Gypsies, tramps and thieves
Richard Littlejohn: you couldn't make him up. Here's the lead story from the thundering self-parody's column in today's Mail about "the tarmacing community" (ie. gypsies), a phrase that was bannered right across the front cover. Even if you can't be bothered to read it to the end, please do enjoy the funny cartoon that accompanied it in which a pipe-smoking gypsy fortune teller with a very cross baby and hairy-faced husband who can't do his shirt up properly are trampling a DECENT TAXPAYER in their rush to get preferential treatment at YOUR DOCTOR'S SURGERY. There's an online poll asking, "Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?" and, due to intense Twitter distribution, the "YES" vote currently stands at 92%. Join in. That should ruin everything.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 5:22 PM
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39 Comments:
Richard Littlejohn is a real life troll.
It's up to 93% now.
It's hard to know what the most irritating thing is about Littlejohn: his blatant bigotry or the totally deluded belief that he is somehow a beacon of common sense in this PC gone mad world, with his constant "you couldn't make it up" affected word-weary conservatism with a big C (and we all know what the C stands for).
I'd love to meet him and point out why he is simply wrong about everything but I'd probably just punch his face in instead. It's the kind of subtlety he'd understand.
I fucking hate the Daily Mail. I think they are a cancer. A rotting filthy dirty nasty cancer in the arse of our society.
Wow. That was cathartic. I feel much better now.
*whistles*
Some sort of conspiracy, or just a cock-up?:
Daily Mail Poll
hmmm....
damn - they've shut it down. Good ol' Daily Snail.
When you try and vote, The Daily Mail now tells you it's 'forbidden'. As a DECENT TAXPAYER it's a disgrace, I tell you...
They appear to have pulled the entire poll now- 'Today's Poll' has now become 'Should wheelie bins be scrapped?'
That's the old Mail spirit- if you don't like the results, hide 'em. And they say MPs should be more transparent...
Tomorrow's poll: 'Hurrah for the blackshirts? YES or no?'
Ah, unfortunately they've pulled the poll now. Still, it was fun whilst it lasted. Unfortunately, by following the link I did get to read Littlejohn's column. I now need a shower and change of clothing.
Global warming's not happening cos his wife got caught in a hailstorm? Is he for real?
I've just read Littlejohn's column and the supportive comments and it's scared me shitless. In my own naive way, I had thought his comments were all part of a persona - a sort of theatrical grotesque - that no-one took seriously. But crikey! These idiots lap it up. I now realise he's a dangerous bastard spouting this hate-filled drivel under the banner of 'common sense'. People have frighteningly sort memories about where such 'thinking' can lead and I am embarrassed to realise that attitudes I thought had died out in the 70s seem to be alive and kicking still. As an aside, it's interesting - and somewhat ironic - that many of Littlejohn's supporters now seem to be ex-pats. I presume they expect their host countries to be more welcoming to them (maybe, who knows, seeing them as bringing something positive to their new homeland) than they were prepared to be to immigrants to these shores. Or is that somewhat unworthy?
The really depressing bit is reading the comments section below RL's columns. Any nationalistic pride I had is soon withered by the knowledge I live alongside people like this.
Yup, it's a shocker, lightened only by Littlejohn's assertion that "one of the most striking aspects of the 'mobile community' is that they tend not to go anywhere - except flying to Florida on holiday twice a year." Which is the only place that this incisive commentator on modern British society is likely to bump into anyone.
That's just an amazing picture. Change the writing to German, put Juden at the top and you've got something that could have come out of Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The worst I've ever seen by a newspaper.
I thought the wheelie bin campaign was grasping at straws but there's always room for worse.
My personal anguish with regards this is that I've had about three very (very) heated arguments with my parents about their addiction to the Daily Mail and it's almost destroying my relationship with them altogether. It's almost a "them and me" situation with a barrier the size of the Berlin Wall between us. Called "The Mail newspaper". It's difficult to know how best to deal with it. Any ideas gratefully recieved.
Aarghhh! You lured me into reading parts of the Daily Mail website and now my stress levels have gone through the roof.
