What is The Independent playing at?
The Indescribablyboring has cooked up a list of 50 of its mates, and labelled it The Good List, with the idea being that they are all "driven by an urge to make the world a better place". Given that a number of them are associated with the extreme left - Ken Loach and Gareth Peirce for starters - theirs is not 'a better world' in which I would wish to live. I've got nothing much against David Attenborough and Lionel Blue, but Bruce Kent? I don't recognise a few of the names, but will dig deeper....
In an exciting first for this blog, my old mate Dizzy is going to take on some of the names, so stand by for a collaborative hatchet job. And rather amusingly, the paper did a feature on 50 great handbags the day after. Yes really
This is very much a work in progress, so if anyone reading this has a sourced quote / comment making anyone on this list's idea of 'a better world' look, erm, odd, please e-mail me or add a comment.
And number one with a bullet is Mohammed Bari.
He would make Britain a better place thus: "His aim, he says, will be to encourage Britain to adopt more Muslim ways, as well as to encourage Muslims to be good British citizens. He thinks that non-Muslim Britons would benefit from having arranged marriages and espousing stronger family values; they would also do well to stop drinking and gambling and to follow many of the teachings of Islam".
Ricard Adams: His company Traidcraft 'embodies the ideal that a business should work in the interests of all its stakeholders, and be accountable for its impact on the poor'. So it isn't really a company in any meaningful sense at all....
Shami Chakrabarti: 'She arrived at Liberty the day before the Twin Towers were bombed. "...All I could think of was that my friends at the Home Office were going to be a target..."
Donald Findlater: The Deputy director of child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Findlater suggested there be a hard drive amnesty for anyone that downloads kiddie porn in order to help them realise they're twisted deviants.
Niall Fitzgerald: "Big business people like Niall FitzGerald thought it would be a good idea to join the ERM, which turned out to be a total disaster. He has learnt nothing from his mistakes and doesn't seem to appreciate the full economic implications of the euro". Tim Martin, chairman, JD Wetherspoon pubs.
Bob Geldof: Calls people selling Live8 tickets on eBay "wretches" who engage in a "corporate culture which capitalizes on people's misery." Whilst simultaneously selling 5000 tickets for fenced off front stage area to corporate buyers.
John Harris: "I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable. I don't think it is plausible to think that there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal."
Bob Holman: academic / social worker: Moved his family to a sink estate for the good of his career in order that he could study his lab rats up close.
Bruce Kent: head of CND in the 80s. 'Nuff said.
Ken Loach: On the board of Respect, apparently. And as I have noted before, has commented on this Sceptered Isle thus: "I don't know why they call it Great Britain, it is just a small island off the cost of France". But still quite happy to take tax payers money etc to fund his films.
Andrew Linzey: "Confining a de-beaked hen in a battery cage is more than a moral crime; it is a living sign of our failure to recognize the blessing of God in creation"
Mark Malloch Brown: Failed to get selected as an SDP candidate. How? Effectively called those in between the East and West coasts of America cretins whilst he was making a diplomatic speech at the UN.
Mohammed Mamdani: Believes that Islamism has nothhing to do with religion and is actually the product of the transition from colonialism to postcolonialism. Basically, it's all our fault. Not only this, apparently the USA has had a strategy of terror ever since the end of the Vietnam war.
Gareth Peirce: Has addressed Socialist Worker conferences, inter alia.
Jonathon Porritt AKA Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet: "The combination of aggressive unilateralism in pursuit of a new American imperium, an unprecedentedly radical application of neo-conservative economic policies, and the mind-boggling adherence of Americans to ... religious fundamentalism poses ... the greatest threat to the prospect of sustainable development becoming the dominant political framework."
Tariq Ramadan: The grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the revolutionary Muslim Brotherhood which is dedciated to jihad and the political ideology of Islamism (basically fascism with an Islamic edge). He's repeatedly said that attacks against British troops in Iraq are just. And has justifed terrorist attacks on civilians in Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Tom Shakespeare AKA Sir Thomas William Shakespeare, 3rd Baronet: 'Birth of Jesus - no reason to celebrate': "For example, in Matthew 9.17, we read that Jesus restored sight to the blind man. Now, I don't want to be ungrateful here - let's face it, us disabled people need all the help we can get - but isn't this rather a Medical Model miracle? Wouldn't it have been far more awesome had Jesus taken the opportunity to invent Braille, saving the world a wait of nearly 1800 years?"
Jon Snow: Described rockets which killed Israeli civilians in the town of Sderot as "Rockets, pretty pathetic things - nobody gets injured".
Clive Stafford Smith: described conservative members of the Supreme Court as 'the lunatic fringe'.
