By Johnny Taronja
The utility bill debate has been on all front pages. Except that it's not a debate. To a degree or other, everyone agrees the utility companies are taking the piss but, TUC conference aside, hardly anyone has the guts to say it out loud: utility companies should be re-nationalised. If you're new to the intricacies of the subject but you keep paying the bills, this article by Mark Steel will shed some light.
*****
Hardly a week goes by without the Daily Mail reporting about "lesbians". There's definitely some fascination there. Something that reminds us of Eminem going on about 'faggots'. On Thursday, they had this endless, boring, "report" about a Government minister marrying "her lesbian partner". Who cares? The Daily Mail, of course.
*****
However, on Friday the Mail got it right when it wrote that "New homes in Britain are the most cramped in Europe". Back in 2006 this blog ranted against the hideousness of most new dwellings. The smaller they get, the more expensive. The more prefab, the more cracks on your plastic panels.
*****
It's a well-known fact that, when it comes to manipulation, the US Republicans are unrivalled. The furore surrounding Obama's remarks about Republican old policies recycled as new in the manner of a pig wearing lipstick was the mother of taking things out of context. Suddenly they were all over him with accusations of sexism. "He insulted Sarah Palin", was their argument. Quite a Freudian one too, they were the only ones to make the equation pig=Palin. And you know what? They're not wrong.
The utility bill debate has been on all front pages. Except that it's not a debate. To a degree or other, everyone agrees the utility companies are taking the piss but, TUC conference aside, hardly anyone has the guts to say it out loud: utility companies should be re-nationalised. If you're new to the intricacies of the subject but you keep paying the bills, this article by Mark Steel will shed some light.*****
Hardly a week goes by without the Daily Mail reporting about "lesbians". There's definitely some fascination there. Something that reminds us of Eminem going on about 'faggots'. On Thursday, they had this endless, boring, "report" about a Government minister marrying "her lesbian partner". Who cares? The Daily Mail, of course.
*****
However, on Friday the Mail got it right when it wrote that "New homes in Britain are the most cramped in Europe". Back in 2006 this blog ranted against the hideousness of most new dwellings. The smaller they get, the more expensive. The more prefab, the more cracks on your plastic panels.*****
It's a well-known fact that, when it comes to manipulation, the US Republicans are unrivalled. The furore surrounding Obama's remarks about Republican old policies recycled as new in the manner of a pig wearing lipstick was the mother of taking things out of context. Suddenly they were all over him with accusations of sexism. "He insulted Sarah Palin", was their argument. Quite a Freudian one too, they were the only ones to make the equation pig=Palin. And you know what? They're not wrong.
*****
Look at The Times' Matthew Parris on Saturday: "Labour should dump compassion", adding that "the Left must embrace progress and winners, not the workshy and the weak". Survival of the fittest and all...
*****
It's official. The British press suffers from split personalities. Until Wednesday morning, English football players were all a bunch of overpaid morons and Fabio Capello an overpaid, clueless foreigner. Fast forward twenty four hours and it looks like Jesus Christ the saviour has come back amongst us. Having beaten Croatia 4-1, talks of "tactical mastery" are everywhere. The Sun managed to fit magnificent, glorious, revenge, whizzkid, sensational and demolition in just six lines. Til the next time.
2 comments:
That's not what Matthew Parris wanted to say. Your depiction of that with the sweeping SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST comment is a misrepresentation.
No more of a misrepresentation than Parris makes of socialism, Marx(ism) and Labour (three very different things that Parris reats as synonymous), and not that far off if you consider the logic of his argument.
Always thought that Parris had some sense and decency in him, obviously not.
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