The Uses of Visual Literacy

50 years on, after the masses have become producers of imagery rather than mere consumers, it is surely time to re-examine Hoggart's fears of a consumerist conquest of individuality and culture.
With more people creating and using images, surely they will begin to learn to see through the lies being told them. They are now increasingly members of the Magic Circle, rather than members of the gullible audience. The printing press has been invented again only this time, everyone has one.
As even the most impoverished people in the world begin to access global communications, so their global presence will grow. And as they learn to tell their own stories in their own way, we will be less able to see them as mere flotsam, the collateral damage of capitalism, and more as real people like us.

photo collect

Fascists in the Oxford Union. So New?

No one is preventing either piece of political detritus from organising their own cult rallies, or from using Freedom of Speech to demand the end of it. But to have allowed the Oxford Union to conduct this political laboratory experiment unopposed would have been a great abstention from the Freedom of Speech. Which is the freedom to express your feelings in public. Hatemongers must learn to take the consequences if they are careless about their venues. In this case, the public felt that the creatures Irvine & Griffin should pay for their own propaganda.

We should all be proud of the right we allow fascists to organise and publish their poison. But also proud of the right we allow The People to express their disapproval that a bunch of effete attention seekers pay for racist poison to be aired, which is also their right. Those who are merely satisfied that the poison is being heard are merely thugs.

When Fascists have previously tried to spit directly in the faces of the British people, they have rightly been sent packing. Now they are faced with the same prospect in flannelled Oxford that they faced in Cable Street, New Cross, Brick Lane and the rest. Very heartening.

The lesson is quite clear, pay for your own propaganda on your own territory. Even Abu Hamza had the good sense and taste to confine his poison to his own patch and community. Let the fascists do the same, if they can find somewhere. Self-defence is no denial of the Freedom of Speech.

All reactionaries and their apologists always believe the worst about everything. It's their tragedy, but the kind of society they desire is not practicable. It died over 500 years ago and can never return. But because of their spiritual depression and resulting stupidity, the extreme right and their fellow travellers can never understand that, and are therefore doomed to chase their tails forever. Oh dear, how sad, never mind..

Clearchannel Babes

As disgusting a piece of urban pollution as you could ever hope to avoid.
As if doing it twice helped.

2012 Olympic Stadium Unveiled.

BBC report

In a decidedly understated, budget-conscious presentation this morning, London Olympic architects HOK Sport revealed the secrets of the convertible Straftord stadium, on its very own island, chock full of fun, and with the trick that dared not speak its name in the shape of an Exit Strategy. Specifically, the ability to be half-demolished to make it a sustainable venue for athletics, which not many people go to see.

Within minutes, it was being condemned as a glorified gasholder. I thought it looked like a glorious gasholder. And none the worse for that, the Victorian gasholder being a thing of natural, functional beauty, and part of the heritage of the site.

The plans for the area outside the castle walls were commonsensical too. Food and revelry being focused at 'pods' sited around the 'Stadium Island'. The design of these units would use 'creative low tech solutions - using laser-cutting.'... That I didn't understand.

Africans Are Stupid Say BNP

BNP Support Mad Geneticist and Blow Their Expensive PR Front.
By hailing disgraced boffin Jim Watson, who believes all Africans to be stupid, as the 'New Galileo' the BNP clearly believes that anyone black is of an inferior race. Their recent attempt to wear suits and stand upright like human beings has therefore failed. Like chimps in tuxedos, their crotches are hanging far too low, and their hairy toes just won't take to shoes.
At least Watson had the excuse of age and boffinitis for his folly. But the BNP just blew their entire PR budget for the last five years on him. Like putting your house on a horse because you like his name.
A month ago they were the responsible voice of overburdened local government. With black supporters, no less. And now this dive back into the breeders club. How long before they dig out the black shorts?
It seems the blatant racism was merely in mothballs too, and so wouldn't take much effort or expense to disinterr. Even smellier than when put away, but still wearable and not offensive to the wearer at all. It is quaint to see such a perfectly pickled specimen of Pre-Industrial Man. It's like seeing Bishop Berkeley or John Knox after centuries of immersion in a peat bog.
Black and squashed and dead and deformed, but still recognisably medieval.
3/12/07
The now shreds of the IQ argument so beloved by the racists and eugenicists of the BNP and other scumpolitik are finally on the floor revealing the true horror beneath.
Kyoto Research.
Tests can prove that apes are smarter than people. So those good at IQ tests are no more intelligent than other human beings than an ape is.

