Deliberate Uglification

A heritage railway on the edge of Bristol has sparked controversy after it commissioned three of the city’s most famous street artists to cover one of its vintage carriages in graffiti as if it were a New York subway carriage in the 1970s.

Why? Heritage railways have a unique selling point - nostalgia, a longing for the good old days when grafitti would have been unknown? Whywould anyone want to piss all over that? 

But there has been quite the backlash against the Avon Valley Railway when they revealed the project on their social media. The railway operates as a charity, and runs steam trains up and down a former line across the eastern edge of Bristol that was closed down in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

The firm attempted to rein in the furore that they deliberately caused for no clear benefit in the first place:

Avon Valley Railway had to reassure heritage railway enthusiasts that the windows of the carriage was covered with latex first so the paint can just be peeled off, that the carriage is yet to be restored by the volunteers at the charity so nothing was damaged - and the paint will actually help protect the carriage until it is restored.

“We were delighted to host ‘Inkie’, ‘Jody’ and ‘Cheo’ to our station site at Bitton,” said Mark Hill, the general manager at Avon Valley Railway.

Why? It's as if Sciaperelli attempted to chase the clientele of Primark...

Some Museums Are More Equal Than Others...

Planting a museum in the parkland along Chicago’s waterfront seemed as natural an act, for most of its history, as planting a tree there. That city’s breathtaking waterfront parks are host to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry – a solid majority of the city’s premier cultural institutions.

Chicago remains the place I'd love to visit in the States, and it's mainly for the museums. But others would rather not see them, it seems:

It came as little surprise that George Lucas and other backers then chose a lakefront site for his proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Yet in 2016 their proposal prompted fierce opposition and a lawsuit from a local nonprofit group, Friends of the Parks, that eventually sent the museum all the way to California in search of a home.

So all presumptuous would-be museum builders should think they won't get a warm welcome?

Well...

Less than two months later, the desired location for the Obama Presidential Library was announced – in lakefront Jackson Park. Friends of the Parks won’t be filing a lawsuit against this proposal – but they are once again opposed. Times have changed.

Shocker, eh?

But what's so bad about a museum, a temple of learning and culture, anyway? Well, it seems the grasping hand of the SJWs has reached here, too. They just aren't modern and 'socially responsible' enough for them:

Like any search for a home, these issues often reveal as much about their tenants as about real estate, and the way they have shifted over time sheds considerable light on the evolving character of museums themselves.

Evolution into something unrecognisable:

The starchitect’s favourite creation was surely the museum, rising out of so many locations in the 80s and 90s. As one eminent among their number, Michael Graves, commented at the Architectural League of New York in 1986: “I think this is a moment in history where we have to realise we’re not just building Kunsthalles or picture galleries. We’re building institutions that have places for discussion, places for study, and a social climate as well as a climate in which to see painting and sculpture.”

Visit your favourite museum while you can, before it goes the way of the public library....

I Think Shambling Horrors From The Outer Rim Are Preferable To SJWs, Frankly…

The World Fantasy award trophy will no longer be modelled on HP Lovecraft, it has been announced, following a campaign last year that called the author out as an “avowed racist” with “hideous opinions”.

Dear god, is there no area these ghastly little nonentities won’t seek to ruin?

…authors including Daniel José Older (Ed: who..?) have expressed delight at the news. “THEY JUST ANNOUNCED THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD WILL NO LONGER BE HP LOVECRAFT. WE DID IT. YOU DID IT. IT’S DONE. YESSSSSSSS,” tweeted Older.

The writer, who was nominated for best of editor of an anthology for Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, later told the Guardian by email: “If fantasy as a genre truly wants to embrace all of its fans, and I believe it does, we can’t keep lionising a man who used literature as a weapon against entire races. Writers of colour have always had to struggle with the question of how to love a genre that seems so intent on proving it doesn’t love us back. We raised our voices collectively, en masse, and the World Fantasy folks heard us. Today, fantasy is a better, more inclusive, and stronger genre because of it.”

Dream on!

It’s become another cesspool of politically-correct suckups who try to make a name for themselves not by writing stories that everyone actually wants to read, but by hurling themselves on every self-loathing bandwagon that hurtles into view. Good luck with that.

I fondly predict that in 20 years time, people will still be reading Lovecraft. You’ll probably be washing cars for a living. You certainly won't be a well-known author.

But you have just boosted Lovecraft's sales figures, because when I read this, I bought everything available on Kindle... :)

Whit(ie) Flight…

As a journalist, I’d devoted years to infiltrating London’s violent teenage gangs, and filmed two TV documentaries on the subject. Slowly gaining their confidence, I got close to several of the hardest gang members, entering drug dealer-controlled ‘no-go’ zones where even the police wouldn’t venture.

I’d wanted to understand what triggered their anti-social behaviour and to help them articulate their feelings without resorting to violence.

Well, that sounds very progressive of you, sweetie. Tell me something, though? How do you feel about them now?

We’d just left our local newsagent’s, magazine firmly in my little son’s hand, when we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a 12-strong gang of hooded youths who were chasing a girl who looked no older than 14.

