Sunday, September 06, 2009

14 Sept update - A quick hi to all those guardian readers arriving on here, just a couple of things.... first please appreciate that this post is a particularly sweary one, the Mail caught me on a particularly bad day. There is other stuff on here varying from scouts to football to film to religion to just about everything else that isn't as sweary, although there are others that are. Sorry! So read on dear people read on! Second, it wasn't me that put a link to this on the comments section, I don't do self promotion!

15 Sept- For the benefit of Anonymous/Les - I suggest you clear your cache and hit refresh, I have pub;ished your comments and have replied as well. I don't do censorship of comments except for Trolls and that has only happened once.

Daily Mail Talks Shit About Scouts Yet Again

For fuck's sake, they just never stop do they? They simply can't go a day without making shit up to support their whole "broken Britain" theme. This time they have touched a raw nerve with me, making crap up about the scouts, and judging by the readers comments the great British Public have fallen for it.

So what is today's lie? Apparently scouts have been banned from using pen knives.

100%, complete and utter bollocks. Lies. Incorrect. Bull shit. Not one shred of truth to it what so ever.

What is the truth? The truth is that scouts are taught to use knives as a tool, simple as that. To look after them, the same as a hammer or a saw, to use the correct knife for the job, and to obey the law as it stands.

Stuff like this makes me so angry, because I am lucky enough to know the truth, on other stories they publish I am not privy to the truth, so what other lies and innuendo am I missing? How fucking dare they just sit and make stuff up. I've tried to get a comment on the story pointing out that they are talking rubbish but I doubt they'll publish it.

Bastards.

Update----Update----Update - 7 September

It's nice to see that the Times have discovered where the cut and paste functions are in word. I had thought better of them than that.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Jesus, mate, you sound seriously unstable. Have a cup of tea and sit down in the cool for an hour. Irrespective of the merits of the case your reaction and foul language strike me as quite unsuitable in someone entrusted with youth leadership. Are you saying the Time made this quote up? "I think it is safest to assume that knives of any sort should not be carried by anybody to a Scout meeting or camp, unless there is likely to be a specific need for one. In that case, they should be kept by the Scout leaders and handed out as required.” I bet you they didn't.

Akela said...

Malcolm, first of all if you are offended by my language there are other blogs that you can read.

Second you are quite right that to use such language in front of young people would be completely inappropriate, which is why I do not. This blog is simply my outlet for ranting about all the things in life that annoy me. Do you not swear and rant at times? I rest my case.

As for the Times, no they didn't just make the quote up, they copied and pasted it out of the Daily Mail story without checking their facts and in doing so took it completely out of context. It featured in the April edition of scouting.

http://www.scouts.org.uk/documents/News/080909/Pages%20from%20scouting.pdf

As you can see the "knife ban" doesn't exist. And the Times helpfully failed to quote such lines as

"I would also suggest that
proper training in the use and care
of knives (and other tools) be taken"

and

"Knives are tools and should be
treated as such: use the appropriate
tool for the job (don’t use a large fixed blade
for carving or a penknife for clearing brush)."

I have written a fuller review of this whole fiasco at http://akelasdiary.blogspot.com/2009/09/agendas-idleness-and-collateral-damage.html#links

Feel free to read it.

Akela said...

PS If you feel I'm unsuitable for youth leadership you are quite welcome to take on the 8 or hours a week I do unpaid plus the various weekends and weeks away it takes up. The scout association will happily sign you up as a volunteer just call 0845 3001818 to put your money where your mouth is.

Unknown said...

Dear Mr Semtex,

I called the number to apply and the nice lady who answered asked me about myself. I told her - quoting your blog - that British Telecom customer service were an 'insipid pit of utter wank' who could 'shove their broadband up their stinking, festering bone idle arse.' She laughed and said she agreed but I sounded a bit too hot-headed for the scouts. She suggested cage-fighting instead.

Akela said...

Malcolm,

Alas! I had genuinally hoped we might sign you up. Seriously! I personally think the scouts, and similar organisations, could do with a few more guardian readers (I am assuming you ended up here as someone quoted this blog in the comments on the guardian website this morning, it wasn't me by the way, I'm not in for self promotion)

Anyway, feel free to stick around, I quite like your sense of humour. Mr Semtex? I like it, I may actually start a new blog in that name, then I could get REALLy angry about stuff ;)

Unknown said...

Ha ha don't despair, I haven't entirely given up, I'll ring back and disguise my voice. Well done for spotting I arrived from the Guardian. I think the Mr Semtex blog is a good idea, the 'diary of a cub leader' thing is holding you back. You need to tell the Daily Mail what you really think of them, otherwise how will they ever learn? Same goes for BT customer service, who are, as you rightly say, a pit of utter wank. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

But it is *you* (the blogger) that is lying. Your link to the Daily Mail story is attached to text which *you* wrote saying "Apparently scouts have been banned from using pen knives." The Mail did not write that, *you* did. So *you* are lying when you say the Mail said it.

The stuff that the Mail did say was almost entirely correct, It is certainly not true that there is "not one shred of truth to it what so ever". If you claim otherwise, post a statement from the Mail article that you know to be "made up" and then post your rebuttal of it.

you add "How fucking dare they just sit and make stuff up."

That's what you did, pal. Unless you can prove otherwise.

Akela said...

Dear Anonymous

Thank you for your comment. If you read the original Mail article and concluded that there was no knife ban then that is to your credit. You are however, from my experience, in the minority.

The fact that this post has been linked to by a commentator on a Guardian article that openly refers to pen knives being banned at scout meetings is a clear indication however that the Mail’s attempt to imply that a knife ban has been introduced has been successful.

What is not to your credit however is that you have read the original Mail article and not concluded that it was worded to imply something that was not true. The big bold letters half way down the story that say “Is Scout knife ban sensible?” are pretty good evidence of that. Indeed the headline is just as bad, implying that somehow the rules had suddenly changed in reaction to knife culture. They haven’t, the rules have been in place for years and simply reflect changes in knife law.

The story over all implies that the safe use of knives has somehow been removed from the scout programme when it hasn’t, it does this by lying by omission. It completely misses out the quotes from David Budd referring to training in the use of knives and the importance of choosing the right knife. Indeed I happen to know that David Budd is personally furious about the article and it has provoked a personal response from the Scouts chief commissioner.

https://members.scouts.org.uk/ccblog/6/the-truth-about-scouts-and-knives

I accept that some people do not believe that lying by omission is lying, I wholeheartedly disagree with them, but even they must accept that this is at best ambiguous. The chief commissioners comments demonstrate that this was, at best, being deliberately ambiguous and if you think that that is acceptable behaviour from the newspaper with the 2nd biggest circulation in the country then I can only conclude that you are, yourself, a Daily Mail journalist.

Anonymous said...

Akela: Not only have you not replied to my previous post, you've even suppressed it. I guess that ensures you win the argument. Do you take your footballl home when you are losing too?
- Les

Unknown said...

Hey Akela

No sweat, don't worry about the swearing, I was just mischief-making. As one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Convents I've heard some of these words before. Keep on ranting, it's made me revise my pre-conceived notion that cub scout leaders are a bunch of do-gooding milksops who drink halves of shandy and drag helpless old ladies across the road to win badges. I stand corrected.

Akela said...

Nah, they generally sink some kind of head cracking real ale!

Then they go and help an old dear across the road. Makes it much more interesting ;)