Shouldn't Louise Bours apologise too?

I am no fan of Joey Barton, he is a complete fool and he plays for QPR (which I'm still fuming about considering I was at Wembley last weekend supporting the Rams). Last night he featured on Question Time for the first time as a panellist along with Piers Morgan, Margaret Curran (Scottish Labour), David Willets (Conservatives) and Louise Bours (UKIP) to debate the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport.

Barton has been made to apologise for comments he made to newly elected MEP, Louise Bours on UKIP's success in the recent election. He said: 'If I'm somewhere and there was four really ugly girls, I'm thinking... well, she's not the worst - that's all you [UKIP] are.' which of course is not the best metaphor to be making to a female politician about her beloved party. Of course as the comment comes across as extremely sexist and was clearly offensive to Ms Bours, Barton should apologise for what he said but is Louise Bours getting away with her retaliation free of charge? To Barton's comment, Bours replied 'The ignorance here -it basically fulfils the mission that footballers' brains are in their feet.'. To me that is by far a more ignorant comment to be making as it plays on a horrible stereotype (UKIP's favourite thing) in order to demoralise and humiliate their rivals. 

My younger brother is 14, he started playing football at 6, was signed to a development academy at 7 and then was signed by his first professional academy at 10. I have grown up surrounded by the football industry and by the people in it and I can tell you now, footballers are not stupid. My brother has just finished his year 9 SATs and got top grades in all of them. He is way more academic than I was at my age and is set to do very well in his GCSEs, which he starts in September. He does all of this despite having to train 3 times a week and play a match on Sundays (one of his training sessions causes him to have to leave school at lunch and doesn't finish until 7pm). His grades are assessed by the academy and poor school performance does affect whether or not he is kept on in the academy the following year, fact. The academy run sessions where 'day-release' players (meaning they are out of school to train) have to do homework and my brother is expected to catch-up on the work he misses at school in his own time. Next year, he will be expected to miss a whole day of school and remain on top of his studies which he will do. Does that sound like someone who is stupid? The coaches, many of them being former academy players themselves, are mainly university educated or the equivalent and have a massive influence on the boy's attitude towards school. If my brother does not get a scholarship at 16 he will take A-Levels and will go to university. Footballers are not stupid. 

How come Barton is accused of ignorance yet Bours gross use of stereotypes is ignored?

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What did you think of Joey Barton's comments? Leave a comment!

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So, the EU elections... let's talk UKIP!

Well after a few days of reflection, I can say that I am pretty happy with the result. (Ignoring UKIP for now) Labour gained 338 seats and the Greens 16 where as the coalition lost a total of 538 seats between them. Labour managed to take over what is usually easy Tory stomping ground and managed to claim 6 more councils than they did in the previous election. To me, that is a huge step forward for the left and something lefties should be proud of all over the country.

So onto "the UKIPs". UKIP did very very well for a protest party, obtaining 161 more EU seats. But let us not forget that before UKIP had 2 little seats and so although they did make HUGE gains in the election (second highest overall) they still only have 2/5 of the power the Lib Dems have and still came 4th overall. I can't help but wonder if the Green Party would get this kind of publicity if they did the same.

Since then, there has been all sorts of talking about what this means for next year's general election. We have been told that the result of Thursday's voting means that UKIP are now a strong contender next year and will probably do well; we have been told that the Lib Dems should 'prepare for the 2020 elections' and we have been told that the Tories are quaking in their boots. I read somewhere that many want Cameron out and Theresa May in (please no) and that Yvette Cooper could take Miliband's role if he fails to bring victory to the Labour Party. A lot have said Labour should have done a lot better and that they got cocky meaning UKIP were able to nab more than they should have and that Labour needs to up its game. The Daily Mail called Labour's victory a "savaging" for Labour (despite them having over 100 more seats than the Tories) because UKIP managed to get some bored Tories to vote for them.

UKIP are only successful because of the media. They have been given their platform and they have used it to their advantage. I was talking to a friend over Easter and he brought to my attention that actually, UKIP have no right to be where they are. If you look at the Green Party, they had 2 seats in EU parliament before Thursday compared to UKIP's 13 yet UKIP has been on our screens weekly whether it is the news, Question Time or The Sunday Politics yet the Greens haven't. Although there were 11 more seats in UKIP's favour they had nowhere near the same amount as 'the big three'. The public need to realise we are fuelling UKIP's success by retaliating to them. They are only as powerful as they are because the media make them so and because they know it will boost sales and ratings by having them there.

