Monday 12 July 2010

In which I turn into the Daily Mail

The recent blazing heat in the East of England with clear blue skies could easily remind one that this area was once a mass of airfields from which brave young lads took off in their Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 to fight off Hitler's Luftwaffe. Over 500 of them never came back, and we owe them an immense debt of gratitude for our easy way of life in the the second half of the 20th Century.

5,000 people turned up at Capel-le-Ferne near Dover at the weekend for the open air Battle of Britain memorial service.

In contrast, over 9000 knobheads (and counting) joined the Facebook group "R.I.P RAOUL MOAT YOU LEGEND!"

Perhaps it's some sort of post-modernist irony that I don't understand. Perhaps I'm losing touch with reality when a murderer on the loose with a gun is given more respect than dead heros.

14 comments:

Ms Scarlet said...

People find it easy to click on a link and think of themselves as being funny, clever and all those other things that people want to be.
Ignore 'em. They'd think differently if they had a shot-gun pointing up their arse.
Sx

Richard said...

I'm trying to find out whether my old school friend took that service as he's currently the Area Dean of Dover and did the Merchant Seamon memorial dedication there a couple of years ago. (Yet another vicar called Dave (as was his Dad, strangely)).

Dave said...

My birthday is Battle of Britain day. My father, living in North Kent at the time, had many stories about the battle. Later he joined the RAF.

They have my enduring thanks.

Rog said...

Scarlett: Succinctly Put!

Richard: David Shepherd. There was another of 'em.

Dave: My council estate was built on the old Gravesend Airport.

Zig said...

I wish I couldn't believe that :(

Tim F said...

To be fair, quite a few of those 9,000 appear to have joined the Facebook group purely to have the chance of saying was a horrible idea it was, and how stupid the people who joined it were... hang on...

Macy said...

Yeay Scarlet said it!

And I'll still be laughing at the new avatar long after most of the 9000 have managed to stop dragging their knuckles on the ground

Sarah said...

Quite so.....

YourEastbourne said...

They had a discussion about this on Radio 4 yesterday (you are always the Zeitgeist, Rog). They had two eminent psychologists in to give their views on what might drive 9000 people to sign up for such a thing. The discussion concluded in concurrence with your comments - 9000 knobheads, pure and simple.

Rog said...

Zig: Yes. Where's your blog?!!!

Tim: I nearly clicked "join" myself to vent my spleen but decided the mosh pit of venomous bile wasn't a good place to be.

Macy: Yes Scarlet gave them both barrels.

Sarah: Welcome back

Mr VVB: I was actually looking for a facebook group on "Cycle Paths" but mis-spelt it.

Christopher said...

This gave J. and me twenty minutes'-worth of discussion in which we found ourselves in complete agreement. This is very rare. Thank you.

We also identified the passion that a not very distant generation had for T-shirts and posters etc. of Che Guevara (who was really quite a nasty piece of work, whose famous photo was 'improved' at best) as another feature of the same (manipulated) social syndrome. Now we have only to wait for the Raoul Moat T-shirt.

Richard said...

I've just noticed I accidentally wrote my surname instead of "Merchant Seamen". How embarrassing. As far as I know I've never had a memorial dedicated to me in the Cinque Ports by an old school friend.

Z said...

Well put, Rog.

Rog said...

Christopher: Yes, Che was a good example. At this rate we'll have heirs to the throne cavorting in SS uniforms, you mark my words.

Richard: I did notice but didn't like to say anything as there was a 12% chance of it being correct!

Z: Thanks for retaining the alphabetical order!