"Oh No, They're Onto Us!"

 It seems some progressives are sensing which way the wind's blowing...

The exchange set in motion a predictable chain of events: Fox began a tour of Britain’s TV and podcast studios, making a series of increasingly reactionary and attention-seeking statements. Across left-leaning social media, meanwhile, Fox was mocked with a mix of amusement, disdain and pity.

And that was noted. What was also noted was that the man on the Clapham Omnibus...wasn't mocking. He was agreeing.

But the Left think that's something they can brush off, to stay cocooned in their little bubble. Ellie, however, is aware of the pitfalls of this approach:

But focusing on the shallowness of Fox’s opinions elides the most important element of the Question Time spectacle: the fact that a significant chunk of the audience groaned as soon as the phrase “white privilege” was uttered. Fox was not the only person in that studio who was weary of contemporary antiracist discourse, and he wasn’t the only person willing to show it.

The fact that she describes this as 'more people willing to show it' is the key: the Left is losing its power to scold and silence.

They can't say they weren't warned - call everything you don't like 'racist' and pretty soon, people stop reflexively cringing at that word.

...the idea that ordinary people are being driven into the arms of authoritarianism because of an excitable article they read on the internet is facile – and any progressives adopting it should ask themselves why they are parroting arguments that are largely advanced by the far right.

Ah, yes, the progressives see the hand of the 'far right' behind everything. But it's not 'far right' to think that the constant denigration of the majority population is not helping discourse, is it?

Progressives need to wise up to the fact that they are losing this argument and decide what they are going to do in response.

I think they have decided, Ellie; it's 'double down and keep on sneering'.

I've Found It! Peak 'Guardian'!

 *boggle*

It’s always baffled me, the idea that somebody applying powder on the train has the potential to upset – I often have to clench my fists to avoid applauding the marvellous contouring work I see underground at 9am – and I still don’t quite believe it. Instead, I’m inclined to think there’s something darker at play...

 Well, of course you do. You only have a hammer, why wouldn't you see only nails?

This week, my favourite MP, Stella Creasy, persuaded the government to fund a review by the Law Commission into hate crimes – it’s the first time misogyny has been recognised as a form of hate requiring a legislative framework to address. And while the public transport issue she was talking about was harassment, such as taking photos up a person’s skirt, I feel there’s a thread between the two, a fine rope of disdain for women.

Newsflash, love: I don't want to see a man putting on makeup on the Tube either!

...on my way to a meeting in town last week, I bought a jambon beurre from Pret a Manger, the most elegant of its offerings I’d argue, and indeed have, many times. It was around 2pm I think, and waiting on the train platform I propped myself against a wall and prepared to unwrap it. I was feeling slightly light-headed at this point, my body being one of those that requires a relentless routine of watering and refuelling, and while it’s not my regular choice of lunch spot, I needed to eat. I had the sandwich about an inch from my mouth when I was filled suddenly with a chalky kind of doom. I’d remembered the Facebook group Women Who Eat on Tubes, full of creep shots of unsuspecting women with their own frantic lunches, and then gently returned it to my bag.

Oh! I get it now. You're mad.

When You Begin To Wonder What They Are Putting In The 'Guardian' Watercooler...

Eh...? Who...?

*googles*

OK, Suzanne, how the hell does the death of some 'rap star' in the US (probably by another 'rap star') show anything at all about UK drug policy?

*reads article*

Another tormented genius has gone. New drugs and new music, perhaps. But the same old story. The torments are actually carried out on the broken bodies of women and gay men. “Troubled” masculinity kicks down, always down. Into the darkest places of all.

Nope. I'm none the wiser.

At Last! Someone Speaks Truth To Power!

'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' Finally CiF can no longer hide what we all know is self-evident truth.

As a child I was taught that silence was golden. On our way to assembly the teachers would make us press our fingers over our lips so only the sound of us padding to the hall could be heard. The local vicar stood at the front of the class every year at Lent to tell us that Jesus was silent in the face of his accusers. He would tell us that silence “can be more eloquent than a speech and louder than a shout”.

