Tagged with Trolling

I’d never been ashamed for how I look or being proud of who I am – until this month

feministI am a 19-year-old woman from Manchester, I’m a student at Manchester Metropolitan University and I’ve been active in Labour Party politics since I was 18, and I must admit while it’s been a bumpy ride, I’ve always managed to keep my head above the water and stick at it.

Until this month, I could talk to anybody about sexism in politics, and tell them although it is upsetting, it’s never been bad enough to make me want to quit everything for good.

Until this month, I’d never had my appearance picked apart so ruthlessly online by internet trolls, I didn’t want to leave the house.

Until this month, I’d never had to ring my parents in tears, concerned they’d see the article and believe the content.

Until this month I’d never been ashamed for how I look or the fact I’m proud of who I am. Continue reading →

Historical allusions: a helpful guide for Blairites and appeal for cooperation

StalinGordon Bennett, those Blairites (a historical term for people roughly corresponding with the 4.5%ers – Ed) can’t half be a bunch of drama queens sometimes. The merest slight to the amour propre of the tattered remnants of New Labourism often meets with hyperbolic allusion to some of the most dramatic events of recent centuries by way of rebuke.

The problem with using history in this fashion is that those doing so run the risk of making themselves look foolish. And we can’t have that, can we?

Maybe the problem is that Oxbridge PPE degrees do not include a history component. So let me extend a comradely hand of friendship to the Labour right, and walk them through some of the stuff they presumably slept through in their A-level classrooms. Continue reading →

Corbynistas are not the new Nasty Party

rudeWhere I work, telling a middle manager to ‘fuck off’ would result in a summons from human resources pretty sharpish, with the full expectation of a resultant first written warning. And if the target of the Anglo-Saxon expletive happened to be black, the question of whether the incident had been racially motivated would at least have to be considered.

Yet somehow, when Labour MP Jess Phillips addressed Diane Abbott in precisely those terms, she escaped any sanction whatsoever, and nobody was asked to draw generalised conclusions about the political outlook of her wing bit of the party. Continue reading →

Free schools are Marxist? Then I’m a banana

Michael GoveMichael’s Gove’s latest pronouncement is that free schools are a Marxist ideal, a comment so outlandish and preposterous that it might at first seem that the hot weather has gone to the Education Secretary’s head.

If free schools are a Marxist idea, then I’m a banana. What’s Marxist – or even democratic – about schools that are set up without any consideration of the needs of the wider community and are largely run by ‘educational charities’ like Ark? Surely this is just the ultimate example of trolling – coming out with ridiculous statements that make minimal sense and cause maximum offence.

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Rape threats, Twitter and masculine crisis

Caroline Criado-Perez wages a successful campaign to get Jane Austen onto the £10 note and a pledge that, in future, the Bank of England’s designs will better reflect the actual look and shape of British society. A welcome happenstance for everyone who isn’t white, male and posh. But not all.

Unfortunately, the bigger story has been the rape and sexual assault threats she’s been on the receiving end of. Caroline talks about some examples here. It goes without saying the volume of misogynistic abuse has generated a furious backlash, from folk bombarding key members of Twitter staff to a 30,000-strong online petition, as well as talk of a Twitter boycott on August 4th. And, for good measure, Caroline has rightly reported threats received to the police. This has led to one arrest, and I expect a few more shall receive an unwelcome knock on the door from the plod.

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