The Setting Sun: Flouting the Ban

OK, I apologise for the other day's lacklustre entry, which myself am not terribly thrilled with.

But today, let us tackle another important issue.

My school has taken it upon itself to ban the Sun newspaper - and others of a similar (lack of) quality : the Mirror, the Star and the Sport. This is because of the inappropriate content; not just Page Three with the topless girls, but moreover the degrading attitudes towards women posed across these publications, toilet humour, overt racism and other immature campaigns - a fine example being the Sun's five-star(!) response to the Archbishop of Canterbury comments on Sharia law being "Bash the Bishop", which for those of you who might not be aware, is a sly term for masturbation. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Is this the sort of thing we want being read in our schools? Does it promote rational, mature argument and commentary? No. Does it incite people to jump on bandwagons, most of which are ill-thought out or down-right stupid? Yes.

What's important is that the school is not banning the reading of these publications outside of the school environment - that would e censorship and invasion of privacy, and to be honest, wouldn't work. But I do think the in-school ban is a good idea. The school provides a nice selection of literature daily that I think is a full of rational discussion, comment and ideas - the Times, Telegraph and the Spectator.

I read both of these papers in the Library daily. Compared to the likes of the Sun, it's a breath of fresh air. I think that those who do choose to read the Sun need to expand their horizons, get into more mature papers and get a better sight into the views of others - even upgrading to the Daily Mail would be seen as an improvement. With these tabloids you don't get a balance argument, and I think that is bad, it puts across ignorant or wrong messages, and in today's society, an unbiased media is crucial.

A great example of this is the Sun in election mode: first, they supported the Conservative Party in 1992, but in 1997 switched to Labour with no real reason. I think I know it: they only back the surefire winner. Is this biased rubbish what we need? No. Does the fact that this rag is the best selling newspaper in our great country boggle my mind? Yes.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand: I think we need two things to make this rule better enforced:

1. We need to educate the masses as to the finer details of the ban. A brief two-line notice in one day's Headlines is not enough. What I'm going to do, in conjunction with the Head Boy, is work towards putting something about papers in a speech with other new initiatives for all to hear, and also starting some form of poster campaign.
2. Prefects need to take an active role in enforcing this. They need to go after the paper with power. I think we also need to explain the various rules that they are expected to enforce.

If we can do this, then consider this another victory of the sensible majority over not a "thick" minority, but rather people who with a little bit of education and explanation could see our point and agree.

I'll be speaking to the Head Boy over the next few days. Let's get this speech done, let's move forward and improve!