@Ozzy of Partridge Green- I live in Spain and while it's not a big UK expat community where I am, a decent proportion of those who are here say they left the UK because of 'immigrants', thereby making themselves immigrants to Spain, a fact they somehow manage to hide from themselves, all the while banging on about how bad immigration is, not learning a word of Spanish, and eating in English restaurants here.
I actually saw a headline in the local Conservatives Abroad magazine saying 'How Can We Curb Immigration?' (meaning to the UK)- this in a magazine read exclusively by immigrants!
As the Mail would say: 'you couldn't make it up...'
Worth a read is this:
http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2009/06/littlejohn-and-bnp.html
Compares Littlejohn's article to a BNP press release on the same subject. Spoiler: they're frighteningly similar.
Reminds me of the editorial cartoons in The Onion (only they're being tongue-in-cheek!).
I found a quote by Goebbels that I think describe the subtext to several articles that appear in The Mail
They despise our culture and learning, which they perceive as towering over their nomadic worldview. They fear our economic and social standards, which leave no room for their parasitic drives. They are the enemy of our domestic order, which has excluded their anarchistic tendencies.
I've just voted in all their polls. From the way the %'s are currently standing, I'm thinking Mail-baiting is maybe turning into a bit of a sport?
It is fascinating to note that none of the po-faced commentators above have been able to articulate an actually rebuttal to Littlejohn's supposedly "vile" comments.
Whilst the chap who was the subject of the article may not quite be suffering the delay suggested, or even exist in the first place, isn't it a scandal that we have a health service which requires people to queue for days just to be checked out for a health concern?
It is an indisputable fact that there are gangs of people, regardless of ethnic origin, who will cheerfully ignore planning laws and tarmac over countryside without anyone being able to do anything about it. Isn't that something that is worth highlighting?
When my neighbour was threatened with having his throat cut by a gentleman with an accent after he asked two children not to drop litter, why was he the one questioned about his "racism" when he subsequently complained to the police? Is this not an issue up for debate?
It is due to the comments so far that true scum like the BNP are hoovering up votes. A sneering failure to engage with people over issues (however minor) that bother them and lead them to question their place in society leaves the door wide open for extremists to gain a foothold. That scares me more than any drivel you read in a Littlejohn column, sorry.
@Billy
I'm going to be accused of hypocrisy now for responding to an unfounded insult :) but speaking for myself I was making a narrow point about presentation because I thought it was more shocking than the well-established gypsy debate. I also didn't want to write an essay about it because I already feel like I'm definitely stalking Collins :) I've had a shit week and posting on various blogs is taking my mind off it since there's no decent sport on :) I think that the debate is a valid one but that the way it was presented was inflammatory and used grotesque caricatures and generalisations. After all objections to government policy should be directed at the government rather than the gypsies. For the Mail to make it a culture wars story means it plays into the hands of the BNP in my opinion.
I'm not sure exactly where I stand on the NHS giving preferential treatment, slightly in favour maybe, but I do think the state and police service have got their knickers in a right old twist when it comes to ethnicity. I'm pretty much decided that we should just ignore ethnicity now. For example having a choice on forms between White British and White European shows that the issue is being overthought somewhat. :)
I think you're right about the failure to discuss these kind of issues driving up support for the BNP. I also think it's odd that they're gaining support in a country that feels less racist and bigoted than at any time since I moved here in 1992. I wonder if anyone else agrees with that.
I've written my own blog post about it which you can read if you like.
Billy, don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life
How can any of us offer a 'rebuttal' when none of us are in possession of all of the facts?
I have no idea if Littleshit really did receive an e-mail from a 'loyal' Daily Mail reader claiming that he had to wait a month to get an appointment to see his doctor but I suspect he just made it up to suit his own agenda. The last two times I've had to see my doctor I was able to get an appointment within hours and the waiting room was empty when I arrived on both occasions. Unlike Littleshit, I'm not saying that proves anything about the health service but it does at least outscore his story by two to one.
Likewise, I've no idea if the NHS really is going to prioritise gypsies at hospitals but it sounds like absolute bollocks. My own evidence would suggest that it isn't true. The last time I went to A&E I did have to wait around two hours to be seen but I wasn't queuing behind people making pegs, offered me lucky heather or asked me to give them money for their starving baby (I'm being ironic here; dealing with the subject matter in the same vein as Littleshit might do so)
I don't believe it is an 'indisputable fact' that gangs of people are going around, tarmacing over the countryside, without anyone being able to do anything about it. I gather it did happen once earlier this year and is probably remarkable simply because it is so unusual. If it were the case I'm sure the Daily Mail would have uncovered a whole litany of such events. Perhaps you've compiled your own list.
