Comments on: Prison magazine withdrawn because satirical swine-flu article offends Muslim inmates

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:21:59 +0000

Where do you get this “inside information” then?

By: Morrigan

Morrigan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:56:03 +0000

From what I’ve heard, the con who wrote it is up his own backside and thinks he’s HMP Hulls answer to Piers Morgan.

By: Robyn Levers

Robyn Levers — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:20:24 +0000

I agree with barriejohn on this one. Inside Time may as well have thrown the article in to the lions den because it was inevitable it’d be ripped to shreads! I also think it’s pathetic punishing Thackwray for it and I think Inside Time owe him an apology for printing the stupid cartoon alongside his work. Fair enough, Inside Time are having to fork out for their stupidity but Thackwray is down the block and Thackwray is banged up 23 hours a day unlike the editoral team at Inside Time!

By: Maureen James

Maureen James — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:55:19 +0000

It seems to be the cartoon that people are up in arms about. Like Teacher says, Thackwray does not have internet access inside so needless to say that lies with the editor and Inside Time.
What I find unfair is that Thackwray is down the seg because of it? I love Inside Time and the articles that feature in it but I’m sorry, I think the publication is to blame for this. The charity has been going long enough to know that somewhere along the line the nature of the cartoon would have got certain peoples backs up.

By: Alfster

Alfster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:16:07 +0000

“The Jailhouselawer also reports that the Mr Thackwray has been charged with a Disciplinary Offence, put in the Segregation Unit, and will be transferred out of HMP Hull.”

I read into this that the prison authorities want to get him out of HMP Hull in case any of the nutbar Moslems try to attack him. The ‘Disciplinary Offence’ is to calm the nutbars down…wonder if it will be quietly ignored once he has been moved to another prison.

By: Stuart H.

Stuart H. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:55:41 +0000

Actually, I’d say the biggest argument for not censoring the article is that the presumption of ‘offence’ and retaliatory violence is itself racist. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of UK prisons knows, for example, that Muslim prisoners are more often the victims of prison violence than the perpetrators. Equally, anyone with some knowledge of courts or ‘crime prevention’ sees the high percentage of Muslim prisoners compared to Muslim population has more to do with the type of crimes which are easier to solve and the types of people easier to make a case against than the reality of crimes (which mostly go unsolved) and criminals (who mostly go uncaught).
There’s also nothing in the piece I wouldn’t expect to hear (rather better expressed, I’d admit) in the routines of at least two women Muslim comedians currently on the UK stand-up circuit.
The unusual ‘punishment’ of Thackwray is far more revealing, and quite indicative of the way prisons actually run, rather than the stories screws sell to right wing newspapers. Try, for example, googling the names John Bowden or William Johnston and HMP Glenochil and you may see what I mean.

By: teacher

teacher — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:22:09 +0000

My question re the article and image in Inside Time is “where did the cartoon image come from?” As Mr Thackwray does not have access to the Internet, as do none of the prisoners in HMP Hull, it would appear that the cartoon can only have come from from the publication itself.

By: Maureen James

Maureen James — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:38:01 +0000

I thought the article was funny. However, as members of our website so rightly say: The prison newspaper Inside Time who published the column would have known without a shadow of a doubt that the topic would have caused some ill feeling.

By: Ken Clark

Ken Clark — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:53:31 +0000

Thank you Yank, and I only wish people would listen to you..unfortunately that attitude of politicians now in bowing down to the demands and sensitivities of every criminal, political or otherwise has turned this once great country into a wimpering coward…

Thank whatever, you americans are still ‘policing’ the world or things abroad would be even worse…

By: oscar j.

oscar j. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:49:04 +0000

selfcensorship is worse than islamism.