Peter Tatchell: The rather famous Gay Rights campaigner. Ironically Tatchell's number one target these days are Islamists like Tariq Ramadan. However, in the past he has thought nothing of infringing people's privacy in order to "out" them for their own good.
Shirley Williams: destroyed the British education system, and would appear to be responsible for the urban legend about Bush claiming the French have no word for 'entrepreneur'.
Benjamin Zephaniah: Is 'a passionate vegan' and has summed up the British Empire thus "thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized".
The Indescribablyboring has cooked up a list of 50 of its mates, and labelled it The Good List, with the idea being that they are all "driven by an urge to make the world a better place". Given that a number of them are associated with the extreme left - Ken Loach and Gareth Peirce for starters - theirs is not 'a better world' in which I would wish to live. I've got nothing much against David Attenborough and Lionel Blue, but Bruce Kent? I don't recognise a few of the names, but will dig deeper....
In an exciting first for this blog, my old mate Dizzy is going to take on some of the names, so stand by for a collaborative hatchet job. And rather amusingly, the paper did a feature on 50 great handbags the day after. Yes really
This is very much a work in progress, so if anyone reading this has a sourced quote / comment making anyone on this list's idea of 'a better world' look, erm, odd, please e-mail me or add a comment.
And number one with a bullet is Mohammed Bari.
He would make Britain a better place thus: "His aim, he says, will be to encourage Britain to adopt more Muslim ways, as well as to encourage Muslims to be good British citizens. He thinks that non-Muslim Britons would benefit from having arranged marriages and espousing stronger family values; they would also do well to stop drinking and gambling and to follow many of the teachings of Islam".
Ricard Adams: His company Traidcraft 'embodies the ideal that a business should work in the interests of all its stakeholders, and be accountable for its impact on the poor'. So it isn't really a company in any meaningful sense at all....
Shami Chakrabarti: 'She arrived at Liberty the day before the Twin Towers were bombed. "...All I could think of was that my friends at the Home Office were going to be a target..."
Donald Findlater: The Deputy director of child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Findlater suggested there be a hard drive amnesty for anyone that downloads kiddie porn in order to help them realise they're twisted deviants.
Niall Fitzgerald: "Big business people like Niall FitzGerald thought it would be a good idea to join the ERM, which turned out to be a total disaster. He has learnt nothing from his mistakes and doesn't seem to appreciate the full economic implications of the euro". Tim Martin, chairman, JD Wetherspoon pubs.
Bob Geldof: Calls people selling Live8 tickets on eBay "wretches" who engage in a "corporate culture which capitalizes on people's misery." Whilst simultaneously selling 5000 tickets for fenced off front stage area to corporate buyers.
John Harris: "I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable. I don't think it is plausible to think that there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal."
Bob Holman: academic / social worker: Moved his family to a sink estate for the good of his career in order that he could study his lab rats up close.
Bruce Kent: head of CND in the 80s. 'Nuff said.
Ken Loach: On the board of Respect, apparently. And as I have noted before, has commented on this Sceptered Isle thus: "I don't know why they call it Great Britain, it is just a small island off the cost of France". But still quite happy to take tax payers money etc to fund his films.
Andrew Linzey: "Confining a de-beaked hen in a battery cage is more than a moral crime; it is a living sign of our failure to recognize the blessing of God in creation"
Mark Malloch Brown: Failed to get selected as an SDP candidate. How? Effectively called those in between the East and West coasts of America cretins whilst he was making a diplomatic speech at the UN.
Mohammed Mamdani: Believes that Islamism has nothhing to do with religion and is actually the product of the transition from colonialism to postcolonialism. Basically, it's all our fault. Not only this, apparently the USA has had a strategy of terror ever since the end of the Vietnam war.
Gareth Peirce: Has addressed Socialist Worker conferences, inter alia.
Jonathon Porritt AKA Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet: "The combination of aggressive unilateralism in pursuit of a new American imperium, an unprecedentedly radical application of neo-conservative economic policies, and the mind-boggling adherence of Americans to ... religious fundamentalism poses ... the greatest threat to the prospect of sustainable development becoming the dominant political framework."
Tariq Ramadan: The grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the revolutionary Muslim Brotherhood which is dedciated to jihad and the political ideology of Islamism (basically fascism with an Islamic edge). He's repeatedly said that attacks against British troops in Iraq are just. And has justifed terrorist attacks on civilians in Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Tom Shakespeare AKA Sir Thomas William Shakespeare, 3rd Baronet: 'Birth of Jesus - no reason to celebrate': "For example, in Matthew 9.17, we read that Jesus restored sight to the blind man. Now, I don't want to be ungrateful here - let's face it, us disabled people need all the help we can get - but isn't this rather a Medical Model miracle? Wouldn't it have been far more awesome had Jesus taken the opportunity to invent Braille, saving the world a wait of nearly 1800 years?"