Why does it matter that the person who threatened your neighbour had an accent? And how on earth are we to know why the police questioned him about his racism? Maybe he said something that was a bit racist to them. We don't know, so it's a completely pointless discussion.
Why does slagging off toss-pots like Richard Littleshit drive people to vote for the BNP, a party which did NOT increase its share of the vote at the European elections? I agree that stifling debate is dangerous but giving attention to morons like Littleshit and his highly dubious stories is simply pumping oxygen into a stinking, rotten corpse.
Po-faced my arse.
The title of this post led me to believe there would be humorous musings on Cher and Sonny Bono's daughter undergoing gender reassignment.
But it's instead about Richard Littlejohn, who is obviously a descendant of Little John, late of Robin Hood's gang. The infallible Wikipedia tells us this:
"Little John comes from the old Belgium Dutch/ Flemish and Franconian languages origin name Jenkin. The English translation is "Little John" or more literally "John the little."
I dunno. Belgian Dutch/Flemish blokes coming over here, writing our incendiary opinion pieces.
Funny enough, my Irish family enjoyed hearing tarmaccing jokes in the late 70's, so at least the material is nice and fresh, and won't in any way still be in use by "will this do?" jobbing journalists in thirty years about yet another nationality.
To be fair, it turns out that the Mail are in fact fully cogniscant of how ridiculous a fear of immigration actually is in England:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396406/Were-Germans--1-600-years.html#StartComments
I was going to write my own response to Billy, but you have said everything I wanted to say, Oldnathan, and probably much more clearly than I would have. Nice post!
The policy document the story refers to is here. It's a pdf and the bit they're referring to is on page 9.
We know from his recent TV documentary that Dick Littlejohn understands where this sort of talk leads. Although of course in his world, modern British anti-semitism is largely coming from the Left. Well, whatever.
Billy, if the reader doesn't exist (you acknowledge the possibility) then the story is based on a lie. And suddenly it's not a scandal anymore, is it? The NHS is not perfect. But I don't think the problem is that people Littlejohn doesn't like are "swamping" (probably) the system so much that no one else gets a look in. And if they are then let's just kill Littlejohn. Then it will just be swamped with people. People seeking medical attention. You don't have a problem with that, do you?
There might be "gangs" of people "regardless of ethnic origin" who are ignoring planning laws. Try Caffe Nero for example (fuckers). But highlighting the problem in a way that is not "regardless of ethnic origin" is clearly to do the opposite of what you suggest is a reasonable thing to do. In other words it is not reasonable: it's selective evidence being presented to support racial prejudice.
Someone with an accent did something bad? To someone without an accent? And the police (presumably of mixed accents) didn't catch him? And possibly (who knows?) even suggested that there was a bit too much emphasis on the accent in the way the story was being presented to them? Well you do have to be careful with our famously accent-blind police. PC gone mad, etc. He's lucky they didn't shoot him.
For what it's worth (or for the record, if people prefer) I think you're right to some extent. I think we should discuss these issues rather than thinking that racism will go away if the broadcast and other media simply pretend that we're (nearly) all nice. We should confront it and say we don't agree with it. We should have the confidence to believe that we are actually the silent majority. I hope we are.
But Littlejohn is not speaking truths before which our foolish dalliance with political correctness crumbles like dust. He is spouting poisonous bullshit. He is feeding prejudice with concocted and selective evidence. And in that not-quite world where Dave Cameron is no different to Labour, Littlejohn helps to foster the idea that we need to look elsewhere. Because if the Tories won't do what needs to be done then who will? He is poisonous scum. And behind it all there's a horrible suspicion that he doesn't really believe what he's writing, because he's cleverer than to believe that shit. Some people think that makes what he does not so bad. I think it makes it much, much worse.
Sorry for the po-face. I'm more often compared to Tinkywinky.
