BBC NEWS - Have Your Say

Does anyone else feel nauseated when they read the BBC's 'Have Your Say' message boards?

I mean, it's bad enough that they're still censored. Despite the (relatively) recent changes to the sytem, it's rare to find a topic which is retroactively moderated, and the moderation which does take place is hard to understand - stupid, barely comprehensible posts full of speeling eerors, or the worst sort of pointless, single sentence unsupported opinion posts are let through, while considered and carefully crafted posts are rejected (obviously I speak of my own rejected posts!)

One of the latest 'hot topics' was the issue of illegal immigrants, which reads like a Daily Mail letters page, only worse. And it's not alone - there seems to be an increasing amount of extremely right-wing opinion filling up the boards, comments which are also highly 'recommended' (the system whereby readers can recommend posts they approve of, leading to a higher ranking in the list of comments posted).

It all seems to hinge around one particular philosophy - cruel-minded meanness - whether it's sending illegal immigrants back to where they came from, even if they face certain death or torture, withdrawing healthcare from the unemployed, dismantling the Royal Mail - resulting in a profit-run organisation that will provide a sub-standard postal service to out-of-the-way places - it's all about the correspondent's eagerness to tightly hold onto whatever money they've got, make sure no one's getting anything better than they are, screw the idea of collective co-operation for the betterment of all, and harsh punishment for anyone they don't approve of - typical Daily Mail, Little Englander, I'm All Right Jack mentalities.

It seems for all the talk of 'Liberal Democracy', England hasn't come such a long way from the times when people brought their picnics along for their day out to watch the latest public hanging.

Retch.