
Which brings me to political correctness - I am sure I have written this before ( and to be honest as nobody reads my blog anymore) I might as well repeat it.
A lot of the criticism of PC is really a criticism of how litigious our society has become and this has nothing to do with the left at all - it stems from our US friends. The accident chasing - bad boy limp stuff. People are jobworths half the time because they are frightened of being sued. Public sector managers, doctors, teachers, police etc are more worried about covering their backs with paperwork than improving the service. It is a real pain.
As for the lefty PC stuff, being nice to black people, disabled, gay etc is just being polite, it should be something the Tories should be in favour of, but their prejudice is just too strong.
Cheers, Neil. Personally, I am struggling to come to terms with the fact that I am 30 this year: how the hell did that happen...?
ReplyDeleteDK
Well, console yourself with the fact that you will always be younger than me... but you will catch me up (in percentage terms).
ReplyDeleteHe left his "nasty comments" here;
ReplyDeletehttp://bnpandme.blogspot.com/2007/04/female-bnp-candidate-racially-abused.html
Neil - that was an excellent article on incivility. Call me old-fashioned, but I still do blame Thatcher or perhaps Thatcherism for that. I think people forget how she made it OK to ridicule intellectuals. How she popularised the sound byte and over-simplified political and economic discourse in a kind of corner shop faux logic designed to appeal to thick aspirants. This lies at the root of many current problems, in my view. If you think about it, theft of property is really just the ultimate operation of Thatcherite free-market greed - I have the power so I will take what I want. The same applies to loud music and tossers shouting into their phones.
ReplyDeleteNeil - if what the BNP say is true then the Police should deal with it. I in no way support them but they have a democratic right to be heard and argued against by all sane people.
ReplyDeleteNeil:
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted to return to BNP and Me, a couple of commenters there have responded to your comments (which, I have to say, were not so much nasty as just plain stupid).
However, appreciating that you probably won't do so, I want to follow up on what Urko says, and ask you whether you in fact condone the attack on the BNP candidate? The comment you left at BNP and Me appears to suggest that you do, or at least that you felt that, in some way, she 'had it coming'. Do you, then, feel that attacking members of legal political parties simply because you dislike their policies is acceptable? Would you not agree that an attack on a candidate or activist during an election campaign is an attack upon the entire democratic process, and that in such circumstances, the police have an even greater duty than usual to investigate the offence and bring the offender to justice?
I have now left a comment explaining my position on said BNP blog...to save my time I repeat it below.
ReplyDelete"If I went walking into an area with a load of leaflets basically saying 'i hate black people' then I wouldn't be surprised when I was harrassed and threatened. I wasn't saying their behaviour was right just saying it was hardly surprising!
Considering 97% of our police force are white and earn salaries high enough to live in mainly middle class areas it seems a reasonable supposition to suppose that the biggest selling 'middle class' daily is among their most read newspapers.
Whereas all this prejudice you lot spout about 'black people getting better treatment' is utter nonsense and is based on a few isolated cases printed in guess where...Daily Mail, Sun, etc. All right wing papers.
The police are not only incompetent but inconsistent, so the odd case of idiocy over schoolmates calling each other names masks loads more cases of the police being prejudiced against minorities - these things contrary to what you suggest are less likely to be reported."
You may say my comments were stupid but what really is stupid is a load of BNP supporters getting all surprised and agrieved that they are attacked for handing out racist literature.
Imagine the sort of reaction I would get if I campaigned and handed out leaflets to 'shut down Sellafield' outside their work canteen. I am sure I would be told where to go.
Uncontrolled migration could damage the poorest communities - Immigration minister Liam Byrne.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6566453.stm
Are the "poorest communities" Conservative or Labour constituencies!?! Why does a Labour Government damage it's core vote so blatantly!?!
"If I went walking into an area with a load of leaflets basically saying 'i hate black people' then I wouldn't be surprised when I was harrassed and threatened. I wasn't saying their behaviour was right just saying it was hardly surprising!
ReplyDeleteIf the BNP think that the repatriation of africans back to africa is a good thing how is this 'hating' black people. Remember that the late, fat, departed labour 'MP' for Tottenham, Bernie Grant, who believed in the self same thing. Would these people have attacked and abused him?
Perhaps they just don't understand democracy.
Do you ever find it's more than a coincidence that nearly every time there is a media report of electoral fraud in this country those involved have names or the appearance of someone from the indian sub-continent (and usually represent labour or the liberals).
hope not hate: I think you prove my case, you just cannot see further than race on any issue.
ReplyDeleteAnybody who believes in separation on the grounds of skin colour is racist in my opinion (and if that includes Bernie Grant so be it).
You are trying to justify one wrong with another. If a black person went into a strong BNP area they probably wouldn't need to be handing out inflamatory leaflets to be attacked.
You BNP supporters are not going to persuade me, butter doesn't melt in your mouth. You know exactly what you are doing when you stir up racial hatred (and you revel in it with your bleating pathetic victim mentality).