This is Eric - Eric Der Igel - pictured going about his business one night in Eastern Germany. Hopefully, he is still safe and sound, and not used as a prickly projectile as this poor mite was in New Zealand.
Man faces five years in jail after hitting a boy with... a hedgehog
One of the most annoying traits of the Great Daily Mail Public is their inability to read stories beneath the headlines. Time after time we see examples of this as the morons make themselves look foolish. Of course, the Mail is well aware of this, and my view is that it plays on this when deciding on the wording of articles, allowing the frothing masses to read between the lines - even when the story eventually contradicts the tone of the bold print.
The hedgehog story has been covered in other papers, but the DM version is of note because of the comments. By paragraph 3 it establishes that the incident happened in New Zealand.
Send in the clowns.........
- Five years in prison for assault with a dead(ly?) hedgehog? Backs up completely what we read elsewhere in the Daily Mail today - that Government Ministers are concerned the police are too focused with minor offences. Five years! What a bunch of silly plonkers!- Cllr Chris Cooke, Tamworth, UK
- If the teenager has stuck a knife in the man and seriously injured or killed him, he would have been called an ASBO, get a suspended jail sentence and then paid for the lodging he didn't get by serving his time. I'm surprised the man didn't get an extra year or two for abusing a hedgehog. The UK has become a real laughing-stock... except it's not funny.- Charles, UK
- Five years for this 'crime' seems rather odd when recently two youths who kicked man to death received only four years. Good old Blair 'tough on crime'- G.Ware, York Yorks
- He should have plunged a knife into his victim's heart. You only get two years for that.- Mike A., Channel Islands
The interesting thing about this is that there is a large number of comments pointing out how stupid these people are. For example,
- And after reading the comment by Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth we find out who the real 'plonker' as he puts it is or does he blame the goings on in New Zealand on the British police as well?- Dave Kempton, Gloucester
I thought this was strange to see so many people castigating their fellow tut-tutters. Now, the Tamworth councillor seems to be familiar. Could he be the same Cllr Chris Cooke who has this interesting site, and who did a bit of pro bono leaflet work for the local BNP candidate. Not that he's in any way connected to them! The anti-BNP site at Lancaster Unity have their own take on this.
He also seems to have come up on the radar of Stormfront, the uber-Nazis (I won't link to them but if you google 'small penis Fascist knuckle-scrapers' you'll no doubt come across their filth.
- So I hope when the BNP come to power (note - "when"!) that they allow themselves to dig a bit deeper into such things as the NHS than just the pay of the top guys. The whole edificial empire needs an overhaul. Cllr. Chris Cooke
I was still wondering about the flak he got from DM scribblers. Then I came across this on the Press Complaints Commission site:
- Complainant Name:Councillor Chris Cooke
Clauses Noted: 1
Publication: Daily Mail
Complaint:
Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth complained that a comment he had posted after an online article contained an offensive sentence which he had not written.
Resolution:
The complaint was resolved when the newspaper – which investigated the matter thoroughly and indicated that its records showed that the comments arrived in the same form in which they were posted – removed the comments from its website.
Maybe just a coincidence. And the band played, 'believe me if you like'.