The Election Bubble.

This is one of the biggest media bubbles of recent times.
An election scare based on the polls, which went away with the polls. Which the media needed to fuel and believe in, which the people were then convinced by the media was imminent, which made the decision of whether to hold one a media decision, not a political one.
So when the desired election failed to materialise quick enough, the media were disappointed and told the people they had been swindled out of voting for Brown - on the strength of his chancellorship, not his leadership, and on his willingness to jump at the behest of the media. And the media would much prefer a tight election than another walkover.
David Cameron summed it up.
"I'll tell you why he's not called an election - because he might lose."
Well, I never. Is the political world really that cynical that your opponents refuse to call an election when it suits you? Blimey.
In six months this will be largely forgotten by those who decide elections, as will whatever electrifying policies the Tories announced in Blackpool. Taking a few quid from the obscenely-rich with stupid accountants to give to the bereaved very rich with crafty accountants - that was about the strength of it. That'll build a lot of schools.
The country will now have a chance to judge Brown on his premiership, not on his chancellorship.
That will be an informed choice, and all the more certain because of it. And better for the country.
The fact that the media felt cheated of a huge news event in their slowest time of year, and that the tories were quick enough to spin that frustration to their advantage only made any likely election less representative of the real views of the nation. Which would not have helped the tories at all. They are not as ready for an election as they claim. In a year, they will have more ammunition, and the country will know what it thinks of the government of its prime minister, not its ex-chancellor.

DON'T PANIC! Northern Rock solid as - well, a rock.

I hope the people urging calm found enough time to make a killing on cut-price Northern Rock shares. If they believed what they said, surely it would have been like finding money in the street.
£12 shares for a quid, with a takeover possible. If one'll buy you 12, 12 will buy you 144. Surely these people want a secure future for their loved ones?
A home in the country. Happy children playing on the manicured lawn. Beer flowing through the arboreal dell over your grandmother's paisley shawl...
And if people saw such an expression of faith in the future of Northern Rock, surely they wouldn't panic in the first place.

My First Manicure - Angela Kelly

Overdrawn on Monday. £35M in credit on Wednesday.

The life of anyone in that position is bound to be changed. But was it necessary for the media to fish quite so shamelessly for another juicy divorce case as they did through their questions about the absent Mr Kelly and his possible claims to this windfall? Questions which Angela fielded with amazing grace.

Was it necessary for them to test her identity quite so deviously with their questions about her charitable intentions and spending plans? Would she be sending her son to public school? Would she be buying a house in Italy? Which sounded a bit like the cry of 'Join Us, Join Us!' from the Undead - or the advertising departments of the newspapers which depend on the property industry for their existence, as they are sometimes known.

Did they have to try quite so hard to tease out some evidence of basic selfishness in order to feed the myth of universal selfishness and self-indulgence? Would she be paying pop stars to give private performances? Wouldn't it be great if everyone was that innately selfish?

Sadly, Angela Kelly looks set to disappoint the Lottery vultures. Good for her.

Bikeless Bungling Boris Blasts Brick Lane Barrowboys

Amid his tears, Boris Johnson, future mayor of London Town, naturally concluded that his stolen machine would end up being sold in Brick Lane.
So Brick Lane is crawling with fences and hook-nosed chancers peddling hookier gear, eh Boris?
Surely that betokens some kind of Operation Bumbleboris from a putative mayor. A vicous crackdown and cleanup all in one go. At the very least, the Voters of London should be made fully aware of the dangers of this den of cutthroats and pickpockets. And not just offered a tantalising hint in a petulant paddy about a lost bike, which was probably not chained up properly
in the first place.
What next? Boris offers a bacon sandwich to a Jewish reporter? You heard it here first.
Boris In Tears

Cameron a Dud and an Idiot says Kelvin McKenzie.

