Blog On The Motorway

I was in a bit of a quandary tonight as to what to write about, so three cheers for Google News, which pointed me in the direction of this link, about the story of the utterly terrible Christmas Grotto that fleeced several families out of money for what appears to have been the tourist equivalent of a kick in the shins.

But the real prize here is my first gander at the website of the world’s most horrifying car crash of a news organisation, The Sun.  For the last few years, this bilge merchant rag of right wing sensibilities and self proclaimed Bastion of Britishness has been going on a steady decline towards a putrid stench of base hostility, whipping up fervour and hate about just about any topic you can care to mention, and their website appears to be a truly comedic foray into interactive hateful ranting.  You cannot click a link without having your expert advice solicted on race, sexuality, crime, punishment, or indeed Lego Terrorists.

What makes this all the more laughable is the extent of histrionic ranting and self important posturing that such solicitation results in.  These lunatics give the mental asylum known as the BBC’s Have Your Say a run for their money.  Not content in simply asking opinion, however, the Sun makes their questions so horrifyingly leading as to render any participation meaningless.

For instance, a poll that asks about the Shannon Matthews trial, where the parents of a small child have today been found guilty of kidnapping their own child and keeping her hidden to claim a ransom, asks for opinions on the verdict.  Now, firstly, I doubt that there’s anyone out there who would come down on the side of the parents in this case, but printing (in bold capitals) ‘Guilty: Do evil duo deserve a life of pain behind bars?’ is hardly hiding how you expect the discussion to go, is it?

Of the comments inside, some of my favourites include:

• “Give me a room, give me a bat…..and just 5 minutes of their time….”
• “Forget about life sentence and waste more of my money and others. Hang them and bury them once and for all”
• Or the impressively punctuated “the fact dat dey are found guilty and sentenced will be a lesson for other scumbag like dem irrespective of how long their sentence is, but its high time d govt scrap dis benefit stuff, it made people who are fit to work to be too lazy.”
• Or my real favourite; “That’s what happen to scumbags who lives on state benefits and refuses to work!!! They have denied the real people in need of help!! Carry on these single mums who think the more kids they have the more ££ they get!! Well it’s true under this crap ZanuLabour government.” Which I can only imagine is copied and pasted by into every forum on the site, so general are its targets.

All of this has the strange effect of making me feel a lot better about my life.  Weird.