tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post5721448899030745235..comments2024-03-24T09:13:28.758+00:00Comments on The Plashing Vole: First remove the Moat in your eyeThe Plashing Volehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021407602157515927noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-44438841075249945242010-07-16T11:11:27.054+01:002010-07-16T11:11:27.054+01:00Spot on. You're not made for this world, are y...Spot on. You're not made for this world, are you James. You seem to think that one day we might live in a place which takes mental illness seriously, rather than waiting for the mentally ill to commit a crime, then sends them to a prison to make them worse, roundly abuses them as though they exist in isolation rather than in a society, and encourages the media to turn them into monsters. <br /><br />If that's your attitude, I suggest you move to Norway. <br /><br />Seriously though - yes. Cameron was right to condemn the morons on Facebook, but entirely and predictably wrong to express his depressing and classically Conservative view that there's no such thing as society and that individuals are completely responsible for their actions. <br /><br />I gather that some of the Moat commenters are pointing out that he begged for help because he knew he was psychologically damaged - that doesn't excuse his actions but it does make him more intelligent than David Cameron.The Plashing Volehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13021407602157515927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-72389384614769447082010-07-16T10:50:22.116+01:002010-07-16T10:50:22.116+01:00I was uncomfortable with the PM's condemnation...I was uncomfortable with the PM's condemnation, that Moat was a callous murderer, "full stop, end of story, and I cannot understand any wave of public sympathy, however small".<br /><br />I understand the PM's got to express a clear opinion, but this point, expressed in this way, says to me "Some people are postmen, some people are train drivers, some people thieves, some people are murderers, that's just how it is".<br /><br />It leaves no room for thieving postmen, murderous train-drivers or postmen who like to drive trains.<br /><br />(Two days' worth of front-page pictures in the Daily Mirror of Moat in full cross-dressed mode, also made me think of it as a bad day for non-murdering cross-dressers.)<br /><br />To my mind, here was a man who was reportedly a bad dad, a bad husband, sexually complex, a serial arrestee, and who'd served a single shortish stretch for assault.<br /><br />Then he became a murderer, and double attempted murderer, which was, to quote Paul Gascoigne, "Not very nice".<br /><br />This last fact does not, in my book, say "end of story".<br /><br />Stick that in your Prime Minister and smoke it ;)James Hannahhttp://www.jameshannah.comnoreply@blogger.com