My Mate Melanie
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:21PM The problem is, I know her. I met her in a feminist squat in 1975 near Regents Park. I didn't like her, even though I liked and supported feminists at the time and made tea for them when they visited, Melanie Phillips was a vicious, critical, inhumane Stalinist feminist, a sexist bully, a ranter and a right old pain in the arse. I know many women who knew her then and didn't like her very much either, and this was at a time when criticising a 'sister' to a man was almost criminal.
But today, fool that I am I had to do it. Sit on my chair, grip the seat and read through Melanie Philips turgid dross on the Daily Fail. I won't post a link, if you want to you can find it. She harps on and on about the 'liberal intelligentsia' being the direct cause of the recent riots. It's because of hate filled feminists like Harriet Harman who deliberately set about destroying the nuclear family etc etc. According to the repugnant harridan that scrawled this reactionary dross, kids are rioting because they don't have fathers, because the labour party forced people to be single parents, she then uses a bit of half baked Freudian analysis about male rage. Every single broken window, stolen telly and burnt out car/shop/house is directly the result of the Labour party.
This hate filled, twisted nightmare of a woman has an enormous readership and all around the suburbs of this country today people will be absorbing this distorted gobbledegook and nodding wisely. It's not us at fault they will say, it's those wretched lefty liberals and their absurd notion that the very normal, level headed society we live in is to blame.
Strangely she doesn't quote her own paper which, in March last year, ran with the story that the gap between the rich and poor in the UK is bigger now than it was during the era of slavery 200 years ago. The gap started to widen in the late 1970's, I know, I was there. This gap was levered in by, strangely, not the liberal intelligentsia, but by right wing moralists and the uber capitalist bullies who funded them discreetly, people like, um, like Melanie Philips.
The de-regulation of the banking industry under the Thatcher government resulted in the mind numbingly short sighted foolery of the last 25 years, where terms like 'fiscal growth' and 'free market economy' leached into our every day lives. Where 'the city' became the focal point of our culture, where the dullest people on earth, the least creative, most stupid individuals we have ever spawned became totems of our respect. Bankers. Ghastly men who drive stupid cars and pontificate about the economy, and all they did was screw it up for the rest of us, and then we, the poor, stupid, dumb tax payers gave them a load more money.
I wonder why young people are so stupid, short sighted and greedy. Oh wait, it's the 'liberal intelligentsia' telling them to be like that.
The moral lead they've been fed for the past 30 years, as exemplified by endless streams of financial specialists, banking pundits and free marketeers is 'you can fiddle, steal and lie your way to wealth like we do.'
Well, they have, and none of us like it.
The Daily Mail also ran a story last year about the growing 'underclass' of disenfranchised kids who had sod all to look forward to, who didn't fit into the very narrow avenues of 'opportunity' that are supposed to exist, who are marginalised, harassed and pushed aside by the law breaking, non tax paying, phone hacking, spray tanned super rich.
We are all responsible for the riots, me, you, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and the Cameron bloke, the Labour party, the Tory party, the Lib Dems, right wing bigots and left wing whiners. We have allowed our society to be ruled by a super elite who live offshore, don't pay tax, have the power and money to lobby governments and 'adjust' legislation to suit their goals.
But two faced Phillips, an old lefty feminist blames it all on the 'liberal intelligentsia' of whom she was once a prime member. As we all know, there is no greater anti smoker than someone who is an ex-smoker. Who the hell is the 'liberal intelligentsia' anyway? Stephen Fry? Definitely not me, I'm thick.
Reader Comments (32)
*APPLAUSE*
I read the article (via a cache site that denies the Mail the hit), and I thought to myself;
"I should blog about this"
and then my day-job got in the way...
Thanks for doing it for me, and doing it so bloody well :-)
Well done, Robert. I think this is the last word on the matter.
I think labels are seriously failing us. I think the riots are a result of society failing the members of it. Greed has taken over all aspects of our lives, just the way the free marketeers wanted it to. Greed is supposed to keep the markets stable, people in line and the system going. Of course, greed has run amok. These rioters are only doing what rich businessmen and Wall Street types already have--steal for themselves. I heard some idiot on the news yesterday explain that looting was "no way to have economic recovery" and thought to myself "sure it is--a *personal* economic recovery." Isn't that what is supposed to motivate us?
Western governments spend their days defending big business. The very nature of big business is that they get rich of off paying someone less than they pay themselves. The media defends the wealthy and "successful". No high profile body defends the poor, the jobless, the hungry. Haw can people be surprised that there are riots? I'm concerned that we'll see riots on this side of the pond. But if it happens, I won't be surprised.
