'We have listened as our daughter was portrayed as being a drunken liability when, in all honesty, she did no more than what many teenagers do of a weekend - she went out to celebrate her friend’s birthday.
'The only liability that night was a train guard whom Georgia had the catastrophic misfortune to encounter.
'For he had very little, if any, regard at all for our daughter and her safety.'Well, it is Liverpool, and they don't call it 'Self Pity City' for nothing, do they? It's always someone else's fault, someone's always to blame, no matter how blitzed the victim is.
A blood analysis following her death showed she had 236mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in her system - the legal driving limit is 80mg.
She also had 0.083mg of the drug mephedrone, or Mcat, in her system at the time of her death.I wonder if Mrs Redmond will have the decency not to complain the next time her train is late because guards terrified for their jobs won't let them leave the station if anyone's closer to them than a few feet, just in case they too are far too drunk to be cognisant of their own safety?
Or run shrieking to the newspapers if the railways decide (and who could blame them?) that catastrophically drunk passengers are too much of a liability and so refuse them entry at the ticket barriers?
Probably not.
I think the Liverpool thing has been done to death by Anna Raccoon, who was wrong when she castigated that city, but has redeeming features. Like, she is a much better writer than you and most of the time comes over as a human being.
ReplyDeleteAnna claimed to be born and bred in Liverpool, which is pushing the truth more than a bit. You have probably never been near the place but you'll mouth off anyway.
Good luck with that sour puss.
Eh! Eh! Calm down! Calm down!
ReplyDeleteSo, article is about another whining anyone-but-me-to-blame Liverpudlian.
ReplyDeleteFirst comment is from a whining anyone-but-me-to-blame Liverpudlian.
Irony much?
''You have probably never been near the place but you'll mouth off anyway''
ReplyDeleteExactly which part of the internet don't you understand?
Biker, I'm not from Liverpool. I have visited though.
ReplyDelete'geewiz', the part of the internet I don't understand is people like you. You make no sense.
The problem with stereotypes is that they generally contain at least a grain and sometimes a entire debilitating stone of truth. I have been to Liverpool and I have met and worked with many Liverpudlians including many self-proclaimed Scousers. And rather too many of them subscribed to the "I'm a Scouser, I'm special" and "I'm a Scouser. Everybody's against us. It's not fur" tropes.
ReplyDeleteNot all, by any means, but enough to establish it as a recognizable cultural marker.
Look at it this way. Nigerians have a reputation for a certain "flexibility" about financial propriety. Entirely unfair of course. After all, many of them are fine upstanding Christian people. On the other hand, I have known and worked with a fair number of Nigerians too. And I've not met one I would trust with my or my company's money. Corruption and financial chicanery seems to be part of their culture.
Just as whingeing seems to be embedded in the Scouse culture. Kudos to those that rise above it.
I hadn't heard this story before so when I clicked the link I was quite shocked to read he had actually been jailed for five years.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show just how easily the state can take our lives away from us when we are just minding our own business and getting on with life.
I have a lot of sympathy right now for that train guard.
I have none for the girls family. That would be different if they hadn't just wrecked another life and another family out of vengeance.
I think the Liverpool thing has been done to death by Anna Raccoon
ReplyDeleteOh she was spot-on too knowing full well there is a MASSIVE difference between "Liverpudlians" and "Scousers".
The only thing Julia is a tad skew wiff on is the fact that both families in this article are from over the water...The Wirral...home of the "Plastic Scouser".
It's contagious, yer see, this self-pitying whinging and a mile of open border of murky Mersey does sweet FA to contain it and there's no quarantine around the docks. So the Plastics do it just as much but with an ever-so-slightly slightly less nasal accent. Depends on how foggy it gets.
Thanks for publicising this Julia. I've known the train guard since we were teenagers getting merry on Merrydown in the local park. A consistent theme on local forums...from everyone and anyone that knew him...is that this man did not have a malicious bone in his body.
The curly-haird cheeky teen is reduced to an ashen-faced bald old man haggard with the weight of his own conscience. Compare and contrast with the heavily made up face, blow dried hair and minidress of "the grieving mother".
Court is a day out round here.
The biggest irony here has to be that...even in a similair state ourselves aged 16 so many years ago now...the very last thing we would EVER do is attempt to go off travelling around the vicinity never mind get on a frickin train and rampage across the water.
Conscious of own safety ? Conscious of own responsibility not to be nuisance, cause any trouble for other people or commit the sin of getting arrested ? Conscious of our own vulnerability having grown up in a crime-ridden area ? Conscious of our own liability (yes it did used to exist) and the very real possibility of our parents finding out...and killing us if we didn't manage to do it to ourselves first ?
Yep, all of the above.
He got five years...which if you think about it is small comfort for the loss of a life and so makes a complete mockery of his supposed guilt...but her parents should have been in the dock with him.
They failed their daughter miserably. The "everyone else is doing it" kind of bullshit didn't wash with MY parents ...or 'Gee's.
So too his employers should be in the dock. Where were the massively overpaid Merseytravel Spin Department when it came to defending their employee ? Nah, he was in the wrong tax bracket for that.
I'd better stop now...apologies for the rant....dark room and a lie down now methinks...
"You have probably never been near the place.."
ReplyDeleteOh, I've visited it quite a bit for business, though never pleasure.
I have to say, each time has merely confirmed and solidified my expectations of it.
"Eh! Eh! Calm down! Calm down!"
*grins*
"'geewiz', the part of the internet I don't understand is people like you. You make no sense."
Really?
"The problem with stereotypes is that they generally contain at least a grain and sometimes a entire debilitating stone of truth."
Well, indeed. That is, after all, how stereotypes form, like an oyster creating a pearl...
"...so when I clicked the link I was quite shocked to read he had actually been jailed for five years."
ReplyDeleteI know - when I wrote it, he was still awaiting sentence. I hoped for no more than a token year or two, but FIVE!?!
"The biggest irony here has to be that...even in a similair state ourselves aged 16 so many years ago now...the very last thing we would EVER do is attempt to go off travelling around the vicinity never mind get on a frickin train and rampage across the water."
I think a far bigger irony is that, if he'd been the one drunk and, say, driving a vehicle that ran over a pedestrian, it'd have been a harsh judge that gave him five years!
I hope he appeals and wins.
"So too his employers should be in the dock. Where were the massively overpaid Merseytravel Spin Department when it came to defending their employee ? Nah, he was in the wrong tax bracket for that."
I'm astonished his union aren't calling a strike. I don't normally condone strikes, but when you think how many times Bob Crow has called the Tube workers out in support of members disciplined for safety breaches...
"I think a far bigger irony is that, if he'd been the one drunk and, say, driving a vehicle that ran over a pedestrian, it'd have been a harsh judge that gave him five years!
ReplyDeleteI hope he appeals and wins.
The disparity in sentencing is nothing new and to be honest I don't think even 5 years is long enough when someone has been killed through no fault of their own.
The disparity in behaviour and acceptance of the consequences in this case though are breathtaking.
As for an appeal, Christopher McGee...the man himself if not his legal advisors...was raised in an age where you did accept responsibility and might , on balance, think he should just now resignedly accept his fate.
After all, a girl died and I know he'll personally feel responsible in part for that even if not for the reasons particularly stated in the charges.
You've only got to look at him. His conscience is written all over his face.
I hope his legal advisors go up to bat for him and I hope he lets them. This case sets an alarming precedent which certainly won't stop anyone's darling daughter getting killed in future.