Thursday 26 August 2010

You wouldn't be able to tell that Littlejohn is a highly-paid journalist

This blog has avoided detailed mention of Richard Littlejohn for a while, but his column on Tuesday was too bone-headed and obnoxious to ignore.

Here's one of his absolutely side-splitting attempts at humour:

Coalition is the new majority. In Australia, where neither of the two main parties won enough seats to form a government, the next Prime Minister is going to have to rely on the support on a handful of eccentrics from the Outback.

The future of Upside Down Land appears to depend on a swagman, Crocodile Dundee and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Makes the Lib Dems seem almost sensible, doesn't it?

'Upside Down Land' and decades-old cultural references? Cutting edge satire, isn't it?

But his main focus was on a HM Revenue and Customs booklet called 'Taxes and Benefits: Information for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers'. It's not hard to work out why he'd be writing about this.

So which of his (alleged) journalistic skills did he use to find out about this publication? A Freedom of Information request? Hours of detailed research? Err, not quite:

My copy was forwarded by an Essex-based, Daily Mail-reading accountant, who was lost for words when he received it.

Oh.

Littlejohn links the publication of this booklet to the case of Christine Timbrell, thus managing to crowbar in the obligatory use of 'yuman rights'.

He writes:

This was a landmark case, which could affect several hundred people every year and cost taxpayers millions of pounds. It has prompted the Government to overhaul the services it provides not just to transsexuals but also other sexual minorities.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, in conjunction with the Department of Work and Pensions, has published a glossy guide containing 'information for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers'.

In fact, that ruling and this booklet are not related. If he'd bothered to turn to the back page, he would see it says:

Issued by HM Revenue & Customs
June 2009

Ah. It's not the only time this week the Mail has been writing about year-old 'stories' as if they're new.

Somewhat bizarrely, he admits that such a publication might be necessary:

I can understand the Revenue might want to publish a pamphlet on the tax implications of civil partnerships. That is only right and proper.

It's a strange admission, given he's written over 800 words belittling the booklet, the organisations that produced it and everyone who might find the information useful.

Indeed, only one sentence later he asks:

...why go to all this trouble?...in what other ways do the tax affairs of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered differ from anyone else?

Because there are 'tax implications of civil partnerships', maybe?

If Littlejohn had bothered to actually read the six relevant pages of the book he'd been sent, he'd see information mainly for people in civil partnerships and same sex relationships about tax credits, capital gains tax, pensions, inheritance tax, National Insurance and income tax.

The booklet is doing exactly what Littlejohn thinks is 'right and proper'. So what's the problem?

Well, it's all diversity and political correctness gone mad, innit:

The job of HMRC is to collect taxes. Full stop. It doesn't exist to further the cause of social engineering and 'diversity'.

Actually, the job of HMRC isn't just to collect taxes.

But quite how telling people about inheritance tax thresholds amounts to 'social engineering' isn't clear. Presumably he doesn't think it's 'social engineering' when the same information is giving to people in heterosexual relationships.

Last week, there was an actual new news story about the treatment of minority groups by some staff at HMRC:

Seven Revenue and Customs staff have been sacked for deliberately under-paying benefits to ethnic minorities.

It follows an internal investigation into nine men based at the HM Revenue and Customs call centre in Belfast.

Two resigned after it began and seven were dismissed on Tuesday.

They are believed to have tampered with computer records to ensure ethnic minorities living across the UK did not receive the benefits they were entitled to. All have now been fully reimbursed.

He would have seen this story in the Mail, where 'ethnic minorities' became the rather more inflammatory 'non-nationals' (the Mail's article was churned from PA). But he wouldn't want to talk about that, would he?

He goes on:

Of course, all taxpayers should be treated courteously and efficiently, regardless of their race, gender, religion or sexual proclivity. But that's no excuse for this kind of expensive, time-wasting gesture politics...

So it's gone from 'right and proper' to 'expensive, time-wasting gesture politics' within a few paragraphs. And he's not done yet:

Try to imagine all the time and money wasted - not just in Whitehall but throughout local government, the police and the NHS - on this type of fatuous nonsense...

HMRC had no need to produce this glossy brochure simply to address the sensibilities of transssexuals.

As he well knows, this wasn't 'simply' produced for transsexuals, but by targeting them it makes easier for Littlejohn to rile up his readers.

But his reason for making that last statement was just so he could show what a 'wit' he is with this nasty little gibe:

HMRC had no need to produce this glossy brochure simply to address the sensibilities of transssexuals. All it had to do was ensure that all letters sent out by inspectors continue to be addressed: 'Dear Sir/Madam...'

And it's not just transsexuals he's desperately trying to belittle:

There is also a picture of someone who may or may not be a transsexual. Difficult to tell. Could be bisexual, I suppose. Who knows? It's just been revealed that the actress Vivien Leigh was bisexual, though you wouldn't have been able to tell just from looking at her.

It's also been claimed that Richard Littlejohn is a 'journalist', though you wouldn't be able to tell just from reading the drivel he writes.

You wouldn't know she was bisexual just from looking at her. What an enlightening remark that is.

When he wrote about Chris Huhne's affair with Carina Trimingham in June, he said:

I recognised her from the days we both used to work for Sky News.

Funny, I thought to myself, I always had her marked down as a lesbian....

If you asked a cartoonist to draw a comedy lesbian from central casting, Carina Trimingham is what you'd get - all spiky haircut and Doc Martens.

And he's got another group he wants to use his national newspaper column to pick on too:

Intersex? Nope. Me neither.

Littlejohn clearly thinks this is funny. As he did when he said much the same thing in 2009:

...intersexuals (whatever the hell they are)...