He would draw on the passage from St Matthew’s Gospel in which, after his betrayal and arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus is brought before Pilate, and refuses to answer his questions. I was confused by the silence of Jesus – why didn’t he speak out? Of course, various interpretations have read this silence as a way of wresting power back from Pilate. But as a child the message was clear to me: silence was strength; and in the face of adversity or abuse, it was dignified.

*blinks*

Ah. I might have known, really...

It's Not Hard At All...

The advice of almost every charity is never to give to beggars; in the words of the Big Issue’s founder, John Bird, “It locks the beggar in a downward spiral of abject dependency and victimhood, where all self-respect, honesty and hope are lost.”

Most beggars – as many as 80% – are doing so to fund a drug habit. Better instead to give money to charities, say the charities, so that they can fund drop-in centres and other projects that have a chance of changing the beggar’s life.

There’s something unreal about this position, however: when you have so much more than the person asking for it, refusing money can be hard.

No, actually. It isn't. Thousands of us have to do it every day, when we are accosted by obviously-addicted beggars.

What I notice is that the beggar and the begged-from are far less separate than before. Often, a young woman will kneel down to talk to a ragged man or walk out of her way to fetch him a coffee. Friendships of a kind have been formed. Perhaps a feeling is dawning: we’re in the same boat.

No, we aren't. And thankfully, we never will be.

Well, I Think The Answer Might Be Written Down Somewhere, Kathleen...

Weekly, I have to feed six to seven people three meals a day. I do it on about £50 a week, sometimes £65, sometimes less than £30. It all depends what I have left in the bank after I have paid everything I need to pay.

Oh, you poor thing!

The only thing stopping me from cooking wonderful meals packed full of vegetables and healthy things is cost. I can cook, so can all of my children. I can’t afford to cook as I wish to do.

*stifles a tear*

Stuff I know will be eaten. Risk-free food I know won’t end up in the bin. When I have just £2 in my pocket, it’s not the time to experiment and find out whether my 13-year-old would appreciate a quinoa-and-aubergine bake.

Errr, hang on. If you're 'in poverty', you eat what you can get, don't you? Because you're hungry....

No, no. Mustn't let doubt creep in! Pray, continue...

It’s not a class problem. It’s a financial problem. We all want the best for our children. We just need to be able to afford to put the building blocks in place.

And what cruel capitalist corporation is paying you poverty wages, Kathleen? What unfeeling big business is preventing you from keeping body & soul together by not paying you what you're worth?

Kathleen Kerridge is an author of LGBT fantasy fiction

Ah. I guess that doesn't pay as well as you hoped? I don't suppose you've considered getting a proper job? No?

Didn't think so.

Remember This Column Next Time The 'Guardian' Runs A Story....

...about people abusing the emergency services:

I called an ambulance myself last month. I’d developed flu complications suddenly after work and couldn’t breathe. In central London on a Friday night, I knew the service would be strained but, as the minutes went on, I worried whether they would get to me in time. I ended up calling 999 three times due to the wait; in the end, paramedics got to me after about 45 minutes (time blurs when you can’t breathe).

Yes, it's everyone's favourite shroud-waver, Frances Ryan there, who admits to calling repeatedly for an ambulance because she 'couldn't breathe'. For 45 minutes.

Which must be some sort of new record.

I was lucky in the end. I was at least well enough to take myself to A&E a day later for the tests I needed and had the family support to recover at home. But I can’t help but be struck by a worrying thought: rather than the NHS being a safety net, nowadays it’s as if it isn’t safe to be sick.

Clearly it is, because you're still gobbing off in the CiF columns.

Funny Sort Of 'Privilege', Gaby...

Gaby Hinsliff in 'CiF' decides she was wrong to sneer at people who used the phrase 'check your privilege':

If you can read this, you’re privileged compared to the 15% of Britons who aren’t functionally literate, and so should think twice before making snotty assumptions about people who don’t follow the news.

I mean, one that can easily be overcome for free, by simple learning....

It's Not 'Austerity' Making Alex Sicker, Is It, Frances?

