The NUJ Can Go Fuck Themselves

Journalists call for 'internet tax' to rescue media

The main journalist trade union in Europe and the UK wants citizens to be given 'European Democracy Vouchers', funded by internet service providers, which can be used to buy newspapers and pay for online media subscriptions.

The vouchers, which would work in the same way as restaurant vouchers currently used in several countries, would be funded through a levy on internet service providers (ISPs), according to the National Union of Journalists in the UK (NUJ).

The idea was aired in a submission to the European Commission's consultation on creative industries, published in April (EurActiv 30/04/10).

Faced by the fact that their industry can't adapt by itself to changing market conditions, ie the internet, journalists are now demanding the taxpayer fund them (via a levy imposed on ISPs). If the arts can receive public subsidy then so should journalists, they argue, among other things.

Anyone familiar with the jourmalism produced by the British media will be aware that many of these goons are not worth being paid at all.

It's such an insane, ridiculous idea that the EU will probably give it serious consideration.

Kelvin MacKenzie does the business.

I used not to like Kelvin MacKenzie particularly but I've warmed to him after this:

Cameron's nudge.

David Cameron has a 'behavioural insight team', tasked with the purpose of showing us how we can be made to do as we're told without beating us with a big stick (like New Labour). He got the idea of 'nudging' from a book from an American (where else?) Richard Thaler.

David Cameron can fuck off. And his team can fuck off, too, and get themselves useful jobs cleaning toilets with toothbrushes.

And Richard Thaler can fuck off as well.

Roma expulsion must stop NOW: EU parliament stamps its useless feet.

Bad Frenchies! The EU toy parliament has demanded that France stop the 'illegal' expulsion of gypsies back to Bulgaria and Romania.

This report is so full of delicious ironies I wouldn't know where to begin. Let's savour the sight of our Europhiliac 'colleagues' arguing among themselves.

Royal Mail and the (deliberately) concealed hand of the EU.

Privatisation of the mail has resurfaced, as it was bound to do.

No mention anywhere, though, of the primary cause of this, ie EU directives requiring 'liberalisation' and 'full market opening' of postal services. Not in the BBC, anyway, though I don't suppose any of the rest of the British media will have the honesty to mention it, either.

Strange, too, that the media dutifully follow the falling profits/too much competition line they've been given, despite the fact that for the two previous years the whole group has actually been making a profit.

Service has noticeably declined here in Lincolnshire over the past five years. Most of what gets delivered is junk mail, different posties seem to appear every week and there is no consistency in time of delivery (except that it is always late morning at the earliest). Many items either sent to us or posted by us now take a week or more to arrive.

All our politicians conspire to keep the truth from us and the media aid them, irrespective of party bias. The unions oppose the changes but also refuse to point the finger at the EU (they can't, can they? because they support the Labour Party, who are as firmly wedged up the EU's arse as the LibDems).

So you can look forward to higher prices and lower standards. And you can kiss goodbye to six-day delivery as well; EU directives only require a five-day minimum service.

Wallstrom - another pointless professional politician.

I had the misfortune to see an interview on BBC News tonight with Margot Wallstrom, who is the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. I shit you not. I thought the name sounded familiar - Wallstrom is one of the EU's apparatchiks, having been the (unelected) Commission's (unelected) Environment Commissioner. Among other things. Wikipedia lists her outstanding career.

Wallstrom was talking tough about chasing down and bringing to justice the perpetrators of regular mass rapes taking place in the Congo - some of which seem to have happened when UN troops were a mere 20 miles away. Well, of course, 'we' won't do anything of the sort. The UN has proved increasingly useless in its peacekeeping activities over the last 20 years (witness Bosnia) and the idea that anyone will be brought to justice over these crimes in this God-forsaken part of Africa is pathetic.

What makes this more disgusting is the fact that the politicos are so in love with themselves that they create these well-paid, ineffectual, self-important positions, with our money, and constantly share them among themselves. I shouldn't think a single useful thing has ever resulted from all their talks, papers, committees, investigations and communiques.

Wallstrom's career is that of a model 'progressive'. These people are the bane of our lives and a danger to our freedom. How can we get rid of them?

The anti-drink lobby can fuck right off.

Various righteous journos are aboard the minimum pricing for alcohol bandwagon. Today Patrick Collinson signs up with the puritans in the Guardian.

The Scottish Executive (to give the pretend 'government' its proper title) floated this idea over a year ago and had to back away from it because it would most likely break EU law on competition. Presumably that remains the same. If this is the case and it prevents minimum pricing it will be the only time the EU has done anything remotely useful.

Whatever the outcome, I am vehemently against this for one very good reason: the price of booze, who drinks what and how much is no business of the state; the state can fuck off out of my life.

The leftover New Labourites and their quangos and fake charities are busy complaining about binge drinking and the fate of the homeless, etc. Binge drinking is obviously not good, but the problems caused are law and order ones to be dealt with according to existing legislation. If you drink till your liver explodes then it's a heath problem. Good job you've been paying huge amounts of tax to pay for your health care, then. It's also quite possible that binge drinking (no doubt exaggerated by the media) will prove to be a passing fad and will become less of a problem. As for homeless alcoholics, I'm sorry, but until I'm one of them I don't care. Putting up the price of booze will just make them poorer and probably drive them to worse alternatives (didn't they used to drink meths because it was cheaper than decent alcohol?). Does Mr Collinson and his self-righteous colleagues really care about alcos and the homeless? I doubt it. One thing is certain: they've got no right to increase the cost to me just to sate their ersatz concern for a minority.

Mr Collinson quotes Sweden as an exemplar of reducing alcohol consumption, etc. Well, this is not Sweden and I'm not Swedish. Mr Collinson can fuck off.

Add to this the fact that according to official figures we are drinking less in the UK than before, and you begin to see the impetus behind my ire. And we're paying more in duty than anyone else into the bargain.

It's the incessant fucking self-righteous preachiness of this that's pissing me off. Already this week alone we've had two big media stories about alcohol.

Leave me alone, you twats, and fuck off.

Meanwhile the progressive gypsy Roma love-fest continues.

Young gypsies to film their way of life.

Fie on you, BBC, for using racist out-of-date terms like 'gypsy'.

What you won't hear on primetime BBC - Blair and the threat of radical Islam

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has described radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world today.

He made the remark in a BBC interview marking the publication of his memoirs.

Mr Blair said radical Islamists believed that whatever was done in the name of their cause was justified - including the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.