How To make Yourself Look Guilty (Even When You’re Not)

I’d pretty much forgotten all about Lord McAlpine, and the accusations of child sex abuse made about him, first on the BBC and ITV  (who later apologised and coughed up a hefty sum of money in damages, even though they hadn’t named him), then on Twitter, where several people named him (though, in many cases, didn’t repeat the accusation).
I doubt if there are many people, on hearing the name “McAlpine”, associate it with the accusations that were made but, instead, remember that the BBC had to pay him a pile of dosh.
McAlpine, today, announced that he “would like to now draw this unfortunate episode, forced into my life, to a close” by dropping legal actions against any Twitter users with fewer than 500 followers who had named him, or had re-tweeted those who had, in return for a £25 donation to Children in Need.
Instead, he’s going to concentrate on suing Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons. She tweeted “Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*“, and later, after McAlpine threatened to sue, “I guess I’d better get some legal advice then. Still maintain was not a libellous tweet — just foolish.“
If he really wanted to draw a line under the matter, he’d quietly drop all the cases, regardless of how many Twitter followers they had, not carry on with the one person who is guaranteed to keep the story in the news.
Keeping it in the news could be a bigger problem for McAlpine than the original story. Many people are aware of high profile public figures taking, or threatening, legal action in order to silence their critics. Robert Maxwell was a prolific litigant, as any fule who reads Private Eye should know. More recently, it has emerged that Jimmy Savile threatened to sue anyone who considered complaining about his criminal activities.
I don’t mean, of course, that threatening libel action makes McAlpine guilty after all, but more headlines will follow, so more people will notice the story, and more people will add 2 and 2 and get 5. After all, there are precedents of wrongdoers protesting too much, and McAlpine risks being lumped in with them.

Related articles

• Lord McAlpine drops some Twitter defamation cases (guardian.co.uk)
• More: Lord McAlpine says he has instructed lawyers to focus on claim against Sally Bercow, wife of top UK MP – @itvnews (itv.com)
• Why Is Toady Trending? *snarlyface* (BBC Question Time “Down-The-Pub”)

Bullies Being Bullied?

Bullies are usually the first to complain that they are being “picked on”.

Imagine if somebody, upset by the words of a few people who happened to be black, made disparaging remarks about all black people. If someone else chimed in to agree with them, and to heap more abuse on black people, that person would be, quite rightly, labelled a racist. If black people were to complain, most people would agree with them.

So why should Transsexual people be assumed to be fair game? Or anyone else for that matter.

I still haven’t seen the original piece by Suzanne Moore which started the latest Twitterstorm, so I won’t comment on that nor, for the moment, will I make any judgement about Moore herself.

I have seen a follow-up article by Moore’s friend Julie Burchill, and it’s sickening.

Even worse, it hasn’t been published by a rag like the Daily Mail but, incredibly, by the Observer. I wasn’t sure if I should put a link to the article here, but you’re all grown-ups, so you can choose whether or not to read it. Click here, but have a bucket ready.

Burchill complains that Moore was “being monstered on Twitter, to the extent that she had quit it, for supposedly picking on a minority – transsexuals.”

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Moore’s piece – and, I repeat, I haven’t seen it yet – Burchill makes sweepingly disparaging remarks about Transsexual people. Has she never heard the adage “two wrongs don’t make a right”, or has she just forgotten it? Phrases like “women – real and imagined” pepper Burchill’s rambling diatribe, so it’s hardly a focussed rebuttal to a few people on Twitter, but out and out bigotry.

At one point Burchill writes “To my mind – I have given cool-headed consideration to the matter – a gaggle of transsexuals telling Suzanne Moore how to write looks a lot like how I’d imagine the Black and White Minstrels telling Usain Bolt how to run would look.“

I haven’t seen anyone tell Moore how to write (though that could have happened, Twitter feeds can be fast moving). What I’ve seen people complaining about is what, not how, she wrote.

I don’t understand what it means to be Transsexual, or gay, or black, or any number of aspects of a person that automaticallyputs them at a disadvantage in society.

I do, however, know what is to be human. Burchill and her ilk would do well to take a refresher course on that subject.

