Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Watch… watch!

I love that programme on ITV4 where the silly-looking masked magician reveals the secrets of magic tricks. In a very small and largely insignificant way, I want to be that silly man in the silly mask, showing you how the Mail conjures up its bollocks stories. Watch... watch how they do it! Like the Paul Daniels Magic Show, it's really something to admire, no matter how much you can't stand the protagonist*.

Have a look at this, and see if you can spot where the sleight-of-hand takes place. My readers are typically ABC1s, intelligent types, often young men called Brian, who like yoghurt but not always black cherry flavour and who can spot a dogturd at a long distance. I know you'll spot it. Don't let me down now.

A yob accused of robbing a driving instructor walked free from court after a judge ruled his alleged victim was 'too believable' to give evidence.
Mother-of-two Denise Dawson, 36, was praised for being 'honest, utterly decent and brave' when she testified against Liam Perks, 20.
But the trial was stopped on the first day because Judge Jamie Tabor QC ruled her good character may unfairly sway the jury against the defendant.
He decided that her solitary, split-second identification of the man accused of robbing her was simply not enough.
Judge Tabor said he feared the upstanding member of the community might just sway the jury in a case where the evidence fell short.

A clue for you non ABC1s who may not have noticed such a thing:

A yob accused of robbing a driving instructor walked free from court after a judge ruled his alleged victim was 'too believable' to give evidence...
He decided that her solitary, split-second identification of the man accused of robbing her was simply not enough.

So what was the reason then? Was it really that she was 'too believable' per se, or that because her identification couldn't be relied upon due to the brevity of it, he didn't feel that it could be relied upon?

A tough choice, but the Mail opts for the fact that this (blonde, young) woman is definitely being discriminated against for being honest in a clear case of ZANULABPCGONEMADBASTARDS rather than, as the judge said: "You cannot be sure she got it right." No, it wouldn't be that. It would be because honesty is not a value to be trusted in MCBOTTLER'S BRITAIN! And the whole country has, oh how can one put it...

this country has well and truly gone to the dogs.

Says Paul in Bude. Hooray!

If the Mail had said "because the suspect was black" but printed it next to a photo of a white man, I bet you now that most of the people whose comments got printed under the story wouldn't have noticed.

And that's magic. You'll like it. But not a lot.

* I saw Paul Daniels (and the lovely Debbie McGhee) driving through my home town once. He had a big red Jag and as I recall the numberplate was MA6IC.

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