Tuesday 26 May 2009

CiF Commentator:'You....You Big Meanies!'

Joan Smith in 'CiF' has a self-pitying whinge column up on the 'hounding' of those poor, poor MPs:
Until now, I have not written a word on this subject. My partner is an MP, along with many of my friends. I did not want to become involved in arguments about who claimed what allowance, and that isn't my intention now. But in the past few days I have talked to MPs who have been abused in person and by email, who have been spat on in the street and pursued by angry constituents screaming "you piece of scum". Even if they haven't been listed in the Telegraph, they have been accused of being liars, cheats and thieves.
Well, Joan, that's probably because they are expecting their names to appear in the next 'Telegraph' exposure, and want to get in first!
It doesn't matter whether you are a minor television celebrity, a former glamour model or a politician; anyone who ventures into public life may find themselves the ­target of a degree of vitriol ­disproportionate to any offence they are deemed to have caused. Now it is happening to MPs and the degree of loathing is the same whether there is evidence of fraud or the person concerned has merely used (as even David Cameron has done) a now discredited expenses system.
Hey, if they couldn't stand the heat, Joan, perhaps they shouldn't have got into the kitchen with the intent of gorging themselves on the contents of the fridge and stealing all the cutlery. Should they?

And here comes the hyperbole:
The sense that we are in the midst of a crisis has been stoked by banner headlines – it is as if 9/11 has happened every single day for the last two and a half weeks – and people have been encouraged to believe that we are governed by a uniquely corrupt political class that requires condign punishment.
You are really comparing this to 9/11, Joan? Really?

Because I'm having a bit of trouble reconciling the deaths of innocent people due to murdering terrorist scum as being in any way, shape or form like the justified wrath of the public on learning that their elected representatives have been living high on the hog on taxpayer's money. Maybe it's just me, though...
But rightwing commentators hate Labour governments, and they were ready to risk undermining public confidence in the entire political system to discredit the Labour party.
I hate to disabuse you of your cherished victim complex, but blaming the 'rightwingers' for lifting the lid on the whole sorry mess isn't going to fly, given that the blame and shame seems to have been equally spread amongst the parties...

But there's no stopping her, she's on a roll:
In this uniquely poisonous atmosphere, years of conscientious public service count for nothing; decent people are being terrorised out of public life and the ­perverse consequence is likely to be their replacement by a motley collection of minor celebrities, ­attention-seekers and outright fascists. Democracy itself is under threat, not ­because a handful of MPs have behaved greedily but because the public reaction has been (and continues to be) hysterical. The spectacle of a House of Commons populated by TV celebrities, ­obsessives who blame the EU for everything, and members of the BNP, fills me with horror.
Me too. But I'm not blaming the public for that, Joan sweetie. I'm blaming the corrupt MPs who have used the expenses system to feather their own nests, oblivious to the problems they were storing up for themselves, smug in the knowledge that no-one would find out. You see, I'm not the sort of person who blames the victim of a robbery for reacting to it with justified anger.

But I see you are:
The British public – not all of them, but the smug guardians of morality who are enjoying this crisis so much – say they are disgusted by the behaviour of our elected representatives. Let me say that it works both ways: for the first time in my life, I am sick of my country. I am sick of the daily undermining of democracy, and sick of the sadistic pleasure people take in humiliating decent public servants. Even so, I will go on urging my friend not to give up her seat. She is a brilliant constituency MP, and I don't believe anyone should give in to bullies.
Now, that really takes the biscuit!

'Bullies'..? Who's been doing the bullying for the last few years, Joan? Pub smoking bans, hunt bans, green inititatves, waste disposal rules, restrictions on photography, on demonstrating outside Parliament without a licence (unless you are a Tamil, it seems), threats to cut off treatment for 'lifestyle' illnesses, dire warnings on drinkers and the 'obese', the harassment of motorists, etc.

I could go on, but I think most people get the point.

Not you, though Joan. You'll never get the point, no mattter how slowly and clearly it's explained to you. Will you?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

"the daily undermining of democracy"

Well, I wonder who was doing that, then?

Not the moat-cleaners and duck-housers, according to our Joan?

They still don't get it, do they?

Dr Evil said...

So very well put.

