Behind the Headlines 7

There's a bit of a rumble about a man who was Fined £550 - for leaving wheelie bins out. The story has made its way into the Daily Mail as an example of little bureaucrats pushing people about.

Now there are two reactions to this. A knee-jerk "But that's outrageous" and a sensible "That's really weird, there must be more to it."

There is.

Gareth Robinson has been fined £350, plus £200 court costs. But not for simply leaving a bit out for a week or so. He claims they were left outside for "two days at the most".

It does seem a bit unreasonable that the council swooped down on someone for leaving their bins out for a couple of days. Turns out- they didn't.

Reading beyond the headline shows this was not a one off occurrence. Neighbours apparently find the Robinsons' bins problematic, as there have been many complaints to the council. Mr Robinson had numerous warnings and notices about his bins before being given a fixed penalty of £60. Like the many warnings, he ignored this too.

Then he was summoned to court. He failed to appear to challenge council's actions, and was fined in his absence.

There's no mention in the news as to whether his neighbours had a quiet word, but if he's the sort of man you can approach like that, it's unreasonable to assume they didn't.

The headline seems to imply that he left his bin out one day, and had a £550 fine land on his doormat soon after. This is not the case.

Brilliant spoof!

I must congratulate whoever mocked up this spoof of a loony anti-EU front page response to the Lisbon treaty being signed. Brilliant send up!

Um... hang on... I can see todays Express on someone's desk across the way. It's... real? Someone thinks this is a reasonable response?

Oh dear.

Yours truely, angry mob

The big story recently has been the reaction to a piece in the Daily Mail by columnist Jan Moir about the death of Steven Gateley. To date the press complaints commission have received 21,000 complaints about the piece.

I found the original piece mildly offensive, but that's nothing compared to what happened next. Instead of being chastened Moir hit back at her critics, calling the complaints the results of a mischievous and orchestrated twitter campaign.

I am amused by this. I think back to the last campaign orchestrated against someone who has offended people in society. What was it, oh yes, the campaign against the BBC over a couple of lines in a radio broadcast . Orchestrated by- The Daily Mail. That campaign was mischievous- as many had not heard the broadcast but just wanted to stick it to. Compared to this campaign where I feel people are genuinely aggrieved by what was written.

Moir's column was a written piece, not an off the cuff comment like that made on Radio 2, and what's more she has not accepted she did anything wrong. Ross and Brand both apologized for what they did. Ross was punished, while Brand resigned.

If the Daily Mail are consistent they should take on board that this column was far worse than the Ross_brand prank call incident and act as they feel appropriately.

This is getting silly

I'm in a desperate moral dilemma.

I'm actually quite glad Russell Brand has left the BBC. He's an irritating idiot who rarely makes use of the decent brain he was born with and isn't funny. BUT, I'm deeply concerned that his departure means giving in to the wishes of the easily offended, ignorant mob.

I'm getting fed up of the whole circus surrounding this whole saga. Listening to Richard Allinson in the mornings (a welcome break from Sarah Kennedy) I have to agree with his weariness.

Do I need to summarise the situation? Well OK I'll be quick. The week before last, Andrew Sachs was due to be interviewed by Russell Brand and his guest Jonathan Ross for the Russel Brand show on Radio 2. Only, he was unexpectedly and inexplicably unavailable. So they decided to leave a message on Sachs' answer phone, in the manner of teenage youths leaving a jokey message for a mate who'd forgotten to turn up at the party. Only Andrew Sachs is not a mate of Russell and Jonathan, and he didn't find it all that funny. So far, so childish.

Fast forward to this Sunday just gone, and the Mail On Sunday gets hold of the story, over a week later, and in their inimitable style twist and misrepresent it in the worst possible light to elicit outrage from their readership. Which they get, in spades.

Unlike the 30,000 who complained, I actually heard the show "live". OK, so not
live but on the original broadcast. It took me a while to work out that Jonathan Ross. It was not the best radio programme I'd ever heard, and I only kept it on because I was loathe to get the laptop out and listen to something else. It wasn't, I have to say in the best of taste. They were irresponsible and did something wrong. It was as some say "out of order". But it didn’t warrant all this.

