Sunday 21 November 2010

Festive Season or Silly Season?

It’s that time of the year again! Silly Statement Season!

As Christmas approaches, it is traditional  for large quantities of bulls**t to pour out of every media outlet, as if intent on sweeping away our common sense along with the last of the autumn leaves.

 

BBC News announced yesterday morning that Susan Boyle is as popular as The Beatles were in their heyday! What?

SuBo has not exactly written
 any songs yet, never mind
 any good ones!

SuBo has reached number 1 in the UK and US charts simultaneously with her latest album and is now in the same category as Coldplay, Keane and so on! Yeah right.

I’m not about to launch a scathing attack on SuBo on the grounds of her being just an OK singer or even on her lack of good looks, but I do get annoyed when a mere decent singer like her accepts being compared with the world’s greatest artists with the smug look of Ned Flanders attending mass.


Someone needs to remind SuBo that humility is a noble quality, especially when referring to a woman who has two things all teenage boys would want –  facial hair and huge muscles.

Sillier still (and deviously dangerous) is the The Daily Mail article on Tuesday, proclaiming that by 2055 the white population in the UK will be a minority.

the right-wing "wrinkly brigade's" favourite rag

Coming from the official mouthpiece of ultra-conservative pensioners, it doesn’t really surprise me, but lets do the maths anyway, shall we?

The last official census (2001) revealed the following;

Population: 58 million, made up of the following;

92.1% White
4.0% South Asian
2.0% Black
1.2% Mixed
0.4% Chinese
0.4% Other

(less than 8% black/brown)

The UK allows approximately 200,000 non EU immigrants entry per year (mostly black/brown)  but the present government wants to cut that amount and will do so.

Even if current entry levels remain as they are (but they won’t) it would mean an influx of 10 million people over the next fifty years, when the population is estimated to reach 80 million.

“Ethnic minorities will make up a fifth of Britain's population by 2051, compared with 8% in 2001 - The University of Leeds, published November 2010.

OK, let's examine the previous statement by the University of Leeds study. "Ethnic Minorities" are not all black/brown. Fact.

The Guardian newspaper, a quality liberal rag unlike the Mail, also published the same 20% prediction this week. Again, this 20% is not all black/brown.

Conclusion: Since when is 20% (and not all black/brown) a non-white majority?

Where does The Daily Mail get its figures from? Certainly not from respected sources such as the University of Leeds or the Office for National Statistics.

And even if right, why is a non-white majority such a controversial idea?

We should all be working towards building a tolerant, inclusive and decent society - not needlessly worrying about estimated racial mix 50 years down the line.

 I for one have more important things to worry about - the Mail readers obviously don't.

‘nuff said, rant over.
:)

1 comment:

  1. what a joke! subo has a great voice - good for her, but that is definatley it. people just like her cause of her "wow moment" when we first saw her on stage and everybody thought she would sing like se looked - awful.

    here in sweden no one even knows who subo is. x-factor is something people havent even heard of and nevermind britains got talent. they think simon cowel is just a judge like every one else (and not that is actually is his own show). beatles were at least superduper famous even in these woodlands. and also, if there would have been computers and the possibility to download and so on, i bet beatles would have been even bigger than they actually were.

    is subo really in the charts in other countries or just in britain? & how come i've NEVER EVER heard her on the radio?

    how silly.

    love u :) xxx

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