Why I hate the Daily Mail, as distilled into one edition

Not read it but I think this has had an impact on people's use of the word:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chavs-Demonization-Working-Owen-Jones/dp/1844678644

Thanks for that.

By no means do I use the word meaning "the working class" though. That is too broad a concept almost for me as a foreigner with an English gf to comprehend. The UK class "system" is, on a deeper level, quite tricky to understand when you didn't grow up with it.

Reading the wiki on "chavs" now I am learning a lot of its origins. Should have done that earlier.

I used the term in the 'blingy' sense of the word mostly, like the people you see on embarrasing 4th rate "reality" shows, who wilfully go on telly to "proudly" tell of their teenage pregnancy and still smoking, stuff like that.

i told my son i'm not comfortable with him using "chav" as a generalised term of abuse, the subcultural nuances are more or less buried in old-fashioned lol-the-poor snideness now

Your son is fortunate to have you as his father NV. I will take that to heart.

it's like a lot of things, depends how you say it, but there's a real Daily Mail ring to most usage i see/hear

yeah it has become a term of class hatred, particularly when it's sneering middle class people laughing at working class people.

and I'm sure Jones' argument is much more nuanced but I think that's the gist of his argument

amongst kids i think "Chav" is doing the job that used to be done by "Townie" or "Casual" but even working class kids throwing it about are buying into the demonization Jones talks about

I am thankful to the classmate who told me I was being thoughtless when I repeated (aged 12?) some horrible homophobic jokes I had heard getting big laffs among people old enough to know better the day before, cz I don't think many other 12-year-olds would have, and it was a pretty big "just because an adult said it and some older kids laughed, doesn't mean it was big or clever" moment for me

anyway I'm torn here, because "learning experience" and "inappropriate for public figure" sure but digging through things a 17y/o said when they were 14 for dirt is p. uncool (don't have such a problem with the 16 part, maybe that's an arbitrary distinction but still)

I will hold my hands up here and say I hadn't actually read the tweets themselves (BBC article didn't mention them, I refuse to click on a Daily Mail link) and someone at work implied they'd been a lot worse than they seem to have been. Not that they're not awful, but I get what people are saying a bit more now about just using teenage type language (that lots would never use). Obv getting the police involved is a dumb idea and the Daily Mail are horrific but it's kind of an interesting discussion about what public stuff is and isn't off-limits when it comes to your suitability for your job (see also: the dongle joke thing).

i think when you're a responsible adult then you are to some extent accountable for what you say in public forums, i'm inclined to be a bit more forgiving of youthful stupidity, and more inclined to be v. suspicious of blowing up youthful stupidity in the interests of denying young people a voice in community politics

If she's meant to be 'building bridges' between the police and young people, how is a young gay person meant to trust her when they feel they've been victimised or ignored by the police? She wasn't meant to represent straight, white, etc., young people. This may be a harsh wake-up call for a 17 yr old to deal with, but it's a lot less harsh than the victims of crime and police malpractice have to deal with, which she was meant to help with.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHcEGxNCAAAanoj.jpg

"Will her funeral now be targeted?" is the DM's way of begging: "TARGET THE FUNERAL PLEASE FOR MORE GREAT FRONT PAGES"

'bloodied youths mill around police with riot shields'
'police with riot shields mill around bloodied youths'

If she's meant to be 'building bridges' between the police and young people, how is a young gay person meant to trust her when they feel they've been victimised or ignored by the police? She wasn't meant to represent straight, white, etc., young people. This may be a harsh wake-up call for a 17 yr old to deal with, but it's a lot less harsh than the victims of crime and police malpractice have to deal with, which she was meant to help with.

― the so-called socialista (dowd), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 9:08 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is kind of how i feel about it too. no doubt she did some dumb shit when she was younger, and hopefully this will result in a teachable moment for her. that said, i don't think she deserves to be crucified by the mail (or anyone, but especially the mail) not least since the language and opinions that disqualify her for the job she had instantly qualify her for the mail's opinion pages.