I watched Kelvin McKenzie's Anti-Cameron rant on 'This Week' tonight with some bemusement. Surely this can't the same Kelvin who, during the Tory leadership campaign urged them to "skip a generation and go for Cameron." And yet now Cameron is a 'dud' and an 'idiot' and whatsmore, McKenzie categorically denies ever supporting him.
Unless I'm getting him mixed up with Richard Littlejohn again (an easy mistake to make) McKenzie delivered his original Cameron eulogy on the very same Andrew Neill vehicle. And the old boy did suffer a flicker of memory and asked the spluttering Kelvin "Didn't you support Cameron?" To which there was a harrumphing hesitation and a telltale wave of the hand, and the words..'..the Sun may have..no.. I didn't..'. which was totally out of character with the rest of McKenzie's bulldozing bluster. He was stopped in his tracks and put off his stroke and hadn't realised it was loaded.

Surely the correct response of an innocent McKenzie in front of a jury of his peers would have been 'On yer effin bike!'. But he no longer seemed himself, somehow. Neill had reminded him of an uncomfortable truth, maybe? What do I know?

Anybody able to confirm whether my memory is better than 'Macca's'? Or is it 'Kezza'? I can't do the babytalk.

Either way, the expression on Diane Abbott's face was that of a woman watching her adulterous husband disembowel himself with a broken bottle. Concerned but blissful. And Michael Portillo told him, in the best possible taste, to shut his big gob. So something was definitely up. Someone out there will know what, exactly. After all, we should be told whether a prominant political columnist on the highest selling British newspaper, which brags of its ability to distort the democratic process is able to remember from one year to the next who he believed would be the best candidate to lead Her Majesty's Opposition.

The man who said, on BBC's Any Questions on 06 January 2006.

But anyway on the question of Cameron, first of all I think Cameron against Brown, I think Cameron will wipe the floor with Brown.

Vote for Bonkers. Sound Chap Don't Y'Know? What? I Say!

What rankles Kenophobes the most is that he does in fact speak his mind in perfect plain English, rather than the incredible Twitspeak of Bonkers and the rest of the tory Junior Drones club. And totally unlike the featureless, sterile flat-pack jargon of the regulation emasculted prawn politicians in Westminster or your Town Hall. Look at any of his speeches or interviews.

The sneerers simply don't like what they hear, and prefer round vowels and the comfort of being patronised by the upper classes, no-matter what debased form they manifest themselves in. The idea that someone as common as Ken could actually be more capable and articulate than a toff drives them crazy. But you have to remember that they are at the end of the political spectrum which just loves obedience, to the point of masochism.

'Bonkers' Boris For London Mayor? - You're Having A Laugh...

When the Tory party has quite finished its little joke, will it please roll out its real candidate please? Unless, of course, they are serious, in which case, this is a serious insult to Londoners.
Now is surely time for Liberal Democrat MP Simon Highes to come to the rescue of the unshakeable tory voter. He would definitely give Livingstone a better run for his money than this famous buffoon. Much loved though he is.
But Hughes won't run, because he knows full well that Livingstone will win, and will do so because he is by far the most popular candidate, and is widely seen as having done an excellent job of putting London back on track as a world city after a generation of rudderless meandering, and of delivering a series of measures which ordinary people welcome, including the congestion charge and the bendy buses - which are hardly ever used by those who criticise them. He is never less than straightforward, and speaks a recognisable form of English, unlike most politicians.

Livingstone's popularity with ordinary Londoners is the best kept political secret around, no matter what the Daily Mail Rentamob say. And this is the main reason why there are no serious conservatives willing to face up to him. They know he would wipe the floor with them. If Livingstone was as unpopular as the usual suspects say, there would be a queue to put the boot in. Instead, we get this affable clown who will probably bottle out at the last minute and land poor old Stephen Norris with the job of clearing up the mess as usual.

Which, to the electorate of London, is what is known as a diabolical liberty. Boris doesn't care about London. He is looking for a bit of a laugh, and this is his idea of one. He is the Tory party's anti-Ken suicide bomber. Only he gets to write the book afterwards.

