I heard a daft woman on the radio this morning wailing that it was very sad that a really good newspaper had been closed down. Her father had been buying it for years and it was a much loved paper in her family. I couldn't believe my ears. When it came to light about the News of the World closing due to all this crooked dealing, phone tapping, and paying for lists of contacts in high places, my first thought was Hallelujah! Good riddance, dump the vile, disgusting, evil, paper that is not fit to wipe my @rse on. Even calling it a newspaper is an insult to everyone's intelligence.
And while they are at it, lets dump all the other crappy comics, the Sun, Sport, and all those which are full of tits and bums, and adverts for prostitutes and porn stars. No wonder the country is going down the pan, these garbage publications are corrupting the brains of our young people. We've got sixteen year olds who want to pump up their chest with two blobs of jelly, young lads roaming the streets in gangs beating up and robbing old people, . The whole thing is frightening, we don't have children any more, they go straight from babies to prostitutes and robbers. Bring back Mary Whitehouse, that's what I say!!!
haha, well sais, I think all your readers will be with you on this - I overheard a man in the supermarket say something to the same effect and the sun and NOTW being papers for chavs and those with no brains, and I applauded him in my head!
ReplyDeleteSadly it looks like they will just roll out the Sunday Sun or something to replace it. It's a shame we can't get you into the government Ilona!!
I really can't think what to say to that - I agree with everything you said - I did read the news of the world once though, it was the funniest thing I had ever read - so sexist and ridiculous I couldn't believe anyone actually thought it was news! But where there is money to be made there will always be corruption. sadly.
ReplyDeleteMary Whitehouse?
ReplyDeleteHow about all these 'celebrity' magazines too! Agree completely with you.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me? All young people are in gangs or are prostitutes? This is the kind of cr@p that is written in these papers and it seems as if you believe it. I'm 18 years old and not a prostitute and I have no interest in gangs so please refrain from dumping all young people in the same category.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree,,well said
ReplyDeleteMy Lovely Hubby calls papers and magazines of this ilk 'comics', they are full of the 'non-news' of the day not the real happenings in the world.
ReplyDeleteJade does have a point, not all young folk can be tarred with the same brush, there are lots of lovely youngsters striving to live good lives, and young parents trying to bring their children up to respect everyone, a hard job in the current climate. I'm glad mine are grown up and sensible.
However you are more than entitled to speak your own mind on your own Blog, that's why we love you and read every post with interest.
Sue xx
If I had alot of money I'd love to launch a positive newspaper where there is a balance of happy and sad news.
ReplyDeleteI want to hear positive stories especially about the youth of today. There are some great kids out there.
Sft x
I have 5 grandchildren, 2 of whom have just received their Duke of Edinbugh Awards, another who has just got fantastic grades at Uni and 2 lovely little girls. All of these and others like them have a hard job to stay on the straight and narrow in the society that we live in today. Although I can see where you are coming from (believe me, I am 65 and have known the country in better times) you cannot tar all young people with the same brush Ilona.
ReplyDeleteGod knows what they have to face in the future, I dread to think.
Briony
Go back 168 years, and the NoW was a worthwhile newspaper that worked to publish the truth and not kow-tow to the establishment.
ReplyDeleteHow it changed as it sunk to the level of the "red tops"
Hello Jade, I am chuffed that a young lady like yourself takes the time to read an OAP's blog. You are quite right, not all young people are the same, and I am sorry if you thought that's what I meant. My comments were a generalisation, aimed at no one in particular. If you read me regularly you will see that I am not in the habit of slagging anyone off. The point I was trying to make is that the media must take a lot of the responsibility for how our youngsters are turning out, not all youngsters just some of them.
ReplyDeleteHi PP, Mary Whitehouse complained of the increasing blasphemy, bad language, violence and indecency, that she saw on television. She became the first General Secretary of The National Viewers and Listeners Association, in 1965. She organised the first meeting of the Clean Up TV Campaign with a friend in 1964.
I remember reading about her when I was a teenager and thinking what an interferring old busybody, but now I am an old busybody myself and I understand exactly where she was coming from. Julie Walters played her in the film 'The Mary Whitehouse Story', she was brilliant. Mind you anything that Julie Walters does is brilliant.
