A Whole Lotta Hate

The Olympics allows journalists the opportunity to link athletic prowess/failure to the state of the country, as they see it. It's a win, win situation. Cue unoriginal comments along the lines of 'if there was an Olympic event of (insert favourite moan topic here), then (Brown, Blair, Once Great Britain etc) would claim gold every time. It also gives both professional and hack writers the chance to pun for Britain.

Given that Great Britain - I share people's distaste for the American Team GB - performed beyond expectations, it should provide a dilemma for the knockers. Not so. The competitors have done in spite of the Government.

Following the closing ceremony, as sure as night follows day and knight follows dame, Mr Littlejohn is on the rostrum in a personal best time.

In a column down to his usual standards (headed, London 2012? Get set for Gary Glitter), he's out of blocks early:

• Just imagine if I had written a parody of the Olympic handover ceremony, which had included a portrait of Fred West, a simulated suicide bombing and a stabbing.

So what's he on about? Well, Britain's 8 minutes of fame in front of millions, at the closing ceremony in Beijing, happened to include the work of artist Marcus Harvey's controversial Myra Hindley print. In fact, it did not. The art in question was part of a montage used in a video shown to around 500 guests - including GB athletes, Boris Johnson and Gordon Brown. The video was commissioned by the Mayor's office according to The Telegraph.

Now, it can be argued that this artwork is incompatible with a celebration of the Games and it could also be seen as an example of the freedom of expression we have here. There is no evidence that either Boris or Gordon were aware of this; it certainly would not make sense for them to have permitted it. But, that is not the point here. Littlejohn - a highly paid, lazy hack - still uses it as an attack.

• And who thought it would be a good idea to show a promotional video featuring a picture of Myra Hindley, one of our most notorious murderers, tastefully made up of thousands of children's handprints?

The clever bit here is that by omitting to clarify where the video was seen, it is open for the rabid mob of Mailers to make the right connection.

Now, the production wasn't the best ever. David Beckham is hardly my favourite person (let alone footballer) in the world, but given the commercialism and professional nature of the modern Olympics, it's not so disingenuous. He is popular in the Far East, usually comes across as a good ambassador, and like it or not he is a global brand.

The irksome thing about Littlejohn's criticism, is his usual hypocrisy:

• What was Beckham doing there?
  He's the antithesis of the selfless, Olympian ideal - a man who has chosen to debase his waning talent by prostituting himself for hundreds of millions of dollars playing football in a 'major' league made up of pub teams.

This coming from a man who spends much of his time in exile in Florida in a not-so-small home. If anyone prostitutes himself, our fiend in the North of America must be high up the list.

Harmless fun so far? Richard has another arrow left:

• But don't be surprised if, in four years' time, the Olympic torch is carried into the stadium in East London by Jade Goody, following a march past by the Bradford chapter of Islamic Jihad, a 21-gun salute from the Brixton Crazee Eyez Killaz drive-by shooting posse - and a concert by Gary Glitter.
  That's if they've managed to shift the illegal gipsy camp off the track and field in time and the whole complex hasn't been shut down by elf 'n'safety.

In two sentences he manages to bring in all the usual hate suspects. The Chav, the Muslims, Black Rap-induced gun crime, Paedophiles, the Health and Safety Executive and Gipsies. No mention of asylum seekers or Eastern Europeans in public toilets but there's always next time.

I've missed out the early example of how his mind works:

• In the Bird's Nest stadium on Sunday, the decapitated double-decker looked just like the bus blown up in Tavistock Square on July 7.

I challenge anyone who watches the part where the bus transforms into a London skyline to think about the bombing atrocities before this despicable excuse of a man mentioned it. Of course, he's always able to rely upon the Littlejohn posse.

