mattus.co.uk: the website of Matt Wood

I’m sorry that this one’s looking more than a little dog-eared; bear with me!

Why does this continue to make the headlines, in Britain and elsewhere? It’s a typical example of baseless, media-catalysed hysteria. Amongst all the panicking, leafleting, quarantining and slaughtering, not a shred of evidence has emerged to suggest that swine flu is any more serious than seasonal flu.

Each serious infection has befallen a vulnerable victim, just as with standard flu and many other viral illnesses. Nobody has died in the UK. Nobody threatens to die. Meanwhile, the government is sending pamphlets to every household in the nation – 24 million leaflets, because a handful of people have a nasty cold.

From what I can tell, we are the only European nation whose government is propagating this panic through written means. Anyone would think that swine flu made a convenient distraction.

Some sentences are just inherently amusing, like this from the BBC:

Youths in favour of the Pope fought pro-condom activists staging a protest outside Notre Dame Cathedral as worshippers left after Sunday mass.

Was someone having a laugh? Which sequence of events leads to one becoming a ‘pro-condom activist’? Perhaps it helps if you enjoy surreal confrontations? The mind boggles.

I note from the outgoing president’s farewell speech that he considers the greatest achievement of his presidency to be the lack of terrorist attacks on American soil since September 11, 2001.

I can’t help thinking that the suggestion that the best thing to happen during Bush’s tenure was something that didn’t happen should tell you all you need to know about the Dubya presidency.

Welcome to my new web site! Give me a few weeks to iron out the bugs and in return I hope it will be easier to use and more stimulating than the previous one.

In the meantime, if you’re nostalgic for the old site it’s available here.