h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been waiting to say that Plus I couldn't find a thread from me here--probably there's one on one of your other accounts.

Have a mufflewhump!

Anyway, I dropped by because I figured you could explain to me what the BNP is and why whatever was said on the strapline thread(didn't catch it until after it was removed) would be libel.

Thank you for the mufflewhump - much apppreciated and valued.

The BNP is the British National Party, which is a party for working class people which epouses explicitly racist policies. It's had success in local government elections in impoverished urban areas which used to be industrial. We had three main waves of immigration in to the UK - in the 50s we had afro-carribeans from the West Indies, in the 60s and 70s we had asians from India and Pakistan, and now we have people from Eastern Europe who were formerly under communist rule and who are now part of the European Union. The EU is a political and economic alliance of Western and now Western, Central and Eastern European states.

Anyway, migrants in to the UK typically take minimum or low wage jobs, if they don't have an actual trade. There are also migrants with professional qualifications like doctors and nurses who get a job fixed before they come over, and trades people like plumbers. But most migrants do unskilled jobs like cleaning, agricultural work and so on. With the closure of so much industry, there is now no skilled working class, so people whose parents had skilled industrial jobs are now unemployed. The downside of the benefits system means that they are unwilling to shitty jobs, and they blame the migrants for taking them, rather than admitting that they didn't want them in the first place.

So there is a thriving middle and professional class, mainly asian, of doctors, lawyers, accountants and businessmen, and an impoverished working class living very uneasily alongside an impoverished white working class. These are the areas where the BNP has got seats on local councils.

The main parties seem reluctant to accept that if the BNP gets elected then it is *beacuse of* social and economic problems in an area and it is up to them to do something about it. So instead they weep and wail about racism, and try to characterise the BNP as morally repungant (which they are) and therefore irrelevant (which they are not).

The BNP has come to be shorthand for working class racism but there's a thread somewhere on Ask which points out that in fact they have a full suite of fairly poorly thought out policies, and it would be esy enough to demolish them on those grounds. Of course, if you ignore the racism you risk validating it, which is why people don't. However if you vote BNP you won't care about racism, but you will care about feeling safe in your home, not walking past needles and turds on the way to the bus stop, actually having bus services, and all the other things that make urban poverty so vile.

Invoking the BNP shuts down thought: it is a party of unthinking racists and it is opposed by unthinking liberals.

Ben

Ah, that makes sense now (though I did already know what the EU is--I may be fairly apolitical, but not *quite* *that* much)

It's nice getting explanations from someone who doesn't equate ignorance with stupidity, though (I'm sure we've both endured such before...)

So how're you today?

Equating ignorance with stupdity - not that really IS both ignorant and stupid.

I'm not bad - a bit tired. Z was moving this weekend, and there were moments of fraughtness. Moving really sucks. I'm back at mine, now, and going to curl up with a I think.

I am very impressed with Faith.

B

Me too I just hope she doesn't get caught up in the "math is for boys" mindset as she gets older. If we can keep her in her current school, she should be fine (and we should--ministers get a rather hefty discount for their children). (Says a bit for the school that's literally just outside our back windows that I do *not* want Faith going there. The school I work at is good, but the one just here is one that they need a bullhorn during recess)

Thought you might like this for blog fodder: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Actually, I may drop this in the salon, too...

OOps, I missed this Amy.

I saw it a while ago, but I find that the Oatmeal's stuff *looks* fabulous and is entirely accurate but for some reason it communicates (to me anyway) rather poorly.

But he does have a lovely way with typography....

I know you unsub regularly, so I just figured this had gotten culled. Since it wasn't really important (and I ended up posting the link in the salon anyway) I wasn't worried about it

Just a quick check to see if you're still subbed to this--if not, I'll just start a new one

OK, since this showed up in your postings list, I'll post here

As far as the "Best of..." things you mentioned you're looking for (in "What is your favourite Approved/Edited entry?",) Wowbagger's one of my FaceBook friends, so if you don't have contact info, I do. (I don't for spimcoot, darn it. I lost touch with him before we moved from Sacramento.) I know a lot of elvised researchers that may not be in your circle of off-h2g2 contacts, actually, so I'd be glad to pass inquiries along, if you like

That would be phenomenally useful.

Could you put the word out that I'm looking for the very best that h2g2 has had to offer over the last 12 years, that can be edited entries, underguide entries, but also journals and Illustrations too, but they have to be reproducable in black and white.

In my spreadsheet I am collecting the date the entry was published, the link to the entry or illustration, the entry's title, the name of the writer or artist and a link to their space, the name of the sub and a link to their space, the date I got the ok from the writer or artist and how I got it,eg via email, verbal, on site, on fb, etc.

I won't be able to use everything, but I need a range to choose from. Socks must be blown off....

I just saw and reposted your status elsewhere. I'll add the detail about it needing to be reproducible in black and white

Thanks Amy.

Once I've got a shortlist together, I'll give you a link to the liest and ask you to go around and ask people for permission to use their work.

Ideally we need all the permissions sent to [email protected].

My aim is to have the long list by the weekend, the shortlist by the end of Saturday and permissions early next week. It's a rush, as you can tell, but some things are.

Your outreach work is amazing.

Ben

It's all I have the brainpower to help with, at the moment--RL is rather too busy at the moment, and I'm not as good at multitasking as I thought!

If you've not got the bandwidth that is fine - RL is more important! Shall I see who else can do it? I don't want to add pressure to anyone.

B

It's no problem--tying RL names to h2g2 names is fairly automatic for me, because I really want to avoid asking for someone by their h2g2 names on the phone, not that I've called anyone, much less anyone new, in ages.

But if you are short on time....?

Not that short. And there's not much I can do on the weekend to find housing (that being my weekday office hours task). Oo, and I *might* have found something--I just need some answers back to emails that went out late last night to go forward on the possibility. Of course, it's only 8:30ish am right now... I'll likely hear something by the time I get home from work and errands and such around 4.

That, and I haven't really done anything to help with this whole process, and since I've never lived anywhere IRL as long as I have "lived" at h2g2 (at least not all in 1 stretch--counting both stretches here in Crescent City, I've lived here for almost exactly as long) I want to do *something* to help! (Kind of like all the tsunami-recovery related stuff I've been posting elsewhere.)

Oh, there is another list of folk I need you to contact. I'm using a cut down version of this piece as an introduction to the collection. In fact we are using it generally, not just in the collection.

A80734863

This means we need permission to use quotes from everyone here.

Bel - still in brunel - sorry eds
deb
Effers
Happy Nerd - h2g2c2 - A80173361 - h2g2_Guide
Hypatia - 1167 days until retirement
Icy North
Montana Redhead (got herself an interview)
Mr603
Pinniped
Silly Willy
TRiG Ireland - TRiG (Ireland) For a host of reasons, I'm wary of the word "ally". Call me a feminist-in-training.
Woodpigeon

I ended up not using the quotes by Maria and Titania because their experience was so similar to Bel's.

I don't think there'll be a problem with anyone, but we need to be squeaky clean and ask.

Would you be able to set out on that mission? It would really help.

Thanks

Ben