The Daily Mail and Paperchase

This week the Daily Mail has been in the news after dodgy stationery firm Paperchase apologised for advertising in Britain's second biggest selling daily newspaper. I don't remember having ever shopped in Paperchase but I certainly will never step foot in the place now. Their grovelling apology came after being attacked by a shady left-wing hate campaign calling themselves 'Stop Funding Hate', yes ironic isn't it?

Of course the retards of the left, such as Owen Jones who calls himself a journalist and writes in The Guardian, are lauding this attack on freedom and freedom of speech as a victory. Be very careful Jones, you might be the one somebody tries to gag next.

For years and years The Guardian has been the mouthpiece of the patronising liberal left, often known as the 'metropolitan elite'. It espouses hatred in every issue for things that are cherished in Britain. It calls patriots fascists. Anybody who believes in controlling immigration a racist. Anybody who questions gay marriage homophobic. Anybody who questions changing sex transphobic. Anybody who questions Islam is Islamphobic/racist. I could go on but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Now I have had a theory for some time which I would like to share. The left became weary of the accusation of being 'Guardian readers' in a sneering way so looked around. They found the Daily Mail and began attacking the Mail and its readers in the way that The Guardian and its readers have been attacked. After all the Mail openly discusses the things that The Guardian attacks people for merely questioning. We can't possibly debate the current PC orthodoxy can we? That makes you a fascist  and the newspaper you read a mouthpiece for fascism in the closed minds of the liberal left.

Then their fallback position is to scream that the Daily Mail supported fascist leader Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts. True, Viscount Rothermere wrote in the Mail about his support for the Blackshirts in 1934 as he did in the Daily Mirror too. By 1935 Rothermere had withdrawn his support for Moseley and that was that. Now, my Maths isn't brilliant but by my reckoning that brief flirtation was over 83 years ago. The Mirror and its sister paper the Sunday Pictorial continued promoting Mosley's Blackshirts for years after the Mail dropped them.

Many newspapers at the time were much more supportive of fascism than the Mail, such as the Times, but they are not reviled for a brief flirtation in the 1930s that was far more enthusiastic and lasted much longer than the Mail's did. A cursory look back at the 1930s will expose many figures in the establishment being sympathetic to the Nazi regime in Germany or at least enthusiastically pushing appeasement. But life moves on, unless you're a leftard who wants to stoke your artificial hatred of the Daily Mail.

So who are 'Stop Funding Hate'? In a nutshell they are a bunch of left-wing hate mongers who want to stop the rest of us reading anything they may not want to read or don't agree with themselves. They want to force big business, which they loathe anyway, to boycott newspapers of which they disapprove by stopping advertising with them until said newspapers change their editorial line to one that they approve of. It's known generally as censorship. It's also known as attacking freedom of speech.

'Stop Funding Hate' want to control what you can read. They are fascists, not the Daily Mail.

Shout Racist!

The Death of the Labour Party?

I've had a fantastic weekend hearing journalist after journalist announcing the imminent demise of the Labour Party, if only. The fate of the Liberal Democrats RIP was obvious from 2010, only as big an idiot as Vince Cable could have thought they wouldn't depart this world at the general election. But the end of the Labour Party? I fear not.

Judging by the wailing and gnashing of pinko liberal teeth the lefties are still arrogant enough to think that they are right and the gullible rest of us were duped by the wicked right-wing media. Yes, patronising bastards all. Of course the BBC, The Guardian, the Independent all slavishly following a right-wing agenda and brainwashing the populace. Don't make me laugh.

The left think they have a monopoly on humanitarianism and that much abused and overused word 'caring'. Well they don't. What they do have a monopoly on is infantilising the population. Cradle to grave socialism takes away peoples' right to choose, to make their own decisions, to think for themselves. It is neither caring nor compassionate to blindly steal peoples' money through taxation then sit back and let the state do what it wants. Because this statist philosophy has predominated since 1945, to varying degrees under Labour and most Conservative governments, we have a sizeable proportion of the population who are welfare dependent and don't expect to go to work. Why should they with an all embracing welfare state, the most generous in the world that will mollycoddle them from cradle to grave?

What lost Labour the general election was that people have had enough. They see the homeless protesters dossing in tents in Manchester and know they are conning people. Most are homeless because they are 'substance abusers' and/or chronic alcoholics. I do not go with the current orthodoxy that drink and drug abuse are illnesses, just like any other. They are a result of weakness. Let people form charitable groups to help people in these circumstances, don't expect the government to do it because that means we pay. If I want to support a homeless charity I would much rather choose to do it than be forced to do it.

Labour seemed to speak too for the immigrant population, especially the muslim population. In fact Labour are increasingly seen as fighting the corner of every minority group in the country, whether they need help or not while the working population is bled dry through ever increasing taxation for ever more government spending money. Most people rumbled that Labour plays divide and rule, creating an image of 'caring' and defending for vulnerable groups who aren't actually vulnerable at all. Labour creates the myth and feeds off it as it does with the constant lies about Tory privatisation of the NHS.

