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”.

Anyway, time to refute some of the bullshit:

We don’t need “tougher” citizenship tests, we need tougher border control…

We have over 2 million unemployed, why on earth would we need ANY immigrants??

We should :-
1) Remove all illegal immigrants without hesitation.

2) Change the definition of Asylum to mean providing a place or safety for as long as it is deemed to be required – NO right to citizenship, ever..

3) If we have a skills shortage, train our own people first…

We are a small island, we need to limit our population..

Slightly Right Of Ghenghis Khan

Why should we need more people when we have unemployed? This is the often touted “we should have 100% employment” argument. It ignores the fact that you are never going to match every person to a suitable job, based on the skills required and a reasonable salary for them to live and look after their family on. It also ignores the fact that if you force people to do shitty, demeaning jobs with no prospects it tends to lead to things like depression (and time of work), as well as driving them to a life of crime. You can’t really have the media, particularly adverts, telling people that they need stuff and should aspire to things on the one hand, and on the other hand tell them they are worthless and should accept their lowly lot in life and bloody well like it.

So, on to point (1). If we knew where illegal immigrants where, we could remove them. Unfortunately, we don’t, and it’s not exactly easy to find out. Plus, it takes years, even in the simplest cases, to decide asylum cases. If you think it’s easy to figure out who is genuine and who isn’t, you need to give Asylum and Immigration a call immediately.

As for (2), you are pretty much guaranteeing that asylum seekers spend their life on benefits, scrounging off the rest of us hard-working Brits if you don’t allow them citizenship. After all, non-citizens cannot easily get a job (in fact, by default there is not even a right to work for asylum seekers). It wouldn’t stop them using public services either, such as being housed (for free, since they can’t work) or getting treatment on the NHS. I suppose we could just kick them into the gutter and let them die quietly, but that goes against my liberal wishy-washy-politically-correct-namby-pamby feelings of compassion towards my fellow human beings.

So, back to the first point again with item (3). Unfortunately, it takes many years to train people to do complicated jobs. Also, people don’t tend to do too well at leaning things they have absolutely no interest in. You can’t just mould people like clay into any shape you want.

I was just saying today how the popularity of Harry Potter gives me some hope that children are still interested in reading, but now I realise that Harry Potter may just be a gateway text for the Daily Mail. Maybe we should ban reading.