[Snowden]

Well, I reckon if Allison "Sorry, but I really hate poor people" Pearson gets a thread, Platell deserves one too.

Rhetorically Speaking pointed me in the direction of a piss-poor analysis of Barack Obama which deserves a mention on these forums:

Charismatic, yes. But I fear Obama's not a new JFK

Equally misguided are his plans to meet - in person, if necessary - the leaders of Iran, Cuba and North Korea, who do not deserve to be dignified with a place at any negotiating table.

Yes, because the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have proved such successes.

Finally, there is his unflinching support for the U.S.'s abortion laws, which allow terminations up to 26 weeks - despite the wealth of evidence which shows that babies born at 20 weeks stand a good chance of survival.

Far from heralding progress, I fear that Obama is the very embodiment of the same failed Leftish experiment that has blighted Britain throughout ten years of Labour rule.

Someone likes Nadine Dorries. Also, New Labour? Leftish? Are you fucking serious?

Beneath the magic - and the man has oddles of it - Obama is an East Coast cosmopolitan bien pensant. He is as ideologically distanced from Middle America as he is from the Moon.

Whereas Clinton and McCain are obviously salt-of-the-earth Everypeople. The 'bien pensant' charge, a strange one given Obama's background, is rather similar to the 'elitist' one popular in America. I'm reminded of this Get Your War On:

So sue me - that makes me an elitist? Good! If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room", I'll be an elitist!

Back to Platell:

In an ideal world, the colour of a presidential candidate's skin ought not to matter. But this is not an ideal world - and the fact is, for understandable reasons, Obama has played up his ethnic heritage to an uncomfortable degree.

Would you prefer he painted his face white for TV appearances or something?

Then, on his wife Michelle:

This from a girl who, despite her humble origins, won a place at one of the U.S.'s best universities and went on to become a lawyer, only to spend her adult life complaining about a lack of opportunity for people from backgrounds like hers.

Amanda goes for 'massive logical fallacy' in this final part of the column, as she bravely uses Mrs Obama's life to represent that of all black women, branding her a hypocrite for suggesting otherwise.

Also, I think this has already been covered elsewhere, but Platell is also responsible for this:

Oh Fern! Why DID you have to fib about your gastric band?

Well what the fuck are you, her mother?

[Adrian]

I think I freaked out the people I was watching 'The Apprentice; You're Fired' with when I hurled verbal abuse at her every time she appeared on screen.

[bairy]

As soon as it was revealed she was on Fired, I switched off, anticipating that I'd be punching things as soon as she opened her gob.

[Daley Mayle]

I'm disappointed at the thread title; the author should have inserted an expletive before the surname.

[jonnyhead]

I enjoyed her take on the police shooting of Mark Saunders, comparing it to the de Menezes case:

It's one thing killing a suspected terrorist, who might have been carrying a bomb on public transport, quite another to shoot a man who was holed up in his own home with just a shotgun.

Actually shooting with a shotgun far more acceptable than not having a bomb?

Her Nadine Dorries-worshipping abortion article was priceless, too. She has a rather troubling relationship with facts:

What gives us the moral superiority that we believe we can abort babies at six months, twice the legal limit in every other country in Europe?

Cyprus has 28 weeks, Finland 24. Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal all allow abortions at 24 weeks in cases of foetal abnormality, too. This bit is pathetic:

The triumphant front-page headlines of the Guardian newspaper on Thursday: 'Abortion limit stays at 24 weeks. Need for fathers is removed. Two million Britons leave UK in last 10 years.' Says it all really, doesn't it?

[Esqui]

I'm disappointed at the thread title; the author should have inserted an expletive before the surname.

Better?

[Daley Mayle]

Much, much better thank you.

[Admirable Chrichton]

I can't read her columns without bile spraying from my ears. She's a horrible, spiteful nasty women who'd bitch about a crying orphan being soft if thier parents died. I thought Linda Lee Potter used to be bad but Christ this harridans in a league of her own.

[frolix22]

I enjoyed her take on the police shooting of Mark Saunders, comparing it to the de Menezes case:

It's one thing killing a suspected terrorist, who might have been carrying a bomb on public transport, quite another to shoot a man who was holed up in his own home with just a shotgun.

Actually shooting with a shotgun far more acceptable than not having a bomb?

That is very insteresting as an insight into the kind of irrational mental contortions people like Platell will go through to make reality conform to their perverse world-view.

How the hell can wrestling an innocent man, who had given the police absolutely no reason to be suspicious, to the floor and blasting him in the head actually have a greater justification than taking down a man who had a dangerous weapon and had discharged that weapon multiple times in a public place then refused to surrender?

