The wrong stuff

It was brought to my attention that Matthew Wright, a former Sun-journalist, who presents a program on Channel 5 (here in the UK) made some derogatory comments on the murder of Liam Aitchison last month. He poked fun at the fact that it had been 40 years ago since a murder was last committed in the Isle of Lewis.

Complaints have been flooding in to Channel 5, Ofcom and not just from myself; the MP and MSP have complained as has the local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. Mr Wright has apologised, but added that complainers should grow up. I don't know if Mr Wright has children (heaven forbid), but I wonder how he would feel if this had been the reaction on national television if one of his offspring had been killed. The Facebook page, set up to call for complaints against the show, has reached nearly 700 likes in 24 hours.

7 December 1941

Image courtesy http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/pearlhbr.htm
Today, it's 70 years ago since the Japanese Imperial Forces attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was unprovoked, but served to bring the United States into the Second World War, as Germany declared war on the USA alongside Japan. It was a fatal mistake on the part of Japan. Although the Japanese forces managed to occupy large swathes of territory in the Pacific and southeast Asia, they were in the end thrown back on their homeland. It took the detonation of two nuclear bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to force the surrender of Emperor Hirohito, three months after Nazi Germany was defeated.