Lady soldiers? Whatever next?

Today’s Metro headline about the Brits detained in Iran, particularly Faye Turney, was needlessly mawkish: “A prisoner, a pawn—but above all, a mother”.

Surely this is nonsense. Surely, “above all, a soldier”. Several other papers have also followed this sickly journalistic recipe: “Will she see her child again?” and all that. A good question, and one she will certainly have asked herself when she set off for military operations in Iraq.

This stand-off with Iran is all very silly and could yet escalate, though it really shouldn’t, but it’s intriguing to watch a press that forever claims to be fighting against government control of its news agenda so swiftly and willingly pump out propaganda that would make any Ministry of Truth proud. “They’re attacking innocent mothers. Will your sister be next?”

Long arm

When the [Pakistani] law minister, Wasi Zafar, was recently described [in English] as the “long arm of the law” by a local journalist, the minister mistook it for an expression in his native Punjabi which roughly translates into “up yours”.

His apt response, on national TV, was: “If anyone gives me the long arm, my long arm to his whole family.” [Source: BBC]