He's Not Only In The Wrong Decade .. He's On The Wrong Planet

Look, it can't be much fun being trapped in a newspaper that's mostly only fit for lining the kitty litter tray. Believe me, people, I've written a load of these blogs, and I'm reasonably confident that I can count my regular readers on one hand. Using the other hand. Which would be less than five.

I have every sympathy with those writers who need to earn a crust, in a time where the print industry is spluttering and panicking worse than someone trying to defend Rebecca Brooks at the Leveson Inquiry. Newspaper barons pay taxes too. Actually, maybe they don't. I haven't got the data on that. If only there was some method, deserving of universal respect, that could look into these kinds of things for us.

Richard Littlejohn, on his twitter account, declares 'I'm not the bigot you think I am', which as an introductory salvo, is the same kind of Hallmark greeting as 'I'm not a racist, but ..'. He tells us that he's not the bigot we think he is (which leads to the disturbing thought - exactly what kind of bigot is he?), but he's clearly capable of some pretty bigoted stuff. Some of you will be aware that this blog is roughly modelled on an article he published just before Christmas, but without all the vile stuff. I'm not able to repeat it, even in a clearly satirical way. Presumably I'm just not as skilled a writer as he is.

For instance, Littlejohn is so skilled, he was able to create a furore over Christmas last year over very little. When Lucy Meadows made the move from her previously male persona to become a woman, the school board were notably and suitably proud of their teacher that they supported her fully. You might guess that it's difficult to find a more nervous and paranoid group than the average school board. Looking after kids while the nations tabloids look on ensures you think over your more sensitive decisions very carefully. One imagines that the announcement on the website wasn't exactly the first time the PTA had heard about this, despite Richard Littlejohn's need to play sleight of hand otherwise. It's worth pointing out that the twitter account I'm referring to has not been updated in a good long while. It does appear likely that it is a spoof account, and nothing to do with Littlejohn himself. Then again, the evidence for that assumption is mainly to do with some tweets containing quite shocking bigotry that you'd think nobody would put in a public forum, and, well ..

But, has anyone stopped for a moment to think of the devastating effect all this will have on the people who really matter? Adults with IQs as low as 7 aren't equipped to process the type of bigoted idiocy that Littlejohn spouts, swallowing it without question or concern, repeating it in turn to others. At least the Express doesn't really have an opinion to repeat.

The article quotes a father who is apparently concerned about his boy, who allegedly is afraid that he'll suddenly turn into a girl. Nobody thinks to mention to the dad that there's an excellent solution to this thorny issue: actually talk to the child (rather than a tabloid newspaper).

It's very unlikely that the Leveson Inquiry will make any real change to the way that newspapers - tabloids in particular - will treat innocent people, regulation or no regulation. The problem is the same as it ever was: this bizarre idea that if someone has made any kind of choice to live apart from what we clunkily call the norm, they surrender their rights to respect and privacy. This seems to apply if someone decides to become a singer, a film star, a woman, or even someone who would dearly love to find their missing daughter alive. The often stated opinion is that such people have to expect press intrusion. No, they don't. It's really that simple: no they don't. I have yet to hear one intelligent or even reasonable argument why they do. Bullying is bullying, and we still seem to place all the responsibility on the victim, arguing that they should either put up and shut up, ignore it til it goes away, or - even better - not to do anything that draws attention in the first place. This is clearly not good enough: the most concise and effective way to combat bullying is to actually blame the perpetrator. Not the victim. But for some reason, we seem to be remarkably unskilled at that. Incidentally, one of the reasons why rape culture seems to becoming ever more ingrained into our lives, rather than less. It's not just Littlejohn, and I've always been a little uneasy that we throw our hands up in horror at the victimisation of members of the public, but somehow consider public figures to be ipso facto fair game. It just allows newspapers (and not just tabloids, if we're honest) a little more rope with which to hang us.

Look, freedom of speech is a great and noble thing. And it does protect your right to state your opinion. But it doesn't protect any right to be a vicious bully about it. And certainly not be be a fracking idiot.

Sorry, in that last paragraph, I went off the Richard Littlejohn template. But, as is increasingly obvious, it's very easy to go off Richard Littlejohn, full stop.