Friday, May 11, 2007

Best Book Reviews Ever?

And whilst on the closely-related subjects of Michael Gove and great literature, I strongly recommend reading the Amazon Reviews of that rampant liberal Richard Littlejohn's latest meister work Littlejohn's Britain...



Like Gove, Littlejohn is his own man and no slave to any hidden agendas. A Christ-like figure who believes that progress in world affairs is only possible through an exploration of our shared humanity and an unrelenting focus on those qualities that bind us all together as we live our lives on this fragile, beautiful planet - rather than dwelling on those things which divide us.

And he's definitely not a cunt


The reviewers of his book clearly share my high opinion of Littlejohn and his message of peace and universal understanding...

"Wittgenstein opined that "whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should remain silent". But John Little is a greater philosopher still - he cannot remain silent nor should he. This is a towering work of political philosophy"

"It's rare that I read a book that moves me to break down in public. Even rarer that I find myself tearing at my hair and clothes and self-flagellating on the bus to work. This book - which could easily be described as a masterpiece of subtle, dignified rhetoric - had me doing all of these things."

"My life is changed as a result, and, despite working in a library, I will be destroying all other books on sight, as none will ever match the greatness of this work. A classic."

and my personal favourite...

"If they ever managed to contain the feeling of having your entire body pleasured by a thousand naked lesbian virgins in writing, it would come in the form of a book like this."

-

Sarcasm aside, the irritating thing about Littlejohn is that he does address issues than need to be aired; the impact of large-scale migration into the UK, abuse of environmentalism, the steady onward creep of mass surveillance, but he does it in a deliberately divisive way and quite conspicuously points his finger in the wrong direction. He is a rabble-rouser. The epitome of a gate keeper and well-paid for his efforts.

There are similar creatures, performing exactly the same role, on the 'Left' of politics. Sometimes, like Michael Gove's chum Melanie Phillips, they
will shift their position from Hard Left to Hard Right without so much as blushing. Their views are flexible, only the appetite to distract and to sow division and hate remains constant. And people swallow and regurgitate that hate, day in day out.

.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why haven’t U.S. authorities arrested the owners of an American-registered plane busted with 5.5 tons of cocaine?.

Been following this story since last year ...

Stef said...

and in a similar vein - let's play 'Spot the 4 tons of missing cannabis'...

http://tinyurl.com/27n9jx

ziz said...

Do not even mention £26.5Mn. stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast and the release of all suspects and dropping of charges.

http://tinyurl.com/29567v

....so you certainly should not mention this letter in the Belfast Telegraph this April ..

http://tinyurl.com/2ale3a

Stef said...

Any parallels between the 'War on the Drugs' and the 'War on Terror' - i.e. the people fighting the 'war' appear to be fighting themselves at least some of the time are ... of course, entirely coincidental

Anonymous said...

i.e. the people fighting the 'war' appear to be fighting themselves

Well its good practice for them just in case any real evildoers actually turn up.

DE said...

Michael Gove is an interesting figure. He gets so much media time because unlike Philips he isn't, em, frothing. He's urbane and doesn't seem to have the usual Tory hatred of appearing intelligent - indeed he is almost ethereal. Which proves that a diet of baked muslims has something going for it.

Stef said...

@de: Except for a memorable episode of Question Time last year when Michael Winner of all people really got under Gove's skin, or whatever it is Gove has in lieu of skin

Anonymous said...

Littlejohn gets paid to put into print what the arsehole in the street thinks/says in private: "too many blacks, Muslims, Euroqueers ...things aint wot they used to be back in the glorious 1940s when we kicked the Germans arse and women were women"

Anonymous said...

thanks for the links to the amazon reviews of littlejohn's book. Genius.

Stef said...

@homemade - indeed, and some new ones since I posted the link

"To buy only one copy of this book would be a crime"

"This book was of great comfort to me in the many hours I spent in the back of the container that brought me here from Albania"

etc etc

Stef said...

@anon

Yes, Littlejohn is paid to speak people's most negative thoughts out loud but I'd suggest that he's also paid to direct and channel those thoughts in particular directions

Take the migration issue for example. Wouldn't it be much more fun if he acknowledged that migrants were as human as the rest of us and encouraged/ brought into this country by corporate interests who want to fuck us as well as them?

He'd still be addressing an issue that concerns ordinary working people but pointing a finger in the (IMHO) right direction

He wouldn't, however, pick up £800,000+ pa doing so