BNP MEPs

Hmmmm, not much to say except 'This is the price of apathy and 'punishing'* a government you are annoyed with by NOT VOTING!"

Hopefully, next time those who didn't vote for whatever reason will, having realised that their actions have had an effect. We can only hope that the European far-right parties fall out over who gets to hold the fascio or something and don't gain too much sway.

*Who came up with this wrongheaded bollocks?

Oh Lord

This group of drunk Israeli young people are obviously not representative of all Israeli youth. But this abhorrent display has turned my stomach. How can we expect peace in the Middle East when this is what my generation feels that they have the right to say about the first western politician to make any real overtures to spread peace and unity? The racism, the ignorance* and unwillingness to move on the Israel Palestine problem is also worrisome. What really astounds me is the belief that Obama doesn't care about Israel is laughable when a central tenant of the Cairo speech was America's unbreakable bonds with Israel, which must have been unpalatable to more than just Palestinian man, who had been bombed out of his home by Israeli soldiers interviewed by Channel Four News last week.

All in all, yuk.

*How can a politics student think that Obama was born outside of the states (as though no one would have noticed) and not know who Benjamin Netanyahu is? For God's sake! I know I could have attended more lectures and read more books then I did at university, but that's a disgrace.

Things I Like

I'm trying very hard not to write about The Labour Party's implosion at the moment, I'm trying hard not to think about it either. It's beyond depressing (to me) that due to a catalogue of errors and nonsense I might find myself governed by a Conservative government after the next election, especially after being patronised and yelled at by a Conservative councillor at a party a couple of weeks ago, who was still hanging on to that old school 'Teenage girls get pregnant for council flats' bollocks.

Anyway, instead of that here are some things that I like:



I spotted this mural on Leigham Court Road last month when my mum stayed with my cousin in Streatham. I tried to take pictures with my bollocksy camera phone, but couldn't get a clear image. This one is from Google Streetview (hahaha! they've blurred Max's face!) and was posted on one of my new favourite blogs We Love You So which is a marketing blog for the upcoming film adaptation of Maurice Sendack's Where The Wild Things Are.



It was one of my favourite books as a kiddy and I'm really excited about the film, especially since Spike Jonze is in the director's chair and the trailer features music from Arcade Fire. Anyway, about three minutes walk from the mural is a primary school (the one my little sister attended in fact), I hope that once in a while one of the little ones looks up and gets excited.

I'm also getting into Neon Genesis Evangelion, the contraversial and hugely popular anime series by Hideaki Anno and Gainax that started in 1995. I have a ton of friends who have always been into anime and have tried to get me to watch Evangelion for years, I resisted for so long, but have finally given in. I wish I hadn't been so stubborn. Next thing you know I'll be at Comic Con dressed as the Major from Ghost In The Shell. A geek is born.

I saw this on another blog this morning and it made me wistful for the times I'm not having dancing on roofs with my friends in New York:



Oh..and this



Joan As Policewoman's Christobel. I know, I know, it came out in 2006 but I had a lot on that year..maybe. This isn't an official video, but the song is worth watching the Youtube tribute video.

When You Feel Good...

....You can wear your knickers in the street!

What the eff? Really!

Happy Belated One Year Terrorist Fist Bump Anniversary Barack And Michelle!

Here's a post I wish I had thought of from Gawker.

In honour of this auspicious anniversary Barack Obama shows us just what a Muslim-loving, terrorist, communist, socialist he is.

Violent, Cynical, Broken and Full Of Immigrants - Britain According To Andrew Flintoff

'I have no problems with a multicultural society, I think that is to the benefit of the country. But you have to be careful what levels you take it to.

'It annoys me when I phone a hotel receptionist in my own country and they don't understand what I am saying because they don't speak English.'

Hmmmm? Are you sure that they don't understand you because they don't speak English or could it be because you're wasted after being rescued from drunken night time pedallo ride or because you've won The Ashes and have celebrated too hard?

As an immigrant myself I obviously get wound up by ignorant pricks claiming that we're all benefit cheating scroungers who are too lazy to speak English. But this from a dude who doesn't respect his country enough to behave like a grown man when representing the national team at his beloved sport? Do me a lemon!*

I don't stay in as many hotels as Mr Flintoff, but I can bet that most English hotels choose receptionists for their communication skills, would it be in their interest to hire someone that guests complained about? It doesn't make good business sense you douche!

He continues:

"There are places I wouldn't go to now. You see these reports of stabbings, bottlings, shootings, and you think, "What is happening to this country?"

I think rap music has a lot to do with it. It makes it sound cool not to conform, and to be violent. That's why I think sport plays such an important role. Cricket kept me away from trouble."

ARGH!

If I have to hear one more wealthy person in the public eye bemoaning the state of the nation because there are places that they would no longer go I will scream. Of course there are places you would no longer go, (There are places places that I will no longer go now that I have a job, Matalan being one of them) you're rich! You don't have to go to Peckham (what's the Prestonion equivalent of Peckham any one?) or Camberwell. Just because you're living large doesn't mean that the world is any more violent than it was. British people have been bottling one another since the the cavemen fashioned bottles out of stone and filled them with water** I mean come on! Christopher Marlowe was stabbed in the eye in a drinking den in 1593! 

This is not to say that binge drinking and violence among teenagers is not a serious issue, it totally is, but I don't think it's caused by rap music (are we still pushing conformity and blaming music for complex societal issues?) or solved by sport (don't most schools force their students into PE anyway?)

Flintoff continues:

'Our reputation abroad is getting worse, we are seen as a violent country now.'  

Now? NOW? For as long as I can remember Brits Abroad have been getting pissed and nicking pedaloes, sorry, having fights. Nothing much has changed, except the fact that our highly visible sportsmen do it too. European football fans have always thought of England fans as a bunch of lairy thugs , because of the lairy thuggery they indulged in while watching England abroad or at home. When you look at pictures of people no longer allowed to travel and watch the national side on the news it's not a group of immigrants or hip hop loving teenagers is it? Are white English males being influenced by immigrants to ruck on the streets of Cologne and Croydon in the name of patriotism? No.

When I was a teenager I was banned from going on a trip to Aiya Napa (I didn't want to go anway - f'real!) with a group of friends because of all the violence, boozing and teenage shagging in the streets and it wasn't just the black kids or the immigrant kids, it was all of them and it still is.

To lay Britain's problems squarely at the feet of immigrants and immigration policy is a nonsense. A racist, ignorant and ill informed nonsense. How does he think his words make us immigrants feel? How does he think they make team mate Monty Panesar and his family feel? 

My favourite bit is this though:

'But when you go to somewhere like India you realise we're not in that bad a shape. We have a tendency in Britain to talk ourselves down.

'I wouldn't want to be American, but you have to admire the way they talk themselves up as a people, athletes and as a country. Our glass is always half empty.'

Thanks for talking down to us and talking us down Mr Flintoff. Looking to the most famous country of immigrants in history as an example of something to work towards is a blogger's dream. Thank you so much for making mine. I also love the reference to India, as though you can fairly compare the development of a country that was colonised to the country that did the colonising. Nice work there Freddie.

Link to article here, pinched from The Daily Mail's website, lots of amusing and distressing comments from the public as always.

*See! I know idioms and slang and everything!

** I have no evidence of this

World Of Lather

In recent years I have become an avid Eastenders viewer. I know, I know. It's rubbish, everyone is miserable and it's full of poor working class caricatures of the British working classes that don't and shouldn't really emotionally affect me or anyone else.

But for God's sake, will someone please save Dot Cotton?! My heart is breaking!

* I know she married Jim Branning, but she'll always be Dot Cotton to me.