[bairy]

We're so cynical we now sneer at integrity

I'm just picking up this one point:

Having been caught out telling a porkie about her massive weight loss - it wasn't down to cycling and dieting but a secretly fitted gastric band - Fern Britton returns to work after suffering from nervous exhaustion.

You'd think she would be relieved now she doesn't have to fib any more.

A friend says: 'ITV totally misjudged how low she was.' Yes, fibbing to her millions of loyal fans was pretty low, indeed.'

A friend eh. Of who Amanda?
A friends of Fern's? Sounds lovely.
A friend of yours Amanda? I think so.

For those who haven't seen it, Anton Vowl does a nice job of how Platell and the Mail picks on Fern for being fat, then picks on her for being thin.

[Bob Page]

The result of all this? After 11 years, the Blair/Brown legacy is that people have not one shred of confidence left in the political process nor in the integrity of our MPs.

As a people, we have become utterly cynical about our democratic institutions, so the automatic response to a politician like Davis, who takes a principled stand and risks everything for the sake of his beliefs, is to question his sanity.

So, people hate Blair and Brown so they're attacking Davis. Right...

Is it any wonder the Prime Minister wanted to remind us of the menace of Al Qaeda and ram through 42 days detention rather than let us dwell on the more immediate threat to our day-to-day life... namely, his Labour Government.

...

[Snowden]

Platell's People: How could this mother have seen no evil?

Hmm. Well this looks like it'll be balanced. I especially enjoy the awful faux-human interest title 'Platell's People'. The article, in true DM style, blames Rosemarie Fritzl for not reporting her husband's crimes. Never mind that it's an ongoing case, never mind that she might well have been abused herself (especially given all the references to her deferential manner), just go ahead, cast decency to the winds and accuse his wife of being an accessory. This line comes across as rather ironic given the DM's stance on women:

What manner of woman gives her husband such unquestioning obedience?

Next to such grim fare, Platell's discussion of issues like Sarah Jessica Parker's dress and a comment by Zara Phillips about marriage seem even more pointlessly vapid than they were in the first place.

[Chris S]

Great win Andy. Pity about the yobbery!
Tennis player beats world no. 9 on home soil. Comes back from 2 sets down against player who has never lost from that position. Gets a bit overexcited at times. Crowd are unsporting.
Ban it now!

The article, in which she likens Murray's overenthusiastic celebrations to common thuggery, is there for your pulling apart.

Murray's antics on Centre Court on Monday epitomised the values not of one of our great national traditions, but of yob Britain. And the message it sends out is that you can only succeed if you behave like a wild animal.

Well, Nadal doesn't rely on rage to secure victory. Nor does Federer. Sure, they get excited, they punch the air. But they behave like sportsmen, not hooligans.

The trouble is, in Britain we have become so complacent in the face of thuggery in the world of sport that we scarcely recognise it any more - still less condemn it.

Only problem he's really had in my eyes was swearing on court, Federer wouldn't do that, right?

Anyway,
Amanda Platell, June 2007, on Tim Henman

...let me be the first to admit, no one has taken more pleasure in bashing the Nearly Man of British tennis than me.

I've called him everything, from wet to wimpy, from gutless to girlie.

And yet, watching that young man on Centre Court at Wimbledon late into Monday night, then again on Tuesday afternoon, I was enthralled by his courage and, quite frankly, appalled by my miscalculation.

Oops, took you until months before he retired to work that one out, did you?
There you have it, Platell was one of the braindead masses who constantly derided one of Britain's top sportsmen because he had the nerve to not win a Grand Slam. Once all the hype dies down, we all feel warm towards Henman for being at the top so long, there's not so much approval to be got by bashing him and oop, suddenly Platell realises that he's a true hero!

I enjoy Tennis but find it hard to get worked up over Henman or Murray, I see them as a individual rather than a representation of their countries like an England team is. I would like Murray to win, but you won't find me screaming at the TV during his matches.

I'd like him to win a lot more now, though. It took 10 years of Henman-bashing to get that admission out of Platell. If Murray pulls off the reasonably unlikely and wins Wimbledon, she'll be scrambling to take that column back next week.

[amcneil74]

Murray's antics on Centre Court on Monday epitomised the values not of one of our great national traditions, but of yob Britain. And the message it sends out is that you can only succeed if you behave like a wild animal.

Well, Nadal doesn't rely on rage to secure victory. Nor does Federer. Sure, they get excited, they punch the air. But they behave like sportsmen, not hooligans.

A contradiction there n'est pas?

You have to behave like an animal to succeed, but here are some successful people who don't behave like animals.

Which one is it Platell you fucking retard??

[Esqui]

I know of no (real) wild animals who can play tennis