I made the very grave error of listening to a phone-in radio show on the way to work today - huge mistake. I make it my business to stay away from this sort of caper usually, but I was trying to get updates on the cricket (fat lot of good that was) so I had to persevere with this idiotfest.
Now, I expect this programme to be littered with the unemployed and slightly racist retired of this great nation at this time, so I wasn't surprised that there was a recovering alcoholic and a heavily opinionated man on the show. What did strike me though was the unbelievable level of blame that they place on other people for their or their familes' shortcomings.
The alky was on a feature about supermarkets flogging ale on the cheap which is leading to an increase in alcohol consumption (I'll digress slightly to say that it didn't say increased alcoholism; just an increased intake. Not exactly the end of the world). Anyway, this chap said that he drank more because it was cheaper to get hold of. Now, if that's not blaming others for your problems then I don't know what it. He was asked if the prices were greater, would that have stopped him drinking as much, and he had the brass neck to say it would. What sort of pisshead is he? The sort that drinks to a budget. Spend any time talking or reading about this 'disease' and you'll quickly learn that a little drawback such as not having enough money is far from a prevention. They'll just nick it, or nick money off loved ones to get it. So straight away he's talking cobblers.
I just couldn't believe he was laying the blame for his weakness at the door of the supermarket, who flog millions of pounds worth of ale to the likes of us normal folk who don't drink as a hobby. It's pathetic, spineless and self-deluded and in my opinion the host didn't take him in hand on this one and point out the flaw in his argument.
Anyway, that finished, I calmed down and we went onto the next feature. Apparently, there had been some cops on the show earlier talking about how difficult their job was what with all of the paperwork and such which prevented real crime fighting. Enter nemesis number 2.
This old guy came on and told a monumentally boring story about how his daughter had gone to his house when he wasn't in, and ended up being trapped on the balcony by a spider (must've been a big 'un). He justified this lameness with the 'fact' that she was an arachnaphobe of the highest order, so she immediately phoned her dad, brother and friend to get them over to kill it. The obviously didn't think she was that scared of them because they all said no, but her friend suggested she call the Feds as 'they deal with this kind of thing'. You can see where we're going with this...
So she rings them and tells them what's occurring, but it should be noted that he didn't say she'd mentioned the spider to them (he said "she's articulate so she must have done") and an hour later, 8 cops in a black Maria turned up asking about the incident she'd reported.
This time the host got it right, and asked how this was the cops' fault when an incident (note - no spider mentioned) was reported, and he went on to say that because she's such a big old arachnaphobe, they should be expected to attend such distressing ordeals. So, not only did he seriously think that the cops should race to the scene of a spider, but he then went on to bemoan the attendance of so many. In all likelihood they were returning from another call and popped in, but he happily sidestepped that to make this ridiculous point. He was blaming the coppers for sending too many people, cleverly avoiding the fact his daughter is a grade-A cretin for calling them.
Unfortunately I missed the rest of the interview because I turned the radio off and said a swear word, but I'd heard enough. It's about bloody time these sort of people were rounded up and were taught how to take responsibility for their own actions/drinking/cretinous children, instead of blaming all and sundry for their terrible lot in life. They're a disgrace and no error.
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