Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been watching the interview with the woman that threw the custard/whatever over Lord Mandelson (here) and I managed to get through 10 seconds of it before I started to twitch at her, and her "These are my views, and my views are right" attitude. then I watched the interview with Lord M, himself (here) and found myself surprising warmed by his attitude toward it. Then, I watched John Prescott talking about it (here), and found myself more agreeing with him, than anyone else. Public figures should not be assaulted with impunity by protesters suffering from The Mentals when they disagree with their viewpoint. The very fact that the pressure groups, (such as Plane Stupid) keep doing things like this and then turn around and say "You're stifling protest after trespassing on a runway, or being arrested for assault, is beginning to get my goat.

Make teh fuckers sit down in Oxford Circus for 7 fucking hours then they can feel pissed off at what the police can legally do to control crowds.

Read Jamie Whyte's excellent book 'Bad Thoughts' , where he argues that people do not have a right to their opinion (he sets out his argument here too < http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 467194.ece >).

My view on it is that the protection of the law should extend to slimy Lord Mandelson as much as everyone else, and I'd rather hear people argue and defend their cases then resort to silly stunts.

This is Britain. Slimy politicians will get something thrown at them at some stage, it's traditional. And nothing to get enraged about really - Mandleson handled it quite well, as he would, the slimy bastard.

Can we stop calling him "Lord" Mandleson please? It really turns my stomach.

I like it, because my mind interprets it it as 'Lord Voldemort'.

The irony of the information age is that it has given a new respectability to uninformed opinion.

I like that article. It does annoy me when people default to what basically amounts to "opinions are inherently valid", because it's patently bollocks. If all opinions are valid, then everything is as true and right as everything else, which is nothing but ultra-extreme relativism, or, to put it more pleasingly, bollocks.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion dude.

Plane Stupid was never more aptly named.

The problem with all this protest groups is that their causes might be just, but they are just run by absolute wankers. I used to be in Greenpeace until I realised my subs were going towards a bunch of people who would break into a power station and run around dressed as barrels of oil. Plane Stupid, animal rights, all of them, hijacked by extremist fuckwits. I've said it before, the people in these groups don't want to implement a solution, they want to tell everyone else what the solution is. Or in many cases, not even that. The last demonstration against the third runway was a bunch of people running around with "Please Do Something" written on them. Tell me what people need to do then, you fucking idiots.

It takes a special kind of stupid to coat Mandelson in custard and yet ensure he is the one getting the sympathy.

Yeah. You have to wonder at anyone who doesn't question the wisdom of naming their organisation "stupid" before they've even done anything.

The offence is a mere trifle. Its not like he went roly-poly down the street.

Though I do hear that later he enjoyed some spotted d-(no! -Political Ed)

Has given me a quantum of solace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7941470.stm

DOUBLE-TAKE!

Still, Mandleson should maybe look on the bright side. This is the typical level of protest in this country. In other countries, individual protests can be far more... dangerous. Also, group protest is a much bigger thing, and yet it's almost died here. Our politicians actually get a really fucking easy ride compared to some.

I would let some nutter throw custard at me for essentially infinite money and the ability to do whatever the fuck I wanted, so yes, you have a point.

Has it? Yes, I suppose it has. It's not been that many years since the 100,000 200,000 300,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 20,000,000,000 protestors marched against the Iraq war, but the Government has used that time well to prevent any further organised displays of democratic disapproval.

I was on that march. It made me realise that mass protest doesn't make any difference whatsoever, and in fact was a big part of why I lost interest in politics. I'm sure that a lot of other people felt the same way.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure there are plenty of people who were merely put off peaceful resistance, and have since turned to violence instead.

I certainly hope so, anyway.

Plus it took us going illegally to war to motivate the population. Even the current nightmarish financial scenario hasn't caused our government to rethink, let alone fall and be replaced.

No, but when they try to cancel Big Brother, you'd better believe the proles will rise.

Well indeed, but even those protests weren't at anyone - they're not allowed up Downing Street, and there's no army base conveniently nearby, so they actually just wander around London. There are so many protest marches around London every year that no-one ever notices.