Daily Express readers’ comments, a century ago

Ever spent time looking at the online comments to a Daily Express or Daily Mail story?  Really, life’s too short.

But is this a new phenomenon?  The sheer volume of lunacy allowed by the Internet is a change, but beyond that it seems little has altered in the last century.

Here are some readers’ comments about suffragettes, from the Daily Express in 1913.

“These neurotic women clamour for the vote.  What they need is a fire hose.”

“Hard labour and salts and senna would soon quench the ardour of these notoriety-beating females.”

“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, but women who smash windows need the birch.”

“Every real woman should wear an anti-suffrage badge , so that men could know whom still to respect.  These mad creatures make their sex ashamed to walk in the streets.”

“Why not put them in a room, one at a time, say for about an hour with half a dozen mice?”

The Daily Express leader writer called for suffragette “criminals” to be transported to St Helena.

Ironically, it’s generally accepted that giving women over thirty the vote in 1918 made a major contribution to the Conservative victory in the following General Election and, many claim, to the Conservative domination of inter-war politics.

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7 Comments

  • Paul McKeown 20th Jun '10 - 1:20pm

    The sheer volume of lunacy

    You don’t need comments to articles from the Express or the Mail for that. Have you looked at the Chris Huhne thread on LDV?

    :-0

  • Kehaar,

    I guess Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan were both capable of essaying bilocation? And in Sirhan’s case, firing more bullets than his gun could actually hold? And do you have answers to the following, Kehaar:

    (1) Why a Mafia night-club boss, Jack Ruby, shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

    (2) Why Lee Harvey Oswald managed to commit treason without being prosecuted, and continue working as an agent of the Federal Government.

    I could go on, but don’t want to go off topic too much. What I can guarantee is that taboo enforcers likes the ones hurling insults on the Chris Huhne thread will continue their contemptible trade until this party is sunk. Now, that’s what I call lunacy!

  • Kehaar,

    You are an argumentative curmudgeon who enjoys winding people up, not a Liberal Democrat, as you admit yourself. The people who really annoy me, and are doing damage to this party, are Liberal Democrat supporters who hurl childish insults at fellow members who ask penetrating questions about the behaviour of elites. You have my pity (sort of), they have my contempt.

  • Bill Robinson 14th Oct '10 - 10:50am

    Are the Liberal Party really convinced the British Engineers would gain from training in India.
    As a British engineer having worked on many overseas engineering projects alongside Indian engineers I can
    assure you that we would gain little or nothing.
    We need to ensure that our young engineers gain proper training in this country while we still have engineering
    capabilities
    We need to ensure the training is not only in the colleges but also at the engineering work places and make sure
    that when letting governmental project that the vender’s not only cover Quality Management & Health& Safety but
    also the adequate training of the staff in the necessary project of skills.
    This would ensure there is the ability to meet any further needs and any that knowledge gained from the project
    is carried forward.

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