I feel like it's not the liberals or the conservatives or the Labour or the Democrats or the Tories or the Republicans in government--it's all of them. By allowing greed to be the main motivator for societal "growth" (and by measuring growth only in financial terms) every leader in the western world has made his/her bed. This is why I think labels fail us. These labels don't reflect the utterly corrupt system we all take part in every day.
Sorry for the long comment! It's your fault! You had to be all thought-provoking and stuff! :P
Agreed.
I don't suppose if the looters give the loot back they'll get off scott free like the greedy politicians.
Or if there's a chance they'll get to keep the booty and then have the tax payers give them more money so they can do it all again - like the bankers.
Or maybe they can keep the loot, get off free and bribe the police, like the media.
And while I'm at it, if the looters think they're so hard done by, maybe they should spend a few months picking through a rubbish tip in Nairobi, or working in a sulphur mine in Peru. To be honest I'd rather my taxes went towards those unfortunate souls.
It's just plain old human greed at both ends of the class system, pure and simple. Getting the most 'shiny stuff' for the least amount of effort.
well fuck the lot of 'em.
phew! that feels better.
An empty line between the paragraphs would make it so much easier to read.
You don't seriously think these thugs equate what they're doing to the bankers do you? My guess is they come from homes where living off benefits is the norm and so getting something for nothing is acceptable. They have no concept of the affect on the economy or care. So how on earth you think this is to do with the City is beyond me. Don't get me wrong I'm not defending either group, they're as bad as eachother!
I do equate what the thugs have done with the bankers.
They saw a weakness in the market and they exploited it without any care or concern for anyone else except themselves.
The bankers may not have burned anyones house or business down, but plenty of good honest people have lost their homes and business because of their actions. Probably a damn sight more than the rioters caused.
Simple greed.
Nice blog. It's arses like Philips and the uber arse Kelvin Mackenzie who spit out their hate filled bile blaming everyone for everything. I learnt, to my shame, from Kelvin Mackenzie on Newsnight that I, as a teacher, am to blame for the riots as I haven't instilled enough discipline on the current crop of teenagers.
This is bullshit obviously. Anyone who hasn't gone into a school lately should. You'll see mostly fantastic kids, funny and clever, who will turn into great adults. You'll see some nasty kids too, just as you would if you met a thousand assorted adults.
I abhor Philips, Mackenzie and their ilk.
Brilliantly said. She rails on about 3 decades of failure which she blames entirely on New Labour, without beginning to notice Thatcher & Major were in charge for the first 17 of those 30 years (and 2 more beforehand). And even then, Blair hardly swept away the Thatcherite legacy, did he?!
I see enormous parallels between the riots and the elite. In the scenes of recent days I watched people whose only allegiance is themselves and others like them, who were out for whatever they could get for themselves, who lacked any kind of empathy or understanding of the consequences of their actions on other people, and who often seemed oblivious to the shock, outrage or distress felt by the rest of us.
Like the corporate bankers who continue to award themselves massive bonuses, like politicians whose only remorse after being caught using our money to pay for their televisions seemed to be regret that they got caught, and like the media moguls who illegally tapped phones of innocent victims in order to sell more newspapers.
I've been reading about the so-called 'feral underclass'. If that's even partly true, we also have a feral elite.
Bloody, bloody brilliant.
Bravo Robert,
There's one advantage to having the Daily Mail. It's the one place where bullying harridans like Melanie Phillips, Peter Hitchens Amanda Platell and Richard Littlejohn can hang out together with fellow weirdoes and let the rest of us avoid them.
It helps to think of the Mail as the publishing equivalent of a nuclear waste dump, in and itself it's probably harmless, but you don't want to get too close just in case. But for a paper that constantly finds fault with the rest of the world for not taking responsibility, it never seems to think twice about the consequences of pouring unmoderated poison into the world - too fat, too thin, too green, too liberal, too republican, too poor, too black, not Christian enough, too liberated, too scientific, too carcinogenic - the Mail will tell you you're wrong.
Mind you, there is a worse thing - have you ever read The Daily Express? It's every bit as hateful as the Mail, but it has none of the restrained intellectualism.
