Can’t see the truth for the spin
A funny old week but great for the talking of bollocks in the media. With the economy still in the doldrums it’s clear what the lead stories in the press should be. So what were the three main parties pontificating about? Gay marriage, immigrants speaking English and legalising cannabis.
Tories? Legalising gay marriage? With their reputation? Yes, David Cameron is apparently trying to push through a policy which could almost be perfectly built to wind up his back-benchers but appeal to Labour supporters. Meanwhile Ed Balls has been banging on about how immigrants should learn English and this has to be tailor made to wind up the racism paranoids in the Labour party. Not to be outdone Nick Clegg wants to legalise Cannabis! What in blue blazes is going on? Why are they all meandering off in weird directions? Perhaps they’re all stoned and next week we will see Ed Milliband munching cookies during PMQs?
From the Tory perspective they probably just want to distract attention away from the economy and consider promoting gay marriage will soften their image though this may be backfiring as the backbenchers mobilise. Nick Clegg is also engaged in distraction tactics though his party may be more sympathetic to his cause. Ed Milliband comes off worse. He may be trying to toughen up Labour’s reputation on immigration to counter revelations about their open door policies when in power. However it demonstrates fantastic ineptness and c an only aid the Tories in knocking the economy off the front page.
I heard this week of a book entitled Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini which outlines “6 key principles of persuasion”. It’s a marketing book which, I heard, was selected by David Cameron for the Conservative party reading list. This is the key to what they’re up to: SPIN. I’m sure we’re all got opinions on Gay Marriage, Immigration and drugs but, as Bill Clinton quite rightly said, “It’s the economy stupid!”
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The riot bandwagon
Tags: “absolute priority”, bandwagon, bollocks, david cameron, demonstration, Ed Milliband, EDL, Enfield Defence League, English Defence League, facism, Ian Tomlinson, racism, reading the riot act, riot, the full force of the law, the trouble with ed, the trouble with ed milliband, vigilantes
The Riot Bandwagon
One thing about a riot is that EVERYONE has some bollocks to say about it and I am no exception. Labour are banging on about the riots being a reaction against the cuts. I don’t think that Labour even know what cuts. Ed Milliband has jumped on the issue like he jumps on every bandwagon and is talking bollocks about the “absolute priority” for citizens to go about their lawful business while using the disturbances to call for cancellation of the cuts which were due for the police force. The trouble with Ed is that his absolute priority is always the last thing anybody said to him. This week it’s the police next week it will be something else.
I have heard people blaming the immigrants though I’ve seen bugger all evidence that immigrants were involved in any greater proportion than anyone else and though sociologists warned that racism thrives during times of poverty and violence we are now seeing the insidious way this is being acted out. I heard about a group of vigilantes in Enfield protecting their area and to start with had some sympathy for what they were doing. I heard that they termed themselves the Enfield Defence League, a named strikingly similar to the racist English Defence League (EDL). Later I heard that the EDL had amassed in south London also to defend the area against rioters. We should be wary of this sort of thing. Their next step will be uniforms and we should remember that we want security and not fascism.
We British are a bunch of yobs. Every time there is a recession something like this kicks off. I wonder if this may be partly due to our class centred culture. Despite what the “blitz spirit” crowd would have us believe, when things get tough we Brits don’t pull together, we just blame the other classes.
In the case of the riots the yobs blame the rich, the politicians, the police and the press. One difference this time is that they are perfectly justified and any dispassionate observer listening to David Cameron declare that the rioters will “feel the full force of the law” is forced to ask why the bankers, politicians, police and press did not feel the full force of the law over the past few years.
Another difference this time around might be technology. An outbreak of civil disorder 20 years ago would probably remain an isolated incident. In the 21st century these cretins can instantly tell their friends who will tell their friends who will tell their friends and a flash riot will ensue. For this reason the police probably need to react more swiftly than they have done in the past and there are dangers here that they may overstep their authority leading to tragedies such as the death of Ian Tomlinson.
There was a discussion on Radio 4′s PM program this afternoon where some bloke speculated that two years ago, during the G8 demonstration, the police were too heavy handed leading to the death of an innocent man. He thought that perhaps the police had reacted by becoming more restrained.
If this is true then somebody should explain to the police the difference between a legal demonstration and a riot.
A little bit of British folk law that has knocked around my brain ever since I can remember is the phrase “reading the riot act”. According to Wikipedia, the Riot Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain introduced in 1714 that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action and remained on the statute books until 1973.
It seems to me that there may be a case for bringing it back.
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