"A gentleman with an accent"? As opposed to what? The only man on earth who speaks with no accent whatsoever? Or do you mean, as I suspect you do, a non-British accent? I have one of them, so I assume that whenever I cross the Irish sea I can act with impunity and break the laws because the PC police will defend me to the hilt.
That poll was beautiful wasn't it? I was alerted to it over on the badscience forums. We had it up to 94% at one stage.
Littlejohn has actually linked two 'stories' together which have nothing to do with one another. A man in Wellingborough is unable to get an appointment straight away with his GP. He is asked to use the 'ring in on the day', system (which was introduced nationally about three years ago), or to arrive at the surgery when it opens and wait until a doctor is free. This is standard practice across the country, and has been for some time. It was introduced to enable a host of other Department of Health targets to be more easily and clearly met.
Meanwhile, in 'story' number two, an NHS Trust seems to have produced an edict for GPs in which they are allowed to allocate twenty minutes to appointments for travellers and their families. I imagine that this will amount to a tiny proportion of the appointments offered each year by an average GP, having worked in NHS Primary Care for years myself. It is unlikely to have been the reason why Mr Littlejohn's unfortunate correspondent could not be seen immediately by his GP.
But then I dare say even Mr Littlejohn will have figured that one out. Why let utter irrelevancy stand in the way of a good story, eh?
Andrew, as the late, great Linda Smith said of Jeffrey Archer being given the oxygen of publicity(and of course it applies to Littlejohn)
"I'm not that happy with him having the oxygen of oxygen actually"
He is beneath our dignity. Ignore. Move on.
Imagine Richard Littlejohn gently lapping at your privates...
I think he's hilarious, and by that I mean he's not to be taken seriously. Does anyone actually take him seriously? I think not. He's a buffoon.
And as for the Daily Mail itself, even my parents (who were long-standing readers) know it's the work of a deranged man. If it wasn't so absurd it would be dangerous.
Firstly, please forgive me for going to the Daily Star site, from the Sky News Monday’s Papers, it gets worse! I had to read…
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/85880/Racist-BNP-leader-Griffin-is-a-gipsy/
Final quote…
Shocked BNP deputy leader Simon Darby spluttered: “That will please him...”
Tarra,Craig.
Dave- "Although of course in his world, modern British anti-semitism is largely coming from the Left."
Would you care to qualify that?
RickB, I agree: it is a preposterous statement, and one designed I feel to elicit a response through caricature. I'm sure Dave is referring to the left's broad-based support of the Palestinian cause - since when does opposing the actions of Israel constitute anti-Semitism? It's like proposing that Robert Mugabe runs a vicious regime speaks of racism against black people.
Andrew get to work on a new post.....i am quite bored at work.....when you next post i'd like to think that i control you......you're like putty in my hands.....like gaunty is in john terry gaunty's hands.....
Rick B and Andrew: I think Dave is attributing that attitude to R.Littlejohn, and those not being the thoughts of Dave?
"Although of course in his (R.Littlejohn's) world, modern British anti-semitism is largely coming from the Left."
If I am mistaken, apologies
Matt
daikonsensei- Indeed, I think Dave meant Little**** but I just wanted clarification, because as Andrew says it does get bandied about rather disingenuously.
I'm a white-British middle class, middle aged male who belongs to the "tax paying majority".
I recently attended my GP having been advised that I had high blood pressure following a work-based health check. I turned up at 8.30am one day and waited to see a Dr as soon as one was available. When one became available, she did some tests and then made me an appointment with a consultant nephrologist at the local hospital due to her concerns that I have a potentially serious problem with my kidneys.
My hospital appointment was 4 weeks after my initial visit to the GPs - one week later than it could have been, because I asked for a delay due to a holiday - and it all went as well as could be hoped. I have to go back in a month for a final diagnosis, but that's to allow time for a barrage of tests to be completed.
My treatment - thus far - by the NHS has been fabulous. I certainly do not feel that I have been made to wait to allow ANYBODY to be seen before me: no immigrants, no gypsies, no nasty ill-informed Daily Mail columnists. I do not have a single complaint and I can be a right grumpy bastard when I need to be. The funny thing is, that's often the case when people actually have to use the NHS rather than sitting around pontificating about it, a la Littlejohn.
If the NHS wasn't there we'd all miss it. Badly.
DE, Liverpool
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