Top Right Quadrant

Posted at 12:00 on Monday, 02 August 2010

POLITICS From the recently published ASI report, Global Player or Subsidy Junkie? Decision Time for the BBC; a quote that really stood out to me:

“I have for 20 years had the difficult task of sentencing TV licence defaulters, followed some months later by the often hopeless task of fine enforcement. Unlike other offenders, TV licence evaders are predominantly female, many of them benefit recipients with children. The majority are single, struggling to keep their families financially afloat.”

Public service indeed.

Posted at 12:32 on Sunday, 10 January 2010

POLITICS Now it must be said that I’m no Muslim — in fact I am a very adamant atheist — and certainly don’t support or share the views of the Islamic extremist group Islam4UK.

However, I saw something today that kind of made both my head and my heart feel sick. A friend of mine joined a Facebook group named Petition to get Islam4UK Banned.

The group Islam4UK is known for it’s staunch support of things like Shariah law and handing over the power of government to these Muslims with outlying beliefs, which of course are terrible things, but the real outrage against the group arose when they announced a march with the purpose of representing the thousands of Muslims who have died by the hands of the west.

It just seems incredibly hypocritical to me that these people love to push the idea that freedom* is far superior to the Shariah way of life — yet would not even afford others the ability to (so far, anyway) peacefully consider alternatives. If that peacefulness ever evolves into anything violent, then we may have something to talk about. But until then, this doesn’t sound very compassionate and “free” to me.

* well, relative freedom.

Posted at 21:27 on Monday, 25 May 2009 — with 2 comments.

POLITICS I’m not American, but I would like to wish everyone who reads this a ‘happy’ memorial day.

Is it OK to wish that? Being that it’s a holiday only observed in the USA, I guess I don’t have a right to participate in any related jubilation other than wishing my fellow man a good day. I certainly don’t have any right to be remembered with honour on this day given that I’m still alive and, as established above, not American.

As you can hopefully gather from punctuation, tone and my general tendency to be a crankypants I’m not too thrilled about the concept of a memorial day — or our equivalent observed each November. This is because my belief towards the military is surprisingly (to me anyway) scarcely found in modern society: I don’t revere our ‘boys in uniform’ as heroes in the least.

I do not approve of people paying other people to kill other people. I consider my reasoning to be pretty sound, and ironically more patriotic than those who wear a red poppy every year¹. I bet it even sounds fairly rational to you, perhaps even something you could jump on board with until I say something like this…

Unlike most, I don’t feel pride on these days. I don’t honour the death of any men or women of military. I find sorrow in the millions of innocents that have died in the name of ‘national defence’, at the hands of those that claim to propagate peace. I feel disheartened that there’s no end in sight, and scared that I might be next. Indeed irrationally fearful, as I’m sure there are people whose worries are warranted by actual immediate danger – people that still manage to soldier on with their day to day lives, might I add.

Though above all I feel disgusted at myself for being too scared to do anything about it — for being too scared to not pay these murderers’ next paychecks.

I get that it takes a whole heap of bravery to run into a war zone, but it takes no more than a lump of cowardice to drop bombs on innocent women and children. That’s what I have a problem with.

Oh, and before you say anything: I have family going back that participated on two sides of World War 2 and plenty of other conflicts. No-one deserves to die, but it’s difficult to care about the deaths of people who’s duty it was to bring death to others.

Happy memorial day.

¹ For those not British, displaying a red poppy on your clothing is shown as a symbol of respect on Remembrance Day (November 11th).