Related articles

• Gender is not a punchline (fearlessknits.wordpress.com)
• Julie Burchill has ended up bullying the trans community | Roz Kaveney (guardian.co.uk)
• A Letter To the @commentisfree Editors about Julie Burchill (graunwatch.wordpress.com)
• Julie Burchill and trans women. (considertheteacosy.wordpress.com)
• “Nasty Idiotic Tripe”: Standing Against Julie Burchill’s Decade Of Transphobia (thequietus.com)

 

The Law Isn’t Always an Ass

A 17 year old man has been arrested for sending the following tweet to Tom Daley, whose father recently died due to cancer, after Daley failed to win an Olympic medal.

He later apologised profusely, so the arrest was very heavy-handed.

At least, that’s what much of the mainstream media would have us believe.

I was all ready to post the above, but thought I’d better have a look round on the internet, to see if there was more to the story. Almost immediately I found this page.

Click on that link, and you’ll find that the apology was not at all sincere, that the abuse for which the arrest was made was sustained, and rather nastier than the original tweet, and if you look in the comments you’ll find links to screenshots that show that this person has form, including this one:

So it’s worth remembering that the stories behind the headlines are often more complicated than those headlines alone convey’

Journalists (and editors) should remember that too.

Related articles

• Police probe Daley Twitter abuse (bbc.co.uk)
• Teenager held over tweets sent to Tom Daley (independent.co.uk)
• Teenager Held Over Tom Daley Twitter Abuse (news.sky.com)
• Twitter troll aims ‘dad’ slur at Tom Daley after medal miss at the London Olympics (thesun.co.uk)
• Teenage boy, 17, arrested over hate Tweets sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley … – Daily Mail (dailymail.co.uk)
• UK teen arrested over malicious Tom Daley tweets (newstalk.ie)

Tesco Cruelty – Not Just for Chickens

If someone breaks something in a shop, particularly a large shop with a big turnover, it is common practice to clean the mess up and write off the loss. If it’s something like wine or spirits, the customer might be charged for the broken item. If the customer appears to be drunk, they may be ordered to leave the store.

Unless they become violent, that is all that the shop staff, including security guards, are permitted to do. Even if the customer is belligerent, any unwanted contact is assault, and in such circumstances the police should be called. Even the police have to be careful about using force as, if it is determined that it is unwarranted, that is also assault.

Very little of this applies to disabled campaigner Jules Clarke who, on Wednesday, was forcibly ejected from his local Tesco store in Manchester, by security guards too stupid to understand the limits of their powers of arrest. (They are the same as those of anyone else who doesn’t carry a warrant card, only valid if you are absolutely certain of a conviction.)

I’m not exactly sure of Jules’ condition, and in any case I’m not medically qualified. Suffice it to say it involves extreme tiredness, which looks, to the wilfully uninformed, a little like drunkenness.

At the till, before paying, Jules dropped a bottle of wine. He was then physically thrown out of the store, in part because one of the security guards could smell booze. After a bottle of wine was broken. Such stupidity must take a special effort.

Jules was left bruised and battered, not just physically, but mentally too. If such an attack can happen in a famous store like Tesco, what place could be safe?

Tesco have a remarkable talent for courting bad publicity, from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s campaign about cruelty to chickens to Tesco’s involvement in the government’s workfare scam. Tesco like to ignore such complaints, presumably hoping the fuss will just die down, and this seems, so far, to be the approach they are taking with Jules.

They have relayed an apology of sorts, via Twitter, but they didn’t seem very sincere to me. They also replied to someone commenting on Jules’ plight with these words:

Please be assured that everyone is welcome to Tesco and we take fair treatment of all of our customers seriously

Fine words, but that was their position before the attack on Jules, so why should anyone believe them now?

The trouble is (from their point of view) people, including disabled people, are much better connected these days, and news that would once be tucked away in local papers now spreads like wildfire.

I found out about this on Twitter. So will all my friends. And their friends. And their friends. And so on…..

Some of them are Tesco customers. For now.

Sue Marsh given wrong drug and nurse refused to change it – agony instead of pain relief | A Latent Existence

The story of a horrible  experience unfolded on Twitter today. It was bad enough reading the tweets. How much more scary must it have been to endure the pain, with no help at hand? Please click on the link below:

Sue Marsh given wrong drug and nurse refused to change it – agony instead of pain relief | A Latent Existence.

Justice For Ched’s Supporters!

“Wish you were here?” Some of Ched Evans’ supporters could find themselves behind bars too.

