spinoff

From somewhere in the ethernet, the following message found its way to Spinoff.

 

"The Labour Party has had some notable bloggers recently including Alastair Campbell, Sadiq Khan MP and Stephen Pound MP. Now it could be your turn. The Labour Party is offering an up and coming blogger access to this year's Party Conference in Manchester from 24 - 28 of September.  You’ll be given access to all the key speeches and events at Conference and you’ll be blogging from the floor about your experiences.

To enter, all you need to do is email blogatconference@new.labour.org.uk "

 

So of course, ever a fan of the Labour party - and especially of the current administration - Spinoff jumped speedily to the task of getting its name into the hat. Spinoff recommends that all other would-be bloggers follow its lead sharpish because competition is sure to be tough. Looking for help? Spinoff wrote the following --

 

"I want to be the Labour Party Conference blogger so I can come along and see for myself the last days of your creaking, festering autocratic junta as it collapses through a combination of conflict, apathy and discontent, and so I can chronicle with hideous detail the revolting crawlers trying to ingratiate themselves with the Glorious Leader, the spectacularly delusional speeches, the thin-lipped applause, the wildly optimistic doublespeak about meaningless empty phrases like "reform", "the future", "change", "choice", and "delivery of public services," and then enjoy the beatings given out to disobedient party members who dare to speak up and who are then marched outside and charged under the hideous, totalitarian anti-"terror" legislation enacted by your stupid, fuck-faced party."

 

Come on kids - get those apps in quick. See you at conference! 

 

Yours etc.,

 

Spinoff.

 

Dead children – you saw them. They were being brought out from under the rubble of a destroyed building in Qana, south Lebanon; grey dolls in the arms of rescue workers.                 

 

Israel was receiving incoming rocket fire from the area and so it targetted Qana. Two day-old footage was produced as evidence of this, showing rockets being fired from a building.             

 

Whether the building in the film was the same one consequently destroyed was not clear. Neither was it clear why Israel had waited two days before flattening it. This, however, is not the point.           

 

The point is the bodies – dead ones being picked from the rubble, and the fact that they were shown on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 news. Why is it that we, in the UK, are allowed to see bodies of dead Lebanese, but not of our own dead soldiers in Iraq?           

 

The answer given to this is that we would be too upset to see dead British troops. It would be a PR disaster and would ruin morale back home. These points carry weight.                

 

Then why is it that we are also not allowed to see dead US troops on television? They are not our countrymen; why is there a reticence to show any coalition dead on our screens? And for that matter, why is it that the most iconic moment in TV history – the destruction of the twin towers – has also disappeared from our screens? Can you remember the last time it was shown?              

 

Somewhere media coverage is being doctored. We are not shown “our” dead, but are allowed to see “theirs”. We are not allowed to see our moments of fallibility, but we are allowed to see theirs. It cannot be suggested that we are weak, mortal or anything other than dominant, while they can be all of those things.          

 

There is no other conclusion to draw when one considers the blanket uniform guideline being followed. No UK news channel shows any coalition dead. All UK news channels show Lebanese dead. This is not co-incidence.           

 

To conclude, therefore: a question. I do not intend to try answering it, though. I will leave it hanging in the air for your consideration, and anyone who would proffer an answer should please do so below. It is very simple.         

 

Why can we see their dead, but not our own? Is it because they matter less?     

 

Yours etc.,

 

Spinoff.

 

A short one today. Consider this, dear reader.  Allow yourself to be tempted by the notion that, instead of ridiculing our PM, instead of characterising Blair as the lap dog of the US, we should feel sorry for him.

              

And the reason we should feel sorry for him is that he's had George Bush to contend with. Think of how much more loved Blair would be if he had seen out his premiereship with a Clinton in the White House, or if Gore had got in, say, or someone else who happened not to have been born with a silver Bible in his mouth.

     

But no. No he got George W., and because of it, history will remember him as the fool - the fool who did all the wrong things when it most mattered. What rubbish luck, eh?

      

Yours etc.,

    

Spinoff.