• When the bus came apart, my first thought was the 7/7 terrorist attacks. I could not believe how insensitive the oganisers (sic) were, and my heart goes out to all those people affected by the atrocious attacks. What are they planning for the opening ceremony at the London Olympics in 2012? A train falling apart to reveal Gay Glitter? - A.K., Sydney, NSW, Australia, 26/8/2008 5:14

Now let's just consider this prat for a moment. He's presumably read the shit in the column and then makes the same point about 7/7 and Glitter! Remember the Sydney Olympics? Didn't the fireworks seem a little incongruous with all those bush fires? I must have more time on my hands if I bother with this! [It has to be said that the speech recognition program on Vista speeds up typing! It even understands Scouse, but as ever, I digress.]

The only positive thing I can say about the following comment is that I'm glad he's from New Zealand, not the original Birkenhead.

• Richard Littlejohn, you made my day! Thanks for a great read and a great laugh! For a terrible moment, I worried that maybe the bus roof opening up was a terrorist attack! It must have brought back terrible memories for those injured in the 7/7 attacks or who lost loved ones. It was silly, tasteless and not well thought out. Why did the London performers represent multiculturalism rather than British culture? Has British culture died now and been replaced by ethnic cultures? Why was the ethnic girl Tayyiba Dubhwala, the winner of the Blue Peter contest that determined who got to be in the show? The Chinese used ethnic Chinese children I notice. Could it be because Blue Peter is on the left-wing anti-white BBC?
  - Robard Sinclair (Brit Expat), Birkenhead, Auckland, NZ, 26/8/2008 10:13

Where do we start? A great laugh? But it was tasteless to have a bus transform 'cos RL thinks it was like a terrorist threat. He then goes on like a recruitment pamphlet for the BNP. His point about Tayyiba, aged 10 (he's having a racist dig at a 10 year old girl!) is not even worded correctly. I think he's either trying to imply the competition was fixed, or she shouldn't have been allowed to participate because she's not ethnically white enough? Despicable and shame on The Mail for publishing this vile hatred. Ex-pat. No irony. If anyone from Birkenhead, Auckland happens across this bit by accident, please be assured that I feel sorry for you having this Sinclair bigot in your town.

Finally, Littlejohn turns his attention to Brown. Or unelected Brown as he thinks he is, showing scant regard to our constitution and ignorance of British history.

• When he was at the Treasury, he was responsible for fiscal policies which forced councils to sell off playing fields to property developers.

Yes, open spaces and playing fields have been allowed to be sold despite the incoming Labour Government of 1997 promising to protect them from being hived off. I'm having some difficulty finding figures for this but the legislation brought in by Labour was as a result of the Thatcher and Major Administrations' giveaway of the greenbelt. In the same way as there were more Grammar Schools lost under Margaret Thatcher, the political right aim to hide this in the bushes whilst they were the ones in the copse doing the real deals.

Clearly, they continue to bite the dust and I'm the first to criticise a Party of Government I actively wanted throughout the 80s and 90s, but I take offence at the revisionists like Littlejohn who try to make people believe life ended on May 1st 1997 in a diametric way as football pundits refer to the start of the Premier League as the birth of football.

EDIT:

The BNP also has its own take on the Blue Peter competition. This from the Press Officer for Cumbria BNP, Clive Jefferson:

• Tayyiba Dudhwala won a Blue Peter competition to take part in the handover ceremony on Sunday when London received the Olympic flag, the official hand over ceremony and presentation put on by London supposedly to celebrate all things British.
  .
  The Blue Peter competition asked entrants to write in to explain why they were excited by the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Tayyiba's cousin, Zakir Dudhwala, said she returned home from school one day and the Blue Peter crew were waiting to tell her the news. Mr Dudhwala explained what Tayyiba came up with to win the competition - "She wrote that different people from all over the world come together at the Olympics and she thought that was special."

• The above "celebration of British culture" is simply the perfect showcase of Politically Correct distortion and the ultimate epitome of media conditioning that I think I have had the misfortune to whiteness and the British tax payer payed 2 million pounds for the privilege.