Arnie. Prepare to be Terminated!

As I said in my previous post. I am currently unemployed at the moment. Another victim of staffing spending cuts during the economic downturn. It's pretty tough, and there is a lot of competition for jobs at the moment. There is simultaneously an up swelling in stories about "cushy benefits anecdotes." and that life on the dole is too rewarding to find real work. There is also talk of encouraging people to find work, which is all good and fine, IF THERE WERE LOADS OF BLOODY JOBS GOING! THERE ISN'T. THAT'S THE GODDAMN REASON PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF ARE OUT OF WORK!! There seems to be a bunch of people who think that everyone on the dole wants to be there. They do not seem capable of distinguishing the majority of people who are out of work due to plain bad luck, than the minority who do fiddle the system. People like Arnold Harrison who contributed this masterpiece of joined up thinking to the Bolton News:

"TO Mr Brian Derbyshire. I have followed your contributions for many years, not always agreeing, but in this case on reading your comments about Mr Stuart Chapman, I totally agree with him.

Many of the present younger generation do not want to work and have no intention of doing so In many cases it being no fault of their own but the system. The lack of quality education, the lack of incentives and deterrents. Why rise early in the morning to start work at 7.30am in a mundane job with little future prospects when I can stay in bed, draw my weekly benefits and with a little wheeling and dealing get by very nicely, thank you.

Why learn? Why conform? Why work? The pot at the end of the rainbow does exist but only for the very few. The remainder are happy to sit and wait for the finger of fate. In the meantime, life is more than bearable and do not gorge, Mr Derbyshire, our nation has a policy of importing foreign workers to do the jobs we will not do ourselves. It is the system.

Arnold Harrison Little Hulton"

Missing the point a bit. Doing Northernbloke has raddled my brain or something. I have a greater urge to hammer these people around the head (spiritually speaking of course!) with the stupid illogic of their own ramblings, than I used to do. So I sent this response to this idiotic letter that goes as follows.

"One of the strongest indicators of healthy self awareness and a good grasp of the topic at hand is when you can judge whether to dive in and explain a complex social problem, or whether it is best to actually do some research on what you’re talking about beforehand. This way you don’t end up being the opinionated voice of the saloon bar pundit. A nugget of wisdom that seems to have escaped Mr. Arnold Harrison; author of (Why work for a mundane job?) a staggering letter about youth unemployment. Which is ironically, written by someone who knows nothing whatsoever on youth unemployment.

Leaving aside the tiresome and insulting cliché that “today’s youth” are a bunch of lazy oafs (they aren’t). Mr. Harrison appears to think that most unemployed people both want and choose to be unemployed. (They don’t) I’ll let Mr. Harrison into a little secret they don’t. Speaking as an unemployed, not so youthful youth, (31) I don’t appreciate being told by someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on this issue that we are in the position we are in because we don’t want to work. And that I’m better off unemployed. (Trust me I’m NOT!) There are too many people out of work, and too few jobs to go round. I was made unemployed by the far reaching hand of the economic slump, not through choice. I have e-mailed and written to as many employers I can think of. If you get a response from one in thirty of them you are doing well. I’ve signed up for voluntary work, but there is a back log (work it out.) I’ve walked around retail estates giving out CV’s. I’ve even somehow managed to haul my lazy youthful backside out of bed at 6 am to do jobs in the past. Mr Harrisons letter really could have done with a bit of research.

I can assure him I have never got up thinking I’m on a winner. I’ve gone from quite a well paid job, to 60 quid a week on the dole (taxes which I paid into in previous jobs, and will pay back in future ones.) I am in a kind of limbo – which only those who unintentionally find themselves out of work can understand, as my life is on hold while I find something new. It’s the strangest kind of cushy existence I’ve ever experienced.

So Mr. Harrison, I suggest you get your facts straight, before sounding off in the paper. We live in hope."

I don't pull to many punches, and it is long(ish) for a newspaper letter, so I don't know how likely it is going to get published. But we'll see. I am so sick of this kind of lazy arsed [non] thinking, swallowing the big lie as generously as an alchie necks slugs of whisky. Two seconds of reflective thinking about what he had written should have told him that you do see lots of under 30's working in every day situations, oh all the bloody time! I literally believe people like Arnold have got their heads so squarely up their backsides, they would believe any limit of stuff so stupid and so self evidently irrational, if it backed up their silly world views. I don't think I could even begin to think up the kind of utter arse these people could potentially fall for, if it rang all the right bells. Even if I stayed in a dark room for 20 whole years. Depressing isn't it?

I Fixed Something On My Laptop. This is a Miracle!

