I’m a great believer in protesting, and abhor people who can sit and moan about the world in internet forums but never actually get out and do something about it, even if that ‘something’is simply adding their name to a petition or writing to their MP. If I see something I feel is unjust, I want to do something about it. If I’m angry enough I will help to draw attention to the issue by going on marches and rallies (and I’ll also sign that petition, attend meetings, help with organisation, whatever it takes).

In the 80s I would go along with my mum to various anti-nuclear protests and actions. They were always peaceful, non-violent protests. But we did cause inconvenience to the police, the MoD and the government and gave journalists something to focus on, using civil disobedience. It might not sound very revolutionary or exciting, but lying down in a main highway and linking arms with fellow protestors, playing dead when the police tried to pick you up, caused absolute chaos. They’d lost control of us.

Thatcher brought in laws around protests and made it illegal to congregate without a permit from the police and the local council. So now you have to plan it with the authorities for months, negotiate with them and abide by whatever rules they give you. They will tell you when you can march, which roads you may march down, what time you can hold a rally, and when it must all be over by so that normal life can resume. In other words they will allow you to protest, but don’t make a scene and don’t disrupt anything.

Which makes it all the more important to make a scene and disrupt things.

Take the anti-Iraq War demonstration… we all did what we were allowed to do, had a lovely day, and went home. The media was full of lovely images of hundreds of thousands of people making their way to Hyde Park that day. It was an incredible experience to be there. The idealogical side of me grew excited and thought that a government  couldn’t possibly ignore this many people. We all know how that turned out. A week later and the protest was forgotten and the government carried on with their plans. For the first time I truly realised what I had suspected all along – that no one was listening.

Yesterday I was in London for the TUC March for the Alternative. I was there to swell numbers and draw attention to what that alternative to the cuts is. Tax the rich. Make the bankers responsible. Look at http://robinhoodtax.org/ for the alternative. I marched for my colleagues jobs, that I, as their union rep, am trying to save. I marched for my own job too, frankly. I marched for our students who have lost their EMA, their travel passes, and will have to pay through the nse for university education our politicians took for granted (and for free). I marched for pension rights. I marched for our NHS, our youth centres, our libraries. We marched when and where we were told, and it was a brilliant day. News started to filter through about trouble in Picadilly… paint bombs and broken windows. Instantly, we knew hat the media would be focussing on. Not the thousands who marched peacefully, made their point and went home happy, but the minority of ‘mindless thugs’.

Are they mindless thugs though? As we walked back towards Euston through the same route as we’d passed on our way through, we saw paint strewn windows, a few smashed windows, and occupations. No violence though. Just angry people who are fed up and who want to draw attention to tax avoidance. The paint is soluble and will wash off. With the amount of tax these companies are saving, they can afford to replace a couple of windows.

The point is, the media will run with this now, and the question of tax avoidance will stay in the headlines. The protestors are clever and always one step ahead of the police, and they play the game well. I’m amazed at our students’ ability to plan and execute, then disperse and reform at another location to do it all again. They leave the authorities with no control, so they eventually use batons on our young people. And let’s get beyond the headlines – these are not violent people. But we saw ourselves the police lining up in riot gear before anything had happened, almost willing the trouble to begin. Even as a 40-odd year old parent, I had an odd compulsion to have a go when I was faced with lines of police intimidating me. And we’re paying for those polce with our taxes. I’d rather they were out there fighting real crime, rather than doing the government’s work for them by trying to suppress the freedom of speech.

You might not find me standing on top of Nelson’s column or occupying Top Shop, but I do think that buildings and ‘stuff’ is fair game in the bigger picture. The more chaos we can cause as protestors, the better.

My Facebook an Twitter accounts are full of people bleating about X Factor.

“Get Wagner out!”

“I can’t believe Katie’s still in!!”

“[Insert name of vacuous contestant here] to win!!!”

They kid themselves that they have any control whatsoever over what happens over the duration of the series. Well, they do, but only as far as if they don’t phone those numbers and keep the money rolling in, the show will be canceled and Cowell and his mates will move onto the next money-making scheme. Everything else is pre-written, right from the start, before we even get to laugh at the ‘audition’ stages.

And by the way, if you still don’t know, the people you see at the auditions have already been through a screening stage and have been picked out because they fit the criteria… they must fit the story that’s already been written. We need comedy and tragedy for a good story, right?

People wonder how the truly awful ones actually have the audacity to believe they have a talent for singing when they sound like a cat being used as bag pipes underwater. That’s because they were screened already and told they were through, because they clearly are talented and fantastic singers. It’s not true, of course, and it builds them up for an obvious fall when the panel laugh at them and the crowd yells at them to get off the stage. There’s no thought to the well being of these people, who often appear to be mentally subnormal and vulnerable. Does anyone look after them? Does anyone make sure they’re not suicidal after their dreams have been built up and dashed?

