I’ve just finished writing her obituary, never a happy job when the subject is still alive.

To those who are puzzled by her celeb status, it’s exactly because she has no remarkable talents and admits that she’s thick as two short planks that the public have taken to her.

She bullied somebody in Big Brother but was only about as racist as many of the posters on this forum.

The usual line that gets trotted out is that young girls see her as a role model because she “made something of herself” – which would be depressing if you then concluded that young people thought being in heat magazine was the only way to succeed from a disadvantaged background.

But I think that’s a red herring anyway, I suspect young girls only want to be celebs in the same way that boys want to play for Man United – ie. by the time they’re 17 or 18 they’ve realised it aint gonna happen.

I think people just like Jade because she’s obviously down-to-earth, has a likeable personality and was genuinely mortified after that racism thing.

Remember: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

You’re objectionable

That’s fair enough.

well i’ll be damned, i’m calling the police right now, you are obviously a REAL contract killer

Yeah, ‘cos using that is soooo going to make your comment look better!

I’ve accepted that you made it without meaning it. It just looked bad initially, that’s all.

Yeah well I’m sorry that it was lost on me BigDummy. I did consider checking out the House of Commons statement because it did seem a little strange that he felt it necessary to comment at all about JG, but decided to accept that it was genuine.

So your criticism is simply that Gordon Brown should not have been asked any questions on the subject at all ? Well I agree with your disappointment with the kind of questions the press asks the PM, but I’m not sure just how much the PM is responsible for that. Yes he could have refused to answer the questions, but he would have received far more stick for that, imo – the PM won’t show his ‘human side’, he coldly ignores questions about the tragic case of …. etc etc.

If you want to blame anyone, I suggest that you blame tabloid readers who demand to read bollox in their newspapers, rather than real politics.

And also the people who are obsessed enough about the Jade Goody story, that they start threads on the subject on internet forums ………

I don’t think I am going to accept that people who fret aimlessly about trivialisation of public discourse necessarily trivialise public discourse.

🙂

But I am going to shut up.

Rudeboy, why do you keep switching between yourself and Grizzlygus to post on here? This thread is so obvious that you are one and the same!!

No offence intended by the question, just wondering…..

It’s a form of schizophrenia salad_dodger – I can’t help it 🙁

Grizzlygus represents the ‘normal sensible’ me.

And RudeBoy represents the mad voices which I hear in my head 😯

I’d assumed it was something along those lines. Anyway, keep up the good work – your posts always entertain!

Wibble!

I think the salient point from all of this, isn’t about cancer, or Jade Goody, or about the culture of celebritism, it’s about how sick, voyeuristic and flesh eating society can be. How prophetic Charlie Brookers’ Dead Set was. People aren’t buying these papers and magazines to further cancer research or as a sign of respect for a dying woman, or to add the trust funds of her soon to be orphaned kids. People are buying these rags to watch someone die, serialised in dramatic installments with colour photos. This is Celebrity Deathwatch. How much do you think Max Clifford and OK have already negotiated for, to cover the Funeral of the Year ?
I don’t know how much JG, or rather Max Clifford reckon they can make in the next few months, but hopefully, they’ll figure that she’s already made enough, her kids will be secure and she can stop parading herself for our consumption, die with some dignity and save the rest of us the embarrasment of partaking in this sad affair.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
This may shock you, but I am going to praise Jade Goody.

She was let down by the education system and let down badly. She’s thick. She knows this. But, she has decided to use her celebrity to make as much money as she can to ensure that her son(s?) are/is not let down in the same way. That HAS to be a good aspiration. Brave girl.

Let down by the education system? Rubbish. She was let down by the kind of parenting that’s creating the scummy underclasses that are the ruination of our inner cities and sink estates. The ‘couldn’t give a ****’ generation. How the hell are teachers supposed to educate and stimulate neglected minds when there is ****-all input at home?

Those kids, although financially secure, are now going to be in danger of becoming the latest incarnation of the Geldof-Yates brood. Rich and famous for doing ****-all, and doing it in a blaze of publicity.

Let down by the education system? Rubbish.

Gosh, some people know an awful lot about Jade Goody. How TF do you know about the education which she received – do some papers really publish that sort of stuff ?

And how come her parents where so bad at ‘parenting’ ? What was happening say, 20 years ago when Jade Goody was growing up, which created the “couldn’t give a **** generation“, as you call it ?

She was let down by the kind of parenting that’s creating the scummy underclasses that are the ruination of our inner cities and sink estates.

What an ignorant thing to say.

Greed and selfishness are the ruination of our society. We’re all part of it; just that at least some people realise it’s happening, whilst others just seek to blame someone else all the time.

Let down? We’ve all been let down. Let down by a society, considering the wealth of resources at our disposal, should be educating us better, as to each others’ needs. Instead, we all too often fail to see further than the end of our own greedy noses.

From the BBC: “Goody was brought up in a run-down part of Bermondsey, south-east London, by her mother Jackiey Budden.

Her father, Andrew, left Budden when Goody was two years old. He spent four years in Wandsworth Prison for robbery.

