Category Archives: twitter

See me after class.

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Twitter comes to the fore again. This time, two individuals have taken it upon themselves to submit abusive tweets focusing on Mark Halsey.

Now a couple of years ago Halsey had treatment for lymphoma and had a tumour excised from his throat. One would imagine that he is recovered now, although I obviously don’t have access to his medical records.

Halsey is a referee in the English football Premier League and he was the man in the middle for Sunday’s match between Liverpool and Manchester United, always a combustible fixture.

Liverpool lost the fixture, and as is often the case the blame for their defeat does not lie in the fact that they failed to score more goals than the opposition. They were obviously not beaten by the better team (on many occasions I will accept this, it is one of the best things about the sport that the underdog can conduct a ‘smash and grab’, the best team does not always win), the defeat is not attributable to the sitter that the centre forward missed, nor the goalkeeper’s poor positioning at a corner, or unwarranted eagerness to come rushing out for a one-on-one, the defeat is not the fault of the foul committed or slip suffered by the centre back. No, for the unthinking tribal moron of the football supporter they were robbed by a referee who is either incompetent, biased or corrupt. That’s a much more likely explanation for the defeat, isn’t it?

Many Libertarians dismiss football with the old bread and circuses line, but all work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy. Yes, football and sport in general is a distraction, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing, and it is very important to many people. Feelings run high.

So when the game finished, two people sent tweets to Halsey that read ‘I hope Mark Halsey gets cancer again and dies’ and ‘Mark Halsey should’ve died of cancer’. These people are clearly cretinous idiots who are unable to accept the result of a sporting contest that seems very important during the ninety minutes, but really doesn’t matter.

Halsey has gone to the police.

*Deep sigh*

Look, right or wrong you know when you sign up as a referee that you will be subject to the scorn of the crowd for your performance and mistakes, whether perceived or real. You know that as soon as you get on the elite list that the crowd will number in the tens of thousands. I didn’t see the match, but I’m betting that over the course of the game you did some things that attracted the ire of every single person sitting in that stadium, you’d have had 45,000 people calling you every name under the sun, and then after the game you go to the police because two people said offensive things on twitter?

Yes, they weren’t very nice things to say, yes they were offensive. And? Are these comments going to make Halsey’s cancer come back? No? I mean what if the cancer actually did return? Would the specialist be sat there saying ‘Sorry Mr. Halsey, your cancer has returned because two fuckwits mentioned it on twitter’?

Is this really a matter for the police and courts? It’s not just this, there’s the Tom Daly affair, the whole Fabrice Muamba thing. Stupid comments made by stupid people. Well, I’m sorry but this world is full of stupid people making stupid comments, not all of them on twitter, indeed most of them not on twitter. Are we to complain to the police about them as well? Just go and read Inspector Gadget and see how much time the police spend chasing about because some lackwit said something about some other lackwit on Facebook. Ask yourself if it is a reasonable use of police time, because if one complaint is entertained, then every complaint must be entertained.

The whole thing about it being on twitter is a red herring. There’s the old line that people will say things on twitter that they wouldn’t say elsewhere. Well, yes. And? People act in different fashions in different environments. If the referee takes a tumble in football, people will point, laugh and give a big cheer, probably followed with the chant ‘SHE fell over! SHE fell over!’ If you were in the office and your boss fell over, you’d probably go and check that they were OK. Standing on your chair, laughing and chanting probably wouldn’t be well received in the office. Likewise, at the stadium if the ref goes arse over tit, try walking onto the pitch to check if he’s all right and see what reception you get from the guys in hi-viz jackets.

Nasty people say nasty things, they always have and always will. You can’t change that. If we have freedom of expression, then there must be the freedom to cause offence. Mainly because offence is completely subjective. If I were Halsey I’d have dismissed the tweeters as idiots and forgotten about it, there’s no harm done, they’re just morons. It doesn’t matter. If they had incited people to harm, injure or kill him then that becomes a different issue.

By running to teacher you’ve given these playground bullies the oxygen of attention.

No doubt further calls will be made to ban twitter. Because that’s a great idea. Honestly, when did we become so pathetic?

I refer you once again to the magnificent Steve Hughes:

 

Bigmouth strikes again.

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Wow, Kerry McCarthy.

I’m really not sure where to start.

Errrm, OK. So the well balanced (i.e. she has a chip on both shoulders) MP, Labour’s former Twitter Tsar, although it should of course be Tsarina, encountered someone annoying on a train today. Poor love, loads of people have this experience every day, especially those who travel in the same carriage she is using. So she tweeted this:

 ”Oaf on train drinking lager and playing techno music out loud. Everyone being very British about it and not complaining. Then he stood up…”

So far, so mundane.

