Monday 15 August 2016

Tale of Newbigot

Did anyone listen to the radio this morning? I heard a mini documentary “documenting the untold dramas of 21st century Britain” from a series by Grace Dent.

Ms. Dent is a journalist and columnist who writes for the Indy and the Graun, so - par for the course. As manipulative leftism goes, I thought this was a gem.
“Horrible story of xenophobia wonderfully, if distressingly, told by @gracedent on R4, just now. The Untold:” 

A tale of woe about ice-cream van turf wars in Newbiggin - she must have read it as "Newbigot."

The deceptively sympathetic beginning, concerning the indigenous ice-cream seller who had been out-bid by ‘strangers’ and lost the pitch in the sea-front car park he had monopolised for donkey’s years, morphed seamlessly into a blatant plea on behalf of the hard-working, tax-paying, and oh dear, pregnant, migrants. 

Along the way Ms. Dent managed to turn the Greek couple into heroic martyrs and the locals with their nigh-impenetrable Geordie voices into intolerant bigots. I suppose they should have known better than to talk to strangers bearing microphones.  

The not so subtle Brexit-related nuggets that were clearly deliberately slipped in to play with one’s emotions grated badly on this listener.     

I haven’t heard any other episodes, but looking at some of the other titles in the series I think I might give it a miss. 

5 comments:

  1. Not related but on my way home today it would seem PM on R4 is not content with telling us how to vote and think politically they've moved on to our porn habits.....

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    Replies
    1. Speaking of related, I wonder wonder in what way Grace may be linked to Arthur?

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  2. Both appear able to deploy an Impossibility Machine to get them out of tricky situations.

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    Replies
    1. And given the number of BBC outlets, an infinite number of times.

      "Oh, no... not again".

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  3. Sorry for being off-topic, but this is too sick to pass up:

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36979892

    How Anjem Choudary's mouth was finally shut

    For 20 years Anjem Choudary stood on street corners, in shopping precincts, outside mosques, embassies and police stations and used his megaphone to drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of Britain. Now he has been convicted of inviting others to support the Islamic State militant group


    And the BBC was a willing accomplice for years. Now Dominic Casciani has the nerve to act all surprised and innocent about the discovery that Choudray was a bad actor. They have no shame at the BBC.

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