One grabbed her and started battering her with an umbrella, but she managed to get away. Then the youths gave chase, throwing bottles and shouting obscenities. It looked as though they meant to kill her.

As members of a rival gang appeared from nowhere, bottles rained down all around us. When one ricocheted off the pram canopy — waking my one-year-old with a start — I froze.

Gosh, how awful! Someone needs to try to understand these ‘youths’, clearly…

Grabbing my sons and frantically pushing the pram with one hand, I rushed to get them home as quickly as possible. Then to my horror, Zach broke free of my grip and blindly ran back into what was now a full-on turf war.

He’d dropped his magazine, which had been trampled underfoot, its pages scattered across the pavement. Oblivious to the mayhem, he attempted to gather it up as tears rolled down his cheeks. Terrified for him, I pulled the pram and my five-year-old back towards where Zach now stood rooted to the spot as more gang members came tearing up a side street.

I heard myself scream as a bottle skimmed Zach’s head, missing him by millimetres, glass smashing around his feet — later I found shards in his shoes. Then I did something I never thought I’d do: I ran, clutching my terrified children. In my panic, I lost control of the pram which swerved precariously and almost overturned twice.

So, any description of these ‘gang members’?

It was the wrong thing to do, of course. I’d drawn attention to my fleeing family, and a splinter group gave chase after us, calling out ‘get the whities’.

Ah. Thanks. That’ll do.

I called the police, but other than recalling the fear etched in the features of the young girl who was being hunted down like a dog — her repeated, helpless yells of ‘I don’t have it, I don’t have it’, echoing round my head — I realised that I was a useless witness.

I was unable to give a description of any one of the perpetrators.

Probably wise, in the circumstances. After all, they probably got a very good description of you...

Ironically, we moved to this area six years ago because it seemed safer than our previous address in West London where my husband was knocked unconscious and had his jaw shattered in a vicious, unprovoked assault by youths.

Ah, but that’s the thing, isn’t it? While you’ve got people who make a tidy living by excusing and understanding these feral youths, they are spreading. Why not? Who's to stop them?

There’s more and more of them every year, making it harder and harder to find ‘safe zones’:

But now it seems nowhere in our cities is immune to the gang rivalry spilling over from neighbouring districts.

It’s not just an isolated example either, is it?

Our street no longer feels safe — groups of hooded, spliff-smoking youths patrol the pavements as though they own them. Just weeks ago, when late for school pick-up, I challenged a group of teenagers to make way for my pram, asking them if they really expected me to push my child into the busy road.

They turned on me, becoming verbally abusive and threatening. Determined not to be a victim for a second time, I pushed my way through them. And then a bottle was thrown in my direction — it smashed into a parked car nearby.

Gosh. They need to be understood. Have you tried to gain their trust? Perhaps you can help them to articulate their feelings in a different way?

There is not a night that I don’t hear a siren close by.

More than once I have awoken to see the end of our road cordoned off by police after yet another gang-related crime.

And so….you’re doing what all the craven progressives do when the vibrant diversity gets a little too close to home; cut and run:

We’ve now decided to move out to the countryside, albeit close enough to the city so that the boys can still go to the same excellent schools. But thousands of other families don’t have that choice. I just hope the police crackdown will enable them to finally sleep soundly in their beds.

But you don’t really care if it doesn’t, do you?

After all, as you point out, having used these ‘youths’ to springboard your career, you can now afford to do a Billy Bragg and move somewhere less vibrant and diverse. The rest of us aren't so lucky.

And I don't expect I'll see any articles or films from you in the future, pointing out how these feral animals don't need to be understood, they need to be stamped on hard. You'll just forget it all, like some bad dream.

But you know what? These kids are your kids, in a way, every bit as much as little Zach, Mallick and Rocco, aren't they? You helped to create them, after all...

The Battle For Barking Hots Up...

As noted by Laban Tall and Edwin Greenwood, the Berk of Barking is (briefly) back in his home town to extol the virtues and benefits of multiculturalism and cheap labour.

Before fleeing back to the lily-white haven of decidedly non-multicultural Dorset, of course. Multicultual Barking is wonderful, you see, but you wouldn't want to live there, would you?

Cahal Milmo, in the 'Indy' reports from the front line and guess whose fault it all is?

The lack of social housing is a major problem locally and a key electoral issue. Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy policy cut the housing stock in an area which includes the vast Becontree estate, the world's largest public housing project. Successive Labour governments have stymied the development of new homes, leaving a council waiting list of 11,695.

Ah, perfect...

Nearby lies the council ward of Goresbrook, the epicentre of BNP support in Barking and Dagenham. Its streets are lined with terraced houses, many displaying the signs of right-to-buy ownership such as conservatories and extensions.

The traitorous scum. How dare they purchase their homes and improve them!

Don't they realise that the great and the good can't possibly advance their goals if people insist on having something worth fighting for, and reject the idea of living in a crowded, heavily oversubscribed slum..?