The 44-year-old – who has multiple complex disabilities and mental health problems – is in many ways living proof of beating the system. After four years of living in inaccessible social housing, Alex has a bit of dignity and safety. But I can’t help but think for a so-called civilised 21st century nation, there isn’t much to celebrate. In Alex’s words: “It feels like I’m still not living. Still trapped, made sicker by austerity.”

Alex’s story starts seven months ago in a cramped top-floor flat in Islington, north London. It’s the sort of story that could be happening to your neighbour right now – and embodies the pointless cruelty meted out in recent years by politicians to citizens who dare to be disabled.

Yes, clearly, the current government is hell-bent on making lives like Alex's far worse. For no other reason than shits n' giggles, apparently.

Say, what's wrong with Alex, anyway?

A spinal and head injury, degenerative hands and feet and chronic fatigue mean Alex needs both a wheelchair and a hoist to move safely around their home. (Alex wishes to be referred to as “they”.)

*blinks* Ummm, right. Clearly, this isn't going to be fixed any time soon, even if the council do get their finger out.

The council? I thought we were railing against the heartless Tories? Well, Frances is, because that's all Frances does, ever!

But it's actually the council that's screwing up here. You know, the ones the progressives always want to throw more money at.

Even when the council found a ground-floor flat for Alex in the spring, after three months the adaptations still hadn’t been completed for them to move in.

No doubt 'austerity' will be to blame for this, not the legendary sloth and incompetence of local government.

Even when Alex moved in to the new flat, the council still hadn’t put in a video intercom, non-fluorescent lighting and anti-slip flooring – seemingly minor things that for Alex mean vomiting, debilitating migraines and losing consciousness.

Alex, I'm afraid, seems to be too sick to live in the normal world. But thanks to progressive mental health policy, fortunes must be spent to help her do so:

As the new year approaches, Alex can’t help but think of the battles still ahead. Sitting in the new flat, Alex has calculated that universal credit will see their benefits cut by up to £80 a week. At the same time, like thousands of other disabled people, Alex will have to go through an assessment for personal independence payment – something that’s simply ”terrifying”.

“I thought moving in, this fight was over,” Alex tells me. “But because of austerity, you have to fight for everything.”

You have to 'fight for everything' regardless, and always will, because of your complex issues. Issues that would be better off in a controlled environment like a mental hospital.

But that was blown out of the water by progressives like Frances, who demand that people unable to live in the real world should be allowed, nay, encouraged to do so.

"Wait, It's Still Breaking The Law If We Do It For A 'Good Cause'..?"

Yup! Welcome to reality. Hurts, doesn't it?

Make Up Your Minds, Ladies!

At gal-dem we are inundated with irrelevant requests for comment, advice and guidance from white people; and it’s tiring, these tokenistic faux attempts at diversity. Even as I was writing this piece I received yet another email from a journalist looking for a comment on a topic I do not care about. I have been asked only because I am a “black” voice, not because I have any expertise on the subject.

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff there, bewailing the terrible situation whereby the media come to a black feminist magazine for quotes. The same media she's always slamming for 'ignoring people of colour'.

Ever get the feeling you just can't win? Especially with someone who can take offence at a restaurant menu...

Well, Jonathan, There's Some Good Suggestions Below The Line...

These are not the robots of science fiction past, lumbering towards us, their arms stiff and eyes cold. They are unseen, ghosts in the machine. But they are exerting enormous influence on our lives. They understand our foibles, poke at our fears, keep us hooked to our screens – and are now involved in raising our children and picking our leaders in ways we would never have chosen.

Run away! Run away! THE ALGORITHMS ARE COMING!!!

As individuals, we can assert ourselves. Don’t let Twitter or Facebook “curate” your news feed; go to settings and select “show most recent”, rather than what the algorithm regards as the “top” items.

Wait, so the answer is there at our fingertips? Hmmmm. So why the panic?

