The worst thing is, it’s not even very surprising anymore

Civil liberties, Tories, UK politics
Published on Leave a comment on The worst thing is, it’s not even very surprising anymore

Well, here’s a surprise: long term unemployed people were used as slave labour during the diamond jubilee celebrations:

A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government’s Work Programme.

A glitzy pageant to Britain’s first family of parasites to distract the middle classes from what’s happening to their country, staffed by slave labour: as good as symbol of modern Britain as any.

(Via.)

Martin’s first rule of blogging

Blogs, Meta
Published on Leave a comment on Martin’s first rule of blogging

Nothing good can come from a post that starts like this:

Andrew Sullivan links to a Ross Douthat-Julian Sanchez exchange (that started as a Douthat-Saletan exchange, and concerning which Karl Smith and Noah Millman get words in edgewise, if you care to follow up the links.)

In a related question, a) who still reads Sullivan and b) what have you done in a previous life that you’d voluntarily read Douthat or Sanchez? Also, why take any of them seriously enough to blog about them? They’re all hacks who I wouldn’t trust me to tell the sky is blue if I weren’t in a position to check it. Why give people who basically act like polite trolls the intellectual credit by responding to their latest inane “discussions”?

So, Martin’s first rule of blogging: don’t take proven trolls seriously, never respond to hacks.