Redefining the English language

I'm getting well annoyed by continual attempts by various lobbies to redefine aspects of the English language to suit themselves and their narrow agendas.

The latest stunt comes from those obesity-peddlars McDonald's, who are apparently so miffed at the usage of the word 'McJob' that they want to change it.

Of course they want to change it. The word, which has been current for decades, is understood to mean a crappy, low paying job with few decent conditions and little security in an appalling fast food or other menial environment.

Which is extremely apt, since those are exactly the sort of jobs generally on offer in McOutlets.

But Guardian writer Brian Whitaker has uncovered an attempt by the corporation to redefine the word, as it is apparently insulting to restaurant staff. No it isn't. It's insulting to the corporation. It's the wages and conditions offered by the corporation that are insulting to the staff.

This comes hard on the heels of Israel's continual attempts to redefine anti-semitism as meaning anti-anything Israeli or Jewish. No, anti-semitism is a bigotry against semitic people, as the word clearly expresses.

And obviously Israel would love to change that meaning, since their defence forces, by way of continually terrorising and murdering the semitic people of Palestine, are the biggest anti-semites on Earth.

They've sought to change the meaning by getting sympathetic (ie Zionist) academics in America and elsewhere to write ponderous and dubious essays redefining anti-semitism to mean just what they want it to mean and not what it actually means.

They cleverly plugged into the whole Politically Correct movement for redefining language in order to achieve this. But it's still rubbish, and merely a slimy attempt to eradicate the Zionist responsibility for the bloodbath that is the Middle East.

Languages grow organically. Let people who speak a language decide what words mean, not narrow lobbies with political agendas.

Ever since the homosexual community successfully redefined the meaning of the word 'gay', it has been tempting for other lobbies to seek to put their own sheen on the language.

Don't let them. A McJob is still a McJob, no matter what McDonalds say, and anti-semitism is still bigotry against Semites, bigotry like nicking their land, killing their kids and stealing the money that they're owed.

Irish Bishops condemn Israel

Congratulations to the delegation of Irish bishops who yesterday called on the EU and Ireland to review their ties to the apartheid state of Israel, after concluding that the Zionist regime had turned Gaza into little more than a large prison for the indigenous Palestinian population.

I hope that when they address their concerns to An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, they will be listened to. I hope also that their meeting with Ahern will result in a severing of trading ties with the regime, which was accurately described by the Bishops as conducting an injustice upon the Palestinian people.

Injustice is a very mild word for stealing someone else's homes, systematically killing them and herding them into large open air prisons behind huge walls (see above and here), harrassing them as they try to move about and work in their own land, and denying them access to their families and medical treatment when they find themselves on the 'wrong' side of such illegal barriers.

The illegal Israeli regime, which has long survived only due to being propped up by American money and weapons, is always quick to denounce those who condemn the horrors they perpetrate as anti-semitic.

In fact, they are the true anti-semites, as they steal the land from the Semitic Palestinian people and allocate it to fake Jews imported from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia to serve as soldiers and service industry underclass to the Ashkenazi elite.

It is high time, as the Bishops have said, that the people of Europe stand up and denounce this shoddy, apartheid regime and the genocide they are seeking to commit on the Palestinian people.

And it is high time that our own government showed some leadership in this regard by severing ties with such an abhorrent entity.

Seven months wasted

A Guardian journalist just spent seven months undercover as a member of the British National Party. Amazingly, he made it as high as London organiser for the party during his stint.

Splashed all over the paper's front page today are his exclusive revelations, gleaned as a result of his undercover efforts. These include:

• Members are advised not to be racist or anti-semitic
• They are told to act at all times in a way that brings credit to the party
• They use encryption software to protect their member lists
• They occasionally use false names while on party business for fear of losing their jobs otherwise, especially those in the public sector.

Is it just me, or do all of those 'revelations' seem perfectly sensible, and in some cases, admirable? I'm no fan of the far right, but from the sounds of these 'revelations', the BNP under Griffin has transformed itself from a fascist bootboy organisation into an anti-immigration party which is little further right than some Tories or PDs.

If this is the best the Guardian can do in terms of a smear job after having obtained unprecedented access to the party's inner circle for months on end, then perhaps it really is the case that the BNP of today is not the beast it once was.

In fact, to me the biggest concerns arising from the article are that the Guardian is prepared to 'out' people who are not politicians as members of a political party, and that people who are members of a legitimate political party fear losing their public sector jobs solely because of that membership.

If we're talking fascism, then publishing member lists of a political party in a newspaper or threatening people's jobs because of their political affiliations seem to be fairly fascist acts to me.

And it is very possible that the tame aspect of these 'revelations' will have the opposite effect to that intended by the Guardian - that of encouraging more people to think of the BNP as an increasingly mainstream organisation.

Of course, this is a process already underway. The BNP are gaining up to a hundred new members a week and obtained nearly 10% of the vote in recent British council elections.

There are of course major concerns with aspects of the British far right. Their policies in relation to Ireland for starters. Or the recent arrest of former BNP members in a bomb plot that was almost totally ignored by the media, including the Guardian.

But the weakness of these revelations about the current state of the party is likely to attract rather than repel people in the UK who are as concerned about the tidal wave of immigration they are experiencing and angry about the lies they have been told about immigration by more centrist parties.

And since I'm guessing that wasn't the intention of the Guardian when they set out on this undercover mission, I'd say that was seven months wasted.