Amongst the Mail's ranks of venomous scribblers, Melanie Phillips is of course the most divorced from reality, acting as an anti-science (no climate change or evolution in la Phillips world) shrieking rentagob, able to churn out a thousand words on any subject you choose uttery devoid of facts or shades of nuance. I'm pretty sure she still doesn't think she should apologise for her championing of the MMR-causes-autism fraudster who not only enriched himself, but ensured hundreds of kids have suffered the consequences of infection from life threatening illnesses.
What I find utterly unfathomable is why the BBC keeps allowing them to spill their poison on grown-up programmes like Any Questions? or Question Time? Putting Mad Mel on a discussion panel and expecting a rational debate to break out is like pouring four star on a bonfire and wondering why you find yourself without any eyebrows.
I think they should bring back national service, for the irresponsible parents too!
"Things got out of hand and we'd had a few drinks. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets." David Cameron, Oxford 1986
Fantastic! Thank you!
but... ummm... space those paragraphs out, 'cos that's a beautufully worded rant :-)
Chris, I think we do have a "feral elite"--that's an absolutely brilliant turn of phrase.
Zedzero, I'm glad we're not alone in this conclusion. It's not even about the looters being conscious of the parallel to Big Business Looters. They don't have to be, but as you said, who do you think is responsible for more pain and suffering? The looters on High Street? Or the looters on Wall Street?
Robert - define who a greedy banker is ? Is a greedy banker a PA?, someone that works in IT ? someone that works in HR ? someone that works in the post room ? For every greedy banker there are thousands of people who just work at bank, don't earn massive bonuses or big salaries. Don't damn us all it's too easy.
Band Wagon
On many occasion I've said 'I know it's not everyone who works in banking, just the dickheads who do the gambling.' I now think I need to reappraise that.
Bankers, people who work in the banking industry, people who are paid very well for moving money around, gambling, fiddling with other peoples money, people who support them, people who run the management of banking, sit in the foyer and arrange meetings, none of them, not one single one of them does anything remotely creative or helpful to society. People who work in banks don't want to help or create a better society, they simply, and so incredibly boringly, want to make money. Anyone who has ever worked in the banking industry is by definition, short termist and dull, incredibly uncreative and dull. But, unlike the rioters, when they tear the place up, when they get trashed and lose billions and billions of pounds in drunken speculation, the government gives them money and they carry on. Just in case it's not clear, I am angry about the entire banking system, and I'm thinking about it very hard and talking about it and trying to work out how we, as a society, can live without 95% of it, and encourage the poor saps trapped in the system to stop and do something useful.
YYYYYES! - Go Rob!
(I'm seriously considering putting your picture on my desk next to my wife & kids).
Banks aren't just morally corrupt, they're parasites. They leech far more out of the everyday Joe than any hoodie on benefits. & I don't care if you just make the tea or work in the post room - you're part of that corrupt system.
I've read a few good articles about the riots recently and I found this one interesting. i can appreciate your viewpoint but I disagree that we are all responsible.
I am not clever and did not have a long enough education to put me into an elevated social position, so I concentrated on doing what I could. Served in the Forces, helped raise a decent family and tried to persuade anybody that would listen not to jump on the right-wing rollercoaster.
Lots of small and insignificant people like me have lived our lives according to the values we were given and therefore feel no responsibility whatsoever for the failings of the greedy, rich and lazy. I also question your response to Bandwagon as huge numbers of ordinary tax-paying decent people are doing what they can to earn a rather poor standard of living at the lower end of the banking industry, and should not tarred with the same brush.
Generally, I think a lot of people flail about, after an event like this to express their anger. I don't feel the need as I make no contribution to it.
Robert Llewellyn re reply to Band Wagon:
Usually I would say "you could clean up the whole of London with that huge sweeping statement.." but I actually agree with you. Yes, the men in the post room may not know how a Derivative is traded but they can't help but notice their surroundings and realise they're part of the greed culture. Then again so are the supporting businesses, £4 for a cup of coffee, reaaallyy?
But let's not stop there, if you want the greedy money makers lined up against the wall what about property developers and estate agents (pardon my French). The sort of developers who try and squeeze as many microscopic flats into an area to maximise profits, with rooms so small you have to go outside to change your mind. The unqualified estate agents who have no concept of how inflated house prices has a detrimental knock on effect on the economy but do it to increase their commission.
And what about lawyers? The ones who exist to get these greedy arseholes off speeding fines and create super injunctions so society is duped into thinking they're decent people - yeah sure.
Finally reality show "stars", leeching off society under the delusion they're providing entertainment.
I'd love to know your solution to end the banking culture cos short of sending in a polymorph to suck out their greed I can't see how you can do it!
All the best
Mim