Okay, lets get one thing out of the way, their gaff their rules apply of course.
Virgin Trains has announced that it has stopped selling the Daily Mail newspaper on its West Coast trains.
A spokesperson for Virgin said it regularly reviewed products sold on its trains, adding that “after listening to feedback from our people” it decided to stop stocking copies of the paper.
On the one hand, this is worth no more than a passing shrug. However, it does tell us something about the state of affairs. Not that Virgin have chosen not to stock the Daily Mail, but that they felt the need to trumpet it. They then witter on about their values – frankly, the only values I want from a train operator is to run their trains on time and safely. What I do not want is for them to peddle their politics and propaganda, thankyou very much.
Talking of hate, the Guardian wades in with the usual cockwaffle.
Virgin is not censoring the Daily Mail – hate just doesn’t match its brand identity
Whereas, presumably the Guardian’s brand of hatred – of white middle-aged men, for example – is all fine and dandy. That’s the problem here, the wrong type of hate.
People still buy newspapers? It surely must be more than thirty years since I last bought one.
I have to buy the Daily BrexSShiteur & Capnophobe for the wife daily. God knows why an EU immigrant, a German, such as she would want to read that appalling German hating rag but I assume it has something to do with her psychosis. However I insist on having it delivered every morning-despite only living a few doors down from the Newsagents. NO WAY I want to walk down our road with that thing in my hand.
Nonsense.
No part of the ‘Leave’ side of the Brexit issue is anti- the peoples of the countries of Europe.
Nearly all the opposition is to the structures of the EU, and a small part is about the governments, not the peoples, of some EU member states.
No part of the ‘Leave’ side of the Brexit issue is anti- the peoples……Nearly all the opposition is to the structures of the EU
If that were the case then we would be ‘out’ already and with a killer trade deal.
Yeah, right. Remember that Juncker clearly stated that “Brexit cannot be a success”
Straight from the horses mouth!
“When the Prime Minister told them “let us make Brexit a success”, Juncker was said to have replied “Brexit cannot be a success”. (my bolds).
I also contend that had PMT.May put Farage, instead of Davis, in charge of BrexSShite we would also be out by now with a good trade deal (if still provisionally as International Trade Treaties do take some time). Farage proved himself only this last week, ten minutes (or however long it was) with Barney bear and he comes out and can put his finger on the nub of the problem (thereby also damning all Davis’ works so far).
Well in the days when I still used UK trains and bought a newspaper, I usually got it from a booth with WH Smith on it. I do hope WH Smith are not in the censorship business! It would be very bad for trade.
So what the fuck has this pure virtue signalling got to do with the piss poor way Virgin runs trains? The last time I was on a train between Bristol and London, having eventually reached the front of the queue for the buffet, I remember remarking to the steward… look, all I want is a couple of sandwiches and a cup of coffee, not a bloody second mortgage!!
Besides, Virgin trains boast free WiFi don’t they? Just read the Mail online via your phone or tablet. Branson is a tax exiled prat!
@RAB
Next:
Virgin Trains free wi-fi blocks Daily Mail; followed by Virgin Trains forbids passengers to read or display Daily Mail on their trains.
That’s the tolerant, diverse, inclusive, liberal left.
It’s the Daily Mail, ’nuff said. If they’d ban that other mouthpiece for the AntiSmoker lobby as well, that Northern rag, it might almost be worth my taking a train…for the first time in probably 2 decades.
I used Virgin on my trip to Newcastle this summer and I’m afraid the free WiFi is a bit of a misnomer. It is only free in the First and Business Class sections of the train.
In cattle class where I was travelling it was only free for the first 15-minutes.
Fortunately I had my Amazon Kindle, so wasn’t interested in their “extremely reasonable” offer of £5 for 24-hours worth of WiFi.
I did however notice that numerous sites were blocked for reasons of both censorship and bandwidth restriction. After all, you wouldn’t want young Tarquin to have to set next to an old fart watching YouPorn on his laptop would you?
The DM is doing quite well in the ‘forbidden’ stakes.
If you try to access the online DM in Thailand, you get a screen saying (in Thai) that access to this site is forbidden. If I remember right, their crime was to publish an article which wasn’t fulsomely complimentary to the Thai royal family (and with good reason, although I won’t go into detail here)and the ‘lese majeste’ laws in Thailand are draconian. A perceived insult to the royal family can, and often does, get you 15 years in the chokey. The current military regime finds it a particularly useful law with which to shut down debate.
As I recall it was for printing photos of the former crown prince (now king of Thailand) showing his tattoos and his former wife (now divorced) showing her nips as well as all of the bullshit that they got up to.
Given the nature of Thai’s views on the monarchy the Daily Mail didn’t just step over the lèse-majesté line, but leapt over it with gay abandon.
Not that I agree or support lèse-majesté laws, but if you’re going to do that sort of thing in foreign then you have to accept the consequences (q.v. dumb bitch in Egypt serving 3 years for drug smuggling or plethora of idiots in Dubai getting locked up for fornication and/or adultery)
The DM publishes primarily for the UK market. The website is view-able by anyone. They are under no obligation to obey the laws anywhere else and nor should they. If the Thais are so thin-skinned they have to have laws protecting their royalty, so be it and if they wish to block the DM, so be it (VPN anyone?), their gaff their rules, but those rules don’t apply to the DM, just as they don’t apply here. Oh, and their king is a twat 😉
That’s you blocked in Bangcock then.
Do I look bovvered?