Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Least surprising Daily Mail headline ever…

Alison Pearson: Sorry, but I blame Scarlett Keeling's mother

Actually I think that should be 'most surprising' because of the word 'sorry' at the beginning. If she were really sorry she wouldn't keep blaming the mothers of dead children for their deaths in public, would she? I don't think she can be sorry at all, so I'm guessing the 'sorry' is something to do with a perceived problem with blaming people's mothers when their children are dead. Why, it's almost as if it's not seen as 'the done thing' to slag off a mother when their child has just died and they're in the throes of grief. Ha! Not if you're Pearson. Stick your fucking boot in, mate:

Fiona MacKeown, the mother of Scarlett Keeling, the 15-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Goa, seems less like a grieving mother than an avenging tigress.

With her swishing curtain of grey hair, Fiona is taking on a corrupt local police force which initially denied that her cub had been the victim of foul play.

'Swishing curtain of grey hair'? What the fuck? Ah, I see, clever, getting the knife in early about the fact that A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN HAS DARED TO HAVE CHILDREN. HOW DARE SHE! HOW DARE SHE! EVIL BITCH! EVIL BITCH! NOT ONE OF US! NOT ONE OF US! NOT SITTING AROUND A KITCHEN IN SURREY WAITING FOR HER HUSBAND TO COME HOME, THEREFORE SHE DESERVES EVERYTHING SHE GETS, INCLUDING THE DEATH OF HER CHILD! I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but you get the general idea.

In case you've forgotten, Pearson last week tore into the mother of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, implying that there was something wrong with the stepdad and basically saying that well, what do you expect when a woman has children by different dads? I don't think Pearson suggested that Matthews deserved to go missing... although actually, on second reading, I don't know. The difference between Matthews and Madeleine McCann in the media is looked at by Anorak here.

More of Pearson's bilious waste:

"If police had taken more interest in previous [suspicious] deaths, then Scarlett might not be dead now," growled Fiona.

Maybe so. But isn't there an even better chance that Scarlett would still be alive if her own mother had not abandoned her for several weeks after an argument and recklessly continued her own holiday?

Yeah that's it! Keep going! I'm sure the mum really needs your advice on parenting right now. Why not go there yourself and tell her to her face? Now that I would like to see.

Instead the blonde teenager, as tempting as a ripe peach,

*vomits*

What the fuck? This is a 15-year-old girl we're talking about. It's almost as if Pearson's saying, well you can understand her being raped and murdered, can't you? What man wouldn't?

was left in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide - a local man she'd only recently met.

Yes, leaving a child in the care of an adult - that's something that no-one else in the world ever does, is it?

I don't know what they call that in globe-trotting hippy circles. Back here on Planet Parent it's known as dereliction of duty.

Aha, here's the real reason. While Pearson can attack Shannon Matthews's mum for being working-class and having had sex with more than one man in her entire life, Fiona McKeown is a 'hippy' and therefore scum. So we can rip apart her lifestyle because it's just not Mail enough to be acceptable. Kate and Gerry, well you know, they were middle-class and nice-looking, but here's a grey-haired woman who didn't play by the rules - and therefore must suffer our opprobrium in the midst of her trauma.

Scarlett was last seen at 4am in a bar surrounded by several men. Witnesses say she was totally off her head on ecstasy and cocaine.

That kind of behaviour would have made her vulnerable in her home town back in Devon, let alone in a culture where Western girls are all too readily viewed as sexually available.

Again. 'Tempting as a ripe peach', this girl, and surrounded by bloody wogs as well! And you know what they're like! If only the woman had kept her child out of Bongobongoland, nothing bad would have happened - unless of course she'd had a stepdad and lived in a council house, in which case Pearson would've been ready to pass judgment there as well.

Forgive me for being a boringly conventional bourgeois mum, but what the hell were Fiona MacKeown and her partner thinking of taking seven kids on a six-month "dream trip" to India - and then leaving one of them to fend for herself? Why wasn't Scarlett in school studying for her GCSEs?

Forgive you, Alison? I think you should ask for forgiveness for being a sniping evil bitch, not for being a 'conventional bourgeois mum'.

The loss of any child must be a horror beyond imagining. But there is something about Fiona MacKeown that makes me want to scream at the TV.

Not an ounce of doubt or regret seems to weigh on this laid-back woman. She told reporters that she had counted every mark on Scarlett's body.

Yes, Alison knows. She's seen this woman on telly a couple of times and knows exactly every single thought that's passing through her mind. She knows these things, you see, because she's normal and middle-class and clever, and the rest of us should just stand around and cheer her to the rafters.

She still doesn't get it, does she? Fiona MacKeown is an unrepentant member of the Me Generation, one of those people who would rather be a best mate than a parent.

It's more fun being a friend to your kids and, quite frankly, a lot less hassle.

You don't have to fight daily battles over bedtimes and body piercings. And if you have a row with your "mate" you can storm off, unlike an old-fashioned authority figure who has to weather the storm and stay put always and forever.

See, if only the girl's mother had told her not to get a piercing, she wouldn't have been raped and murdered by brown bastards. It's all the mother's fault for not being Daily Mail enough.

Since Scarlett's brutal killing, Fiona MacKeown has fought for her daughter. Would that she had exercised half that dedication and sense of responsibility while Scarlett was still alive and in need of a mother's care.

Fuck off. Just fuck off you twisted, vile, stinking, nasty, smug piece of shit. What gives you the fucking right to know what's best for other people's lives? Go out there and slag the mother off to her face, Pearson. Try that for a fucking laugh. Maybe you'll see she's a human being after all, not just some face off the telly that makes you think you can pass criticism and judgment on parenting skills from your bloody high horse.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. The Daily Mail: Cunts
2. Dear Daily Mail,
3. Worst thing ever in the Daily Mail. Fact.
4. Daily Mail apologises to women… really?!
5. WARNING: The Daily Mail makes you autistic