Decent public servants? A few are, but most are tainted by this scandal. I don't give a flying rats ass if they are 'upset'. It's not a Labour government I object too, albeit one voted in by a minority of voters who obviously were totally bonkers the second time around, it's a useless, venal, corrupt government I object to. One that is obsessed with taxation, obsessed with spending a colossal amout of money and one obsessed with beggaring this country. One obsessed with filling this country with third world immigrants who have no links with this country and who do not understand simple things like the rule of law.

So yes, I do have a real problem with navel gazing, troughing MPs who create hate laws against the population of this country and who remain totally insulated from all their nasty laws that have been imposed on the rest of us. Politicians are pretty much all scum that need sweeping from office. Have they not heard about things such as morality, probity, honour and the like? This is what we oiks expect from those who rule the roost, on our behalf. Some should by rights be swinging from lamposts, not hiding out on duck islands.

Mark Wadsworth said...

"Smug guardians of morality"? Does she mean the bansturbators and quangista who frequent CiF?

Macheath said...

'for the first time in my life, I am sick of my country'Well, Ms Smith, there's an easy answer to that, isn't there?

Incidentally, I'd keep a rather lower profile on this issue, if I were you; when you are, as Wikipedia has it, 'romatically involved' with an MP, odds are you have indirectly derived at least some benefit from the expenses system yourself.

And how exactly do you expect us to regard these 'representatives of the people', who decide economic policy while holding vast property portfolios, or who legislate on immigration and the minimum wage while employing an army of cleaners, nannies and gardeners?


JuliaM; it's done my blood pressure no good at all, but an excellent post nevertheless!

Tom Paine said...

"...a handful of MPs..."

She has a big hand.

Obnoxio The Clown said...

What a complete hoon.

I reckon the CiF commentators are going to have her in shreds by lunch.

Anonymous said...

She's the partner of Denis MacShane MP. Trough-piggy:
Daily Mail

JuliaM said...

Yes, she does seem to be coming off worst at the hands of the CiF commentariat, doesn't she...? ;)

David McShane, eh..? That explains a lot...

JuliaM said...

Denis, even!

Anonymous said...

Joan Smith hypocrisy's is so annoying. How she has "monstered" members of the Royal Family in her Guardian columns, and her targeting of them is arguably "of a degree of vitrioli disproportionate to any offence they are deemed to have caused". Here is Joan Smith on Princes William and Harry: "the character and behaviour of Princes William and Harry would render them almost comically unsuitable candidates for the role of head of state. They are disqualified by their snobbery, their sense of entitlement, and their spendthrift attitude to public money – not to mention the fact that they're not very bright". Here's another Joan Smith anti-Royal Family diatribe: "All the bronze statues in the world cannot conceal the fact that the nation's favourite granny was an unashamed bigot". As the saying goes, "people who live in chateaux, shouldn't throw tomateaux". I wish Ms Smith would shut up.

JuliaM said...

Oh, she's a real prize, isn't she?

Anonymous said...

Apparently according to a respondent to Joan Smith's article in the Guardian today, her partner "has been accused of claiming £125,000 in expenses over the last 7 years to use his garage as his constituency office. Amongst other things. Also his voting record indicates he was rather against the freedom of information bill counting for him."

Mark said...

JuliaM- thanks for retrieving this pathetic whinge from CiF, a site famous for its pure bilge content.
When she wrote of Harry & William's 'sense of entitlement, and their spendthrift attitude to public money' was she actually writing in code about her 'partner' Porky MacShane ?

Anonymous said...

Of course you realise that the Guardian Media Group are just laughing at us as we drive hits to their site.

This stupid woman (like PollyT) is just a troll, writing stories that annoy, yet drive readership upwards.

Just ignore them.

Anonymous said...

On the offchance that Joan Smith finds your article and reads the public comments:

- Fuck off you parasite.

Timothy Wallace said...

I'm only enjoying the expenses scandal because I've always assumed the worst of our MPs, and this confirms my usual suspicions - is joan that surprised? After all, they've desperately tried to keep it secret for so long, I'm determined to enjoy the squirming now.

Von Spreuth. said...

I am sick of the daily undermining of democracy, and sick of the sadistic pleasure people take in humiliating decent public servants.No lassie, you lost the right to THAT title the secoind you became a thieving, lying piece of slimy filthy scum, who if I stood in you on the street, I would shoot the nerarest dog owner.

Bereft of nonour you are a common THIEF.

If you were a council scheme living chav, complete with plasma T.V, the press would be calling for your head on a plate. You are SHITE. Not worthy of being pissed on if on fire.

Go away, you annoy me.

Von Brandenburg-Preußen.