Labour claim to be no longer in bed with the trade unions but Miliband was elected by the unions and, even with one man one vote, the current candidates for the Labour leadership are grovelling to an unreconstructed political dinosaur like Len McCluskey of the Unite trade union who has also just seen off Jim Murphy, leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

When you see the anti government demonstrations, which are inevitable with the left sulking like spoilt brats since May 7th, just look at the participants. Very few are the poor, the disaffected, the homeless, the supposedly oppressed minorities of one sort or another. They are students and assorted members of the chattering classes. You know the ones I mean, the muesli chomping do gooders, usually comfortably off whites who take offence at the word blackboard on behalf of people far too sensible to be actually offended by innocent use of language. They probably organise foodbanks so the unemployed can squander their benefits on drink and drugs instead of food but are too naïve and gullible to realise the damage they are doing. As long as they get a warm, self satisfied inner glow they don't care about the impact of their stupidity.

As long as there are so many gullible fools around, and millions of sheep rushing into what they see as the safety of a gang calling itself a trade union, there will be a Labour Party. But the power and influence of Labour and the unions will continue to fade because they've been rumbled. The idiots on anti-austerity/anti-government marches/mini-riots are the political flotsam and jetsom pathetically going through the motions of empty protest without actually realising that nobody takes them seriously any more than they do Labour or the trade unions.

Je Suis Charlie, But....

Today's Front Cover

So today the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo goes on sale  and according to reports they 'lampoon' the Roman Catholic church, the Jewish faith and yet again have a cover featuring the prophet Mohammed. I wonder what that says about Charlie Hebdo?

Not being a fluent French speaker I can only get the gist of  the cartoons I've seen from the magazine and they strike me as being designed to shock and offend, not just the cartoons attacking Islam but those attacking other religions in the magazine too. If cartoons are pithy and make a searing point then that is satire. If they are designed to simply offend then that is not satire but abuse and provocation. Whatever an individual's take on the reasoning for cartoons, the written or spoken word, or film, free speech should be sacrosanct and nobody should be afraid of consequences, especially the evil consequences inflicted on Charlie Hebdo last week.

But let's step back in time a few years. Leading people behind Charlie Hebdo, including 'Charb' Charbonnier who was murdered last week, organised a petition that garnered over 170 000 signatures to have the French National Front banned. This seems at odds with the philosophy that free speech is an inalienable right. You might despise what a party like the National Front stand for, but freedom of speech doesn't include the rider 'as long as I approve'.

Having said that we all know too well how political correctness is undermining free speech. Yesterday in the supermarket I read the front page of The Sun, not my newspaper of choice. It carried the story of former Coronation Street actor  Ken Morley being thrown off Celebrity Big Brother for passing on a corny old anecdote that included the word 'negro'. Now forgive me but I'm not sure when the word 'negro' was designated racist, a bit old fashioned maybe, but racist? I'm not comparing being thrown off a dodgy TV show with being murdered in your office but both actions were taken because of the modern day crime of 'causing offence'.

It's interesting that the two British newspapers to show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo yesterday by showing cartoons from the magazine were The Guardian and Independent, not newspapers renowned for supporting free speech but for slavishly following the line of 'free speech, as long as I agree and don't think it offends'. Freedom of speech should be unequivocal, tempered by respect rather than law. Unfortunately the liberal left in Europe demand free speech for themselves, no matter how offensive they want to be, but woebetide anybody who practices free speech that doesn't adhere to their liberal/left agenda.

The left are tediously regular in justifying the curtailment of free speech with the corny old phrase 'free speech doesn't mean you can shout fire in a packed theatre'. Well if you see smoke you should actually.

Maybe putting deliberately offensive and provocative cartoons in a magazine is the liberal left equivalent of shouting fire in a packed theatre. Just a thought.

Bob Crow and Tony Benn

Tony Benn has shuffled off the mortal coil at 88. Sad that an old man has died but his philosophy was one of hate and division, summed up neatly by his giving up his title of  2nd Viscount Stansgate, but not giving up his wealth, a very post-war socialist.

Of course the BBC, the home of the champagne socialist, has gone into overdrive drooling about the 'socialist preacher' who had such incredible passion and principle. Of course they ignore the fact that the Labour governments he was part of wrecked the country (sound familiar) and left us such a basket case that even the IMF refused to bail us out because we were so dodgy.

I will shed no tears for Tony Benn.

This week we also saw the earthly liberation of Bob Crow. Even Nigel Farage of UKIP had kind words to say on his departure because of his anti-EU stance. Yes Nigel, jump on the grief bandwagon if you must, but what kind of North Korean hell hole would Crow have imposed on us if he had achieved his dream?

I'm fortunate to spend a goodly amount of time with real railwaymen, none have a good word for Crow. Yes train drivers earn a fortune but, assuming that was what Crow actually achieved for his members, at what cost to thousands or millions of other people? That's the problem with socialism, it is the ultimate 'up yours I'm alright Jack' philosophy.

I will shed no tears for Bob Crow.