Well there's another one who thought I was tarring everyone with the same brush, just goes to show how carefull you have to be with words these days. Sorry Briony I didn't intend it to read like that. Your grandchildren might have a better chance if they weren't bombarded by drugs sex and violence every time they stepped inside a newsagents shop.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you, Ilona. What I find the most frightening aspect of all this is that the 'News of the Screws' was the biggest selling Sunday paper in the UK (and damn good job it's gone down the pan - should have happened years ago,) whilst it's 'sister' paper 'The Sun' is the biggest-selling daily paper. Makes me despair if so many people want to read such rubbish every day. Although there isn't really a lot of reading involved in either paper - they are / were just comics for grown-ups.
ReplyDeleteagree
ReplyDeleteFurther revelations today seem to be implicating the Sun in some jiggery pokery too. What a surprise that is!! I'm so pleased Murdoch hasn't yet managed to get his hands on BSkyB too.
ReplyDeleteIlona, I read your blog all the time, and I find it interesting and informative, and I think what you do is brillient.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes disagree with your thoughts, but hey, it's your blog. And I don't have to read it.
But i do have to comment on this post.
That's what comments are for is it not?
It really isn't very nice of you to even 'generalise' on young people in this comment the way you have.
Most young people are good kids. They don't in general go from babies to robbers and prostitutes.
Is that honestly what you think? Because you've written it as your opinion.
And the way you have written your comment is that you ARE 'tarring everyone with the same brush'.
"We don't have children anymore, they go straight from babies to prostitutes"
It's very sad that you think this of children Ilona.
And I feel sorry for you if that's your opinion of children these days.
None of my three children are babies, prostitutes or robbers, and I don't know any of their friends who are either.
Maybe you should have a bit more to do with the younger generation Ilona, then you will stop believing all the rubbish on the news and whats in the papers that you have quite rightly called garbage.
Quite frankly Ilona I'm ashamed of you, and astounded at your attitude.
I thought better of you!
Donna
Well I thought I had posted earlier but has gone missing. Loved the post as always Ilona, fantastic humour that I understand and you manage to get the serious matters across with it! Why people want to buy that rubbish is beyond me but if they want to waste their money. Carry on with the good work and I for one will be following your blog as always!
ReplyDeleteOK Donna, My words were a bit extreme, they were said on the spur of the moment, my fingers hit the keys and I type whatever is in my head. Sometimes my grammar is rubbish, sometimes I get the words the wrong way round, and sometimes I speak tosh. I don't set out to please everyone all of the time, I write this blog for me. If people read it that's fine.
ReplyDeleteOf course I know that babies dont go straight into prostitution, but you can't deny that there are some child prostitutes, or is that all lies. Is it also lies that children are knifing each other in the street? I read that in the papers too. Yes these are in the minority but it is happening.
I talk to children all the time in my village, they all know me as that dotty woman who picks up the litter. I make a point of talking to them, to try and get them to think of others who enjoy the village, which they seem so keen to trash. It falls on deaf ears though. I have just walked through the churchyard, it looks terrible, empty pop bottles and wrappers chucked on the grass. OK, they are not all bad kids, they don't all drop litter, but some do.
I guess you won't be reading any more then Donna. You don't have to be ashamed of me. I make mistakes, I am not perfect
Here, Here !!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I had to admit I found your comments a bit abrasive this time, Ilona, I also think some others have taken them much too personally. I have 5 children aged 27-18 and of course none of them are prostitutes or likely to go out and beat up the nearest granny. My oldest is in fact a police officer working towards her Detective Constable exams, another has just finished a Masters in psychology and my 3 youngest are all in college or working. But I certainly didn't think you were addressing your remarks to all young people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the media has a lot to answer for and hate all those tacky newspapers and magazines on the shelves in W H Smith...since when has it been right for pics of nearly naked people to be displayed at eye level where young shildren can see them. These sorts of things used to be top shelf! Smiths doesn't stock pornographic literature or so they say, but these mags are often very near the knuckle.
Okay, that's my rant of the day. Also glad the NOW has gone, hoping The Sun goes the same way. But sorry for those innocents who lost their jobs because of the scummy tactics of a few.