And for a real idea of just how the progressives and their fellow travellers view the people they supposedly want to win away from BNP votes, check out yesterday's Tweet from pudgy lefty Johann Hari:


That's the way to win votes, Johann...for the other side.

Update: Well done, Labour. Via Al Jahom, it looks like you've handed them something to shout about on their Barking rally today. You utter, utter cretins...

What's With The Scare Quotes, Guardian?

From the 'Guardian' article on the 30 dead children since the Baby P case:

Naomi Hill, four, was drowned by her mother, who was ashamed of her "disability" – cerebral palsy. Joanne Hill, 32, was jailed for 15 years for murdering Naomi at their home in Chester in November 2007.

Huh...?

Anyone want to try arguing that cerebal palsy isn't a disability? Anyone? Bueller?

They're 'Facilitating' WHAT, Exactly...?

Over at 'Protein Wisdom', a worrying new idea in a Canadian university:

Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., has hired six students whose jobs as "dialogue facilitators" will involve intervening in conversations among students in dining halls and common rooms to encourage discussion of such social justice issues as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability and social class.

Because at universities, letting students discuss things among themselves is no longer the good idea it was once thought to be. It's not about inculcating independant analysis anymore - the 'hive mind' is what's required...

She gave the example of a conversation about a gay character on television as a good example of such a moment.

"It is all about creating opportunities to dialogue and reflect on issues of social identity," Ms. Girgrah said. "This is not about preaching. It's not about advice giving. It's about hearing where students are at."

If you say so, sweetie...

And just where are they going to find people willing to do this?

Like dons, who serve as student authorities in residence, the six facilitators will receive full room and board and a stipend for the full-year commitment, and will receive regular training.

Ms. Girgrah said they represent a broad spectrum of social identities and are all upper-year or graduate students who live in university residences...

Ah. People who have already been through the thought-mill, and emerged from it with the right, umm, 'attitude'....

Paid thought police. In a university.

Cultural Vandalism - Just Because They Can…

Libraries could install coffee shops, book shops and film centres, under new government proposals to make them more user-friendly.

Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, will launch a consultation on changing the face of libraries which he believes are out of touch.

Really..? ‘Out of touch’ with whom…? Does anyone wonder when Andy Burnham (or anyone in his circle of friends and advisers) last set foot in a public library?

Mr Burnham will tell the Public Library Authorities conference in Liverpool libraries must "look beyond the bookcase and not sleepwalk into the era of the e-book."

While English libraries attract 288 million visitors a year, book borrowings have fallen by 34 per cent in the past decade and 40 libraries closed across Britain last year.

And that’s purely because people are afraid to go in case someone might say ‘Shuush!’, is it?

Mr Burnham will say: "The popular public image of libraries as solemn and sombre places, patrolled by fearsome and formidable staff is decades out of date, but is nonetheless taken for granted by too many people."

I never saw my local library (when I used it as a child and as a student) as a ‘sober and solemn place’; it was a quiet place, yes, but then it was a haven of quiet, a place to browse and read unhampered by conversation, traffic noise, canned music, disruptions – all the things that Andy Burnham seems to want to bring into this place:

He will also say: "Libraries should be a place for families and joy and chatter. The word chatter might strike fear into the heart of traditionalists but libraries should be social places that offer an antidote to the isolation of someone playing on the internet at home."

‘Libraries should be a place for…chatter’…. Wow!

The disconnect there is staggering – aren’t there enough places already where you just can’t get away from other people’s noise, conversation, music? We have to put up with selfish louts listening to rap on their mobiles at top volume on the Tube and buses, now this cultural void wants to encourage it in the library as well? Sod that!

Not to mention encouraging people ‘playing on the Internet’! Now, I like a good Internet browse as much as the next person, but the thought of coming across people playing YouTube videos or giggling out loud at LolCats in my library doesn’t impress me much. Not to mention what the porn-browsers are likely to be doing…

This incarnation of Labour are the party of mindless ‘progress’ – always moving ‘forward’, yet inevitably utterly ruining what has been built by other, better people, and never quite understanding (or caring) why.

Tim Coates, the former managing director of Waterstones however criticized the potential plans.

He said: "This ought to be about getting more reading books, particularly for children, not about turning libraries into fish and chip shops."

You old stick-in-the-mud, Tim. Don’t you know you must move with the times? You’re just a former shopkeeper, fancy criticising a progressive colossus like the Secretary of State for Culture!

I’m reminded, reading this, that Damilola Taylor met his end at the hands of violent, undisciplined, ‘do as you want regardless’ savages after visiting his local library to read and study quietly in his quest to learn and improve himself. This moron would like to see fewer Damilolas visiting public libraries, and more socially-incontinent types like his killers, those who can’t see why they shouldn’t listen to loud music on their mobiles, talk loudly and scream abuse if it pleases them, and to hell with anyone else.

That a man so lacking in the basics of, well, anything can be a ‘Secretary of State for Culture’ shows Nu Labour for what they are – empty suits, progressives in the debased, pejorative sense of the word. Truly, people who know the price of everything, and the value of nothing…