Jon Snow: Described rockets which killed Israeli civilians in the town of Sderot as "Rockets, pretty pathetic things - nobody gets injured".
Clive Stafford Smith: described conservative members of the Supreme Court as 'the lunatic fringe'.
Peter Tatchell: The rather famous Gay Rights campaigner. Ironically Tatchell's number one target these days are Islamists like Tariq Ramadan. However, in the past he has thought nothing of infringing people's privacy in order to "out" them for their own good.
Shirley Williams: destroyed the British education system, and would appear to be responsible for the urban legend about Bush claiming the French have no word for 'entrepreneur'.
Benjamin Zephaniah: Is 'a passionate vegan' and has summed up the British Empire thus "thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized".
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on Friday, September 01, 2006 at 8:39 am.
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This is very idealistic and fringey, it's not a world I would want to live in. What about Geldof? Is he on the list? And Cameron?
Ellee, there are a few folk on there -including Gelfof and Camilla Batmanghelidjh - with whom I would have little to take issue with, but focusing on the oddballs and Troskyites is rather more fun.....
Anne Owers, former head of Justice, which campaigned for the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law by way of the Human Rights Act 1998. Now seen as a big error by all sentient beings.
Clive Stafford Smith, A man whose life’s work includes defending terrorists and other scum bags. OK someone has to do it, but he revels in it.
Chris Patten, Traitor extraordinaire.
spooky thing here croydonian,
for some reason I was thinking about Prof "tom thumb" shakeseare yesterday, he just popped into my head ,I dont read the indie and hadnt read your blog (its was f*****)I have seen him on late night Tv but he is of no interest to me. Most peculiar.
Geldof , he would be the tax avoiding (ireland)on his own behalf but tax spending on my behalf to subsdise african dictators?
"British eduication system"
Well I managed to spot that even with a state education.
Certainly some odious figures - Ken Loach especially. Peter Tatchell has generally been a force for good and an exposer of hypocricy - I think he deserves his place. I also find it a little churlish to criticise Chakrabarti given that she's such an extraordinarily successful advocate of personal liberty.
Yup, typos happen.
I tend to regard both Tatchell and Chakrabarti as being - broadly - on the side of the angels, ditto Geldof, but having got the bits between our teeth we were having too much fun to start dishing out get out of jail free cards....
Geldoff gives me the creeps. Spare me sanctimonious saviours of the world who just happen to be more sensitive souls than everyone else.
Mohammad Bakri could immensely improve Britain by leaving it. That failing, could he buy a better wig, there's a good fellow. It looks as though he has camel dung moulded to his scalp. Actually, maybe it is camel dung moulded to his scalp. Perhaps it is fashionable where he comes from.
Has anyone else ever noticed how Jon Snow's face fights its own sneer? It is most peculiar. Of course, he is a most peculiar - not in a good way - person.
Could all the people mentioned please go away? We don't need your assistance or your messianic insights. You're not admired, except by each other.
I just noticed that the list was headed up by Bari as Number One with A Bullet. I like that.
Chakrabarti winds me up no end. Every time I see him on the media I just want to tell him exactly what I think of him.
And as for Bob Holman - I'll have a P please Bob. I never missed an episode.
DP - Shami is a touch gamine, but I'm pretty sure she has two X chromosomes....
Was Tony Parrish on the list?
Geldoff is awful. I know people who have met him - he lives near me - and they all say how rude, arrogant and demeaning he is. Just look how he never replies to letters from fans trying to raise money.
His Africa work saved his career, but he has NO IDEA the damage he has done. The Ethiopian government sold most of the BandAid food in neighbouring countries to buy guns for their war with Eritrea. The food was sold off below cost for a quick sale, bankrupting native farmers. His work also destroyed Ethiopia's image, damaging exports and tourism. To this day the West sees Africa as starving children everywhere.
Furthermore his anti-capitalist codswallop is irritating to the extreme. He has done very well out of capitalism. Africa's problem is a lack of capitalism due to trade restrictions and black nationalist Marxist governments like Mugabwe intervening in the economy - restricting it to favour their favoured elites/cronies.
As for 'Send us your money'- Why doesn't he give all his money?
His work has done nothing. Nothing can save Africa except the African people. They do not need patronising "do gooders" like Geldoff propping up their corrupt governments, encouraging dodgy trade deals and wearing wrist bands.
Nicely put Anon. Way back etc etc I used to say that most of Ethipia's problems could be solved at the cost of a few dollars - a bullet straight to the head of the unspeakably wicked head of Haile Miriam Mengistu....
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