YES! YES! Please lets get rid of the gutter press and all those awful celeb magazines.But on the other hand if people are not intelligent enough not to want to read this garbage, what hope is there of a better world ?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely brilliant, I agree 100%. Newspapers etc are only good for lighting the fire with!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about this as I lay in bed this (Tues) morning, I could have picked my words a bit better, and perhaps expanded on the babies to prostitutes comment. Perhaps I can do that now. It seems to me that children (not all), are missing out on their childhood as they are pulled, pushed, dragged, towards adulthood far too early.
ReplyDeleteAll adults are role models whether they like it or not, or whether they are aware of it or not. It is not something you can opt out of. How adults behave will ultimately be passed on to children, any children. There are some horrendous parents out there, and to keep it in balance, there are some excellent ones as well.
How can the people that are involved in writing, printing, and selling tabloid garbage then go home to their own children and expect them to grow up into balanced level headed pillars of the community, when they themselves are responsible for polluting the minds of vulnerable children and young adults.
What is worrying is that the trashy papers have massive sales, but I suspect this is mostly because people buy them out of habit. My dad had the Daily Mirror every day, but then there was some actual news in them.
I glance at the red tops when I walk by the news stand in the supermarkets and cringe at some of the headlines. These are directly in line with the eyes of the little ones. It's sad but it's all down to money, and it's the children who are missing out, missing out on their childhood.
Well I've got a daughter and a son, and I certainly didn't think you were implying that they were a prostitute and a robber!
ReplyDeleteI think more than newspapers, TV and the internet are a far bigger influence. Mary Whitehouse must be turning in her grave when you think of the things that are shown on TV now compared to when she was campaigning.
I must say most people (here again a generalisation) generalise!!! What other way is there to count numbers of people who do or don't do things. As nobody has a means of counting, if a person knows a 'few' people who they see to be doing something, that is a 'lot'.
ReplyDeleteIf everybody knows a 'few' people, then added up all over the country, then that surely counts as 'many'. Does that make sense?
Philosophers would say we shouldn't generalise and look at everything closer, thinking more. Maybe we normal folks don't have the time that Philosophers have to do that.
Maybe I'm just another bonkers old woman>
We bought 2 copies of the NOTW once, we cut out the free haircut coupons and threw the papers away unread.
ReplyDeleteI've got no time for papers, full of lies and nastiness.
Good riddance, I agree. I work in our village school and must say the children are lovely. I think a lot of how you perceive the younger generation depends on where you live and your interaction with young people. There are some fantastic kids out there - including my own obviously :)
ReplyDeleteI tell you something though, I also despise the Daily Mail for peddling casual racism, judgemental attitudes and giving women the impression that their lot in life is to be thin/young/conformist. We call it the Daily Hate in our house.
I know what you mean't. There is an issue in society regarding the sexualisation of our children at earlier and ealier ages ( this is documented - clothes, aspirations, tv etc etc etc) thats what I understood your post to refer to. There is also an issue in some places with knife crime, youth crime etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI got it. And I agree that the media has a lot to be responsible for - TV, Internet, magazines etc etc appropriateness of content, accessibility to impressionable young people and children etc etc
I know some fantastic young people and also some horrors ( I work with alot of young people - FE colleges are full of them for some reason!)
I don't think you meant all young people at all and were using a generalisation for dramatic effect to illustrate your point. This happens all the time on for eg the programme Question time!!!
Some folk don't get it and in my opinion I feel they might be a little touchy.
And this is your blog and you can write what you like if people 'don't get it' they don't have to read it! You write a blog for yourself no one else.
Maybe a better way to phrase /chose words would have been
" Surely Ilona you don't mean all young people??"" or other to this effect. Then you could have explained. OTT come to mind.
And unfortunately I have seen some prostitute like outfits for sale for toddlers and young girls. Again I got what you meantwoith the phrase baby to prostitute - illustration of a point dramatically.
If I said on yer bike woudl you actually get on your bike????? or would you just go away. Hmmm
I think the most worrying part of all this is that the NoW had such a huge readership, as do other "rags". What does that say about our society today?
ReplyDeleteI also understood what you were trying to say in your original post and think that some people over reacted. If they have read your blog for a time I think that it would be clear that you weren't so mean minded about all youth
today.
I think your subsequent posts were clear and quite nice considering the tone of a couple of the comments.
Good on you for finding a free door!
Candace
here here candace!!!
ReplyDelete