Also, does it seem to our older members that we're living in far less of a 'nanny state' than we were 30 or 40 years ago? When I think of the "public information films" I saw on TV in my youth (I was born in 1962, so that would probably be the early 70s), they seemed laughably patronizing and paternalistic compared to anything we see these days.

That is certainly true, though I (born 1956) don't remember anyone taking them particularly seriously. They were just another manifestation of the patronising attitude that is illustrated by the attitude 'doctor knows best' - an attitude still held by many over about 65, which is surprising in the light of the credulousness of so many DM readers over the DM's perennial ridiculous health scares. What certainly is true, I think, is that the deferential attitude that so many people automatically had then towards authority in any form - teachers, doctors, the police, anyone in uniform, the council, the government - has gone; so maybe it is that Authority *is* less patronising, but at the same time people in general are less tolerant of being patronised, so they see it as unacceptable heavyhandedness? Actually this is getting towards the realms of socialism, surely? <washes mouth out with soap, having just mentioned what is a very dirty word in Mail-land>

Good one this. Lots of different channels for the Daily Mail to direct their hate at here!

Happy Easter: BA union militants wreck getaway plans for thousands of families by targeting strikes at holidays

Unions:


Labour:


Capitalism:


Anyone who dares to tread on the toes of the Mail's beloved 'families':


I am actually quite pleased after that bit. While millions of families will rot away in places like Harrogate, Reading, Macclesfield and Guildford because they cannot get away for their beloved Easter break, I, and many other single people, will be able to travel unimpeded anywhere around the globe using Star Trek style transporter technology.

havent they already brought back matrons? i'm sure ive seen a lot of ads recruiting for them in the local paper. that doesn't seem to stop people saying they should be brought back tho.

_________________
"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

Ah, but they're not proper matrons, ie Hattie Jacques clones using a 1950s rule-by-terror management style. They are PENPUSHERS (note the correct DM terminology there). If a matron hasn't got a commanding bosom, a gimlet stare and a nasty line in bullying of subordinates, she can forget it in Mail Land. (I didn't even bother writing 'he or she' there for fairly obvious reasons.)

If she has, I'm interested.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/colum ... ribes.html

I didn't know where else to put this, so I put it here.

There's been so many of these articles recently I find them absolutely infuriating. Let me start by explaining that I am Scottish, but by no means a Scottish nationalist, and probably one of the least patriotic people you could ever meet. That these articles are able to rile me up so much speaks volumes about how nasty they are.

Throughout the election, there's been loads of these pieces about Scotland/Wales/N England/Ireland holding the rest of the UK to ransom (because, apparently, we don't share the home counties/rural England's love of the Tories). And now, apparently everyone who doesn't live in the South of England doesn't live in the real world, and is an immigrant/welfare leach! He even compares parts of Scotland to Soviet Russia! How does this crap pass for serious political analysis?! It's a total disgrace.

Indeed. I made a comment, but for some reason the Mail's moderators seem a bit twitchy over the last couple of days. Not too hopeful. Not so subtle use of of lovely clean mail reader pub and dirty socialist garage pics. Look how those benefits scroungers live compared to us!

_________________
Mailwatch. Love us or leave us.
http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/

Contender for C*** of the day?:


This is a good one though:

_________________
'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

Would I manage that longed-for effect of making dyed-in-the-wool Mailites spontaneously combust if I pointed out that shifting the border from north of Carlisle to somewhere south of Manchester is analogous to breaking up the Soviet Union?

Blimey! They took it - and it's in the green.

_________________
Mailwatch. Love us or leave us.
http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/

Thought I'd resurrect this old thread as the name of it is rather appropriate for my following post.

As the Mail do indeed seem to be anti-everything in Britain (and hate everything about living here too), I thought they might be interested in this link.

An interesting chart of the world's best countries to live in based on various different criteria, showing one hundred countries in order (the list has a tendency to jump around a bit when you try to click on a country, but it's worth a go):

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/inte ... tries.html

Just goes to show we don't have it half bad over here, do we?

I'd love to add a post to every Mail website story with this link in it, but they'd quickly catch on.

_________________
"Now get those trousers off before someone dies!"

That McKinstry thing is unbelievable. The reason more people work for the state in some areas is that it makes sense to locate public services in places with a supply of cheap labour. One might think this would appeal to a low tax man like him.

Let's salute the south east.
Those pensions aren't going to mis-sell themselves are they.

Reminds me of a cartoon in the latest Private Eye - 'North-South Divide Widens' with a map of the UK with a line around the South-East and it's marked 'The South' with everywhere else 'The North'.