Itisi

Anyone familiar with football – that’s soccer to you folk across the Atlantic – will have heard the phrase, ‘play the ball, not the man’. It basically means that when a player goes in for a tackle, they should aim to take control of the ball without nobbling their opponent. I’ve often thought that this is a useful maxim for writers too, especially those who specialise in opinion pieces.

I was reminded of this today while reading Melanie Phillips latest offering in the Daily Mail, in which she attempts to deflect attention away from the fact that Anders Breivik quoted her – not once, but twice – in his ‘manifesto’. Apparently, all the hate and bile she spouts on a weekly basis have absolutely no effect on anyone. Obviously, she can’t claim her columns are full of sweetness and light and fluffy kittens, so she defends her use of hateful language saying, “Some words undoubtedly do have hateful or violent consequences — but they are by definition hateful or violent words”.

I find this argument very strange because she seems to be saying that hateful and violent words can influence people, but those who write the hateful and violent words are in no way responsible. How can that be? Surely, the writer chose to use hateful words? The words don’t write themselves. It’s disingenuous of Ms Phillips to suggest that somehow she is not responsible for what she writes. The words made me do it is not a defence.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take too much notice of the sources that influenced Breivik, he’s obviously not entirely rational even if he is found to be sane. And, irrational people have done all sorts of terrible things because they believed completely innocent texts supported it. However, in this case I do think Melanie gave him an awful lot to work with; her columns are not objective, she doesn’t play the ball, she plays the man, or the woman, or, on occasion, the dog.

Melanie Phillips is a bit like the Razor Ruddock of journalism. When she writes about, for example, single parents the resulting piece is less informed commentary and more of a two-footed tackle to the back of the knees. Instead of an insightful overview of the coalition government, she produces the written equivalent of elbowing David Cameron in the face. She rarely uses facts – pesky things, they get in the way of a good rant – preferring to rattle off stereotypes and generalisations. She then backs herself up by insisting her views are “shared by millions of decent British people”. I suspect she may be wrong about that, and that her views are shared, but not by decent people, British or otherwise.

Of course, Melanie does differ from Razor in some crucial ways. Razor could argue that he nobbled opposing players because of competitiveness, because he desperately wanted his team to win, and that his opponents were perfectly capable of defending themselves.

Melanie prefers opponents who don’t have the luxury of a national newspaper column so who can’t fight back, and she doesn’t act out of a will to win, but because, I suspect, she enjoys kicking people who can’t retaliate. And unlike Razor, who took a sending off in good humour, accepting it as part and parcel of the physical style he chose to play, Melanie refuses to accept that she has done anything wrong. Not only does she feel she has no responsibility for the words she writes, she actually believes she is a victim of  a left-wing conspiracy to smear the right.

“As soon as the atrocity happened, people on the Left saw a heaven-sent opportunity to smear mainstream conservative thinkers and writers by making a grossly distorted association between Breivik’s attack and their ideas.”

Except, that’s not really true is it? I haven’t seen anyone using this as an opportunity to ‘smear conservative thinkers’. Norman Tebbit is pretty far to the right but you’d have to be a bit potty to think his opinions would lead him to use mass murder to promote his cause. Once again, Ms Phillips is being disingenuous.

No one seriously believes the ‘right’ are one homogeneous group who all think the same; no one seriously believes the right are violent, homophobic, racist misogynists to a man, woman and dog. The people being scrutinised and found wanting are those, like Melanie, who choose to denigrate whole sections of society simply because they are different. They align themselves to the right, but really they’re just intolerant arses.

I doubt Melanie will ever read this, but just in case she happens by:

Melanie, you are in a very fortunate position. Not only do you live in a country where your right to speak freely is protected in law, but you have a national newspaper column to expound your views. However, with rights and privileges come responsibility. You have the right to express your views, but you also have a duty to do so in a responsible and appropriate manner. This does not stifle your opinions, it just means you use words with care and skill. You have to play the ball, not the man.

You are a very talented writer – your long career is testament to this – you know that words are not merely words, words have power, but that power is in the hands of the individual who uses the words, not the words themselves. I’m just a naive, inexperienced and relatively young blogger, but I know that. You, with your glittering career and years of experience most certainly do.

Stop hiding behind words, admit you screwed up and went too far, show some humility. It’s the mature thing to do and it may possibly gain you a modicum of respect. Continue to play the victim and ‘decent’ people, British or otherwise, will continue to think you are reprehensible.