Race War-The New Class War

The left love to divide and rule, or maybe that should read; the left have to divide and rule. They create hatred and animosity where it needn't exist so they can rush in and defend those 'under attack'. Just look how many decades they've been claiming the Tories are going to privatise the NHS, and the gullible believe it and become convinced the Tories will let poor people die if they form a government. Lies, lies and more lies.

But the old class warfare doesn't wash these days. Most people laugh if they hear an old school class warrior banging on about 'the workers' and 'comrades', and quite rightly too, it's a joke. The poor these days smoke, drive, have decent accommodation and a huge TV on the living room wall. Of course some people have less than others, that's life. But nobody in the UK today is starving to death, going to school in bare feet or living in squalor with inhabitable accomodation and cockroaches. So the left have had to create an alternative to class war. Race war.

The left, through political correctness, has created a climate whereby people daren't make a comment, no matter how harmless, about somebody of another race without the cry of racism going up. This week it's been race warrior Rio Ferdinand banging on about racism. It seems he and his brother were subjects of unpleasant chants this week from England fans, not surprising as they are obnoxious prats, but the claim is that there were 'racist undertones'. So "Rio Ferdinand, you know what you are" followed by a song about putting him on a bonfire is racist? Obviously not, to the sane, but many on the race obsessed left aren't sane. United fans have sung similar about City fans and Scousers for years. Is that racist too?

It's always a shame to see loony extremists using race for their own ends, be that the BNP on the nationalist far-left or the more internationalist left-wingers. Left, pardon the pun, to our own devices I reckon people of most races just rub along nicely together. As ever it is politicos and obsessives who cause the problems and resentment.

Of course we must remember that poor old Rio Ferdinand has faced such vile racism in this country that he only earns about £200,000 a week. Makes apartheid South Africa look cushy doesn't it?

George Osborne and the Class Warriors

Murderer and hero of the class warriors.

I have failed, and I am the first to admit it. I have searched and searched but I cannot find why George Osborne, the Chancellor, is all over the media for apparently moving from standard class to first class on a train to London. Big deal.

Headlines like "Great Train Snobbery" may be amusing and clever but does that mean that I am some kind of outrageous upper crust snob because I have occasionally travelled first class on a train?

The Guardian in this piece of usual pinko drivel tries to make it into something by claiming that an aide of the Chancellor tried to have him moved into first class without paying. But the supplement was paid so end of story.

In this country there is an overwhelming tide of inverted snobbery because we happen to have a goverment with a certain number of ex-public schoolboys in it. I thought in the twenty-first century we were supposed to treat people fairly whatever their race, class, religion, shoe size etc etc. That seems to be the case unless you happen to be from what the class warriors perceive as a 'privileged background', then it's open season in the most small minded, petty and unpleasant manner imagineable.

I've always found class warfare vulgar and nasty in the extreme. This nonsense with George Osborne proves that a sizeable proportion of people in this country still thrive and feed on hatred of people they see as privileged.

The reality is that they thrive on hatred for people who are more successful than themselves. It's called socialism.

The Archers

I have a guilty secret, please forgive me. I listen to The Archers Omnibus on BBC Radio 4 on a Sunday morning. I go out for newspapers, leave one with my beloved the other I take to Mass. I sit in the car for 15 minutes before Mass listening to Aled Jones and usually scan the sport section and read Rod Liddle. After Mass I go home, start the bacon and we settle down with brekkie, the papers and The Archers. But no more, I've had enough.

I grew up in Gorton, Manchester and I thank God every day when I listen in to daily life in Ambridge that I grew up in an inner city area rather than in the countryside. I had such an innocent childhood compared to rural Ambridge which is littered with illegitimate children, broken marriages, racism, violence, murder, arson and fraudsters going to jail. Not to mention the local landowner falling to his death from his own roof and one brother running off with the other brother's girlfriend and baby.

Anybody who has made a few bob seems to be shady at best, downright corrupt at worst. The local vicar married a Hindu but his first wife's mother-in-law, a Christian from the Carribean, was adamantly against the relationship, intolerant Christian you see.  The most loving, and currently enduring relationship, is the gay one, of course.

Of course the BBC claim that the show reflects life, which is what drama is all about supposedly. Bullshit! It represents life through the eyes of a white, pinko liberal, middle class nobhead from Islington. You know the kind I mean, the one who bangs on about race all the time and sees racism in everything. I think I have a wide cross  section of friends, with a wide variety of views, but the only ones who bang on about race to a tedious degree are the lefties. Droning on, and on and on all the time. And they usually look shocked if challenged and piously tell you that it isn't all that long ago that every house in the country had obligatory 'no blacks, Irish or dogs' notices in the windows. They are the kind of brainwashed people who are trying to brainwash us through The Archers and the TV soaps.

Drama doesn't actually have to represent life, as evidenced by The Archers which currently represents a jaundiced and cynical politically correct loathing of all that Britain represents and stands for rather than anything like real life. Life isn't really like it is in Ambridge thankfully. I happen to enjoy drama that is idealised and uplifting, it doesn't always have to make you feel like slashing your wrists or throwing the radio off the balcony.

So today I turned The Archers off and will not be listening in future. The drama of real life is much more uplifting and enjoyable.