18/06/2009

I'm going away for a while

Hello people.

With a large number of people (over 100 of them) forced out of their homes by racist thugs in Belfast and some stuff going on in Iran that seems like it might be a little bit important, the Mail is using its front page to maximum effect by, er, crusading for the banning of wheelie bins, and the Sun - the world's biggest selling Enslish language daily newspaper - is doing similar hard-hitting stuff by including a traditional 'OMG! TITS! ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS! TOILET PUN!' front page.

On the inside pages, the Sun is busy trying to create spurious connections between the Iranian President and the Taliban because it can't tell the difference between Muslim extremists and printing fishy sounding stories about dead terrorists having Aston Villa tattoos and the Mail is busy allowing its readers to blame the victims for the racist attacks I mentioned above, blaming possible future racist attacks on the potential victims (just so its bases are covered)and describing a robbery-murder of drug dealers as a vigilante attack, probably because the victims are illegal immigrants.

All this comes in the aftermath of the BNP gaining seats in the Euro elections, and I haven't even mentioned Amanda Platell talking about the 'black thugs' who murdered Ben Kinsella or Allison Pearson farting out another generic 'ooh, aren't burkhas scary and aren't Muslims just scheming chancers' arsery, or the general lying about immigration that always goes on in the tabloids. Makes you proud to be British that our largest selling papers have such fantastic priorities and aren't actually racist, honest guv, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, I've been getting my priorities just as wrong by not blogging about any of that and wasting my time trying to convince a BNP supporter that there is actually no law that says that white men must be rejected for employment in favour of 'ethnics' and women, despite how well or badly qualified any of them are instead. Read the thread over at Pickled Politics if you like - and while you're at it, read the rest of the 85 questions for journalists interviewing the BNP they have over there (part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5) but just don't expect them ever to get answered. I like some better than others, and I think they should be boiled down to the five best ones that should be asked over and over until the Beeners stop dodging and actually bother answering, hopefully snapping and letting slip some choice racist epithets while they're at it.

Here's the problem. It's all so flipping depressing isn't it? And I'm in a good mood after just finishing The Graveyard Book (following The Corner and Columbine, both of which were excellent journalism but hardly uplifting), getting the first few episodes of the Wire ready to start watching for the first time and having Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ready to start on the week away I'm taking next week, and I don't want to ruin it.

So stuff it. I'm off for a week. When I get back I'll be ready to face the tabloids and the hate and take the piss. For now, I'll probably kick things off by watching the dodgy Jason Statham movie I've downloaded. Classy.

2 comments:

merrick said...

Your titele had me worried, most bloggers seem to go for a long hiatus now and again. I'm really glad you're only off for a week.

Sonofajoiner said...

I know how you feel. I had been trying to get my own blog going but I'm suddenly finding everything too fucking depressing to even bother at all. Racist twatjobs have become astoundingly prevalent, and brazen, of late haven't they? Anyways, enjoy your holidays and I look forward to you getting back at it.