I'm astounded. For the first time ever I've actually fixed something on a computer when it started to play up. I was catching up on a few DVD's on the Nero player, when the whole machine seizes up, the screen goes weird, the colours on the screen go even weirder, and I'm left with a tiny version of the normal screen, that is about a quarter of the size -at the centre of the display, with a black border around it, which will not let me alter it to get it back to full size. But lo and behold, I managed to mess around with a few settings and get the display back to normal size. Thus, for the first time ever - I have mended a computer. That strange machine that functions on strange gobbledygook, and weird stuff that I have some genetic indisposition to ever understand. But no more! I fixed a computer, and that truly is a miracle.

I speak too soon. The bloody spell checker on blogger has now decided to stop working. (honest!!)

A Nasty Gaffe Gord.

Well the Brown stuff has certainly hit the fan for the PM today. After being confronted by 65 year old widow, Gillian Duffy on an estate in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Her conversation (CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ALL.)with the PM revolved around the fact that she pays tax on her dead husbands pension after it was tagged on to hers. How he planned to clear the national debt, and the bit that has caused the controversy, why are there so many Eastern Europeans (in her opinion) "coming over here" (actually the number is dropping.) She says the following:

"You can't say anything about the immigrants! Because you're [Brown?] saying that .... your a." (mumbles something, might be about to say racist but cuts off.)

"But all those Eastern Europeans what're coming in. Where they flocking from?"

Eastern Europe would be a good bet!!

Brown retorts to her that it [immigration in the EU] swings both ways, vis a vis Brits going over there, them coming over here to work etc.

She then asks about why there are tuition fees, and possibly implies that foreign students (it's hard to know if that what she means, so she might not mean that.) are causing financial strain for others.

It is not what she said that has caused the outcry about the story it is comments unwittingly recorded, of which Brown made to his advisers after their talk had ended that have caused the controversy. (Listen to them here.)

Brown is heard angrily muttering that the talk was a "disaster" and "ridiculous" and that she was "sort of bigoted women."

Ooops.

Now Mrs. Duffy's conversation with Brown was rather ranty, and some of her "evidence" seemed to owe more to tabloid headlines than to a general grasp of affairs. Her comments about the Eastern Europeans may not be pleasant to many (though there are quite a few who think the same as her.), and were; like most of what the rest of what she said, a mix of half truths, and stuff she had read in the paper. The comments struck me more born out of taking too much of what you uncritically read about immigration, than pure bigotry. Mix that in with a general dissatisfaction that many working class people have with a political system, and country that seems to cater (in their opinion, and to some extent mine.) to middle classes, and Middle England.

The worst thing to come out of this, and my hunch is that it may bite back at Brown this next week. Is that the press and the BNP will seize on this as yet more proof that the main parties don't want to discuss immigration, and that anyone who does is called a racist. The problem is that the three parties have allowed the press and the more right wing parties to set the debate. We hear the "sponging asylum seeker" and "immigrants ate my granny, and her swans" tales, and not the actual state of immigration. The whole thing has been derailed, and the parties seem timid in trying to recapture the debate. In actual fact they seem to actively pander (well the Lib Dems don't.) to the more lurid anti-immigration tracts. It can be no surprise that anti immigrant sentiment is high if this is the case, and people are only getting that side. This has unwittingly played into the wrong hands, and has almost said "yeah what we say about the parties being out of touch is true." It's a real shame, as Brown (in the video before the "comments") is able to refute some of the more fanciful comments she made, so much so that she seems to falter under how he dissects her points, and they end it on amicable terms. She seems genuinely confused and upset from the unintentionally broadcast reaction. Now more than ever these guys seeking power, need to re engage with disillusioned working people. This gaffe has done precisely the opposite.

Don't undermine the good intentions by bad behaviour.

A post about two articles today, that although ostensibly seem quite different, both seem (no conclusive proof yet) to have led to the same "problem." The first one is this. On Saturday in my home town of Bolton, the hard right football casual spawned EDL or the English Defence League had a rally in the town centre. They ( website here, if you don't know who they are about.) claim only to be against "jihadists" rather than Islam in general. But there has been incidents of them shouting abuse at pro Palastinian protest, and Nazi saluting by members of the analogous Welsh Defence League. On a more subjective level their website has a large splash for the Jihadwatch a blog /website that combines some legitimate concerns with the more militant strains of Islamism with the dodgier right wing conspiracy theories that the terminally insecure "patriots" seem to like so much, that do the rounds across the pond, and get taken up by like minded souls here. The march itself resulted in 74 arrests and was estimated to have cost 3.3 million pounds (a lot of Boltons shops shut, taxi firms basically shut down over the weekend.) in lost incomes and in the preparation for the day itself. From all reports it was a tense encounter, with mutual recriminations from EDL and the UAF, who counter marched the rally, and according to Assistant Chief Constable, Gary Shewen, the trouble focused around:

"It is clear to me that a large number have attended today with the sole intention of committing disorder and their actions have been wholly unacceptable. Turning their anger onto police officers they acted with, at times, extreme violence and their actions led to injuries to police officers, protesters and members of the public.