 ”Should have killed him when we had the chance. Before he could breed.”

Wow. But Kerry, (and we’ll get a little more colour from Nanny Beeb in a moment), these are the sort of people that 13 years of Labour government created. Good, innit? But are you really suggesting killing people because they’ve made you feel uncomfortable? Really?

McCarthy later remarked that her tweets were “obviously flippant”.

Well, yes. And no.

The BBC takes over:

She then described how he was wearing a T-shirt with an offensive message about his sexual prowess, adding: “Should have killed him when we had the chance before he could breed.”

In a follow-up tweet, she said her previous comments were “obviously flippant in the context of him boasting about his (unlikely) sexual prowess”.

Right, so not flippant in the context of having him killed before he reached puberty then?

And the Tories are supposed to be the nasty party?

The thing is, Kerry probably thought she was being very witty in doing the old bait and switch angle on the flippancy point. The thing is, I can quite believe that she would merrily send people off for execution.

Bet she wouldn’t have the guts to do it herself though. . .

As an aside, I wonder who would be screaming like a banshee if the exact same comments had been made by a Tory MP about a black train passenger? And yes, I’m fairly certain the passenger was white, otherwise she wouldn’t have dared.

Apology NOT accepted.

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How bloody dare she?

I am raging this morning. I am furious about the racist tweet sent out by Diane Abbott. For those who don’t know what she said (it would appear the tweet has now been deleted) I refer you to the BBC’s write up of the story:

Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott is at the centre of a Twitter row over claims she made racist comments.

Responding to criticism of the term “black community leaders” she wrote: ”White people love playing ‘divide & rule’ We should not play their game”.

When Nadhim Zahawi says that “Labour leader Ed Miliband should sack her for “inciting hatred against white people”. He doesn’t go far enough. She should be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred.

This is quite clearly hate speech, and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, for a politician to say this sort of thing is bad enough, for one that prides themselves on their anti-racism stance is inexcusable.

The crime is compounded further:

Ms Abbott, the first black woman to be elected as an MP, later wrote her remark had been “taken out of context”.

No, sorry. That isn’t good enough. I know this to be true because I have been told this time and time again. An explanation does not hold water, an apology is not enough. She has to go, especially as she says that people are taking this out of context maliciously. Oh, really? Diane. Don’t hear you saying that when the positions are reversed. So if we’re offended by this, we’re to blame because we’re only calling you racist because we’re malicious, racist maybe? Give me a bloody break.

Of course, I don’t believe that. You see, I’m not a participant in victimhood poker, I probably wouldn’t be allowed to qualify. I am what I am, I’m a white heterosexual male it does not make me any less or any more than anyone else. I’ve had my stories of woe and hardship that tick a few boxes, but I do not decry the hand life has dealt me and I am truly thankful that I live in a society where by and large people can get on and achieve what they want regardless of any trait which, whilst important to the individual, once it is taken in the context of a crowd or a community is irrelevant. We live in a country where, by and large (again), it doesn’t matter what gender you are, what your race or religion is, what skin colour you have, what sexuality you are.

For most people a person’s skin colour is as important as a person’s eye colour, hair colour or favourite breakfast cereal.

It is only people like Diane Abbott who continue to make a fuss over this subject, most of us couldn’t give a pair of dingo’s kidneys. There are laws that are perfectly reasonable in setting out prohibitions over discrimination on a whole number of totally irrelevant cosmetic differences. Well now she has been hoist by her own petard, and she is utterly deserving of it.

If a white MP made comments like this their feet wouldn’t touch, and Abbott would be one of the first in the pack, screaming like a harpy with her face twisted in rage. Well, sorry girl, you fed and watered the monster and now you’ve sprung it from its cage. Them’s the breaks, your weapon has been turned against you.

Does what I say mean I consider things to be perfect? Well, no. There will always be racist people, homophobes, the religiously intolerant, they’ll always be about, and despite the best efforts of a large number of politicians, there is yet to be a sufficiently reliable test for thought crime. No laws will ever prevent people from holding such silly attitudes, the best way to deal with them is to point and laugh, rather than shriek and rant. So I point and laugh at Abbott.

Do I think that a large number of black people have it bad? Absolutely, they live in horrible places with little prospect. However, ask yourself this, is this down to some white conspiracy? Or should we be looking at people like Abbott and asking the question is it the politicians with their well meaning but bone-headed and spirit crushing social engineering policies that perpetuate the problems?

Diane, you’re part of the problem. Go now.

Make your bleeding mind up.

