Tag Archives: mick philpott

Stephen Tall

The Philpott case: at last, a reminder of the reality

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th April 2013 - 1:45 pm

justice thirlwall phlpott caseThe debate over the Philpott case has raged all week, but mostly at a tangent to the reality of the case.

Thanks to Grace Dent’s stellar column in today’s Independent, I’ve finally read through Mrs Justice Thirlwall’s summing up. It’s concise, shrewd, plain spoken, unsparing: no legalese, just clear sense.

It returns this case to where it belongs: an individual story of one man’s obsessive compulsion to dominate and possess all those around him, in particular ‘his’ women. It’s well worth reading the whole judgment in full.

However, there are three sections I wanted to highlight…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

The welfare debate and the age of the trollemic

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th April 2013 - 9:25 am

I decided to invent a new word yesterday:

It’s the welfare debate that’s prompted it, but it could be any other topic on a given week.

daily mail philpott front pageYesterday saw the Daily Mail publish a typically sensationalist front page blaming the welfare state for the tragedy of six children being killed by their parents. On Monday the Mirror shouted ‘Shameful’, with a cartoon showing Thatcher, Cameron, Osorne and Clegg banging in the final nail of a coffin marked ‘RIP Welfare’.

Each is exaggerating to make their own point. Both are gross over-statements: trollemics.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 26 Comments
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    In the above, it should have said $100 billion EACH YEAR from 2009....
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