The other aspect to this is the glaring sympathy emerging between new prime minister Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone. After wasted years of fighting the government, Londoners will not jeapordise this lucrative partnership no matter how many lorryloads of puppies the Tory PR machine throws at them.
Apart from looking like a puppy in a paint advert, people like Johnson because they think he's honest. His famous 'shambling' reeks of perpetual apology for something. And people like it when someone seems to apologise to them. Just as Australian teenage girls seek to charm through perpetually asking permission with the rising inflectives of every sentence?

But in reality, what is it that Boris is being honest about and apologising for? As a tory politician, what else can it be but for the bankruptcy of the Tory ideas account? Whatever boarding school experiences pummelled those mannerisms into him, he comes across as the walking embodiment of Tory obsolescence, and his toff credentials are the sporran on the bridegroom, the deerstalker on the laird, the Range Rover in the forecourt, the top hat on the Piccadilly Johnnie. He is perfect for the part, in spite of his less than lovely past.

The trouble is, that throughout a lengthy election campaign he will therefore be a continual advert for tory uselessness- for the fact that it has no reason to exist other than to perpetuate itself. Has David Cameron lost his senses? Would anyone vote for someone with that much tactical savoir faire?

It's only day one and the first Boris gaff has been sighted.
"18-metre long socialist frankfurter buses" should be abolished he says, referring to the new public transport system which replaced London's iconic 'Routemaster' buses. This will lose the vote of everyone now waiting one third of the time it used to take to get on a bus, and those shlepping prams, shopping, zimmer frames, even bikes and furniture. "Socialist", says Boris, as if people cared. According to him, they now like something socialist. Well done Boris.

Meanwhile, rabid London radio hitman Nick Ferarri has taken a lot of flak for withdrawing from the Tory candidature. This is very unfair to him. Not only is it wrong to expect the Fourth Estate to partake in government, but it is surely honest of Ferrarri not to stand for the Tories when his natural party would be the far-right British National Party. All right-thinking folk should applaud the miserable poisonous bullying piece of lowlife for this scrap of principle. If that's the reason for his decision.

The War On Britain's Jews by Richard Littlejohn

Broadcast channel 4. tuesday 9th July. 8-9pm.

This 'report' was a total and utter travesty of the truth, and merely a vehicle for Littlejohn's wild unsupported assumptions:
That "It's an open season on Jews in this country"
that Anti-semitism is: "the racism that dare not speak its name" (whatever that means)
that "opposition to Israel is the cause of most antisemitism."
that "You don't have to hate Israel to be anti-semitic - but it helps"..
that antisemitism is "the new AIDS ribbon.."
and the conclusion that "many have decided that my enemy's enemy is my friend."
And so many others my pencil broke under the bloated cliches. None with a shred of evidence.
 Where were the jewish organisations who had recieved hate mail from left wing organisations? Where was the comparison with the increases in other forms of racial attack, in particular against muslims?
 There was lots of evidence of antisemitism from the usual quarters, the outer reaches of religious belief and from the reactionary right, but none of any from the end of the political spectrum which Littlejohn needs to smear the most - people who will not support Western Imperialism and consumerism simply because Osama Bin Laden opposes it.
Since 9/11 it has been explained to dimwits like Littlejohn a hundred times that 'my enemy's enemy is not my friend' , and in spite of the total lack of evidence, they insist on hearing the opposite.
And then finally, he delivers his bonkers Smart-Alec Hypothesis Clincher:
"And what IF all british jews were 100% Zionist? That still wouldn't justify anti-semitic attacks."
No Richie, it wouldn't, but then any attacks would be more likely than ever to be anti-zionist in nature, rather than anti-semitic. And in this nationalist fantasy world, there would be no Jews in Britain to persecute, as they would all be in the Promised Land.
The only other shots in his locker were the old chestnut of the Finegold/Livingstone affair, which was never accepted as an attack on Jewish people, and definitely an attack on the antisemitic history of Associated Newspapers. And an amateurishly commissioned piece of graphics from micro-publication New Society. And 'slippage'. We heard a lot about how Anti-Zionism 'slips' into Anti-Semitism. But again with no evidence. There was some clipped video footage of the star of David being burnt, but as anyone who was there will testify, that was an isolated incedent, and very promptly dealt with by the marshalls. I saw it with my own eyes.
 Zionism is not Judaism. And the Jews are not Israel. Israel is a political, not a religious entity. The sooner Litteljohn learns that the better. But as he stands to make far more money from divisions than from solidarity and communication, you can understand why he needs to undermine any attempts at co-operation with the Islamic world (unlike the Washington government, which is now talking to Iran). Hence this unsupported tissue of lies about the peace movement pandering to Islamic fascism.
 The racial hysteria of the BNP and their counterparts in the Islamic world is a matter of record and action. Trying to find any evidence that progressive thought in Britain supports in any way any of the aims of these groups was obviously beyond Littlejohn. He tried to pull in Harold Pinter in his cause.. why didn't he talk to him, one wonders, instead of to third-rate lame-ducks like Nick Cohen, who backed the war in Iraq and lost and can never forgive those who knew better.
 As expected, this was a slimy little attempt to scupper understanding, and while wearing anti-racism, anti-mysogeny, and democracy on its sleeve, it supports a Zionist agenda which is intensely racist, sexist and authoritarian.
 As the orthodox Jews who marched in the hot sun from Stamford Hill last august said: "We are here for peace." The muslims who greeted them agreed. That was what the plight of the Lebanese people did. There is no reason why the plight of the Palestian people should not do the same thing. As long as creatures like Littlejohn crawl back under their stones and let civilised people get on with the job.

