The Angry Exile: Is there such a thing as bad publicity?

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Thursday 18 March 2010

Is there such a thing as bad publicity? - UPDATED AGAIN

The old saying has it that there is not, but I've never been convinced myself. Remember Gerald Ratner's infamous 'crap' speech? Good publicity or bad publicity? Well, if you think it was good publicity why don't you pop out and count the number of Ratners shops in your town. Go on, I'll wait... it's zero, isn't it? So if a stupid and carelessly considered remark can destroy a brand with several hundred stores, badly damage the share price, force the departure of the company's chairman and namesake, and bring about a major rebranding to remove all traces of the name that caused it all, what might comparing soldiers to paedophiles do to a company of just 16 people? In the words of The Filthy Engineer:

When you get crap like this it makes your blood boil.

Karl Winn of Taunton, 60, is the boss of a net design company named Webeurope and he employs 16 people. He was contacted by Forces Recruitment Services who asked if he would consider taking on ex-soldiers. His response was:
Personally, I'd rather recruit ex-drug dealers, convicts and even child molesters rather than consider anybody who has been in the pay of the British Government.'

'Anybody who has been in the pay of such a military force, and by their silence and complicity has condoned such illegal and immoral actions while accepting a monthly bloodstained pay-packet , certainly won't be considered for employment by us.'

As a libertarian I believe passionately that an employer can hire or not hire whoever the fuck s/he wants to without having to justify the decision or to it declared illegal and reversed by a court. If he doesn't want to employ ex-soldiers that's his look out. And if he wants to compare them to kiddy fiddlers - and this is a group of people that he dislikes because he seems to think they all (a) kill people and (b) are at least relatively cool with it - that's his look out too. Personally I think he's a complete cunt and if he's still breathing and able to stand this time next week I'd say he's also wrong about the over whelming majority of serving and former forces personnel, since his continued ability to eat solid food would be very strong evidence that they've all resisted the temptation to beat him to death with his own feet. But if I were you Karl I'd worry far less about the possibility of payback from angry squaddies than from the British public. Anti-war doesn't mean anti-military, and while many (I suspect most) were against one or both of the Iraq/Afghan wars that the grinning mutation committed British troops to that doesn't mean that the troops themselves are disliked. Don't be surprised if you receive a little extra mail in the coming weeks or if one or two clients would rather not have 'Designed by Webeurope' anywhere on their website, though seeing the various claims of carbon neutrality, anti-Israeli, dolphin hugging, aid giving righteousness would have put me off anyway - if I'd wanted a website designed I wouldn't be attracted to a company whose own website looks like a student's bedroom door (minus the legalise pot sticker, which might have been some common ground). As for SEO every bugger seems to be doing it these days and sticking your size nine's in your mouth when you're in what looks to me like a very competitive field doesn't seem like good sense. I'd hope everyone at Webeurope is as committed to these various causes as their boss or has kept their CV up to date.

These thoughts may have occurred to Karl Winn himself because apparently he initially denied saying it at all.

Despite initially blaming a disgruntled ex-worker who he claimed had hacked into his emails, Mr Winn later admitted to The Sun that he had written them - and stood by his comments.

The standard politicians' excuse of 'oh, oh, oh someone who's got it in for me hacked my email/blog/Twitter account'. Yeah, Karl, that makes you look so much better. Wanker.

I can't be arsed to publish Webeurope's and Karl Winn's contact details so that anyone who wants to can attack their site, spam them or send them hate mail or black faxes. I don't condone that sort of thing but if it appeals to you then you can go looking for the details yourself - it's not difficult if I can do it. I won't personally do more than express my contempt for the man but if I hear he ends up bankrupt I won't shed a tear. And come ANZAC day in a little over a month I'll drop an extra two dollars in a collection tin on your behalf, Karl, you fuckknuckles. I won't say you can't or shouldn't say what you said, but these guys and people like them died so that you could say it.

Menin Gate at Midnight by Will Longstaff - go see the original at the War Memorial if you're ever in Canberra

UPDATE - after leaving a comment on this over at The Filthy Engineer's it's occurred to me that rather than sending him abuse (and I meant what I said about that - not my thing at all) mailing poppies to Karl ~~Winn~~ Faill might be better. And since I've said I'll put $2 in for Karl, big hearted bastard that I am, I'll take a poppy pin or something for him and put it in the post. The timing of ANZAC day makes this easier for me but if you can lay your hands on a poppy, even a left over one from last November, I recommend you do the same.

I also forgot to mention that if he'd said Indians or Eastern Europeans instead of ex-forces he'd have the full weight of politically correct law coming down on him. Discriminating against a whole group on the basis of their professions is okay though.

UPDATED AGAIN - Webeurope is apparently now www.easycms.co.uk, courtesy of a commenter at The Filthy Engineer's. I imagine it'll still be the same address for any poppies I send.