I also emailed all my MEPs when the EU was debating extending copyright terms. The Greens and Lib Dems were in favour of reducing them, although we now know for certain that the Lib Dems are full of shit. The Tory MEP was in favour of an extension and as in your experience basically parroted the BMI press release.

So what it boils down to is that the Greens are the largest party who offer some prospect of representing my views, but they only have one MP. Protest is pointless as we have seen time and time again, the only exception being when enough people are fucked over badly enough for sustained violence such as the Poll Tax riots. The current lot outside St. Paul’s have just been evicted and will be history by the end of the week, and all the promises to ask the hard questions and have a debate by politicians are worthless. Most of the media hasn’t even bothered to report what they are protesting about, other than some vague hippies-against-capitalism bullshit.

The Government Petitions would be hilarious if they didn’t demonstrate just how far the three major parties are willing to go to shut you up and make sure your voice is never heard, except for at election time where people are guaranteed to vote for whoever will do the most to protect their wallet. The genius of the current system is that with one vote you have to pick both a local MP and who you want to form the government (assuming you are not fucked over by a coalition), so that one X on the voting slip has to cover every single issue you care about. Knowing that economics and taxes are the most important things all parties can afford to screw you on everything else. Labour started a war that 2 million people marched against and still got re-elected with a large majority.

Our democracy is fucked, we are fucked.

It’s our version of the American Dream™ – the idea that anyone can make it if they work hard. It is of course bollocks. The reality is that most people spend their lives working for others, and not because of a lack of drive or ambition but simply because that is the most reasonable thing for them to do. Not everyone is suited to going it alone or running a business. Even if you are about 60% of businesses fail within four years, and of course even if yours does not that is no guarantee that you will improve your social standing because of it. How many corner shop owners or painters struggle to reach the middle class, let alone actually becoming quite well off?

Of course there is nothing wrong with working for a salary. Lots of highly educated, hard working people do. But Osborne, like Thatcher before him, isn’t interested in them. Well, not beyond the point that they consume and thus create opportunities for businessmen and bankers. Thatcher wanted everyone to own a car, own their own home, own shares in former public utilities… Those are the least terrible aspects of it. Thatcherism considers any service that the government provides to be a lost business opportunity.

Need gas, water and electricity? Need to travel by train or by bus? Feeling ill? Fantastic, get out your credit card and I’ll introduce you to some friends of mine.

Same old, same old. This coalition is a joke.

Actaully, to be fair, it is different. It’s worse.

Cuts are inevitable, but doing so much so soon will cause a double dip recession. Getting rid of government jobs and replacing them with private ones costs more, puts people out of work and on to benefits, and you end up with poorer services.

There is a responsible way to do this and then there is the Tory way. As usual they look out for the rich, make money for private companies with lucrative government contracts and screw everyone else.

Dave was right, this is going to hurt.

With the recent success of Rage Against The Machine thanks to a Facebook group I’m starting to think it might be a good way to sort this out. Unfortunately Facebook’s privacy policies go against my nature but maybe this time needs must…

Stupidity, American-centric ideas and the ability of people with too much time on their hands to enforce their personal preferences has not only driven a lot of good editors away, but it has also done a lot of damage to the content too.

If you compare the Japanese version to the English one the contrasting work together/I’m always right attitudes, as well as numerous other flaws, become obvious. I’m not going to waste my time any more.

Well, except perhaps on keeping the PC World article full of my own opinions. I never said I wasn’t as bad as the rest of them.

Anyway…

No. There are millions of pictures of non-black people being ridiculed (i.e. George Bush, Tony Blair, Bunker Brown, Nick Griffin, Wayne Rooney etc, etc), should these be removed as well? This has only come about because the 1st lady is black, if she’d been white, this would not have made the news.

Bob Todd

Recommended by 266 people

It worries me greatly that Bob does not appear to understand what racism actually is. The fact that 266 other morons apparently don’t either, and that said morons pushed this comment to the top of the pile, makes me despair.

Apparently this sort of thing is quite common. I hear people saying things like “I’m not a racist, but…” or “it’s just a laugh, they laugh along as well and make jokes about white people too.” As someone who has been a victim of racism I can assure you, dear reader, that these people are fucktards.

The picture of Mrs. Obama altered to look like an ape is racist because historically comparing black people to apes and implying that they are less highly evolved, less intelligent and less human than white people has been used by racists. Ridiculing people because of their actions or beliefs is fine, ridiculing them simply because of the colour of their skin (which they cannot do anything about) is racist. Calling someone a “paki” is racist because it is a term of abuse based on racial background, where as calling someone a “brit” is simply shorthand and not an insult. How people cannot understand this rather simple distinction is beyond me.

There has been criticism of attempts to educate kids about this kind of thing, calling it liberal leftist namby-pamby PC brigade nonsense, but clearly there is a very real need for it.

I’d like to think that it’s the BBC taking notice of my complaints and doing something about them. However, I have a feeling that there may be a more sinister cause. Maybe the BNP shills have toned down their campaign a bit. After all, most of the top rated posts still consist of extreme right wing bullshit.

Even if the latter is the case, I’d say it’s still a positive development.

Dear [MoJo]

Thank you for your e-mail.

I understand you’re unhappy with the ‘Have Your Say’ messageboard as you feel it is being used by BNP and far right extremists to air their views and you feel this is inappropriate.

If you disagree with a moderation decision please email Centralcommunitiesteam@bbc.co.uk. The Central Communities Team will then review – if an incorrect decision has been made you will be notified. Please note that while the Central Communities Team are happy to review the decisions made by the moderators, they will not enter into debate or discussion. Once a post has been reviewed, the Central Communities Team decision is final. Please do not send multiple emails, or additional/subsequent emails once you have received a response about a posting from the Central Communities Team.

I appreciate that you feel with the current structure of the messageboard it is easy for groups, like BNP supporters, to rise up the recommended list and that something needs to be done about this so that the messageboard is more impartial and so I’ve registered your comment on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

Joe O’Brien
BBC Complaints

[Emphasis added by me]

Looks like they are at least aware of it, and hopefully will now do something about it. In the meantime setting up a counter-hijacking Facebook group is starting to look more and more attractive.

Send him home!!!!

[RulaBritannia], Bradford, United Kingdom

and

Yet again the system making me think its time to give the BNP a closer look.

Oh dear, York

and

DEPORT HIM!!!!

[cosmicKoalaK], London

or

Mr Binyam Mohamed should be sent back to Ethiopia ASAP.

Captain Mubbers, Britain out of EU!!

The list goes on. The problem is that the highest rated comments only need about 180 odd votes to rise to the top. Finding 180 people to log in and vote is not hard for any determined organisation. In fact, part of me wants to start a Facebook group for that very purpose.

The BBC must do something about this. It cannot be platform for the BNP and other extremists. I would recommend a Slashdot style comments system, with the key ability to reply directly to other people’s posts and rate them based on more than just “I agree”.