Pope Adolf Does It Again!

At a highly sensitive political time, the current Vatican big man puts his foot in it again by submitting to demands for the full latin Tridentine Mass to be restored.
This calls specifically for the Jews abandon their faith and hitch up to the new fangled Christianity like good little children.
Is this man in a hat totally out of his mind, or is that just his religion showing?
And how long before Catholics are urged, in the same spirit, to abandon hippy skippy Christianity and get real with the pragmatic, go-getting ideology of Islam?

Tridentine Mass
Report

John Smeaton - 'So I Decked The Gentleman.' - Glasgow Terror Attack.30/6/07

After helping to subdue a berserk human torch which was attacking a policeman, airport worker John Smeaton gave an interview to the BBC:

"There was this gentleman, completely covered in flames head to toe, and he got up and attacked the policeman - who was coming to assist! And I thought that's no right. What are we doing lettin these guys get away wi' it - y'know? What's the score?"

The Admirable Smeaton went on to say how he and 'Mary' 'restrained the gentleman.' Thank you Jeeves. But we all know that in fact he Decked the gentleman, and decked him good. In an ideal world, nutted. Because 'that's no right'. Trying to destroy human lives is not right.
Describing the noise made by an adjacent blazing deathtruck of gas canisters, he said with cool authority:

"Anyone who's thrown a lit can of deodorant on a bonfire will recognise the sound. Definitely gas."

That is why the terrorists are losers, because people like John Smeaton simply refuse to be terrified. And people like John Smeaton have thrown deodorant cans on bonfires for a laugh and totally against the rules. A surefire ASBO offence nowadays.
While he was giving his wonderful account of the day he got to fulfill a universal fantasy - to legitimately clout someone who badly deserved it - you could see his eyes lighting up with the words

"It's going to be a great night tonight!"

I really hope it was for him, because it appears that while there are people like John Smeaton, or even drunks to be picked up from nightclubs (the unsung hero of the Tiger Tiger near-miss on friday) then neither Indie-terrorism nor George Bush's bloodthirsty Profit Worship, nor Gordon Brown's neo-presbyterian indogenous growth theory can ever really win. In fact, maybe one day, they will get the kicking they deserve.

John Smeaton 1742 - 1792. The First Civil Engineer.

Deptford. Toffs & Junkies and...?

