One thing that really stuck me about the leaflets from Ukip and the BNP for the recent European Parliamentary election was the fact that they were stuffed full of cheesy patriotic symbols — Union Flags, Spitfires, Winston Churchills and so on. Any electorate in the world will have a certain contingent who are enticed by […]
Aftermath of the European Parliamentary election
The Europe-wide picture The consensus seems to be that, Europe-wide, it was a good election for the centre-right. It certainly seems as though the governing centre-left parties have taken a bit of a battering, while voters seem content with centre-right governments. Those of a socialist persuasion may well feel disgruntled. In the midst of an […]
Did Bernie Ecclestone condone racism?
I didn’t have the time to blog about it when the story originally blew up, but I have a few thoughts on the issue. Late last week Bernie Ecclestone gave an interview to BBC Radio 5 Live where he made comments that were interpreted by some as condoning racist behaviour in the grandstands at Formula […]
Insight into Republican America
This is an interesting video of some happenings at a Republican rally yesterday. It’s difficult to tell exactly what John McCain’s strategy is now. Just a few days ago Barack Obama was just “that one” to Mr McCain. Now the Republican nominee seems to be going well out of his way to be polite about […]
A breath of fresh air from F1 Racing
I’m taking a brief break from my break because I think I can afford to now. When I last wrote about the racism issue in F1, it was to bemoan the media’s role in fuelling the fire. If you have been reading for a while you might know of the distaste I have for some […]
Media hypocrisy is making the F1 racism issue worse
On Sunday when I wrote about the racist crowd members at the Barcelona test, I said that part of the problem was the media’s debased, distorted coverage of Formula 1. Sadly, their coverage of the racism issue itself does not make me confident that the situation will get any better. The News International stable in […]
Racism reaches F1
I have written before about the dangerously partisan, disgracefully nationalistic coverage of Formula 1. There is only one logical conclusion to taking a nationalistic angle in coverage of sports that have nothing to do with nationality. Some British media outlets are guilty of putting an anti-Spanish angle into elements of their F1 coverage last year. […]
Learndirect are shocked, just shocked, by Jeremy Kyle
Last week The Jeremy Kyle Show was branded as a human form of bear-baiting by District Judge Alan Berg. He is probably quite right. I say “probably”, because I have not actually sat down and watched a full episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show. The man’s demeanour is enough to put you off after just […]
What else were Channel 4 supposed to do?
What I find most strange about this whole Celebrity Big Brother hoo-ha is the idea that Channel 4 should apologise and the fact that the Carphone Warehouse have felt the need to withdraw their sponsorship of Big Brother. So Carphone Warehouse finds the racism broadcast by Channel 4 deplorable. Presumably Carphone Warehouse want to dissociate […]
Bob Piper isn’t a racist. He’s just a loud-mouthed boor
You may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging over these past few days. I haven’t even been reading blogs — at all. Just in preparation for my last exam tomorrow, then I will start up again. I had been completely missing the whole Bob Piper hoo-ha that was going on over the weekend. The […]