LPA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWthat were simply untrue. For example, Th e Daily
Star printed a headline-story declaring that the
Hackney council, in its attempt to stamp out
racism and racist language in the borough, had
banned the singing of ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep’ in
playschools.
Hackney had never considered banning the
nursery rhyme; however, newspapers throughout
the country and in the rest of the world picked
on this example of ‘Loony Leftism’. Once in print,
the story gained momentum and credence:
even Labour MPs took on board the Loony Left
slogan. Similar press treatment was handed out
to the authors of the Congestion Charge Scheme
which came into force in London in February- Prior to this, the press subjected the
scheme, and its architect, Mayor Ken Living-
stone, to villifi cation and scare-stories.
Th e tabloid paper the Sun called Livingstone
‘the madcap mayor’, ‘crazy’, ‘loopy’, ‘potty’,
‘barmy’ and a ‘crackpot’. Reference to ‘Red Ken’
appeared in the Sun twenty-nine times and the
‘Loony Left’ ten times between January 2002
and May 2003. Th e broadsheet Daily Telegraph
referred to ‘Red Ken’ thirty-one times and
the ‘Looy Left’ seven times, while the London
Evening Standard referred to the ‘Loony Left’
fourteen times. For detailed research-fi ndings
on this topic, see Culture Wars: Th e Media & the
British Left (Edinburgh University Press, 2005)
by James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley.
See wikileaks.
Lord Chamberlain (UK) Until they were abol-
ished in 1968, the powers of the Lord Chamber-
lain to censor plays in the British theatre went
as far back as the reign of James I, though such
powers were not defi ned by statute until 1737. All
plays, except those performed by theatre clubs,
were obliged to obtain a licence from the Lord
Chamberlain’s offi ce. Each script was vetted for
bad language, subversive ideas and any criticism
of monarchy, parliament, the church, etc.
In 1967 a Joint Committee on Censorship
of the Th eatre was set up by government. Th is
recommended freedom for the stage ‘subject to
the overriding requirements of the criminal law’,
and that managements and dramatists should be
protected from ‘frivolous or arbitrary’ prosecu-
tions. Th ese recommendations formed the basis
of Labour MP George Strauss’s private member’s
bill that became law, liberating the theatre from
the Lord Chamberlain in the Theatres Act of
September 1968.
Lowbrow See highbrow.
LP See gramophone.
by adapting programming itself, especially of
entertainment, to local needs. Chalaby is of the
view that while the ‘necessity for localization
can be interpreted as evidence of the limits of
cultural globalization’, it nevertheless ‘accelerates
the process of globalization, notably because
it allows global players to operate in a multi-
national environment’: true, the ‘music may
become local’ but the ‘expansion plan remains
global’.
Localization is less evident in news services
such as CNN and BBC World. For them, the
reporting of international events is their key
function. In contrast, channels dedicated to
children’s entertainment, such as Fox Kids or
the Cartoon Network, demand localization,
the originating language being converted to the
‘home’ language directly or through dubbing or
subtitling.
Chalaby believes that ‘localized channels are
not so much a “hybrid” cultural form’ as a ‘bridge
that helps the global reach the local’. See europe:
cross-border tv channels.
Looking behaviour See civil inattention;
eye contact.
Lookism The theory that the better-looking
you are, the more successful you will be in life.
Th e term was fi rst used as early as 1978, in the
Washington Post Magazine, but more recently
has been written about at length by American
psychologist Nancy Etcoff in Survival of the Pret-
tiest: Th e Science of Beauty (Little, Brown, 1999).
In an age of images, the image dominates our
perceptions, our thoughts and our judgements.
According to Etcoff, even mothers love their
off spring just a little bit less if they are less than
handsome. In the world of work, says Dr Etcoff ,
‘good looking men are more likely to get hired,
at a higher salary than unattractive men’. She
compares ‘Looking’ with sexism and racism.
However these are conscious, easily recog-
nized attitudes, while Lookism works at a
subconscious level. We are largely unaware of
favouring the beautiful. Robert Cialdini in Infl u-
ence: Science and Practice (London: Pearson,
2009) discusses a number of studies that demon-
strate the advantages of physical attractiveness,
and notes that we are also more likely to be
persuaded by those we fi nd physically attractive.
Loony Leftism In the 1980s in the UK a mythol-
ogy was created by local and national newspa-
pers about the policies of Labour-led councils,
particularly those in Greater London. ‘Loony’
became the catchword whenever councils
such as Hackney, Haringey or Islington were
mentioned; the accusation arose from rumours