So now we know. Another documentary telling us that Deptford is populated by heroin addicts, alcoholics and other dysfunctional derelicts; all rummaging in skips, getting into fights and looting local shops.
Needless to say, this is a complete travesty and an insult to the tens of thousands of decent hardworking people who live in the area and on Pepys Estate. Even the gallant Les Brooks, who fought a long battle with Lewisham council to stay in his home, was made to look like a crank. I mean, circus skills - what do you expect?
This orgy of gritty camerawork completely overwhelmed the serious issues of why, if this block is good enough for the rich, why it is not good enough for the people who have made their homes there for decades; and why was the money not available to maintain the estate for the local community when it is readily available to dislocate and divide the community; and how those buying apartments in the new 'Z block' for the view and to impress their business contacts will manage to get in and out of their barracks without being pelted with half-bricks.
As for the famous 'trickle down' effect promised by the developers, that will largely be felt in picturesque Greenwich, which is only 2 minutes by Porsche.
Aragon Tower may seem attractive as a lofty pied a terre for the refined to sneer from, but there will be few if any families living in it. And without children, it will serve as just another dormitory for Canary Wharf, no doubt with its own gym, swimming pool and restaurant. And surrounded by razor wire to either keep the natives out or the inmates in.
We might get to find out which in the course of the rest of this series. But somehow I doubt it. The lure of lots of lovely squalor will be too much for the camerateam and director to resist.

There's Only One Shirley Bassey

Comparisons aren't fair. Nefarious even. Fun too, so here goes.
 It was a big week for women at Glastonbury. The lovely Lili Allen dinked delightfully, and was a triumph when helping out The Specials in their prophetic masterpiece 'Gangster'. The 2Tone revival is overdue. and necessary.
If Lili Allen follows, can Amy Winehouse, or as the BBC presenterine knows her, Lili Allen, be far behind? Growling out her current brand of retro Fats Domino and Berry Gordyness. The opening to 'Back To Black' is the first 8 bars of 'Baby Love', in case you were wondering, but without the snap.
And if Her Sleaziness wanders abroad in the mud, then leaping from tree to tree in the nearby magic forest must be her alter-diva, Bjork. And so it was. And she too was obviously aware of the competition, and yet strangely oblivious, as she always is, and stormed out her weirdness with her usual guts.
A veritable confluence of serious female talent, then. Anyone who is anyone 2007. Well almost. Because these young hopefuls had to sleep with the knowledge that a performance was due which would either anoint or exile them. Shirley Bassey was playing Glastonbury.
 The Bass is no singer-songwriter examining her complexes in public. She is the ultimate performer, and much despised as a result. Not that she cares. And she's old. So against the hottest young talent around, what chance does she stand? After all, this was the token Oldie slot at Glastonbury. The Sunday tea-time Antiques Roadshow, Songs of Praise, Last of the Summer Wine concession to faded legends available at reduced prices.
 Anyone who saw her show yesterday will know the answer to that one. The pride of Bute Town gave an object lesson in how to grab an audience by the throat. And also showed that youth and marketability are not everything, which must have been a consolation to the gathering of young pretenders left to gaze upon the magnificence of The Bass as she rode by. A revolution in pink organza.
There's only one Shirley Bassey. Youth and cheek will always be defeated by age and talent.

Sir Salman Rushdie.

CBS
BBC
Both staunch U.S. ally Pakistan, and bitter enemy and dark heart of the Axis of Evil - Iran have condemned the Rushdie Knighthood, announced today.
We could hope that at some time, The Satanic Verses 1989-2007 will be seen to bookend a relatively brief period of religious medievalism. That the Fatwah of 1989 merely represented the last gasp of a doomed ideology in the face of the explosion of global telecommunications.
Sadly the combined effects of information technology and a dwindling supply of oil will guarantee that religion is used as a battering ram for some time. And the potential liberation of thought and expression offered by the wider access to the means of production, distribution and exchange of information is instead threatened by C9th theological propaganda spread by the same media.
If this were only true of one religion, we might breathe a sigh of relief. As it is, the terrified reaction of religion under threat spreads from the Taliban of Afghanistan to the Scientologists of Los Angeles. And as a result, many people are suffering far more than Salman Rushdie.

