Colcam

I appreciate it when people comment on this weblog. My gripe is that too many don't. I try to answer every comment, because if someone has taken the trouble to say something to me, it's worth responding.

Yesterday, however, after posting a piece about a man being shot on the London underground, and Radio Five, I got three comments within six minutes from anonymous readers, and another one about an hour later.

I find anonymous comments interesting. They are all remarkably similar, in that they always express views that the writer seems not to want attributed to themselves. Why? Because they know within themselves that the opinions they hold are unacceptable to intelligent, right minded people? If so, are they not sure enough of these opinions to stand up for them? Do yesterdays Anon's know that they are - in this case I will stop short of calling them racist, but.......

Anon invariably has had a sense of humour bypass, and takes himself too seriously. In this case he takes his nationalism (and I use the word nationalism advisedly, rather than patriotism) too seriously. And his cricket, which is one of the few ways he thinks he can show his Englishness while, to prove his superiority, he is forced to invoke Napoleon, Hitler, the IRA, the Spanish Armada and even 1066 and all that.

And Anon number 4 in yesterdays piece, when he did try to crack a (tasteless) joke, should now be left feeling acutely embarrassed after the events of today. Yes, I said I didn't care about a suicide bomber being shot as such, but was concerned about what was happening to ordinary people who get caught up in events. I do care about an innocent man being shot, which is exactly what has happened. I suspect Anon thinks they're all the same anyway, if they are not English (read that as white).

But when it all comes down to it, Anon wouldn't have coped too well alongside the real Englishmen and women, and the Scots, Irish and Welsh men and women who fought Hitler, and the IRA. And he wouldn't cope alongside the people of all these parts of the UK who are now involved in fighting the war on terror, because Anon is a coward who dare not even speak his name.