Spontaneous Monotony

Yesterday saw the Chinese propaganda parade through London, escorted by police who behaved rather more violently than was necessary. There was the predictable parade of apologist politicians going on about “the Olympic spirit” - what they seem to forget is that the Olympic flame is not a politically neutral sporting symbol. In fact it was conceived by another dictatorial regime as a propaganda exercise in the runup to the 1936 Olympics.

If there are still those - perhaps among those who took part - who want to argue that participating in a Chinese propaganda exercise does not constitute endorsement of the Chinese regime, then that’s up to them. They wouldn’t have the right to form their own opinion in their beloved China.

For the rest of us, the simple solution is to ignore the 2008 Olympics from now on. Don’t watch any of the TV coverage, or buy any of the merchandise.

The Video Appeals Committee has ruled - for the second time - that the BBFC’s decision to ban Manhunt 2 had no justification and should be reversed. It seems that the censor - which is now largely discredited - will respect the decision this time. The ‘casual, sadistic’ (their words) violence the BBFC objected to would earn a film a 15 certificate at most. Their claim was that the ‘interactivity’ of Manhunt 2 created a greater potential for harm (you see the BBFC thinks it has the right to ban ‘harmful’ things even for adults).

Let’s be clear what these sorts of games do - you sneak up on whoever you’re going to ‘kill’ and press a button combination. Then a ‘kill’ sequence of varying grisliness is played. So in essence Manhunt 2 features footage of deaths being played following the selection of the footage via control buttons. No different from a DVD with scene selection - in which the violence can be far more graphic.

It’s about time we stopped giving these Daily Mail-ingesting autocrats control over what entertainment products adults are ‘allowed’ to buy. This is a democratic country, with a legally protected right to free speech. The only legitimate limitation on whether an adult buys a DVD, or a game, or a piece of music, is whether that person has made an informed choice to do so. The PEGI rating system can provide the necessary protection for children - especially if the government makes those ratings binding on game sellers, which they aren’t at the moment - without violating our rights by preventing content being made available to adults. Let’s hope this decision is the final blow to an organisation that is long past its sell by date.

Well it seems that in my essay-writing exploits last night I failed to notice that the graduate endowment is gone (after the SNP drafted its death warrant in June). Ah well, gives me  an excuse to get the utterly fabulous February 29th in my blog. What’s more puzzling is that Neo Labour and the Tories (no surprises there) voted against, on the basis that it wouldn’t reduce student  poverty. I know that bending the truth (not to mention the expenses rules :p) is in vogue in Neo Labour, but I fail to see how they can claim that reducing the financial burden on every single student by over £2200 (about a fifth of the average total debt per student of £11,000) will not reduce student poverty. We should all be happy - once again we live in a country committed to the principle of free education, and (even better) we no longer live in a country run by Neo Labour con artists.

Just wishing everyone a Happy New Year, via my Asus Eee.

It seems that self-styled ‘anti-fascist’ protestors have delayed the exercise of the right to freedom of speech by forcing their way into a building, and threatening members of the audience.  Nick Griffin and David Irving hold contemptible, even illogical, views. Stopping them from speaking, however, is much closer to the definition of fascism than anything the BNP have done. The right to freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental principles of democracy - it is easy to support freedom of speech for those you agree with, but EVERYONE has the right to freedom of speech, including those who hold hugely unpopular views. I would greatly appreciate if those who are intent on trampling democratic rights would sod off to a country that is more in step with their view of freedom of speech - perhaps Pakistan, China, or Iran?