We’re used to raging at politicians or bureaucrats, in the way that our forebears railed against princes and kings. But today the masters of so much of our universe are invisible strings of ones and zeroes and the corporations that own them. They’re shaping our lives much more than Brussels ever did. We need to take back control.

Oh, if only there was some advice we could heed that wo...

Oh. There is.

*gasp* Such a novel concept!

If So, He's Clearly Been Sharing Them With Afua...

Gotta love CiF!

Guardian Column ‘Why Immigrants Are Better Than Us’ No 23984568

You say that you feel a level of patriotism towards Britain, but that it’s a very dysfunctional country when it comes to race.

I say that I enjoy a level of patriotism that only immigrants can really have, as we have the objectivity of living elsewhere. That’s the crux of it. But the conversation that we have about race in this country is pushed to absurdity, as it’s always taken to extremes. The moderate opinion – which is usually the most prevalent one – isn’t heard as much. It’s the more extreme voices that are allowed to be heard and that makes moderates feel uneasy about discussing it.

Why do I think he's not talking about the extreme left wing voices here..?

Oh, 'Guardian', Everyone Grows Up Sometime....

...even Morrisey:

Thirty years after the Smiths broke up, the 58-year-old’s reputation is in dire shape, and not for musical reasons. His albums are still well received and he remains a passionate live performer with enough diehard fans to fill stadiums. No, the problem is what he says.

*gasps* You mean, he's started to have opinions you don't agree with? Under the bus with him!

Ten years ago Morrissey was quoted in the NME as complaining about immigration: “Although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.”

So, something a lot of people outside the 'Guardian' offices would agree with?

He sued the magazine for defamation (“I abhor racism and oppression or cruelty of any kind”) and donated £28,000 to Love Music Hate Racism, but the case was settled and the quotes were never retracted. In 2010 he called the Chinese “a subspecies” due to their mistreatment of animals. In 2013 he said he nearly voted for Ukip and liked Nigel Farage “a great deal”. He has described Brexit to an Australian website as “magnificent”.

Fetch the sal volatile, quick!

Such comments have exhausted the patience of many longtime devotees with progressive political views.

I'm surprised to hear that, not least because 'patience' and 'progressive political views' aren't known to go together...

On the Etsy website you can buy a tote bag bearing the words: “Shut up, Morrissey!”

Well, of course you can. Because the answer to speech you don'y like is... errr....

“Now I find that he’s a sledgehammer provocateur who seems to have much in common with ‘paid to write spite’ columnists,” says the comedian, broadcaster and disillusioned fan Robin Ince.

“I was drawn to him because he was writing about humanity when I was young and trying to work out how to be a human. Now his view of humanity makes him a hard listen. The disappointment is my own fault. We elevate when we are young and then ignore the warning signs for years.”

Some might say you elevate when you are young and then you grow up and realise the old fogeys have a point. Unless, of course, you don't grow up.

You Can Almost Smell The Baffled Incredulity...

The ordinance didn’t even faze Shirley Miller, an Englishwoman who moved from Essex to be with her American husband. She said her adjustment was easy for the most part.

At this point, one feels the CiF columnist hired to write the usual hoplophobic screed is scratching his or her head. Not fazed by guns? How can this be?

Coming from a small village to the east of London, Great Wakering, she finds small-town England and small-town America mostly alike, except for Nucla’s blazing, dusty summers and, of course, its bounteous guns. That aside, Nucla’s culture is not so different from small English villages, Miller said: the lack of diversity; the mix of open-mindedness and old prejudice among the residents.

Hmmm, why should 'the lack of diversity' be considered as disturbing as a proliferation of firearms?

There have been small adjustments. She imports her Tesco and Yorkshire tea by mail, along with the occasional package of sultanas and Marmite, and each year she lets a friend’s sheep graze in the empty pasture by her house, adding a nice pastoral touch to the property.

Still, our intrepid guide forges on:

She refuses to say a word against the gun ordinance.

“Although I come from a culture where there are no guns, and it’s different here, I don’t see the problem here in Nucla,” she said diplomatically.

“If I were living in the city [these gun laws] would worry me. Here it doesn’t,” she said before adding wryly: “There is no crossfire here.”

