So it's official, per madlizziecornish @ 05.55. I'm "allowed" to call her names.

Clearly I have been insufficiently specific before. In common with an ever-growing catalogue of artists and activists including Phil Beer himself who have called on her publicly time and time again to cease and desist, I need her twisted brand of adulation like I need an extra orifice.

Yes, it's like a big dog (or flock of giant seagulls, more like), crapping all over the Sidmouth prom. Unavoidable and very unpleasant. Enthusiasm is one thing, and to be encouraged. Scattergun fawning and blinkered insistence that everyone else joins in or else is quite another. Nor does it stop with pre-pubescent fantasies about over-rated boy bands and popped-up R2 fodder but spreads to the propagation of reactionary middle-England twaddle against the entire education system, glorification of imperialistic militarism and anti-liberal outpourings.

Take Countryfile, a Sunday p.m. telly programme for the smug, middle-class, Daily Mail reading nuclear family (since an item on it forms part of this ridiculous thread). I watched the opening titles on a wonky cable feed, its transferral to the iPlayer being mercifully delayed. Over a shot of the razor-shy dishevelled ones looking considerably more so, plonked uncomfortably in an open field in a howling gale, John Craven unwittingly intoned (the vid and soundtrack being transmitted out of sync): "Down on the farm here are some sheep lining up for their annual haircut". He was never that funny on Newsround.