(no subject)

[winterbadger]

from the Daily Mail's piece on last night's Question Time

But just beyond half-time the programme came to life. This was the result not of a new assault on Nick Griffin, but of a question to Jack Straw.

An audience member named Johnny Lisle demanded: 'Can the recent successes of the BNP be explained by the misguided immigration policies of the Government?'

This was so obviously true that the Justice Minister had to deny it.

Puts me quite in mind of the Rt. Hon. James Hacker, MP, whose first rule of politics was "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied".


(For readers not familiar with the British press, the Daily Mail is a jounal of news and information rather similar in tone, class, and high-minded style to the NY Daily News--or the World Weekly News with a few more celebs and not quite as many alien autopsies. For it to criticise Griffin is akin to Fox News lambasting Rush Limbaugh.)

Comments

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

What's equally interesting is that The Sun has bashed Griffin this week as well. Considering The Sun has often fueled its sales among its readership with borderline-xenophobic stories about "immigrants" and "terrorists", its slating of Griffin is a bit like Goering slating Hitler. Even more interesting - The Sun regards its core readership to be the white working class - the "salt of the earth British people" - who are exactly the group that Griffin is trying so hard to court.

[winterbadger]

Well, I notice that the Mail takes the opportunity of writing about the show to slag off all the other participants--except the TORY one, of course!--and the government, lying through its teeth as it does so. (As someone who has looked into the matter personally, let me assure the Daily Mail that the current government's immigration policy is nowhere close to "allowing unrestricted entry" Almost bloody impossible entry" would be more like it.)

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

The Mail (or Daily Heil, as I call it - I'm so witty) is thoroughly unpleasant. Its a strange little window into an odd little world of rampant paranoia and teeth-grinding fear - the Heil fears gays, lesbians, working mothers, single mothers, single women over 30, Europe, Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, politicians who have extra marital affairs, anyone who has sex, the left-wing, the West Wing, S & M, M & S...everything in fact, that isn't safe, reassuring, and bland. It is a comic, except it doesn't realise this, and it is best to laugh at it.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that question. Had I been Straw, I would have said something about how I didn't know of any misguided immigration policies...

I mean, it's a when did you stop beating your wife kind of question.

Bonnie Greer rocked, though. :)

Did I ever tell you about the time the paperboy accidentally delivered a Daily Hell to us instead of the Guardian? Ian gingerly picked it up by the corner, as if it would infect him with its views.

I am, however, giving my AS Lang students the Jan Moir piece on Stephen Gately when we start discussing media representation and language issues...

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Her piece today - an "apology" about any offence caused by that article is even better. Especially when she starts getting sniffy about the cyberspace drums beating and "stirring up hatred."

Pity the poor egocentric opinion journalists whose nasty little views can now be scrutnised and questioned by the readers...