To me, the people who are malicious are the hordes of people who didn't listen to the broadcast and complained, based on the press hype. Particularly the ones who don't care what was said, but just want to stick the boot in. People who complained because they hate Brand and Ross for being overpaid and overhyped, or because they can’t stand that sort of broadcasting were given an excuse to behave in a despicable manner. People who would describe it, not in terms like "a bit offensive" or "childish" or "stupid" but as "disgusting filth". Most of the 30000 complaints could be more accurately described as malicious than that stupid childish broadcast.

These people and the ones in this case who deserve the lion’s share of the opprobrium. It is a massive injustice that they have been listened to. I can’t be pleased that a radio show I vaguely dislike is off the air, because of the terrible, terrible way in which it came about.

I am not sorry to see Brand go, and can take or leave Ross. But I am deeply concerned as to the sort of people who are getting their voices listened to over this.

The War on Christmas (Not)

According to the Daily Hate and other newspapers, us PC killjoys are out to ban Christmas.

Unfortunately for them it isn't true and here's why.

James O'Malley has an interesting response, which is more anti-religion than I would write myself but still worth a read.

In summary, people are complaining that the Royal Mail issuing non-religious stamps this year is all part of a PC conspiracy. However the fact is they issue non-religious stamps every other year anyway, this year is no different. Anti-PC nutcases also cite Birmingham's Winterval as an attempt to ban Christmas, and yet Winterval only happened the once and featured Christmas celebrations prominately!

Thanks to Nick Barlow.

Remembering them

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday. We impressed on the explorers that it would be nice that they turned up on Sunday, and was pleased some of them did. Explorers tend to be exempt from sponsorship agreements with places of worship, so there was no obligation for those that turned up. So I was really impressed with the turn out from Blacksheep.

Actually the Explorers have impressed me a lot lately. I planned and ran quite a serious evening on mental health issues last Wednesday. It was quite a serious topic, and even though there was a small amount of chatter, most of it was relatively grown up discussion of the topic in hand. I was very pleased with the way the evening went, it was a great success.

Back to Remembrance Sunday, and I have to admit some concordance with both James G and James C over the self righteousness of White poppies, with a Christian group deeming Red Poppies "politically correct". Some people I know have very sensible reasons for not wearing the red poppy. Howvwer beyond the news story the last white poppy I saw was back in my days as a Venture Scout when the leader of Dovers VSU was an ex-serviceman, and we were childish. I don't see the red poppy as glorifying war, given remembrance is all about reflecting on those who were killed in battle. Nor do I buy the idea that those who wear red poppies don't remember civilian casualties. Contrary to what is suggested in the latest furore the poetry then red poppy image comes from doesn't in an way suggest war is a Good Thing.

During the service at the Church, Barry Overend, the vicar, gave what I thought was a good talk on the meaning of some of the traditional remembrance hymns. It made it very clear why St Chads goes in for the less modern side of its hymn books given his enthusiasm for the musical history of the church. However it may have been better aimed at a Women's Institute or musical society evening than a sermon to a general audience, as I was a little bored, let alone the cubs.

The weekend brought up various conflicting ideas regarding what people in the war fought for. Two things spring to mind. This morning a friend of a friend sent a link to a Daily Mail article about an unrelated subject, and I noted the poppy at the top of the page. On Friday the odious Nick Griffin was cleared of inciting racial hatred, and was depicted wearing a red poppy. I realise the poppy is an emblem from the great war, but both the Mail and Griffin stand for the very values that we fought against in the subsequent conflict, even in the diluted "secure the borders" mildly xenophobic message prevalent in the mail.

And yet there's a dilemma. Silencing these people would also be insulting the efforts of those that have died for us because it would be fighting fascism with fascism. The fact that what Griffin said was not illegal does not make it right, and nor does it mean we should be toughening the law to make sure it's illegal. We should let people like that have their say, and they can condemn themselves out of their own mouths. Unfortunately freedom sometimes means having to hear things we dislike.