New feature on Five Chinese Crackers!

I hinted earlier that there will be a couple of new regular features here on Five Chinese Crackers in future. The first will appear this coming Saturday! BE - excited - B-E - excited!

Saturday 30 October 2010 will be the date of the inaugural 5cc tabloid bullshit of the month awards.

On the last Saturday of each month, I will choose my favourite tabloid article from the preceeding month for the honour.  Criteria will be entirely arbitrary and subject to my whims, but based loosely around whether the story is churned, how much truth has been distorted, whether minority groups are demonised, how close to the end the truth is buried, etc.  The story does not necessarily have to be one that's been covered by me on this blog, but I will give full credit to any other bloggers who have covered each entry.

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MigrationWatch - a bit crap aren't they? But are they getting worse?

There's a press release on the MigrationWatch site at the moment (oh, and the 'editorial blog site', which doesn't appear to accept comments) with the headline 'One in Twelve Social Houses Occupied by Foreign Nationals'.

You might think that would be a bit of good news for the 'not anti-immigration, honest guv' pretend think tank, since last year the EHRC produced a report showing that one in ten people in social housing were migrants. There's been a 2 per cent drop. Except, apparently it illustrates that the EHRC report was 'deeply misleading'. Is that because it overestimated the number of immigrants in social housing?

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Targeted: Phil Woolas goes for extremists

Just got back from holiday last week to find that along with the plans I made to get to the gym more regularly and blog with a bit more consistency, I now have to factor in the need for hoarding tinned food for the societal meltdown that George Osborne kicked off last Wednesday. Quite where I'm going to find the time to crudely fashion melee weaponry for use in the Thunderdome that will be built on College Green so I can fight for the cash to buy medicine for my future children is anyone's guess.

Anyway - while I was away, a couple of things caught my eye. The main thing is that Phil Woolas has been retained as a Shadow Minister for the Home Office, which is just bizarre.

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Open debate on immigration?

I know, I'm off on my holidays. I can't leave this alone though.

MigrationWatch have threatened Sally Bercow with legal action for comments she made about a Daily Express article that was supposedly covering one of their reports.

Yeah, I know. Hardly open and honest if one side threatens to sue the other.

MigrationWatch is concerned about a few things, but one that stands out for me is that they don't like that Ms Bercow allegedly suggested their report said immigration causes youth unemployment. They say it was careful not to come to that conclusion.

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Ringarangadong for a holiday

Check out the new style we just play.

I am off on holidy for a little over two weeks.  Not anywhere hot or dusty like Minority Thought though.  Let's just say there's more chance of me meeting Scott Pilgrim where I'm going.  I plan to blog a bit more when I get back, and there'll be one or two new regular features, I think.  I won't be cutting down on the bum jokes though.  Relax, bumface.

While I am gone, I might as well  nick Minority Thought's idea and give you a list of other media watchy type blogs to pay attention to - although it appears to be media watchy blog holiday season at the minute with me, Anton Vowl and Primly Stable all being away.  In different places, I think.

Angry Mob On Twitter as @uponnothing	Atomic Spin On Twitter as @atomic_spin
Enemies of Reason On Twitter as @antonvowl	exclarotive On Twitter as @exclarotive
Express Watch On Twitter as @expresswatch	Mail Watch On Twitter as @mailwatch
No Sleep 'Til Brooklands On Twitter as @RopesToInfinity	only that in you Not on Twitter
Press Not Sorry On Twitter as @press_not_sorry	Primly Stable On Twitter as @primlystable
Roy Greenslade's Blog On Twitter as @GreensladeR	Tabloid Watch On Twitter as @tabloidwatch

Also, check in with Obsolete while you're at it.  Never miss that one.  Or Minority Thought himself, who incidentally is on Twitter as @MinorityThought.  If you're into Tsonga Disco (for some reason), there's also Ernie Goggins at 27 Leggies.

After the jump - a song!

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Barnet Council haven't banned you from telling mother in law jokes

Something that never fails to amuse me in a good 'PC Gone Mad' story is the idea that if an organisation produces guidelines for their staff, they've banned everyone from doing the thing the guidelines advise against.

'Sense of humour failure: Council slaps ban on mother-in-law jokes for being 'offensively sexist'' said the Mail earlier today, while the Telegraph went with 'Council outlaws mother-in-law jokes' and the Star bellowed 'MOTHER-IN-LAW JOKES: BARNET COUNCIL IMPOSES BAN'. All cobblers, of course. Barnet Council themselves said:

"Barnet council does not have a policy on mother-in-law jokes.

"There is no booklet and no ban on mother-in-law jokes.

"Our advice to staff is that they should be polite and avoid giving offence to any member of the public."

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'Debunking the 'Islamisation' myth' could have debunked other myths, too

Edmund Standing has produced a report, 'Debunking the 'Islamisation' myth', which is well worth a look.

Now, I might have problems with some areas of the report (like cousin intermarriage and congenital birth defects, and perhaps the overall tone) but I won't be going into those here. Of more interest to this blog is section headlined 'The myth of Muslim power in Britain is largely fuelled by sensationalist and inaccurate media reports'.

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