I know, the gaps between my posts are getting bigger and bigger, and it's all thanks to my dissertation. However, I'm cutting down on my extra-curricular activities, so I might actually get around to writing more often.
It's just as well, really, seeing as this week I got offered a place on my dream NCTJ diploma course in Manchester. Not only is it one of the best in the country, but it's only three minutes walk away from a Gregg's. It's the DREAM. Not only am I finally going to be able to fulfill this journalism dream of mine, I'm going to be able to do it with the aid of steak bakes and toffee apple slices. Paradise.
Anyway, here's a brief mention of everything I've found interesting lately. I'll be writing one of my usual posts soon enough, probably whinging on like the lefty tree hugger I am about the nasty Tories or the price of bread or unemployment figures or something.
Do your research and stop hating on the poor:
Did you know that the vast majority of those who claim Housing Benefit are actually employed? These people are part of the 'working poor': people who are in low-paid employment, struggling to make ends meet, usually entitled to in-work benefits, and most probably reliant upon them to exist.
I'm getting incredibly tired of hearing people go on about those living in homes 'that they would never be able to afford myself'. Moving people from more affluent areas to others due to the housing benefit caps is not a wise tactic, it is tantamount to cleansing our cities of poor people. Those in favour are incredibly short sighted, and I can't wait to see how they cope when there are no longer people able to make the commute to their low paid, menial jobs in the places that they used to live.
Regulating the press is not a good idea:
Let's me try and get it into your heads: everything that has been investigated by the Leveson enquiry was illegal, and those involved within it will be brought to justice, if they haven't already. No press watchdog is going to make it more illegal, it's just going to make it incredibly difficult for a free press to exist in Britain.
As it stands, it can actually be quite difficult to make sure a piece of work is legal and fit for press. Even within student media, there are hoops and rings of fire to jump through before we can go to press on even the most banal of stories.
What we actually need is a stronger union, and a conscience clause within it that will allow journalists to whistle blow any editor who demands we do something we don't want to do. Currently, doing that will just about land you on a 1940s-esque McCarthy list.
Forgetting the fact that victims are not the people to be making the regulations in the first place, further press regulation will only suffocate us. People fought for the right to a free press and free speech, don't let 2013 be the year that it dissolved.
It is not Christmas just because the Coca-Cola advert is on television:
Come on, people. Think with your heads, not with your wallet. Christmas is a time for being disappointed with the lack of snow and eating until you think you might be sick, but eating a little bit more anyway. Also, if I see the ASDA 'there's a mum behind Christmas' advert one more time, I'm going to write them an angry letter about the diversity of the modern family unit.
A normal service will resume just as soon as I've enough time to stop worrying about my essays and the fact that I need to find somewhere to live in Manchester.
Until then, go forth, question everything you see, and remember this fact: bumblebees refuse to go out in the rain because if they get wet, they're too heavy to fly. Poor little soggy bumblebees.
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