Weekend links.
As for the papers, there's not much of quality but for three articles: Jonathan Steele on Afghanistan, 20 years after the Soviets withdrew while looking at our own involvement, Peter Oborne, who is utterly wasted at the Mail, tackles Jacqui Smith's expenses, and Andrew Grice notes Labour is still terrified about the ghosts of old returning to haunt them.
Left till last for the worst tabloid pieces is predictably the nonsense being spouted about a 13-year-old fathering a child. Most amusing is the pique at the prospect of Alfie and Chantelle getting benefits in the Sun, which presumably has already paid a vast sum to their parents to obtain their story. Even more hilarious are these lines in the leader, which points the finger everywhere except at itself:
Then we must consider how our fashion industry sexualises children.
Stores are full of flirtatious clothes aimed at little girls.
Is it responsible for shops to target sexy bras and knickers at children of eight?
Ah yes, the "fashion industry" sexualising children. It's nothing to do with the media being overflowing with sex, is it, such as the newspaper which features a topless woman on its third page every day, certainly not. As per usual though, the Sun is a beacon of sanity compared to the Daily Mail, which yesterday had Melanie Phillips spitting tacks, and today has veteran worst comment piece winner Amanda Platell doing much the same, while its leader blames, naturally, the liberals. Platell's piece is instructive of how on a case by case basis it decides how to allot blame to either parents or the state, depending on their whim at the time:
So while when Allison Pearson blamed the mother when her daughter was murdered, something she had no control over, Platell this time round blames the "liberal establishment" when the parents themselves had far more of the blame, should we wish to apportion it, to share. Platell at least puts this moral collapse down to four decades worth of "liberal" policies, unlike the Conservatives who predictably screamed about the broken society, even when the BBC rather shot them down by noting that the number of under-16s giving birth over the past decade has declined. Deborah Orr in the Independent is a voice of sanity, noting how incredibly rare such a situation is, and then skewering all involved:
Indeed.
Labels: weekend, weekend links, weekend round-up
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That collection of weekend links left me angry.
I think that is a good thing.
Posted by
Daniel Hoffmann-Gill |
Monday, February 16, 2009 10:47:00 AM