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/322463275210117120/photo/1

Baws, that didn't work. Try again:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHmeo-xCEAETp6P.jpg

Every single thing about that front page is amazing.

makin' loadsa bread

lmao is that a British Sea Power shirt

could say lots of things I spose

I think it's the "comes after accusations of left-wing bias over the BBC coverage" that's my favourite bit. Aye, accusations made in the Mail. Self-perpetuating bunch of fannies.

This is such incredible nonsense. The chart show plays the high-charting new entries. That's its job. Simple.

I'm just hoping that the coverage alerts people who hadn't known, and drives it up the charts further.

That Thatcher-biographer chap on Question Time certainly did a sterling job of promoting it tonight.

I was ambivalent about it and haven't bought it but now I hope this absurd bullshit takes it all the way to number one.

Hilarious that John Whittingdale cites as his only precedent the God Save the Queen incident which is in no way a 36-year-old case that made the BBC look foolish.

BBC Witch Song

What did old Officer Phish tweet anyhow?

Shocking stuff (reading the Mail so you don't have to...)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/11/article-2307705-193EE63B000005DC-576_634x402.jpg

Not vastly different to a zillion other tweets then. Outrageous!

Time for some statute-backed regulators to stop this evil filth.

lmao at the gilding of this lily

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2307500/Jose-Mourinho-gives-Mexican-fan-Abel-Rodriguez-job-Real-Madrid-backroom-staff-finding-sitting-snow-outside-training-ground.html

Penniless, with nowhere to go and no chance of seeing the big game, Rodriguez sat shivering in the snow by the side of the road for five hours.

Then, the magic happened.

No outrage at non-national working for low or no wages, probably without so much as a work permit, and sponging off the rich, no?

article omits this crucial photo

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/dam/assets/130410115918-abel-rodriguez-jose-mourinho-single-image-cut.jpg

Was being blonde for a minute and thought that tweet in the top-right was referring to James May, started nodding sagely and then I woke up. Sorry Jimbles

several ago someone told me i looked like José Mourinho and i was thrilled. i'm glad i don't look like him now though.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2308344/Its-hell-posh-poor-Petronella-Wyatt-sold-pearls-given-dining-Ritz-Chanel-suits-like-friends-Broke-Generation-says-just-live-figure-salary.html

not sure if I have the stomach to read past "I asked how much he earned. ‘Around £80,000,’ he replied. ‘Some people might think that’s riches, but in London it gets you nowhere.’"

genius satire from start to finish, i was biting my lip at times

the politician Woodrow Wyatt was a peach

‘I can’t afford to have sex at the moment,’ says my former school friend Rosamund, a slender, 40-year-old lawyer who broke up with her banker boyfriend after he demanded she pay half the rent on his Mayfair flat.

choked back tears of recognition here

picture of Petronella in - Iceland i think? - fucken hilarious

Which one of the fancy men spoiling her was Boris Johnson?

Anyway curses on me for looking at that because the Sidebar of Shame is telling me the reason I haven't seen a friend in a few months is because she's dating someone who is actually nice, and would rather have found out through either.

We of the Broke Generation have discovered penury is not only a financial privation, but also an emotional one. We are damned if we follow our hearts and inclinations, and damned if we don’t. As the money trickles away, prices rise ever higher and the loans we took out so carelessly haunt our dreams, a take-out from the local pizzeria seems our only option.

oh the humanity

I personally will be donating my income from this month to a Broke Generation charity.

We're all in this together, Pet, love

It's 'Petsy' to you, mate.

Oh man, solid 24 carat comedy gold. It's like every Liz Jones column rolled into one. How *does* one live without Gucci, darling?

a lesser journo wd've made some nod to those living on benefits who face cuts this week but Petsy plays it straight-faced right down the line, total genius