And in July 2010:

...intersexuals - whatever they are...

We know Littlejohn rarely does research, but it's extremely doubtful he doesn't know what an intersexual is.

But, as Angry Mob has written, it's his need to dehumanise people that makes it easier for him to insult them.

Deriding people who aren't like him is Littlejohn's default position. On Tuesday, it was the LGBT community that bore the brunt of his snide remarks, on the basis of a fourteen-month old leaflet he thought was 'right and proper'. Who will it be next time?

(Hat-tip to 5CC)

15 comments:

  1. Does... does Richard Littlejohn think a bisexual is someone who identifies as both male and female? That's the vibe I'm getting from this. Why else would "transexual" instantly make him say "Difficult to tell. Could be bisexual"?

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  2. Littlejohn treats his audience like shit and rehashes the same dull content and style every time. I wrote about him last week where even the comments were scathing of his rip-off of a 20 year old(!) Private Eye spoof. And sure enough, his issues with sexuality revealed to the world once again, as 5CC also exposed in his review of RL's book. It's a shame RL doesn't have the balls to engage in some of this criticism, but as we know from his many identical articles he's a lazy, talentless, prejudiced coward whose biggest fan is himself.

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  3. "The future of Upside Down Land appears to depend on a swagman, Crocodile Dundee and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo."

    As an Australian, I can attest that almost everything here is most certainly not upside down. Upside Down Land? Really? That joke was old before my parents were born.

    And who the hell is he referring to when he mentions those three "icons"? They all sound like descriptions for only one of the independents - Bob Katter.

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  4. "It's just been revealed that the actress Vivien Leigh was bisexual, though you wouldn't have been able to tell just from looking at her."

    I can't tell if that's supposed to be funny, or id just really stupid. Thing with Littlejohn is that he has no real consistency (as you point out, in the space of paragraphs he contradicts himself), and simply panders to what he expects his audience to want to hear. And his opinion of his audience is quite low....

    As for the number of commentators jumping on the Australian election, it just shows how arrogant our nation is. You'd think we invented co-allition governments. Many European countries, Australia (for ages) and New Zealand (for ages) have some form of proportionality voting system. Sure - it's the first time for the UK since the war, but our overblown reaction and coverage of the Australian outcome must make us look like idiots to outside spectators.

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  5. sexual proclivity is not the same as identifying as gay or lesbian. he's so stttuuupppidddd. it really annoys me when people write things like that. being gay is part of your life, your identity, your relationships, your family. it isn't a foot fetish or wearing a corset or something!

    i know it's a small point but it just really undermines gay people when he suggests they are a habit or action, rather than, you know, people.

    he is clearly very confused about bisexuals. marilyn monroe was bi too by all accounts, despite not wearing purple and a hat saying 'i'm bi-sexual', trans and bi are not the same thing.

    still, marina hyde was right. she wrote in LIS about RL being sandwiched between clarkson and kyle, in the hope he would get all confused, and then he's end up writing an anti-gay column this week out of his angry confusion...

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  6. The future of Upside Down Land appears to depend on a swagman, Crocodile Dundee and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

    How out of touch can you be? He's talking about the balance of power in Australia, perfect opportunity to bash the Greens (who potentially benefit most, and who he HATES), and he runs with a stereotype that's not only hopelessly dated, but so generic and shite that it does nothing to further his agenda and clearly shows him to be spouting an opinion on something he's done bugger-all research on.

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  7. I think you are all very unkind. There isn't another writer in the country who could squeeze that much bigotry into such a small space.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, RL seems rather mild compared to other folks' writing that I've read!

      Delete
  8. He's very slow out of the blocks on this one - Matthew Elliot's right-wing front group whose name is such a lie I can't even bring myself to use it were onto that booklet as soon as it came out.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/5569255/Tax-office-publishes-booklet-for-lesbians-gays-bisexuals-and-transgenders.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. The link provided by Tom appears to show the total cost of producing these booklets as around £1500; surely this is a cheap way of providing clear guidance on a complex issue. Littlecock and Elliot suffer from the same problem experienced by bell ends everywhere of lacking the ability to discern the difference between cost and value.

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  10. Little John revealed one of his much used journalistic techniques on Friday when he wrote a piece about a council in Wales constructing a bridge that would allow mice to cross a motorway. When speculating why the job had cost so much he said 'you can just imagine all the meetings' surely a proper journalist would actually contact the council and ask how many meetings had taken place or even asked for a breakdown o the costing but that would require too much effort and the facts might get in the way of another of his mindless rants.

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  11. I have a confession to make. I find some of Richard Littlesoul's remarks side splittingly funny. However, I'm laughing AT HIM rather than with him. I dislike derision, but he is one of the few folks who deserve it. The man's got a mind like the inside of an unwashed dustbin.

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  12. I have a confession to make. I find some of Richard Littlesoul's remarks side splittingly funny. However, I'm laughing AT HIM rather than with him. I dislike derision, but he is one of the few folks who deserve it. The man's got a mind like the inside of an unwashed dustbin.

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  13. Does anyone else think Littlejohn's constant return to the subject of transexuals and intersexuals bely a fascination and interest that he doesn't seem to know how to deal with? There's touches of Alan Partridge about this. "Ladyboys though, fascinating creatures..."

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    Replies
    1. It'd be really great if you wouldn't use the term "ladyboy" in the future. It's offensive on two levels: it belittles male gender assigned at birth* trans people, and has racist overtones as it tends to be used against the Kathoey - a third gender in Thai culture.

      *Male gender assigned at birth (often shortened to MAAB) is similar to the term MtF ("male to female") but inclusive of non binary genders, such as genderqueer, agender, third genders, etc.

      Delete

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