Ah but it makes great telly, so that’s ok.

X Factor also relies on a bit of scandal and shock. It needs the headlines so that people will keep talking about it, keep watching it, keep imagining it’s all real and keep calling those all-important phone lines. The more scandalous the contestant, the better. Your family will get thrown out of the UK if we don’t take you forward as a final contestant? Tick that box! Daily Mail outrage – sorted! Ka-ching! You used to work as a prostitute and were a little bit desperate for fame? Why, viewers will HATE you! Ka-ching!! Annoying teenage brat with illegal tattoos and a dubious background and no talent at all? Parents will hate you, and young teenage brats with illegal tattoos and dubious backgrounds with no talent at all will LOVE you… Ka-CHING!!!

And you all fit the story that’s already been written! Only the contestants don’t seem to know it themselves, even. And that’s the really sad part. The newspapers have headline after headline exposing them for the fragile, imperfect human beings they are. It’s unfair. They build them up and knock them down again. Those nasty papers. Nasty journalists.

Except, every single one of those stories has been sanctioned by the X Factor publicity office. Every single one of them. Don’t kid yourself that they make stuff up, because they don’t. We had Heat magazine call up just last week asking for stories about one of the contestants, but we already know, and Heat already know, they have to go through the publicity office at X Factor first. There are no exposes. Nothing is a shock to Cowell and his mates. He just loves a bit of controversy. Ka-ching all the way to the bank, Mr Cowell! Screw the human beings who are the victims of all of this, dumped when the next big things comes along.

And the sheeple lap it up and keep calling those phone lines. They’d be better off getting out there, away from that television feeding them stories, and finding some proper music, because I bet the band down the local pub are better than anything you’ve ever seen on the likes of X Factor. Really, they’d appreciate your support.

Urban Foxes have been the new Hoodies for months now. It’s blatant for all to see – demonise an entire species by whatever means and bring back hunting with dogs for your rich chinless mates who have nothing better to do with their time than chase animals around and kill them for fun (let’s not kid ourselves that this is a sport anymore).

How do you demonise a species? The same way you demonise teenaged single mothers, teenagers in hooded tops, an entire city, Eastern Europeans, any foreigners, for that matter, Muslims… twist any, and I mean ANY story, or even a non-story, into a story that blames that species or section of society so that it fits neatly into your little political agenda at that time.

First, foxes are eating our babies. Then they chew our shoes and kill cute fluffy kittens (they can redress the balance on felines at a later date when that fits their other agendas). Next they nibble our ears while we’re in bed. They hang around on corners sniffing glue and looking menacing. Is there no end to the madness that these fierce, out of control, wild animals will go to?

Hold the front page, because they’ve just sunk to a whole new low in Inveresk. Luckily for humanity, David McCann, that intrepid reporter with a nose for a great scandal with a human interest angle, was on the scene straight away to investigate and report…

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Fox-bites-off-man39s-nose.6600939.jp

Give Mr McCann a medal! I’m glad this stand-up journalist was there. I can breathe a sigh of relief that the world is safe in his hands.

Fox bites off man’s nose and fingers in cemetery!!!!!

SHIT!!! They’re EATING us now!

It’s in the news, therefore it must be true.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I have the energy left to go through yet another made-up story and point out the blatantly obvious. You can read it for yourself. There’s no evidence at all of any fox attack. A man got drunk, blacked out and woke up with some injuries. People are talking, and saying blah blah blah whatever. Two police cars turned up. TWO! No one who worked there had heard anything at all about this horrific incident. That’ll be the news blackout and the lockdown, which they also didn’t hear about.

Thank goodness for our intrepid reporter though. He knows a fake fox attack story when he sees one. And he doesn’t let a few pesky facts (or lack of) get in the way. He also neatly ties up the story with a ribbon – “Earlier this year a fox attacked twin baby girls while they slept in their cot at home in London. At the time, John Bryant, a pest control consultant who specialises in foxes, said such attacks were not typical fox behaviour.”

Well, thank you David McCann. Can I call you Dave? I don’t know how long you’ve been doing this job, Dave, but really, you need to go back to media school or whatever, because your article’s crap! Complete and utter bollocks, if you don’t mind me saying so. I’d be ashamed to put my name to such a pile of steaming turd.

I would love to think that no one would believe any of this crap, but noooooooo. There’s a prize idiot who uses the name of “proclaimer,”. Yes, that’s “proclaimer,” with a comma added. If it was anyone with half a brain I’d like to imagine they added the comma for amusing effect. Unfortunately this is just an idiot who can barely use a keyboard. You can sense his fat, sausage fingers, mashing away at the lap top as he replies to the story, his mouth open and his eyes dead – nothing going on behind those eyes. Nothing to see here. Move along!

