Intermission

Should probably have put this up before I went on holiday, but thought there should be SOMETHING  here while I catch up on email, other people’s blogs  and tweets, newspapers and other sources of infomation and get ready to start all over again.

Or possibly I’ll just ignore everything that happened whle I was away (very nice, thank you for asking).  If  it was important it will probably crop up again eventually.

Eulalie

There is no point throwing eggs at Nick Griffin.  Just crack jokes over him.  He’s a ridiculous little man who should be allowed to prove how stupid he is  in debate.    

I’ve been wondering who he reminded me of and it suddenly dawned – he’s Roderick Spode minus the ladies underwear (I assume, although I suppose you never know…)

The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting “Heil, Spode!” and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: “Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?”

 

Hating the Daily Mail – a game for all the family

Read over someone’s shoulder on the tube an ad  in Metro for today’s Daily Mail:  “What to do when your daughter is obsessed with her weight - AT JUST SEVEN?” .  And I think we can all agree that poor body image, an obsession with weight and diet and an unhealthy fixation on being thin are a curse affecting women from an increasingly young  age.

 Can I suggest that one answer for the writer of the article is “don’t ever let her look at the Daily Mail”?  Yesterday’s Metro (seen the same way, I never actually pick the damn thing up) carried an ad for the Mail crowing:  “The brilliant article all women should read – what’s YOUR fat age?”  Apparently Carol Vorderman is really 48 but has a fat age of 50 – evidently got some work to do, eh Carol?  I looked at the site to get the link and saw that the top picture on the home page is of actress Kirstie Alley (or “bloated yo-yo dieter Kirstie Alley” as they describe her) grimly promising to get back into her bikini.

Why any woman should read the Mail – far less write for it – is a mystery to me.  It hates us for being too fat and too thin; for worrying too much about our weight and for not caring enough;  for going out to work thus neglecting our children and for staying at home and wasting our potential.  It thinks we dress too young for our age and too frumpily, and  is constantly on guard to warn us about the horrible diseases of mind and body that we poor weak creatures are prone too. 

The Mail is so successful among women that we must really like this stuff.  Perhaps the female equivalent of Englishmen  who like to be spanked is women who like to be told by Paul Dacre that they are rubbish. I remember reading an interview by Irma Kurtz, who used to write the agony column for Cosmo in the UK and US edition.  She said that the big difference between the two sets of readers was that while  an American would ask “why on  earth is my boyfriend treating me like this?” the Brits would ask “what did I do wrong to make my boyfriend treat me like this?”  But at least the Mail is always on hand to  point out our errors. As it said in my favourite  Mail headline of all time, last summer “Why single women who think they’re happy are WRONG”  (I can’t find a link to prove that this is true but it is. I put “single women who think” into the Mail search engine and the page crashed…)

Not with a bang

‘Cause if the swine flu doesn’t get you, the global warming will.

 

Why don’t you?

As well as being Burns Night and my Dad’s birthday (happy birthday, Dad), today is the last Sunday in January, which means it’s Internet-Free day as designated by the Global Ideas Bank because – well let them explain:

Why an Internet-Free Day?

- Because there’s no replacing face-to-face interaction with real humans,  we are social animals
- Because you can’t get your five a day from e-mails
- Because you can’t subscribe to an RSS feed from your grandma
- Because people’s faces are clearer in reality than YouTube
- Because your Blackberry is surgically attached to your hand…
- Because we all need a bit of R&R: reality and reflection
- Because if this has riled you, you really need it….

In case you’re wondering, I’m not here – this was set up on Friday to flip up on the site on Sunday.  Now I just have to see if I can resist the temptation to log on for 24 hours.  See you Monday.

Here Comes The Past

The standout sentence of the weekend’s papers for me (before I gave up reading  and took refuge in drink) was John Simpson’s assertion that we’re heading back to the 14th century - generally accepted as the worst ever century to be alive in the history of the world.   So that’s famine, the Black Death, a new 100 Years War, a Peasant’s Revolt (count me in) and religious schism in Europe to look forward to.  On the plus side it looks like a great time to be a warrior woman, or install some energy efficient central heating ; and narrative poetry is probably well overdue a comeback.  This does, of course, have absolutely nothing to do with communications or new media, other than proving yet again what a truly fantastic resource Google is for those moments when you REALLY  don’t want to start work on the accounts…

Matters of life and death

It’s the  60th annivesary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights this month (December 10th, to be precise).  Looking round the planet it seems that we still have a way to go to make a reality of the idea that  “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”  Still, as the founders of Amnesty pointed out, it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. So here is a short list of no-effort-required ways to use the power of your internet connection to fight the good fight.  Now,  flex those social networks and pass it on:

Read the Declaration to see what it’s  all about;   join Amnesty - and support their greetings card campaign;  support Reprieve which fights against the death penalty; pick an issue which really makes your blood boil and find out more about it (personally, mine are Burma and Zimbabwe, so there are a couple of links for starters), and keep an eye on what’s happening at home too

Thanks.  Normal PR-based services will be resumed in the next post…