Once can only imagine the look on the columnist's face at this point!

I Wonder Who Decides Which Articles Don't Get Opened For Comment On 'CiF'..?

Last week the latest homeless figures revealed that black and minority ethnic (BME) communities are bearing the brunt of seven years of rising homelessness. The statistics reveal that 36% of people accepted as statutorily homeless by local authorities in England during 2016-17 were from a BME background: close to three times their representation in the population.

Isn't that almost exactly their representation in the justice system too? And I don't mean on the right side of the dock!

What is surprising is how little this disproportionate level of housing need on racial grounds has registered in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, where the majority of residents were from a BME background.

Oh, it's registered, chum! Believe me, it's registered...

BME households are more likely than white ones to experience housing stress, such as overcrowding, poorer quality housing and fuel poverty, and to be more concentrated in England’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

So what possible conclusion are you coming to? I wonder, I do indeed wonder...

Institutional racism has played a continuing role in perpetuating racial discrimination and disadvantage in housing.

Ah. Of course. There it is!

Residential qualifications have returned to the social housing system through the Localism Act 2011. And choice-based lettings approaches have reduced BME community access to social housingwhere applicants to social housing can choose to compete for a vacant home (usually online), rather than through housing needs-based approaches to allocating homes are also shown to indirectly disadvantages BME communities. We know that policies like these only sustain the persistence of racial discrimination in England’s housing system. If we want to correct this, we need to start talking about institutional racism in our housing system again.

That 'if' in your last sentence is doing a lot of work.

This Article Tells Us A Lot About You...

...and not an awful lot about pressure in the A&E:

When I say that I fleetingly think about the drive home, it’s not because I’m counting down the hours until I finish. I’m thinking more along the lines of, “I am knackered. How am I going to drive home without crashing into a tractor or something?” You start to think about your own mortality. It’s not a baseless fear – 57% of doctors in the position have said they’ve had an accident or near-miss. When I first started working in north Wales I lived around 25 minutes away from the hospital, requiring a run home on the A55. It’s full of fast-moving trucks, and negotiating those after a set of nights is possibly one of my most terrifying experiences. All my car windows were open, whatever the weather, the radio was on loud and I was forcing myself to sing along to every single song. I’d crawl at 40mph to the annoyance of everyone, because I didn’t trust myself to stay awake – and if I did crash then at least speed wouldn’t be a factor in the trauma I might suffer or bring to someone else. I’d pull over, try to cat nap – whatever it took to get home intact. I moved closer because the fear of that drive home was mounting and I guessed it would be only a matter of time before there was an accident. The nightshifts were exhausting and as the A&E registrar in charge of the shop floor, the pressure was relentless. By 8am I was a ghost of myself.

You poor thing! You must be exhausted, and have no time to...

Wait.

I have a dual career – as a doctor and a film-maker/journalist.

You've got time to write columns for 'CiF' and make films for every leftie cause going?

When I am working a late shift within the media I will be entitled to a taxi home. There will be hot food available somewhere in the building and plenty of breakout spaces to grab a rest. The following day, when working a nightshift in A&E, where I’ll be responsible for patients, making life-or-death decisions and possibly not sitting down for 10 hours, I won’t have the same facilities.

Then you know which career suits you best, don't you?

Before training to be a doctor I was an army officer and yet again, facilities existed to ensure comfort after hard work.

You've had a lot of roles in life. Is it because you're eternally dissatisfied with your lot?

You Have To Be Quick To Beat The Mods!

I know Finsbury Park well. My Algerian husband is from the area and he prays in the mosque that was attacked. The recent attack on London Bridge and Borough market was carried out by men from Barking. I was born in Barking. It’s all feels so close to home.

 Hmmm, really? How would you know, since you spend so little time here?

As a humanitarian doctor and filmmaker I have worked mainly overseas, often in war zones.

 A bit of background would be ni...

Oh!

Well, damn!

Well, 50% Accuracy Is Nothing To Be Sneezed At...

....eh, 'Comment Is Free'?