Hopping mad!

Not strictly a benefit issue but of interest to anyone in our line of work nevertheless.  There was a story in yesterday’s Daily Mail about a man injured in a RTA last year who now walks with a crutch, being verbally abused by a bus driver and told to move from the disabled seat to make room for a woman with a push chair.  He said he needed to sit there for the 40 minute journey to stretch his leg in order to minimize the pain.  The driver called him a scrounger and told him to get a job.  She also gave him the finger when he got off (corroborated by CCTV). 

The bloke who, incidentally, has worked for the last 39 years until his accident, rightly complained to the bus company and the driver has now been suspended pending an investigation.  The Mail has plainly portrayed the bloke as the victim and the driver as the villain.

Now what struck me was that the driver’s attitude, probably getting more common, was probably engendered or hardened by just the kind of bigoted and uninformed drivel peddled about benefit claimants and disabled people in the Mail in the first place and either the irony is completely lost on them or they conveniently chose not to see it.  Lord Northcliffe would be proud.

Hi Paul the only thing that occurs to me is why are you reading the Daily Mail?  Did it not used to be known as the Daily Forger due to its role in the Zinoviev letter?  Lets not forget its famous “Hurrah for the blackshirts” headline

Hi Grant

It’s a daily thing with me.  I go online and read, generally in this order, The Guardian and The Independent for news and columnists, The Telegraph for the general Tory view and then the Mail and Express to keep up with what level of bile and misinformation they are generally spewing out to members of the public, particularly looking out for the almost daily ‘benefit cheat/workshy scoundrel” story.  Gotta keep your finger on the public pulse you know!  As Frank Zappa once sang “all you people are poor unfortunate victims of lies you believe.  A plague upon your ignorance”.

There is a brilliant website out there doing the same thing, regularly taking to task people like Richard Littlejohn and Melanie Philips.  It’s called http://www.butireaditinthepaper.co.uk/.  I’ve got it in my favourites.

And as for Zinoviev, that’s easy for you to say!

Have a good weekend.

Sounds like Victor Meldrew is alive and well after driving a bus.

I disagree, Victor Meldrew was never a bad person, and was far more sinned against.

The driver sounds more like Richard Littlejohn or Melanie Phillips.

The incident nevip refers to happened here in Oldham, here is a link to our local newspapers website coverage of the story

http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/49825/obscenity-on-the-buses