Back at the start of June, the media was awash with the story of Isabella and Lola Koupparis, nine month old twins who were allegedly seriously injured in a fox attack. The fox gained entry in to their house via an open door on a hot summer’s night.

There followed a series of exaggerated articles describing out of control animals wandering around our neighbourhoods looking for small children to maul. People complained about the noises they make, how nasty they were, and that they shouldn’t even be there.

Daily Wail article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284505/Baby-twins-Isabella-Lola-Koupparis-seriously-injured-fox-attack.html

Foxes are by nature shy, and wary of humans, with very good reason. It’s all about survival for them. I’ve never managed to get within 10 feet of a fox, unless it’s lying dead on a road – and there are plenty of them knocked down by cars every single day. I find the sight of a dead fox saddening when I realise there’s probably cubs waiting for a meal somewhere, and eventually starving to death. They’re beautiful, and I feel honoured if I do see one of these wild animals. The chances to see anything wild are fading fast, as we continue to cover their habitat with concrete car parks and housing estates. I find it amazing that they adapt and develop to enable them to survive in an urban setting. (more…)

Homeopathy has taken a bit of a bashing recently with the Parliamentary Evidence Check recommending that homeopathy no longer be funded by the NHS as there’s no evidence that it actually works.

Of course, many people like and use homeopathy for other non-evidence-based reasons and they think it should be made available on the NHS because they like it – never mind whether it works or not.

Unsurprisingly, a proponent and user of homeopathy is no less an intellect than ex-GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips who wrote a piece for The Mirror:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/02/27/nature-s-tonic-115875-22072960/

It contains a few gems! (more…)

No! Really! Your eyes don’t deceive you. This is actually a BNP policy – to ‘welcome’ Eire and Ulster as equal partners in the new federation of nations of the British Isles! See below, from their woeful blog which outlines their policies:

NORTHERN IRELAND – an end to sectarianism!
Britain has shamefully allowed the terrorists in N.I. to come close to winning when the IRA could have been destroyed years ago. Government weakness has led to hundreds of deaths and given those same terrorists a share in government. We would end all attempts to force the people of Northern Ireland to accept foreign interference in their affairs and deal with terrorism – from whatever side – once and for all. No one with links to a terrorist organisation that refuses to lay down its arms should be allowed to enter government. We would abolish state-supported segregation in education. In the long run, we wish to end the conflict in Ireland by welcoming Eire as well as Ulster as equal partners in a federation of the nations of the British Isles.

It’s ok to laugh. I laughed too when I read it. I mean, Ireland is a fiercely proud nation, and the BNP simplistic ‘solution’ to the conflict in Northern Ireland is so ridiculous, it’s very easy to laugh at it.

We should not be complacent though. The BNP have been working furiously in NI over recent years, trying to stoke up racial tensions, and offering to help Ireland retain its ‘whiteness’ and keep all of those nasty immigrants out, because Ireland hates immigration, right? Hmmm.

The people in Ireland need to kick these nasty, vile little hatred-mongers out of their country before they cause real damage. The vast majority of the population don’t need this kind of trouble, and won’t put up with it.

I can’t wait to tell my Irish friends the news. They might like to point out to Dick Griffin, too, that the population of Ireland has never been anywhere near the numbers they were before mass emigration saw the population halved – oh, and millions starved to death during the potato famine… caused principally by the very country the BNP would like them to form a crazy federation with.

The Irish are gonna love this one!

I refer, of course, to the following article in the Daily Mail: “Solved: The mystery of the No10 midnight phone calls to Canterbury (and they weren’t to the Archbishop)”

I’m always on the look out for seemingly unimportant stories that I can have a good rant about, and this one has several parts to it that make me want to write very angry posts on forums.

Firstly, I don’t think they should have phones at number 10 Downing Street. It just distracts them from the very important job of doing things that make me angry as a Daily Mail reader. (more…)

What is a dangerous dog ?

The Dangerous Dog Act 1991 (created seemingly to crack down on dog fighting), defines this as :

(a) any dog of the type known as the pit bull terrier;

(b) any dog of the type known as the Japanese tosa; and

(c) any dog of any type designated for the purposes of this section by an order of the Secretary of State, being a type appearing to him to be bred for fighting or to have the characteristics of a type bred for that purpose. (more…)

Kate Gab-a-way,   What is it with this woman?

She thinks she is the most stunning thing to walk this planet,   How wrong can one person get it?

Her cow like voice  (listen when she says ‘aahhhhhh’)  is so infuriating,  she drives me mental!!

Get this woman off our screen, 

the program’s bad anyway,  but was better without her!

Remember the headlines last week about the man who had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative coma for 23 years only for tests to be done showing that he’s actually conscious but paralysed? (more…)