Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

A feast of lovely links

First, you must go here. Here's what you get when you don't vote. Here's what you get when people who ordinarily rant on BBC Have Your Say actually get elected to office. Here's what you get when people who normally ejaculate anger in every conceivable direction, like a spinning Dalek, are confronted with the natural consequences of what they say. Here's what you get when someone who promises to break the law to voters is told that he can't do what he wants.

Yes, it's Doncaster mayor Peter Davies, being cheerfully eviscerated by BBC Sheffield reporter Toby Foster. Too many brilliant exchanges to list here, but here are just a couple of my favourites:

TF: Well, I mean… these are the reasons people voted for you. Very bold points, as you said. Er, you’re going to cut translation services for non-English speakers - that’s a very bold point. It’s more than likely illegal, isn’t it?
PD: I dunno… again, I’ve got to find this out. It’s-
TF: Well it is - let me tell you it is, under the European Court of Human Rights it’s illegal.
PD: -Well, well, well let… we’ll look into this - we’re getting council’s opinion on what I can do and what I can’t do, and that’s…
TF: No, no, you said in your manifesto you would definitely do it.
PD: Yeah, well, I… well, I, er, if, if somebody comes in the way and stops me doing these things, then that is an insult to democracy.
TF: So what was the point of your manifesto? You might as well have said you were going to fly to the moon if you’re just going to say now that you can’t do it.

and:

TF: You’re going to cut the Gay Pride funding.
PD: Yep.
TF: Erm, how much did Doncaster Council fund Gay Pride?
PD: Haven’t got a clue, I haven’t looked into… I haven’t got the details, I… I haven’t even started-
TF: About right, isn’t it? So how much did… how much was it worth to Doncaster?
PD: How…er, what?
TF: The Gay Pride march. 8,000 people in town for a day.
PD: I don’t know. They can still come. There’s nobody stopping them coming.
TF: So you don’t know what it costs, you don’t know what it earns, but you’re banning it?
PD: I’m saying that… hard-pressed taxpayers money should not be spent on promoting any type of sexuality whether it’s straight or gay.
TF: But for all you-, but for all you know it could be making a fortune for the town - you don’t know, you’ve not even looked at it.
PD: Well, it, er… it may, it may or it may not, I’m telling you what I’m not doing, and again it was on the manifesto, it was quite clear people appeared to like what I was saying.

Cor, there are some seriously bad times ahead for the people of Doncaster. Kudos not only to the BBC man for the demolition job, but also to blogger Andy Smith for the transcribing.

Amid all the soul-searching from the left about the BNP's election success, here's an excellent story from Five Chinese Crackers:

This morning though, there was only a lone silver disc lying in the middle of the grass, spotted with drizzle and a single blade of grass stuck there looking like a green crack. Somebody had written over it in thick black marker. Instead of an album title and artist or a cramped track listing were these words around the outside:
Fuck all you blacks
And squashed in a block at what was obviously the bottom of the circle:
Im gonna have to start killing you scum
I stood, blinking at it for a while, listening to the rain lightly spotting my coat. I looked up to see if there was any sign of who put it there, which was stupid when I started thinking about it so I looked back at the disc to make sure I hadn't imagined it.

Pigdogfucker also has the definitive answer on whether the BNP are right or left wing, in the face of all the 'Ah, they're actually on the left' sophistry that's oozed out over the past few days. And it's hard to disagree.

Lenin has a delightful picture of Nick Griffin after yesterday's egging, not looking defiant or smug, but scared and stupid. Now I know that there are some who'd prefer things like egg-chucking at Griffin not to happen, and I can see that point of view. I just happen to think that seeing his fat smelly face looking frightened and upset is a wondrous thing. For sure, the way to defeat the fascists is to engage the working class into politics they can believe in, to work hard on real solutions to poverty and unemployment, and to fight at every turn to denounce the lies spouted by prejudiced idiots about immigration and multiculturalism. Yes yes, I know that. But making that vile fascist tit look stupid is a good thing. Satire is egg-chucking without the actual egg, and we need that too. We need all kinds of attacks on Griffin, making him look ridiculous in every sense, exposing his nastiness and making him into the national joke he is.

Rhetorically Speaking, for example, points out just how confused and bewildered Nick Griffin actually is, blaming everyone he can think of for people chucking eggs at him, as opposed to the fact that people hate him because he's a racist cunt. Here's a man who has described the Holocaust as a hoax, doesn't believe in global warming and now thinks the Labour party is funding egg-chuckers. I want every single word of his transcribed, just like Peter Davies - there's going to be comedy gold in there!

Incidentally, it appears that a terrorist plot was smashed last week and lethal chemicals were removed from the suspect's house. You may not have noticed because no-one gave a shit about it. Why? Well he was white, of course.

Mark Steel has a look at New Labour's legacy:

They might as well have a frog as their leader, and Ed Balls would be on Newsnight telling us the frog isn't the problem, and the way he responded to some sharp criticism by hopping off the table shows his determination, because they haven't got a clue. This is why they're in a much worse mess than the one in 1983. Back then, although the election was a disaster, the Labour Party had active branches in every area, with thousands of young members bursting with ideas of why they wanted to run local councils or the country. Now the branches barely exist, debate has been eliminated, and all that's left are careerists frightened of losing their careers.

And finally, it's loveable old buffoon Boris Johnson deciding that he doesn't like people saying nasty things about him, so uses taxpayers' money to fund a political attack. Peter Davies, please take note. If you want to be a really shit mayor, you've got some way to go.

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