I'll never forget Michael Ignatieff, from the safety of The Observer, calling for 'A Trade Union of Intellectuals' to confront the Fatwha. Inconveniently disregarding the principles of unity which underlie all unions.
If he meant business, he would have committed a correspondingly blasphemous act to match Rushdie's. And all his 'colleagues' would have joined in. Spartacus style. The entire liberal publishing industry from Mills & Boon to the OUP should have commissioned a pan-blasphemous logo or masthead, offensive to all religions and superstitions, and emblazoned it on all their publications.
But nobody was ever knocked off their feet by intellectuals storming into action.
The only trouble was that the gutter press were even bigger Quislings in the affair.

BNP Leader Accuses BBC of "Demonising Racism"

In the debate on Margaret Hodge's self-seeking inflammation of the immigration issue on tonight's edition of Newsnight, British National Party leader Nick Griffin accused the BBC of "Demonising racism". Bewildered presenter Gavin Estler couldn't help blurting out:

"What? There's a good side to racism?"
To which Griffin, aware of his Freudian slip, muttered something incoherent about the word 'racism' being a fiendish Trotskyite plot to do something or other. The BBC being naturally in league with Trotsky. As presumably have been Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, a number of U.S. presidents, more than one British prime minister, most of europe since the war, and the Pope. Rabid commies all.

So what did he mean? What is there not to demonise? If anything is fair game for demonisation, surely it is racism - cheating someone out of their rights because of a microscopic genetic variation, and all that has meant in history.

Presumably, Griffin would like to 'reclaim' the word from its devilish left-wing captors. Show the world the racism with a song in its heart, the racism he loves.. to steal from Mel Brooks, who knew a thing a two about racism.

The mask has slipped. This was not territory Griffin had wanted to stray into, and yet it had been so near the surface that the first red light on his monitor screen had thrown it into his mouth. Twitching visibly by the end of the ordeal, he spluttered about the destruction of the 'British Way Of Life' by Polish small businessmen. And that was that.

In the meantime, his adversary, the pathetic Keith Vaz, smiled beatifically in the background, knowing that all he had to do was repeat his challenge to Griffin for evidence of any of Hodge's claims. None was delivered.

When someone does decide to renew Britain's public housing stock and break the stranglehold of the market, creatures like Griffin will crawl back into whatever swamp spawned them. Until then, the British people will be regularly bombarded with this kind of hate campaign, as it has been since the emergence of the mass media and before. Their genuine concerns about the cost of housing should be directed at the people profiting from the shortage, not those who legitimately seek to put Norman tebbit's famous words into actions.

Virginia Tech Massacre - the N.R.A. Solution

If, as the nutters of the NRA would like, every student in Virginia Tech carried a gun, there would be far more nutters carrying guns, and they would be used more often. Killings would be a regular occurrence, and the college would close.
On the street, anyone would be fair game at the slightest provocation, the 'Precautionary Principle' would see to that, and the killer could always claim self-defence as the victim would also be carrying a gun. It would be a return to an even darker age of barbarism than the one America is now in. Which is the object of the exercise.
The Nutter Tendency reassures us that guns will only be issued to the 'decent and responsible'. Who are these 'law abiding citizens'? And how do you spot them?
What criminal tendencies did the Virginia suicide killer display?
The truth is that this insane fantasy that more guns means less killing has been disproved by the entire history of America. So what this boils down to is that if the patient nearly dies from the medicine, double the dose.
In fact it is nothing but an opportunist rabble-rousing designed to create even more fear and division in America than already exists - exactly the factors which create the deranged individuals who kill their fellow students without warning or apparent motive. Exactly the same factors which fuel Neo-Islamic suicide bombers - appropriately enough.
So if they have their way, the profiteers of the arms industry will create a society in which everyone is a potential murderer and no-one is to be trusted. A complete breakdown in the social fabric, with only fear holding together a basic level of functional barbarism.
The world of 1984, in other words.
So will the NRA appear next week in Blackburg to cash in on the slaughter and bring its brand of comfort to the bereaved, as it did in Columbine?