Shocked by the Daily Telegraph....

Well, not the Telegraph so much as its readers. I was directed to a piece in today's Telegraph by Jeff Randall, "In a land without morals, it's no wonder children kill each other", a slightly confused "blame all today's ills on the sixties" fairly standard right wing flag waver.

That didn't bother me too much - ordinary stuff by a journalist earning today's pennorth with some rehashed tripe. What did shock me though was the comments that this piece attracted. I was not prepared for the volume and level of sheer virulence and bile that spouted out from the comments beneath this piece. I was bemused by the facft that the Telegraph comment board is moderated, and the moderator was quite happily letting all of these through. Several comments were along the lines of "I can't say what I really think, or I'll be moderated" from people who clearly didn't realise that the man with the finger on the button today was gleefully letting through any rant that came along, the more right wing and bilious the better.

A selection:

“And all the time we allow lawless immoral thieving Marxist scum to run our government then so such behaviour will be encouraged to continue”

“200,000 terminations a year? Since most will be to unmarried women that's 200,000 fewer feral youths. Crime prevention at it's best. The middle classes should be paying into a fund to help England out by offering more terminations to the oiks. This country could do with a few less mewling cabbages.”

“The lack of effective punishment is a major factor! If it is pain that they crave - bring back the Birch - they will soon lose the notion that only they can cause pain. I am aware of the outrage such a move would stir up with comment like "back to the Dark ages" etc - but some of these people are in the Dark ages and it seems that pain is the only thing they "respect".”

“This article hits on everything except the elephant in the room. The importation of massive numbers of immigrants from third world countries who have an average IQ of 85.”

“At last someone is talking sense. There are a feral packs of children wondering the streets. The answer more prisons and tougher penalities to protect society from this toxic slime.”

“What a scum laden country, the U.K. has become! I hope they all live next to those 60's liberals, or have they all pi**ed off to the Dordogne.”

“The increase in violent crime is due to west indian/ afro american gang culture, not forgetting drugs/ alcohol to facilitate. The UK is more effected then the rest of Europe because we have more exposure to these cultures through a common language and immigration. You would be surprised how many white/ asian children speak with west indian accents nowadays,”

“We need a war. A proper war where young men in massive numbers are given no choice but to go off to war and fight.”

“The problem is that 99.9% of the readers of your comment will think you are a nutter and fail to understand that they are part of the 99.9% of the population who are deluded. Pearls before swine etc. The pity is that you didn't include the scripture from proverbs:- Spare the rod and spoil the Child. Sadly this too would only add to the feeding frenzie of the 99.9% referred to above. Human rights nonesense and all that utter garbage. The Grammer School that I attended in the 50's required me to visit the Head Master on a number of occassions for a good caning. I then went to HMS Conway and deservedly recieved a regular flogging with the "ropes end". You haven't lived until you have a thorough going over with the "ropes end" and I would recommend it to all those who are required to learn how to love their neigbour as themselves. A large proportion being the 99.9% referred to above.”

“This is the reality of tribal multiculturalism in action-no common identity or shared values,no accepted authority structure or respected moral code -just an urban jungle, fed by small and large scale tribal,territorial,'warlord' dominated gangsterism. Downtown Mogadishu as a case study? Why is anyone at all surprised?”

“There is a sub-class of people building in our country. I use the term 'people' loosely. They are in fact not far removed from animals. They are illiterate, fornicating amoral rejects. These people are, frankly, not worthy of being called human beings. I am quite serious in my believe that these sub-class animals should be neutered to stop them breeding. Further more, if they do not attempt to reform their ways, and after due legal process, they should be put to sleep.”

“The more the hooligan element abort their offspring fetus the better as far as I am concerned. The social system will just end up paying for 'it's' support, whilst 'it's' breeders end up in prison or living off crime. Britain is more than on it's way to becoming the dustbin of europe.”

“I also believe that abortion used INSTEAD OF CONTRACEPTION is a prime factor in creating feral youth. When children can see mothers gleefully killing off their growing babies in the womb, why wouldn't they believe that killing is perfectly reasonable and permitted?????”

“They are black. It is as simple as that. The Kingston, Jamaica murder culture is now entrenched in British cities. Add to that black children and youths from Somalia and West Africa where it is de rigeur to chop people up and it's welcome to multi-culturism.”

“We need capital punishment, the cat, the stocks and the pillary,of course nobody has the guts to carry this out.”

“HAVE A SURVEY OF THE ETHNIC MAKE UP OF THE KILLERS AND THE VICTIMS. WHEN SOCIETY IS NOT COHESIVE THIS IS WHAT YOU GET .ITS A FORM OF TRIBE CULTURE. THIS DID NOT OCCUR IN THE THIRIES OR EARLY FIFTIES TILL IMMIGRATION GOT OUT OF HAND . NOW WE ARE REAPING THE RESULTS BY THE SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION CHILDREN OF THE IMMIGRANTS. OF COURSE THIS MUST NOT BE SPOKEN OF OR YOUR CALLED A RACIST BNP THUG. BUT USE YOUR EYES WHAT CANT SPEAK CANT LIE”

“In these comments, no-one has mentioned one of the true culprits: feminism. Feminism sits there avoiding blame for the breakdown of the family, sexual immorality, the evil of elective abortions, dependence of families upon benefit and state aid at the expense of the taxpayer, parental neglect of children and womens' love of money rather than love of their offspring.”

I expect the odd bring back the birch from a red faced colonel somewhere in Tunbridge Wells and the odd it's all because of immigrants from the odd young white male completely ignorant of both economics and history, but I was quite shaken by the extent of the bile here, and the number of targets people took aim at. There is a disjunction here that I am becoming more and more conscious of, that there are many people in this country who are in fact very powerful but who feel disenfranchised. We so misunderstand the true nature of Britain and of Britain's place in the world today that we feel - wrongly - completely out of place. While I find most of the sentiments quoted above utterly repugnant, I have to grapple with the fact that people do genuinely (in most cases - there were some trolls about) feel as they speak. And that needs to be confronted, somehow, in every place and at every time.