Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Michael Blackburn: ‘The best part of the session, however, was reserved for Jezbollah The Lost, leader of Her Majesty’s opposition, who, when recounting how he had been to a meeting of European socialists says he was asked – at this point some Tory wit interject with the shout “Who are you?” The House shook with boisterous jollity. Except for Jezza, of course, and Mr Flim Flam, who was so engrossed in reading something that he hadn’t noticed the commotion and had to have it explained to him by his quivering Home Secretary.’
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
Michael Blackburn: ‘How thoughtful of the EU to assume control of our broadcast networks, and how accommodating of our national government to hand them that power — and then to do their bidding. In this case you may say, well, it’s done something whose results you approve of. To which I’d respond, “So what?” I’d be quite happy to have missed these programmes if it meant not having a bunch of unelected foreigners telling our broadcasters what to do.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘This posturing wouldn’t be so bad if you knew these various celebs had done their research beforehand and exercised some independent thinking instead of following whatever line the Guardian or The Independent or the mainstream media in the US are peddling. But it’s not going to happen. They’re part of the in-crowd and you’ve got to go where the in-crowd goes, even if your fashionable pose quickly goes the way all fashions go: into the charity shop.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘Social media have allowed everyone, including the psychotic and moronic, a platform from which to displays their views. That’s always going to be a bear pit. The fact that the financially-failing Guardian has found itself crushed under the weight of free speech is not in itself a great loss. The real danger is that all the other available outlets will be censored or shut down and nothing springs up replace them. ‘
Michael Blackburn: ‘A friend and I once tried this at university. A student my companion vaguely knew but didn’t like started talking to us in the pub. He asked us what we were both up to. Possessed by a spirit of mischief and without thinking I immediately said we’d both packed in our studies and and begun training as Formula One racing drivers. He believed us. My friend knew something about cars so could come up with a few choice engineering details. I just added stuff about blondes and pitstops. It was so easy.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘“The point is not to use names given by whites to others,” says Ms Gosselink. That’s despite the fact that it was whites who created the paintings in the first place and then gathered them together in collections. And whites who, presumably, are deciding at this very minute to give those non-white people different names from the ones the whites gave them originally. But white is the new pejorative in our culturally “aware” society, and liberal guilt is as popular as ever.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘During this time the EU has been wracked by financial and economic crisis, a huge rise in unemployment, a surge in Islamic terrorism, and the absolute failure to control mass immigration from outside the continent. All of this is a result its own policies and none of it came with an official pictographic warning label on its packaging.’
Saturday, 21 November 2015
Michael Blackburn: ‘The liberal intelligentsia vigorously promote this weirdly de-Christianised Christianity that’s been pumped through the sludge of secular hip psychology to produce a tearful, self-pitying, intellectually dishonest passivity. Evasion of the truth is paramount. Diversion of guilt is essential. Avoidance of strong Western cultural beliefs is forbidden.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘Those banging the trans drum are certainly making their voices heard these days – nobody seems to be gagging them – and it’s about time they extended to others the great tolerance that is given to them. They may think themselves the apex of civilised progressive thinking, but they’re as likely to fall foul of a new generation of self-righteous offence-takers as Greer is.’
Michael BLACKBURN: ‘So it comes down to the fact that it’s really not the amount of tax that is collected from a company and its employees that matters to the progressives, but that the company should be seen to be handing over a slice of its earnings to the state. Corporation tax in this world view is a punishment for making profit, ie, from being successful.’
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Michael Blackburn: ‘Spitting at people who hold differing political views from your own, then, is OK, as is shouting abuse and throwing eggs. OK, that is, if you are on the same side as the protestors (and even if you receive some of that abuse yourself inadvertently, the mob not being very clever at identifying its targets).’
Michael Blackburn: ‘This is the left splitting from top to bottom and from left to right. It’s fracturing, fissuring and turning in upon itself, from Corbyn and his clapped-out revolutionaries to the phoney class warriors with their intimidatory street “parties” and bloody bongos. Between them they have turned the comedy knob up to 11, going into a frenzy over cupcakes, brown sauce and Coco Pops with almond original milk at £3.40 a bowl. They’re a joke, but they’re so self-obsessed they don’t even know it.’
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Michael Blackburn: ‘Corbyn has definitely introduced a sense of difference between the major parties. He’s done it in a very entertaining way because he’s a mountebank socialist throwback with ancient ideas that have failed consistently in the past and are currently failing in Venezuela. With Corbyn in charge there’d be no competence of any sort and it would be a case of all hands to the pumps. You can see what’s coming.’
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Michael Blackburn: ‘Neither the media nor the politicians (with a few exceptions) have given a moment’s thought to the consequences of this influx: nothing about the strain on housing, schools, public services, health care, etc, and absolutely nothing on the cultural consequences. Television correspondents are eager to talk to immigrants but not to local people affected by what’s happening to their countries. I think they probably know they wouldn’t get the kind of positive reaction they’d like.’
Scruton and ‘the nonsense machine’.
Michael Blackburn: ‘It’s a compliment to the quality of Scruton’s writing that he makes this journey through the execrable inanities of modern leftism enjoyable, informative and often amusing. He’s happy to be vitriolic. I like his spearing of Eagleton, for instance, who passes “all art and literature through the grievance mangle, so as to squeeze out the juice of dominance,” which is reminiscent of Harold Bloom’s description of the leftist literary project as “the School of Resentment”.’