A Liddle Bit of Perspective – The Clarkson Defence

The reaction to Rod Liddle’s venomous attack on the disabled has been largely anger, but I have noticed some comments along the lines of “Well, he’s just like Jeremy Clarkson, don’t take any notice, he’s harmless.”

The trouble is some people will take him seriously. Despite the fact that the publication his remarks were published in is laughable to most intelligent people, it is not deliberately funny.

Even with intended satire, there are those who take it seriously. Warren Mitchell was plagued for years by morons who applauded his character in “Till Death Us Do Part“, Alf Garnett for the bigotry he displayed.

So when somebody who purports to be a serious writer spouts the nonsense that Liddle did, even more people will believe him, and they don’t have to be bigots themselves.

This will, of course, delight the current government, who seem hell bent on dismantling the welfare system.

Modern first-world governments govern by the consent of the governed, but it should be informed consent, not the lies that the ConDems, and lackeys such as Liddle, are peddling.

Pretend Journalist Writes Garbage

Rod Liddle, already known to many of us as a misogynist, racist, religious bigot and liar, has now targeted disabled people. In today’s Sun “newspaper” (and yes, the scare quotes are in the right place) he has denounced most disabled,especially those who claim disability benefits, as “pretend disabled”.

Here are a few quotes from his diatribe, as collated by the Political Scrapbook blog.

“My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become disabled. Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades – fibromyalgia, or M.E.”

“And being disabled is incredibly fashionable. The number of people who claim to be disabled has doubled in the past ten years.”

“I think we should all pretend to be disabled for a month or so, claim benefits and hope this persuades the authorities to sort out the mess.”

“It has become easier to claim those benefits, partly as a consequence of the disablement charities who, out of their own self-interest, insist that an ever-greater proportion of the population is disabled.”

Even if Liddle were to pass the exams necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, he could not possibly examine enough people to make such a gross generalisation remotely worthwhile.
Of course, Liddle isn’t the only one picking on the disabled. The ConDem government, while pushing their Welfare “reforms”, continue to brief against the most vulnerable in society. Liddle just can’t resist such an easy target for his vitriol.

Update: If you are on Facebook, there’s a page called Justice for people with Fibromyalgia/M.E against Rob Liddle (columinist), where you can add your voice to the growing number of people angered by this clown.

There’s also a petition that people in the UK can sign, about recognising the illnesses that Liddle writes off as “pretend”: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20035

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.