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Saturday 20 July 2019

Independently batty



The Independent is a weird outfit. Take this piece which appears to suggest that Extinction Rebellion should be exempt from criticism.

It is no longer acceptable to question climate change. So why is it now mainstream to criticise Extinction Rebellion?

Okay it's only the Independent so we shouldn't take it too seriously, but real people actually sit down and write this kind of thing and it gets worse -

In response, Policy Exchange, a think tank set up by three Conservative MPs in 2002, has released a paper labelling the group as “extremist” and seeking “to break down the established civil order and liberal democracy in the UK”.

XR protests are, by their nature, provocative, and whilst there is widespread sympathy for their ambitions to save the planet, there has also been a pronounced backlash. The Policy Exchange report’s conclusions have been greeted with pleasure by tub-thumping right-wingers, hysteria by some of the media, and bemused incredulity by most of civilised, normal Britain.

To my mind bemused incredulity seems about right, but not in the way the Independent suggests, but it gets even worse -

We should be a country that embraces protest. We should be a country that challenges ideas, not actions, because actions are protected in law.

Does that mean anything coherent? If we have a spate of local car thefts do we expect the police to challenge the actions of the thieves or do we expect them to rest content with challenging the the idea of car theft? 

4 comments:

Scrobs. said...

I don't think that we, in 'The Turrets', have done anything different from when we moved here thirty years ago.

This is all despite the rubbish spouted by the BBC, and the rest of the leftie crowd, and while politicians like Blair and Brown tried to crucify UK Inc, we still survive in retirement, and know little else except enjoying the 'later years'.

So-called climate change is something dreamed up by thick politicians and stupid Greens, mainly misundersood because they never realised that hard-nosed businesses would see a way to make squillions of splonders.

It all comes home to roost eventually, but as politicians are like dross in the wind, they couldn't care a jot!

Sam Vega said...

I'm surprised to see that The Independent is still around. I can only guess that it is run by quite clever people who are targeting an audience who are young, woke, urban, and with short attention spans and a need to be recognised. Such folk have relatively high levels of disposable income, so advertisers pay well.

Scrobs. said...

You're right there, Sam.

When the old rag came out (not like - er - boys an' girls do), back way beyond, they trumpeted their independent view of the press, politics, cooking, netball for seniors and all sorts of 'odd' stuff.

I heven't read anything they do for ages now, and despite the wails of the Groaneradd, and the Knobserver, they're becoming a bit like a wart, just there, but forgettable.

A K Haart said...

Scrobs - no they couldn't care a jot because if it all goes pear-shaped they will simply blame the scientists. I still wonder if the scientists realise how heavily they will be dumped on if it does go pear-shaped.

Sam - you are probably right and this seems to be the way forward for media generally. Specialise, focus on the clicks and sell your audience to the advertisers.