Goody claims she did not get the chance to go to school often, and has spoken of how she had to help out her mother, who lost the use of her left arm and the sight in one eye after a motorbike accident.”

You’ve both missed my point. How can the ‘Education System’ have let her down when she rarely attended school? Does the law not state that it is incumbent of the parent(s)/guardian(s) to ensure children receive a suitable education?

Oh and Fred, my view is not borne of ignorance, it’s borne of experience. I work door-to-door in the less sulubrious areas of my town and see the kind of parenting that is perpetuating the scummy underclasses of which I speak on an all too regular basis.

I work door-to-door in the less sulubrious areas of my town

What as, a baliff?

Sounds like you have bugger all empathy with the people you work with. I suggest it’s possible you may be in the wrong job, if that’s how you view your ‘clients’.

As a debt collector, actually. And what qualifies you to judge my suitability or otherwise for this role?

As a debt collector, actually.

Ah….

I think you prove your own unsuitability, by expressing your disgust and abhorrence for the people with which you have to interact.

I’m not sure whether I ‘missed your point’ if that comment was aimed at me, I was merely intrigued how you happen to know so much about Jade Goody’s education – someone who I freely confess to knowing very little about. You’ve answered that question obviously, by the proof that you’ve done some research in Jade Goody’s past. I had no idea that she was that famous, and that obscure details of her life were available to the general public.

However, the information which you have provided would appear to very much back up CaptainFlashheart’s claim that as a child, Jade Goody was indeed very much ‘Let down by the education system’. It is the explicit responsibility of the education authorities to ensure that all children recieve an adequate education. By your own admission, Jade Goody appears not to have ‘gone to school often’. Which would suggest a clear failure by the eduction authority of their statutory obligations.

Furthermore, although you appear to suggest that Jane Goody’s parents were part of the “couldn’t give a **** generation”, you have failed to answer my question concerning how this generation came about. I am to take it that you don’t know the answer ? If so, I would suggest that you don’t point an accusing finger to problems which you don’t understand.

RudeBoy – Member

As a debt collector, actually.

Ah….

I think you prove your own unsuitability, by expressing your disgust and abhorrence for the people with which you have to interact.

Another example of your complete ignorance not getting in the way of you having an opinion.

My comments so far have been entirely about the questionable parenting THAT I REGULARLY SEE and the impact that this is having in terms of educating their offspring. I’m not just talking about formal education either, I’m talking about manners, respect, work ethic etc etc. Many of the parents don’t have these skills and neither do their parents. What chance have the youngest generation got – and back on my original point – what the hell chance do teachers have when the kids are ignored at home? Yet, according to Gus, it’s the ‘Education System’ (implying schools, teachers LEA’s etc) that’s letting society down.

No, not according to me – according you.

Quote : “Goody claims she did not get the chance to go to school often“

The education authority in Bermondsey had a clear obligation to ensure that Jane Goody went to school ‘often’.

And yes, I won’t deny that some children because of their background, provide the education authorities with a challenge. It doesn’t however, automatically mean that the ‘education system’ is absolved of all blame if they fail.

Many of the parents don’t have these skills and neither do their parents.

Do you ever stop and ask yourself why this is?

Or do you just assume they are ‘scum’, and therefore not worthy of any Human respect?

In my experience, having LIVED on ‘sink’ estates most of my life, is that many of the people who live there simply don’t have the means to ‘better themselves’, either socially or economically. This often comes down to the lack of education. Stemming from the failure of the education system/society to ensure that ALL it’s members, without prejudice, receive a decent standard of educational support, as children. Educational neglect leads to ignorance, apathy, fear and resentment. Without wishing to defend the undoubted tiny minority of people who simply won’t accept the support offered to them, many families are simply incapable of providing the stability and support needed, for their children to have a reasonable start in life. This situation is further exacerbated and worsened, by the social stigma suffered by such an ‘underclass’; they will seldom meet with empathy, respect and understanding. Labels such as ‘Chav’ and ‘Pikey’ are given to people from such backgrounds, by those who want to elevate themselves above the ‘common herd’; people who themselves feel insecure and inadequate, in a society with deepening social, cultural and economic division.

See, when you can’t get a decent job, because you don’t own a suit, or you can’t talk ‘proper’, when other people look down at you, and call you ‘scum’, when you can’t see past your next measly pay check, or giro, when you can’t obtain things that others take for granted; where’s your self esteem, your self respect, your sense of value in society? Where’s your sense of ‘worth’? If you yourself do not feel respected, then why respect others? Why respect the laws that merely seem to bind you in your frustration and despair?

Next time you’re out there, try and see things from others’ point of view.

Neither does it mean that the the primary influence on a childs up-bringing, the parent(s), should be absolved of all blame if their chidren fail and that the ‘education system’ should carry the can.

My contention is still that Goody is more likely to have turned out the way she is because of a poor quality parental influence than being educationally neglected by Bermondsey LEA.

poor quality parental influence

As you mentioned earlier, Jade grew up with her disabled single mother not coping very well with supporting her. Hardly an ideal childhood. And yes, maybe Bermondsey LEA should have spent more time and effort with her.

But we have the resources, yet still our society fails those that need them.