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My this is confusing, isn’t it? It’s been an interesting day watching what now seems to be the final hours of the Gaddfi regime in Libya. Citizen journalism seems to be coming to the fore once again, with the BBC noting breathlessly that internet connections are being restored in the country as “groups such as the Libya Youth Movement posted Twitter messages giving regular updates on attempts to capture Colonel Gaddafi’s compound.”

This is a good thing, right? The people, who we are told are bitterly opposed to Gaddafi’s regime, using social media to rise up and facilitate the liberation of their own country.

Yet, and this is where I get confused, this is from the same organisation that was talking about “a social networking crime spree“ when it was used to co-ordinate the rioting in the UK.

So, that’s bad, right? Is Twitter the root of all evil, or the shining sword of liberty wielded righteously by an oppressed population?

If I were able to think for myself (although I’m aware that this is discouraged these days), I may come to the conclusion that it is all down to the context. I’m not able to think for myself though. Four legs good, two legs bad. And yet, today seems to be a two legs good day. Baffling.

I suppose it is like guns. They are bad, yes? And yet, these people we are supposed to be cheering on are using guns, so isn’t that bad?

Confusion reigns. Is it down to who is being shot at? Gaddafi is a bad man, so if he’s being shot at, that’s fine. But what if a hugely popular counter revolution takes place and that too is co-ordinated on Twitter? Would that be good as well, or would Twitter be bad again?

You see, Twitter is just a tool. To talk about it like it has some sentient power is rubbish, Twitter is not responsible for the detention of Gaddafi’s sons and the taking of his compound; it is the people using Twitter, along with others, who are responsible. It was being taken one way or the other. Similarly, to talk about it like it is a demon that walks amongst us when used by rioters and looters is similarly arse-custard of the highest order. Those riots were happening anyway, the logical extension is to talk about banning pens and paper, because they too can be used to pass messages. It was the rioters who were bad, not Twitter.

You may as well hold up a spatula as the death and salvation of civilisation at the same time.

This is what I think the real nub of the matter is, many people feel that the right of free speech is vital, right up until the point where someone says something those people don’t like. Then it becomes a menace and needs to be clamped down upon. In the past, this wasn’t such an issue, the mainstream media, by and large, does as it is told.

The problem comes when people do and say what they like. Now the tools go beyond a scruffy bloke standing on an orange box at Speakers Corner. Gaddafi shut down the internet in Libya, people in this country wanted the same thing during the riots, screaming like a demented C3-P0 ‘no, no, shut them all down!’

What happened during the riots was unfortunate. What is happening in Libya today is why governments are obsessed with regulating the internet. It is, so we’re told, for our own protection, and that of the children.

I don’t buy it for a moment, it is for the protection of their own positions. They are scared of us, and with good reason.

The One That Has Got The Painters In . . .

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It’s looking a little tired over here at the moment. The paint is chipped, there’s a dirty great gouge in the wall from when I moved the Steinway. Apparently, keeping it next to the oven wasn’t very good for it. And just look at that cigarette burn in the carpet, smoke all you like, but use a bloody ashtray won’t you?

Anyhow, I’m going to give this place a bit of a spruce up, so don’t be alarmed if you come and visit and it looks a bit, well, odd. I’m probably just arseing about with different colour schemes. Perhaps something in gold and purple brocade? Or perhaps velvet?

Anyhow, time to keep a promise I made, I had a lovely message from a chap called Paul at EU Referendum who was keen for me to promote his online petition to . . . well, I’m sure you can figure out what Paul wants. I want it as well. If you want it (no, not that, you filthy minded little skit) then toddle on over and sign the petition, I’ll not be holding my breath though. The idea of petitions kind of pre-supposes we live in a democracy where our elected representatives actually give a fuck about what we want.

Oh yes, whilst we’re on fiddly about farty arsed stuff, I’ve got myself on twitter. My name is, surprisingly, UKSnowolf. There’s probably a widget I can add on here to promote the awesomeness of my incisive 140 character bon mots on the world in which we live, so I’ll have a look about see if I can find it. Please follow me, my account has a big fat 0 where it says ‘following’ and lonliness is very bad for the ego.

Well, don’t just stand there, put the dust sheets down, grab a brush, let’s decorate this mother!

The One That Is Saying ‘Run For The Hills!’. . .

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The Labour Party has appointed the MP Kerry McCarthy as a “Twitter tsar” with responsibility for encouraging candidates to embrace social networking sites before the General Election.

Eh? Say what?

The MP for Bristol East, who was recently voted most ‘influential’ MP on Twitter with 1,879 followers, has been named as new media campaign spokesperson.

I’ve checked folks, it’s August 17th, for one awful moment, I thought I fallen asleep and missed the autumn and new year.

A man looking for porn stumbles upon Kerry’s twitter updates, earlier today.