UKIP's success was not that much of an achievement. They have taken the place of the Green Party (who, from experience, UKIP see as a bit of a joke) in 4th place. That is good but U.K politics is mainly a two horse race with the occasional pawn shoved in to help gain power (cough, cough... Lib Dems) and those two horses will always be Labour and the Tories.

What did you think of the elections? Leave a comment!

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What percentage of MPs like a bit of tit?

The No More Page 3 campaign released information last night about the number of MPs in certain parties supported their campaign. The results are interesting.

Green Party

Labour Party

Lib Dems

Tories

Hmmmm... most of them were lower than I thought. Isn't it funny how UKIP aren't there? Here is the NMP3 campaign's website: http://nomorepage3.org/

What do you think? Leave a comment!

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#backfire...

My day has been lightened (although there is currently a storm brewing outside). Yesterday UKIP Harrowgate started up the #whyimvotingukip campaign again as a final push in morale before today's European elections. Over the course of Wednesday, UKIP supporters came out in their thousands raving about their lovely, immigrant-free, 100% British utopia which obviously got the hashtag trending and into the public eye. I don't think anyone really expected the retaliation.

When my friend on Facebook added a link to the hashtag's feed on his wall, I was sceptical as I thought it would be exactly what I've described above but no. There has been one of the biggest backfire I think I've ever seen on Twitter. There isn't even a piece of praise there any more... the whole hashtag has become a complete joke. Here are a few of my favourites:

#WhyImVotingUkip I don't want immigrants wearing turbans when they could be hiding Voldemort on the other side pic.twitter.com/CBZq4exV5a
— Saf (@SafChowdhury_) May 21, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because I am sick and tired of Meerkats coming over here comparing OUR indigenous British market. Send em all back!!
— Geek Cadet (@GeekCadet) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip Because a group of hot Romanian men moved in next door and I haven't seen my boyfriend since.
— JBR (@JoshRochford) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because now its just me, my cat and my hamster at home and neither of them speak english, MARGINALISED IN MY OWN HOME
— Joe Gardener (@joegardenz) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because in year 5 my nan taped over my VCR recording of Pokemon with Brookside. #sendherback
— Lemarl Freckleton (@LemFreck) May 22, 2014

I sent this to my UKIP supporting friend and he responded trying to back it with "It was planned" "It gives them headlines" etc... but no, it wasn't. The campaign was restarted again by UKIP Harrogate's twitter feed which since then has mysteriously gone private. The whole thing is a massive backfire for UKIP. Although they are supposed to do really well in today's election, the British public do not want UKIP in power and on top of that the majority of us see UKIP as nothing more than a massive joke. As I say to people when I'm talking about the party and their many blunders: yes, UKIP want to be treated as seriously as the rest of the parties but with that they need to behave like the other parties. All politicians have things in their heads that would upset the public but most have the restraint to keep it there. Over the past year so many UKIP representatives have been suspended because the public (not the party) have been outraged by their comments - including Mr Farage earlier this week with his comment of Romanians which he put down to being him being tired. We don't get that from other parties because they know what is right and wrong to say in public.

Do everyone a favour. Take control of your country, vote for anyone but UKIP.

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Who have/are you voting for? Leave me a comment.

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Islamophobia...

Over the past month we have seen all of the country's leading political parties display their plea for the public's vote in the European elections due to take place on the 22nd. This has led to fairly 'interesting' representations coming out that not only are derogatory to Muslims but to anyone who is not a British worker. Not only was there the UKIP campaign urging us to 'TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY' but there was the BNP's hideous display of 'patriotism' in their banned T.V advert:


which at best was laughable. The video talks of "All the spongers of the Earth" coming and selling the Big Issue by day and murdering people at night whilst also having time to drive around molesting children in gangs etc. Of course, as if always the way, these "spongers" were all portrayed as Muslims.

Front page of The Sun on 7/5/14

Around a week and a half later 'The Sun' released a headline about Pizza Express using Halal meat in their pizzas although the chain had been using it for a number of years and wasn't a secret. This was a follow up to the outrage caused by Subway's announcement to introduce Halal meat to some of their restaurants in which thousands upon thousands of "Christian believing" Brits decided to take to Twitter in anger.

