Blogging about bad journalism since 2006.
 |
| Blast from the past |
It's so common in comedy shows that it's a cliche - major disaster happens in foreign country, UK news agencies only take notice if British people are involved. Submit a script with that situation in and someone's bound to say, "Do we need to include that tired joke? It's been done about eight-million times before."Yes, it's a tired gag, but one that's so accurate. Today's tabloids show this brilliantly. Most papers have included news of Libya and Gadaffi's speech yesterday on their front pages - it is a little bit relevant to the UK, people in countries across the Middle East in revolt against the largely UK-backed oppressive regimes that rule them, with one of the most infamous despots vowing to fight against a revolt that has already killed quite a number of his citizens - but the tabloids have splashed with the headlines that count.
Regular readers will already know what the Daily Mail does when statistics are released that do not fit with what the paper wants to tell its readers about immigration, but James Slack (the Home Affairs Editor, no less. Ooh - get him) gives us a lovely lesson for new readers and old alike. Aren't we lucky!
The press is in the grip of a moral panic at the moment. If you believe the papers, especially the tabloids, you can expect to be stabbed if you dare to leave your house. Try to get up the street and you'll have to dodge marching hordes of brainless hoodies relentlessly plodding towards you thrusting kitchen knives back and forward, like in some weird 80s videogame.
'We have had the Iraqi Kurds who carry knives and the Poles and the Lithuanians who carry knives. If it is normal to carry them where you come from, you need to educate them pretty quickly. We have done a lot of work to tell them not to, and we have seen it go down.'
In the same evidence session, Local Government Association chairman Sir Simon Milton warned a series of 'spikes' in crime have taken place as a result of mass immigration .
He told the Home Affairs Select Committee there had been an issue with largely Romanian pick-pocketing gangs in the Westminster area.
Sir Simon added: 'Nationally there has been no crime wave but there are instances where there have been spikes in certain types of criminal activity.
'Much of it is low-level driving offences, and so on.'
The Americans called it a 'suicide' attack and put the number of injured at seven. Later, they gave the age of the girl as between 16 and 18.
Amazing proof of the actual usefulness of Daily Mail hacks was uncovered yesterday when reporter James Slack invented something other than outrage and inflated immigration statistics - an amazing teleporting fence!
Funnily enough: not really true - and even if it was, it would mean that migrants are less likely to be arrested than everyone else. It's a win double!The Daily Express investigation presents the most detailed picture yet of the impact immigration is having on crime levels and police resources.A Daily Express investigation, eh? That must be worth the paper it's printed on.
Figures from 26 police forces received under the Freedom of Information Act showed that a total of 79,308 foreign nationals were arrested in 2006 – the latest year for which figures are available. They represented seven per cent of the total number of arrests.So, the investigation covers less than half the police forces in the country and includes the one that arrests more people than any other force - the Met.
If the level of arrests was reflected across the remaining forces which failed to supply information, it would mean more than 131,100 foreigners arrested in one year. That is the equivalent of up to 360 a day, or one every four minutes.
One prediction estimates there will be 9.1million immigrants by 2030 – up from 5.4million at present.Remember, that 9.1 million figure appears to have been made up by the Express in the first place.
On one visit he discovered three Muslims – two patients and a consultant – inside the prayer room with the two icons masked by a cloth. A picture of the Virgin Mary had also been placed face down.There's one incredibly vital piece of information missing from this. What were the Muslims doing in the chapel?
Mr Protano is alleged to have uncovered the symbols and stood the picture back up before leaving the room. But minutes later there was a “confrontation” in the corridor after the group followed him out.Look carefully at the picture the paper is painting here. The porter walked into the chapel and uncovered the symbols and put the photo face up without any incident at all, and there was only confrontation after he left the room. How likely is that?
The Muslims accused Mr Protano of using racist language and assault, but he strongly denies the charges against him and claims they verbally abused him.
Police released him after four hours of questioning following the assault complaint and passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if he should be charged.Perhaps the senior detective thinks there should be any action because the alleged assault might have taken place in the Chapel where there were no witnesses other than the people involved, but we're still given the impression that there should be no action because the Muslims are lying.
A senior detective told the Daily Express: “I do not believe there should be any action over this, but the decision does not rest with me.”
“Maybe he should not have done what he did while the group was inside the prayer room, but do you deserve the sack? Would this have happened if it had been the other way round?”What would have happened if it had been the other way round?
Note to editors - that's 7 million immigrants, right?Britain's soaring immigrant population will double in the next two decades to almost 10million, a shocking report warned yesterday.As regulars will be aware, I am a plank, so I emailed the IPPR asking for a copy of this shocking report.
Mr Protano, a Roman Catholic who has worked two years at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury, entered the room when three Muslims were using it - two patients and a doctor.And:
An argument broke out after he asked them to remove a cloth covering the crucifix and statue and to turn a picture of the Virgin Mary face up.
Police quizzed him for four hours last month, on suspicion of religiously aggravated assault, but he was released without charge.And a little later, in amongst a bit of testimony from a friend, we get:
They are saying he should not have gone into the prayer room and it is alleged he used racist language, which he totally refutes.So instead of being sacked after he asked for the cross to be uncovered, it appears he was sacked after interrupting people who were using the room, and some sort of assault and the use of racist language has been alleged. Perhaps the headline should be changed. And I doubt he 'refutes' the claim, I suspect he just 'denies' it.
The friend said Mr Protano went into the prayer room about six times a day to check that the statue and crucifix were not left covered because he felt could be upsetting for visiting Christian parents to find them covered up.Six times a day? Are we to conclude that this sort of behaviour is normal?
The case has angered many hospital staff, who think he has been treated unfairly.Many hospital staff. As the Express has demonstrated in the past so well, sometimes 'many' actually means 'none'.
I can see civil war breaking out in this country before too long. The politically correct extremists are creating the fertile grounds for this to happen. I don't hear the church making much of a fuss, because they too are scared or part of the extremists agenda for a total breakdown in society and war on our streets. Its not muslims (apart from the extremist muslims) that are to blame for this, and it's not the catholics, it's the poltically correct extremists that are creating the problems for us all.Perhaps, Bob, nobody's making a fuss because the bloke sounds like a nutter who just might possibly have assaulted someone while throwing about racist language. It's now Political Correctness Gone Mad to suggest this sort of thing is unnacceptable.
- Bob, merseyside
Shit yourself RIGHT NOW!There were a record number of tourist and business visits (that is, visits for less than 12 months)So we know that these people are ones staying for less than 12 months. They've all gone back to Poland.
The official figures were based on a survey of visitors by the Government’s Office of National Statistics.Nothing up until now has let us know that it's only an impression that these people are looking for work. But what is it that the paper says is adding to the impression that they are looking for work? This:
But adding to the impression that many coming as visitors were in fact looking for work [...]
Poles spent just an average £24 a day in 2006, compared with £129 for visitors from Luxembourg.Ah. So because Poles don't spend as much as people from Luxembourg, then they're looking for work. Not poorer. What's the betting that Luxembourg is top of the list for the amount of money spent in visits to the UK? I can't be arsed to check.
When Labour opened the immigration floodgates in 2004, it was estimated that barely 10,000 Eastern and central Europeans would arrive. But 743,000 have registered for work since 2004.Aside from the to-be-expected refusal to consider how many of the 700,000 have returned to their country of origin and the mention of the crap government prediction, we get an extra couple of hundred thousand thrown on top that are pulled from nowhere but the journalist's arse. Why not say 6 million and a unicorn? It has just as much basis in actual fact.
Including self-employed, the true picture is nearer 900,000.