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BrightonStevie

Listed below are comments made by BrightonStevie between Monday, 20th October 2008 and Thursday, 22nd January 2009.

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Populist ventriloquism 06:17am on 22 Jan 2009 #21 The_judge_of_it wrote:

"As usual, Mark, you seem to express (in a convoluted way) the idea that Punishment = Evil."

I didn't read anything like that into the above article. I can't speak for Mark, but for myself.
I know perfectly well that punishment is very often necessary, but it should be just, fair and rational. There's a lot of voices in this country that just want to hit out at someone, anyone. Youth are an easy target for them to blame and scapegoat. The great crime seems to be - 'being young'. Of course these self-same voices should be allowed to do anything they want: why should they have to take responsibility for themselves?
You hear the likes of me suggesting that you should behave yourself, instead of just lashing out at anyone whether or not you know anything about them, and you try and twist that to 'Free all the prisoners, never lock up anyone.' That suggests to me that you've run out of even faintly plausible excuses for your behaviour, and now you're trying to evade responsibility by blaming anyone else.
Have you ever thought about standing for parliament?
Populist ventriloquism 07:00am on 21 Jan 2009 tryingtoberational wrote:

"...We [Britain] have a nation of dependent, semi-literate, self-pitying, self-victimising, obsese, culturally ignorant, disrespectful and aggressive youth obsessed with material objects and bordering on alcoholism."
What, every one of them? You really haven't made much effort to meet them have you, if that's what you think. If every time you approach some kid you have that sort of aggressive attitude, you really shouldn't be too surprised when you get exactly the same back.
There seems to be in GB, a culture of aggression and complete denial that you might have ever made a mistake. This is most noticable at the top in parliament, but is really everywhere. Why are we so surprised that so many kids follow our example? The amazing thing is that there are so many youth who are really excellent people who we can, and should, have a lot of respect for.
Restless America 01:41am on 20 Jan 2009 With regard to earlier comments relating peoples voting preferences to their age: it's often seemed to me that younger people tend to think more in terms of "What should be", and older people in terms of "What is". I think that these perspectives are complementary, and both are useful when looking at any given situation. This seems to me to perhaps be linked to voting patterns? Any thoughts on this, or am I spouting rubbish again?
More statistical fury 04:43am on 08 Jan 2009 #12 kcband8
Fair point, but in this case, why was it given to us as 'homicides by knife' and not 'homicides by sharp instrument'?
#5 (and others) again I agree, the consequences of bad use of statistics is worse when used by the government. But on the otherhand, if the opposition are self-rightously banging on about it, and giving the implication that they're so much better, then it's right and proper to point out that they're just as bad.
Map of the Week: Racism and tension 02:43am on 01 Dec 2008 There seems to be different notions of racism at work. `Classical Racism' - the idea that us white folk are `better' than coloured folk, who exist only to be used and abused, and what I think of as `Real Racism' - treating people differently based on the colour of their skin.
The former tends to be thought of as connected with right wing thought, notice that Mark Easton was trying to make connections with the BNP, rather than, say, the Communist Party. I'd like to stress that although something of a lefty myself, I've met several people with quite right wing views who haven't ever struck me as being particularly racist.
However, sadly the latter, `Real Racism' seems to be more a preserve of left wingers. There are some who seem to feel the need to bend over backwards to accomodate people if they have different skin colour (or religion or culture for that matter). Far more than they do for their own. This seems to be the origin of the over the top ideas of `banning Christmas' or `Baa Baa Black Sheep' (although it must be said that the usual media exageration and distortion play a part as well.)
Vulkenstein - I think you're exagerating a shade, I know plenty of people who don't have a problem with immigrants. And the responses to this blog alone are showing plenty of people not afraid to speak their mind. I am not at all afraid of prosecution for doing so. Perhaps I should be afraid of making an idiot of myself, but not prosecution. :)
The songs - and the candidate - remain the same 01:56am on 04 Nov 2008 #59. Quite agree.
By the way, I don't think many people were aware of the holocaust until after the end of the war. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the US general who first came across Belson was pretty shocked by what had been happening there.
UK got involved when Poland was invaded, this had always been our line in the sand, and I believe general policy was to prevent any one country getting to powerful, to upset the balance of power. In short, UK got involved for its own interests. Moral arguments for the war have merit, but they're not why we went in.
Having said that, my knowledge of history isn't great, so if someone knows better, then please correct me. :)
The songs - and the candidate - remain the same 04:06am on 31 Oct 2008 Re. America's involvement in WWII. I don't know too much history, but I'm pretty sure the US did what it did because it's leaders believed that to be in the best interests of the US.
Europeans (in particularly Brits) - This makes them no worse than we are.
Americans - It doesn't make you that much better either.

I don't believe that any country is anywhere near perfect, and this includes America, England and the rest of the British countries, France and anywhere else you care to name.
There's a lot of arguments which seem to be "America's perfect in everyway", "No it's not it's the source of all the worlds problems.", "Yes", "No", "Yes", "NO"...
Both sides are ridiculously extreme and just plain wrong.

As an example, freedom. Yes America has contributed a lot, but no it didn't invent the concept, and there's plenty of other countries that have also contribute. I'm currently sitting in New Zealand, the first country on the planet to give women the vote. Surely an important contribution?

I personally believe that America is probably a lot better place to live (for me) than plenty of other countries that could be named. But I prefer England. The reason is simple. I'm English, England is my home, and it's where I love. I'm pretty sure most Americans feel the same way about America. For that matter, most Iraqis feel the same way about Iraq.

Can we please try to stop petty minded mud slinging at each other? We don't expect much better from politicians, can we lead by example a bit please? Pretty please...?
The songs - and the candidate - remain the same 00:50am on 30 Oct 2008 #1 Garry_a_Hill
I'm pretty sure that the Obama team are up to the admin involved in changing a few songs around if they thought that would give them a better advantage.
End of the road 05:01am on 20 Oct 2008 By the way, to all US writters readers of this page. It's been nice reading some of your thoughts also, I feel like I'm already friends with a lot of you!
Jon, I was quite impressed by how you managed to keep it (mostly) so friendly.
End of the road 04:53am on 20 Oct 2008 Great blog Jon, as an Englishman, I really enjoyed it. It's a real antidote to endless pictures of politicians, which all get a bit repetative after a while.
Is there any chance of the BBC doing something similar for other parts of the USA? Also, as suggested above, what about a reverse visit, an American visiting UK, and possibly other parts of Europe?

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