Do not use the phrase 'religious friendly foods' in association with halal. About as friendly as Ebola. https://t.co/FfyLyXNkta
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) May 7, 2014  

(Notice how in this tweet she capitalises 'Ebola' but not 'halal'.) 

This was also accompanied by the kidnapping of over 300 Nigerian school girls by the Islamist group Boko Haram (which funnily enough isn't on the BBC's front page of their website today) where again thousands have started the online plea to "#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS".

So for the past few weeks, Islam has been at the front of everyone's mind in some way or another - at least a lot more than it has been in recent years. Whether we are outraged or petrified, or both we cannot stop thinking about the 'Islamification' of our country.

Before we go onto full blown hatred, let us remember that also in the news this week was the story of an MoD investigation into 'trophy photographs' taken of a British soldier in 2012 crouching down over a dead Taliban fighter with his thumb up at Camp Bastion. And let us not forget, put in the words of Russell Brand, "... Michelle Obama posed with a 'free our girls' hashtag thing, someone pointed out that many more girls from neighbouring nations are being killed by drone-strikes authorised by Barack Obama.".

A question I ask myself whenever topics like this come up in the news is 'Are we any better?'. How is a photo over a dead Taliban fighter justified or morally correct? Treating the death of someone as a game, it almost mimics the attitudes expressed in video games such as Battlefield or Call of Duty. Why have these men that took those photos been able to get away with it for two years yet Lee Rigby's killers were captured within hours? In this country we are so quick to point the blame at other nations and accuse them of terrorising us when we have been terrorising them over resources for 20 years now. Where they may kill many innocent people, we do the same and we constantly attack these groups threatening them more and more and so get a bigger retaliation.

The situation reminds me of an anthem at my favourite football team Celtic FC, which was set up by Catholics and so as a team, being of Catholic and Irish decent we have a huge link with what happened in Ireland. The song is called 'The Ballad of John McDonnell' and there lyrics read:

"And you dare to call me a terrorist

Whilst you look your gun

When think of all the deeds that you have done-

You have plundered many nations

Divided many lands

You have terrorised their people

You ruled with an iron hand

And you brought this reign of terror to our land"

I believe the lyrics are intended to be addressed to the English but don't hold me on it. But still the sentiment is the same, we seem to subconsciously attack other nations and beliefs. 

We tell ourselves that we are protecting our Christian morals but are we. Take the Halal meat "scandal", we say that the problem is that Halal isn't humane and goes against Christianity yet the majority of the Christian population don't go to church and more and more people are become Atheist. Also, as Christians, we have no problem eating a battery farmed chicken for our Sunday roast and who says that cutting an animal's throat is cruel, 50 years ago that was the norm, why is it suddenly an outrage now? I have no difficulty believing that these people are not horrified for their religious beliefs, they are horrified because they are Islamophobic and far too sentimental about British culture. 

We live in a society where "Arabs" are portrayed as the ultimate villain and we lap it up. In films, T.V shows, in the controlled media. Recently, I watched a documentary in my Media class called "Reel Bad Arabs" which covered this topic very well. It was based on the book by Jack Shaheen. 

People seem to be unaware that the majority of Muslims who migrate here just want to have a life in another country like the "British" do if they want to move to Spain. And yes, of course terrorism is an awful thing and it kills many innocent people and terrorists should be punished but is fighting terrorism with equal amounts of prejudice and hatred really how we should solve this?

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Feel free to comment, I am always open to feedback!

Here is the whole episode of Russell Brand's 'Trews' series on YouTube where I got his quote from:

(17/05/14) Here is a little update on the Halal situation.

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"British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour." - And that's why we have outsourced an Irish actor to feature on our adverts.

So prior to the European Elections next month, UKIP have started on their final push to get votes with a sparkly new billboard campaign which included this lovely advert:

The advert is very typically UKIP and tells us that they are "the workers friend" but failed to mention that the model, pictured looking quite glum about having to work for not very much money, is in fact from Dublin which is the capital city of Ireland and not a British city. The rest of this rather funny cock-up is on UsvsTh3m's website but I felt it was something that had to be brought to people's attention. 

I also leave you with this quite wonderful quote from Samuel Johnson:

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

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