Ched Evans will have his appeal, and it’s possible he will win, but the activity of some of his supporters has been appalling, even if he is acquitted.

I can understand his family and friends standing by him, but the “#justiceforched” hashtag on Twitter has, whether or not it was originally intended, been an attempt to subvert justice by intimidation, chiefly of the victim. Some idiots even posted links to Facebook and Twitter profiles of someone with the same surname, asking whether that person was related to “the slut”.

Evans’ appeal might consist of an examination of the transcript of the trial, or it could be a full rehearing, in which case naming the victim is an even more serious matter.

One or two people have said that they aren’t bothered by the prospect of prosecution, because they’ve heard that it’s “only a £5000 fine, which I haven’t got, so good luck with that”.

Well yes, that’s probably true, if the charge is just for revealing the victim’s name. (That’s leaving aside the possible escalation of charges for failure to pay the fine.)

However, one person has already been arrested for “malicious communication” and, as far as I can ascertain, he isn’t the worst culprit. Malicious communication can be punished with imprisonment, in most cases 6 months, in the case of a sustained attack, 5 years.

I have been very careful to remove the victim’s name from any screenshots, as well as other names that might help to trace hers, It’s probably too late, but it’s still a criminal offence and besides, it’s just plain wrong. Others, including Sky News, have not been as careful, and may face prosecution.

It is those who heaped abuse on the victim, calling her such things as “slut” and “slag”, as well as deliberately and repeatedly using her name, who should be most worried.

Update 1st May: Nine more arrests.

Update 2nd May: Another one bites the dust.

Update 9th May: The plot thickens.

Related articles

• Justice For Ched’s Victim! (neitshade.wordpress.com)
• Twitter reaction to Ched Evans case shows rape culture is alive and kicking | Amanda Bancroft (guardian.co.uk)
• Wales News: Sheffield United probe Ched Evans Twitter comments by team-mate Connor Brown (walesonline.co.uk)
• Twitter users to be arrested over naming of Ched Evans rape victim (guardian.co.uk)
• Ched Evans fans to applaud rapist at Sheffield United Match (HuffintonPost.co.uk)

Did Jonnie Lose His Marbles?

When  Jonathan May-Bowles, AKA Jonnie Marbles, attempted to push a foam “pie” into Rupert Murdoch’s face there was almost universal condemnation for his actions, some of which may have had some validity, but most of which was simply a knee jerk reaction (a phrase which is in danger of being overused in the current political climate).

“Murdoch will get sympathy from this incident, and won’t therefore face justice.”

There may be some truth to this, but not much. Those who would sympathise with Murdoch would have likely done so anyway, and the idea that he would “face justice”, with so many friends, or at least people on whom he has dirt, in high places is laughable.

• “What if it hadn’t been a pie, what if it had been a bomb? String him up for treason!!”

Well, it wasn’t a bomb. Shouldn’t Marbles at least get some credit for that? There were some mutterings about the lax security, but they seem to have died down quite quickly.

• “He’s supposed to be a comedian, but he isn’t funny at all!”

That must have been the most hurtful criticism of all to Marbles. It’s true that when, after his first court appearance, he announced to the waiting press that, echoing Murdoch, “today was the most humbling of my life” it occurred to me that Marbles should stick to writing comedy rather than performing it. However, this doesn’t take into account the strain he must have been suffering, and that his delivery of that line may well have suffered as a result.

Anyone following him on Twitter or on his blog would have been impressed by his stoicism (not to mention his ingenuity in posting from inside prison), and his good humour, and I certainly think he has a career in comedy. Perhaps an audience that isn’t baying for his blood might help his performance.

In the meantime Murdoch won’t really pay. He may lose some money, in lost profits or even fines, but he has plenty more. When David Cameron said in an interview that “News International are aware of the big issue”, I don’t think he meant the kind of Big Issue that popped into my mind.

Unfortunately.

Jonnie Marbles is out of prison now, on licence, which means he has to behave for the next couple of weeks or serve the rest of his sentence. I hope he can make good comedic use of his experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post not about religion shock!

Just for a change I thought I’d post something a little less controversial, though I’m sure there are some Daily Mail readers who would take umbrage at the sentiment in this song by Mitch Benn. If, however, you like this song click here to go to a site where you can share the video with others, through Facebook and several other outlets.