what sort of government uses water cannon on protestors?

vivatifosi

Malcolm. wrote: »

I'm confused. Are the news broadcasts concentrating on the minority violence due to an underlying media political agenda, or is media merely pandering to the want of the viewer (entertainment in the form of violence)?

It's been baffling me.

24 hour news media fill screens with news that is as exciting as possible or we wouldn't watch. In the case of the protests, this means that we'd rather see people hanging off flags at Cenotaph etc than walking along peacefully with placards.

However to be fair, and I wanted to raise this point earlier, I also saw on the news schoolkids standing round a police van and arguing with far older protesters that violence wasn't the best way to get their point across, so they have shown the good side of humanity on the protests too.

ETA: crikey, just saw on the news what's happening in Greece with the national strikes. Makes the protests here look like a peace picnic: hitting police with iron bars, police firing tear gas canisters, very ugly indeed.

treliac

Trouble is, walking along peacefully with placards doesn't seem to achieve much. Not that violence does or should. But I am glad the British are starting to show they won't just quietly put up with anything.

wageslave

The Wikileaks fiasco, I should be out with my banner about that.

Philip Green et al paying sod all in income tax whilst those on minimum wage have a large proportion of their income whipped away, I should be glued to a Top Shop window about that.

9K a year fees to secure a mediocre education, I should be manning the barricades over that one.

Only I am not.

I would need to a) book time off work and b) take two small children and one rather large dog (with all the baggage necessary to sustain them on a protest march). It just isn't practical:o

If some enterprising individual would come up with a way to allow me to hire a protester to go in my place they would earn my undying gratitude. Not to mention a decent booking fee.

I could send a nice young man, or woman in my place, complete with a placard saying "A very merry sterile litany from all at number 22"

1984ReturnsForReal_2

wageslave wrote: »

If some enterprising individual would come up with a way to allow me to hire a protester to go in my place they would earn my undying gratitude. Not to mention a decent booking fee.

I could send a nice young man, or woman in my place, complete with a placard saying "A very merry sterile litany from all at number 22"

I will do it for the token payment of £5k (danger money) but I neither young or nice.

vivatifosi

wageslave wrote: »

I could send a nice young man, or woman in my place, complete with a placard saying "A very merry sterile litany from all at number 22"

You have soooo got to write that book. That is one of the funniest paragraphs I've read in years.

PhylPho

wageslave wrote: »

I started to highlight the bits of your post that I found, well emotive is the politest word I can think of. Nonensical, whilst more accurate, seems harsh:o

Anyway, I pretty much gave up. I have rarely read such a carefully crafted load of totalitarian claptrap since they raised the Berlin Wall.

Somewhere out there are several third world dictators who desperately require a speechwriter. Apply, young man, apply.

"Sterile litany". Bliddy hell

You have seriously made my day:j

I honestly thought the Daily Star made people like you up

As you must be a reader of the Daily Star in order to pronounce upon its content, you have the advantage of non-Daily Star readers like myself.

No advantage at all though derives from a failed attempt to divert attention from your original comment that it's just an "idiotic minority" who were responsible for the violence at the London student protest.

Down-playing as mere "idiocy" the intent and actions of masked thugs is to be expected in any defence lawyer's pleading in any magistrates' court. Why you feel it necessary to down-play such behaviour on here though is a mystery.

Anyway! Glad my response entertained you -- and how great it is to see you're such a historian: the "totalitarian clap-trap" spouted by the GDR nearly 50 years ago (and which you now so impressively recall) is definitely worth remembering by anyone with an interest in how language can be subverted and reality, misrepresented.

vivatifosi

wageslave wrote: »

Philip Green et al paying sod all in income tax whilst those on minimum wage have a large proportion of their income whipped away, I should be glued to a Top Shop window about that.

I honestly think that will be the next battleground. It's not just Top Shop I've seen protests against Vodafone too. In a competitive marketplace, I can see people withdrawing support from companies that offshore their profits rather than sharing the pain of their customers. If the bulk of the population get behind it, and websites like this could yet be vanguards, then such a campaign would have a much greater effect than walking politely with placards.

wageslave

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

I will do it for the token payment of £5k (danger money) but I neither young or nice.

I was thinking more along the lines of bus fare and a tenner for hot drinks etc.

I could probably get a pensioner for not much more. Although I would feel obliged to send them in a taxi.

wageslave

PhylPho wrote: »

As you must be a reader of the Daily Star in order to pronounce upon its content, you have the advantage of non-Daily Star readers like myself.

No advantage at all though derives from a failed attempt to divert attention from your original comment that it's just an "idiotic minority" who were responsible for the violence at the London student protest.

Down-playing as mere "idiocy" the intent and actions of masked thugs is to be expected in any defence lawyer's pleading in any magistrates' court. Why you feel it necessary to down-play such behaviour on here though is a mystery.

Anyway! Glad my response entertained you -- and how great it is to see you're such a historian: the "totalitarian clap-trap" spouted by the GDR nearly 50 years ago (and which you now so impressively recall) is definitely worth remembering by anyone with an interest in how language can be subverted and reality, misrepresented.

You are a constant and unalloyed delight:iloveyou:

Aw shucks, it isn't that impressive. I have a GSCE in history.

wageslave<----blushes and tries desperately to appear modest

PhylPho

Malcolm. wrote: »

I'm confused. Are the news broadcasts concentrating on the minority violence due to an underlying media political agenda, or is media merely pandering to the want of the viewer (entertainment in the form of violence)?

It's been baffling me.

It's media pandering to its own desires. Dramatic news makes for dramatic presentation -- and if the visuals are great, so much the better.

Today's UK TV has been plastered with news bulletins about the fate of some luckless immigrants who drowned near an Australian island.

So: was this tragedy intensively reported because BBC, ITN and Sky newsdesks are over-flowing with a humanitarian concern for the plight of some unknown Iraqui refugees seeking sanctuary in the far-off Antipodes?

Or was it given such prominence because it was captured on film?

No need to answer. . .