Best Of

Some discussion last night on protests not being illegal - even if in appalling bad taste.

Well in the one in London the protesters were shouting an Arab slogan demanding the beheading of Jews. That is not protest. Nor is it free speech. It is incitement to violence which has always been an exception to free speech. Those protestors should be arrested and charged and protests which go round chanting slogans calling for the death of Jews should be banned.

As for the poster last night saying that Netanyahu was responsible for the rise in anti-semitism, this is so disgusting on so many levels. First, because it blames Jews for what evil people do to them. Second because it reveals the lie at the heart of so many of these protests - that they are only against Zionism, only against what Israel does, not against Jews generally. But this is not true is it. The use of the word Zionism has been a convenient way to launder anti-semitism into the discourse here and to justify attacks on and vile language against Jews here. That is why there has been a rise in anti-semitism here.

There are genuine and well-founded serious criticisms to be made of Israel's conduct, much of it made by Israelis themselves. But much of it is not made in any sort of good faith, much of it is barely disguised anti-semitism or is used to justify hatred of Jews outside Israel. The use of the word "Zionist" is utterly disingenuous and is similar to those on the Tommy Robinson side who say that they anti- Islam when in reality we know and they know we know that they use "Islam" and "Muslim" as a figleaf to mean "blacks" or "Pakistanis" etc. Let's not fool ourselves: exactly the same is happening with the use of the word "Zionist" and it is long past the time for these protesters to be called out on this.

I note also that one of the protests was in Liverpool Street Station - site of the memorial to the Kindertransport. The people protesting last night struck me as the sort of people who in another era were those who made the Kindertransport necessary.

That chocolate bar. Understand the process:
1) Ideation - lets hand out Cadbury bars with a slogan on the wrapper
2) Design - a template is made and slogans written
3) Approval - someone signs off the file to print
4) Creation - printer receives the file, pisses himself, fulfils the contract. Box(es) of labels sent to CCHQ
5) Wrappers are removed from Cadbury bars and the new wrapper is applied and glued
6) Slogan chocs packed into boxes
7) Boxes unpacked and the contents put into goody bags for delegates and hacks

At multiple points people had eyeballs on the wrapper. Design, approval, wrapping, distribution

So either: it's deliberate mendacious wrecking. Or the party is grotesquely monumentally stupid.

Even at the last minute once they started bing handed out surely someone would notice not spelt gud and pull them back.

How the hell did this happen?

First thing worth noting is that spelling mistakes can be surprisingly hard to notice, particularly if you're focusing on other aspects, like choice of font, etc.

That said, I think it's an example of a modern British malaise whereby junior staff are not encouraged and empowered to correct mistakes - they've not been delegated the authority. The senior people are too busy trying to run everything to answer your question about the spelling. Maybe it's deliberate? A pun you can't spot?

You're so scared of getting in trouble for changing it that you daren't do so, and you just send it on as is.

The end result is that the senior person thinks that everyone junior to them is too stupid to spot a spelling mistake, and so doesn't trust them to do anything. Making the situation worse.

It's like with those cakes where someone ices on the literal text, "Owen with a smiley face in the O". People are just doing exactly what they're told, because they've learned they get in trouble if they try to use their judgement.

I once wrote a 35,000 word report at work, days of ruthlessly proof checking, hundreds of hyperlinks checked and rechecked, formatting checked.

Only after I emailed the report to the board did I notice I had spelled my name wrong on the front page.