Shoot The Bastards

A never ending source of amusement to me - I know, I know, I'm a saddo - is that what interests the average political blogger is of no interest whatsoever to real people. But even more striking is the converse of this. Now, I am aware that many people set up their blogs for just this reason - they cannot get the real people in their lives engaged in conversation about the topics dear to their heart so they look to the virtual world for solace. And it is axiomatic that the stone age media (or meeja as we used to call it) has just Lost The Plot.

But there are certain areas where you might think an overlap is possible. One of these is the small matter of that greatest of all soap operas, the Royal Family. In Bloggo Bloggo Land, the only acceptable stance on Royalty is ennui. In the real world this position is just not tenable, and I for one am with the inhabitants of Terra Firma on this. You cannot be neutral. And if you profess indifference, you are, not to put too fine a point on it, a fucking liar.

The surprising thing is that the sundry former Marxists, ex Trots, Stalinists, Leninists, Anarcho Socialists etc that make up the Bloggie Left also profess the same lofty disdain for a topic that once was the symbol for everything they once hated with such vitriol. I can understand why the Bloggie Right are happy to keep quiet on the subject. Sheer bloody embarrassment, that's why. But there must be other cyber lefties like me who positively salivate at the latest cock up, the latest revelation, the latest whinge from that jug eared moron, the latest goosestep. There must be at least a smidgin of satisfaction that criticism of Royalty, unheard of even five years ago, is now de rigeur in the press and on TV, not just in the bars and sitting rooms of the great unwashed.

When I was young there was only Willie Hamilton. Thankfully, things have moved on, without, it has to be said, any contribution from Republicans whatsover. It has been a solo effort by the horse faces themselves. But in memory of times past, I'd like to raise a glass to that old war cry that always briefly united the many winged beast that was the Old Left, Shoot the Bastards, secure in the knowledge that we won't have to.

Shameless Excuse to Recycle Old Joke - Number Twelvety Seven

This by Nick Cohen, which is a worthy, if rather dull piece on the iniquities of postal voting, mentions the practice of men deciding how their families will vote and how postal voting makes it somewhat easier. It brought to mind an old old joke - I can't remember whose it was, but it's reminiscent of Dave Alan, one of the finest comedians ever to grace the telly. It goes something like this, as I recall:

A market researcher is doing some door to door and comes across a middleaged housewife hard at work. "Excuse me, madam," he says, "I wonder if I could ask you a few questions?"

Fire away came the reply.

"Could you tell me who in your house is the main decision maker?"

The lady thinks for a moment and says, "Well, I think it would be fair to say, I make the little decisions and my husband makes the big decisions."

"Right. Could you give me an example of the little decisions you make?"

"Well, I decide on the family finances, where we go on holiday and which schools our children should go to. Oh yes, and it was me who decided to buy this house."

"But," the researcher says, puzzled, "they all seem like big decisions to me. What does your husband decide?"

"I told you, he makes the big decisions: who should be Prime Minister, whether we should go to war or not..."

I thang you.

The Kid is telling us that the reason rape convictions are falling is because defence counsel can't bring in evidence of the alleged victim's previous sexual history, so juries are letting rapists off because they can't tell their whores from their virgins, and of course everybody knows only the chaste get raped, everyone else is Just Asking For It. (Sorry if that sentence is a bit yeah but no but.)

The source is this story and if the Kid had bothered to read it before going off on his usual sixteen going on sixty rant, he would have learned that it is "over-estimation of the scale of false allegations by both police officers and prosecutors which feeds into a culture of scepticism". Only 14% of reported cases actually get to court, so juries rarely get the chance to decide.

The Kid concludes:

Unfortunately, the politically correctness that dares not admit that a woman who has half a dozen sexual partners a month is more likely to have consented is now taking precendence over this fact in the minds of our legislators. The effect of this trend is not, and will not be, more guilty rapists convicted, but more guilty rapists walking free, because the credibility of their accusers could no longer be established.

The point is though, that the discredibility of the accuser is the main focus of the police and the prosecutors, to the detriment of evidence gathering and case building.

A rather less excitable conclusion than the Kid's, of course, who, bless him, never allows the facts to get in the way of a good rant.

As many foxes were killed, legally, yesterday as were killed on a typical hunting day before the ban.

So, what was the fucking point?

New Blog thingie here. If it takes off I'll add it the blogroll. A rare accolade from a near defunct blog like mine, I think you'll agree.

I never did get that cracking post on religion onto the screen, although I did contribute to this over at Hari's Place.

You know what it's like, you write something that looks witty and profound on half a bottle a wine and a couple of brandies and then you have to justify it in the cold light of sobriety when someone responds. When that someone is a celebrated journo and TV pundit, you can't just let it lie.

All I can say in my defence is my basic point that certainty is bollocks was amply demonstrated further down the thread.

Duncan Smith on blogging.

The Democrats' problem has only worsened since. The dailykos.com site of a Democratic consultant gets 500,000 hits a day. That site's memorial to four American contractors murdered in Iraq was "screw them". Hatefulness also pours out of the popular websites of Michael Moore and MoveOn.org. The conservative blogosphere has dubbed the Democrats' IT base its MooreOn tendency.

So, Mr Worst Tory Leader in history, in your extensive research on this piece, you couldn't find a popular right wing blog that poured out hatefulness? Makes you as good a journalist as you were Leader of the Opposition, then.

Well, I don't know how many obliged, but the barrel scraper is sitting pretty at number 1.