"The police are not and should not be the target of such violence and anger and this protest and the actions of some of the protesters is roundly condemned by GMP and by Bolton Council. Were it not for the professionalism and bravery of police officers many others would have been seriously injured. I would also like to praise the efforts of the EDL stewards who worked with us in the face of some very ugly confrontations."

200 miles away in the Berkshire village of Cookham (where the exterior shots for Fawlty Towers "A Touch of Class" episode were filmed incidentally.) gay couple Michael Black and John Morgan were turned from a Swiss themed guest house run by a Christian couple, after she claimed that giving them the double room they wanted would go against her beliefs. This kind of story always makes for a good one to the newsmans eye. Mutual recriminations, zealous minorities victimising decent God fearing folk. "The angry people in newspapers" pictures. Fire and brimstone bible bashers persecuting in the name of God, you know the spiel. I mean it even got a look in on the Jeremy Vine Show!

It's hard not to feel for the guests turned away. Being dismissed by a complete stranger who knows nothing about you, and being shunned because of your sexual orientation would be an unpleasant experience for anyone. It also raises questions of misleading statements on the website of the B&B:

"A warm & friendly welcome awaits ALL GUESTS!! at our Swiss Bed & Breakfast in the idyllic village of Cookham, near Maidenhead in Berkshire." (emphasis mine)

I should also add that they [B&B owners] are not deemed to have commited a criminal offence by the police, though civil action against them has been proposed. which I'm sure the right wing press will absolutely avoid bringing up in articles on the case.


Unfortunately, and this is where it ties in to the EDL caper on Saturday; Swiss B&B has had death threats posted on its website as well as warnings of a potential arson attack. This is plainly wrong for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. Now I must emphasise that I think the lady who runs the B&B was out of line. She may pay quite a price for what she did. She has violated the customer service statements on her own website for a start. She has shunned 2 paying customers she knew nothing about for being gay. Despite her claiming she is free to practice what she feels at her home, it is still subject to business regulations (never mind they had paid for customer service. She refunded them though), I'm sure she has to put all the fire safety stuff in, and all the stuff that goes with providing service to a paying customer. And that is the crux of the matter. If you are putting on a service for paying customers, you have to abide by your contract, grit your teeth at those you may not like but who have not actually broken their part of the contract (like smashing the place up.). At the very least if she insists on putting a bit of Christian spirit into running a B&B, stick up a notice saying that only married couples get double rooms. (I think you can still do that.) So although she has brought this sorry situation on herself, trying to right a wrong (a good thing) with a bigger wrong (the worst way to do this thing) can never the way to go.

Now I wasn't there at the EDL march, so I can't directly comment on the UAF conduct, or the veracity of the police chiefs statement first hand. But if the claims were valid and the UAF did do some of the things stated, then the same thing applies to people threatening the B&B owners. Right minded people know that homophobia and racial prejudice have no rightful place. By sending out death threats to this couple, apart from being an evil thing to do just gives the religious homophobes out there ammunition. Yes it's the GLBT who are the real fascists! I wouldn't be surprised if we get an article this week on this being the next best thing to chucking the Christians to the lions. The usual sort of buck passing twaddle bandied about "it's my religion to oppose gays.**" and the usual semantic party games trying to explain why banning to gay people from a B&B isn't homophobia. The more overtly racist postings on nationalist websites, and the more guarded letters published in "normal" papers by these people are full of passive aggressive squirming references to "liberal fascism" and the "UAF are the real Nazis" etc. They can't really say anything else. It is self evident to most rational people that blatantly judging people on ethnicity and sexual orientation is wrong. They can't justify their prejudices, because they literally have nothing justifiable to back them up. That is why they are so keen to try and shift the blame, to distract from this. The great causes of countering prejudice by its own merit should rise above its opponents. Stooping lower than the people you claim to righteously oppose just harms genuine attempts to obtain a society based on genuine merit, and free of base prejudice. The truth shall set us free and all that.

** I always find this statement by devout Christians odd. The man who their faith is named after was so concerned about homosexuality, he mentioned it the grand total of never. I think that says more about the beliefs of the people making the statement, than J. C. But what would an athiest like me know. Hmmmm)-: