Expressing Our Deepest Fears

‘THE Daily Mail and the Daily Express have come up with some cracking headlines over the years. But not for them the snappy puns of the red-tops, or the wry sideways glances of the broadsheets.

”Remember to blow it right between his eyes”

Instead, they are the masters of the paranoid yet self-righteous whinge and the angrily defiant gesture.

The Mail’s ”Koreans eat dogs and I will NOT apologise for saying so” was an early contender for Headline of the Year, but now the Express has stolen a march with: ”Now you can’t be held for blowing cannabis in a policeman’s face”.

Where does one begin? The breathtaking clumsiness alone is enough to take the breath away.

Then there is the implication that the offence described is a major problem which the police have been struggling to keep the lid on, and which will now become an epidemic thanks to bleeding-heart liberals and evil drugs campaigners.

Then there’s the nagging feeling that worse is to come. Political correctness has gone mad, as we know, so the next step will surely be a new regime in which you CAN be held for NOT blowing cannabis in a policeman’s face.

And then where will we be? In Britain 2002, that’s where.

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Posted: 5th, September 2002 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink