last five years, ie lingering death of Major government
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 08:46 (seven years ago) link
xxxp Polonius Danish tho
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 08:48 (seven years ago) link
lol
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 08:53 (seven years ago) link
I like the idea of an amoral, feckless spiv, lothario type who is profiteering from the blitz and the wartime black market as a fictional theme because it is an antidote to the overrated Band of Brothers type shite (see Nolan's next bullshit movie). But don't want the British electorate to vote with that mentality.
― calzino, Friday, 28 April 2017 09:00 (seven years ago) link
according to my dad during WWII my granddad was working a reserved occupation - skilled engineer and all that, tho I'm not sure how old he would have been anyway - and as conscription kicked in the factory took on a bunch of spivs who'd evaded the draft, proper Private Walker types. one day my granddad mentioned to one of these guys that the thing he missed most under rationing was a bit of cheese. so he comes in on Monday morning and opens his locker and there's the biggest wheel of cheddar he's ever seen in his life, and this lad giving him a wink and a tap on the side of his nose. my granddad told him in v Anglo-Saxon terms to get rid of it quick cos he thought he'd end up in jail.
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 09:12 (seven years ago) link
Recommend "Caught" by Henry Green, written at the time of the Blitz, which offhandedly crams the bravery and heroism stuff into the last three pages, the rest of the book taken up with desultory shagging, bitching and arsing about.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 09:13 (seven years ago) link
desultory shagging, bitching and arsing about
new board title
― mark s, Friday, 28 April 2017 09:16 (seven years ago) link
Yeah I was thinking about Caught as well, although that was written during the war so before the whole commonly-accepted WWII narrative had even been written. General impression you get is that everyone thinks it's a pain in the arse.
― Matt DC, Friday, 28 April 2017 09:17 (seven years ago) link
Margaret Thatcher's dad was one such spiv!
My best friend's dad, who was a medic in three different hospitals during WWll, was always very quick to point out false spin from the war - his most memorable story was that the Royal Family were NOT cheered in the streets of the East End. They were booed with force.
― syzygy stardust (suzy), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:01 (seven years ago) link
brown will intervene in scotland. he can't help himself
― ||||||||, Friday, 28 April 2017 10:01 (seven years ago) link
though maybe not this time because the situation is so dire for slab
― ||||||||, Friday, 28 April 2017 10:02 (seven years ago) link
Brown Labour would be les mots justes
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:05 (seven years ago) link
― calzino, Friday, April 28, 2017 10:00 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Hang about, isn't part of the problem British people having a dewey-eyed sentimental view of and obsession with the world wars?
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:09 (seven years ago) link
I'm wondering if this is a specifically English/British trait because you're very right lex, the little lord of the manor "my family and bollocks to everybody else" mentality feels like it runs thru the history of Englishness, you could write a great book about it, but am I just sulking about a world-view that's more or less universal?
As a relative outsider I'd say in my experience this is a common impulse across Europe at least, even in countries where the welfare state is working very well. Part of it is that anecdotally everyone knows someone who's on benefits and in their view taking advantage of it - and people aren't easily convinced that having a few ppl abuse the system is infinitley preferable to establishing guidelines that makes it so people in need don't get them, or have to humiliate themselves to get them. A bit like how the death penalty always ends up super-popular in opinion polls.
Then of course there's the US rage at "welfare queens" despite the lolsome excuse for a social safety net they have.
What I would say is perhaps more of a typically British thing is how nasty people are about it, how gleeful in their hatred. This may just be because the tabloids push for it more here, but it also feels like kind of a national characteristic? Hope that's not an offensive way of putting it - fwiw I think the same characteristic is also at the root of a lot of great British cinema, comedy, literature.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 28 April 2017 10:16 (seven years ago) link
we do love a pillory, it's true. I wonder how common that form of punishment was elsewhere.
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:18 (seven years ago) link
Comedy, absolutely. Punching down is absolutely the way to get ahead these days, cf those Little Britain cunts
As for literature, I can't be the only person whose thoughts raced to friend of ilx and novelist engagé, dear old Parting Anus.
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:24 (seven years ago) link
another looming battle within labour -- and within wider politics at large -- may well be between the old and the young
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/27/labour-ahead-polls-among-voters-40/
Among 18-24 year-olds Labour is 19 points ahead, according to figures from YouGov. In contrast, among the over-65s the Conservatives are ahead by a huge 49 points.
FORTY NINE POINTS.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:25 (seven years ago) link
More of a census than and election really
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:28 (seven years ago) link
an
Good to see labour leading by a smaller margin among an age cohort that is a) smaller b) much less likely to vote than the age cohort the tories dominate :-(
― why labour 'foot problems' since 2015? (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:29 (seven years ago) link
look, i'll throw meself on the pyre as long as all these other old tossers join in
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:30 (seven years ago) link
To clarify: what I was trying to identify as British is not specifically punching down, but rather having this gleeful attitude towards the targets of one's hatred, whatever they may be. So the comments sections of tabloids laughing at dead refugees or having these fantasies about executing benefit scroungers are part of this, but so are Stewart Lee, Charlie Brooker, the whole Angry Young Man stuff in literature and cinema, maybe even punk rock circa '77.
Obviously I'm not equating these on a moral level but I think they come from the same kind of energy, which can be used for good and ill I guess, and which I don't think is as present anywhere else that I can think of.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 28 April 2017 10:39 (seven years ago) link
Posterity will ne'er surveyA nobler grave than this: Here lie the bones of CastlereaghStop, traveller, and piss— Byron on a recently suicided PM
― mark s, Friday, 28 April 2017 10:42 (seven years ago) link
Question i have is why seasoned cynic NV thinks ppl might be better anywhere else
― virginity simple (darraghmac), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:43 (seven years ago) link
that reminds me, still haven't tap-danced on Thatcher's grave
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:43 (seven years ago) link
I don't think I do darragh, I'm wondering out loud if there are peculiarly English character traits. you could argue that different countries tend to end up with different kinds of polity/politician, and wonder whether this is an indicator of anything. it interests me if nothing else, cos god knows I hate what most people are talking about when they talk about Englishness.
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:45 (seven years ago) link
Theresa May with approval ratings above 50 percent, that's shudderingly Real England and what can we do about it and how quickly can we take off and nuke the island from orbit?
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 10:47 (seven years ago) link
They're doing well in Wales and Scotland too, lest we forget.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 11:31 (seven years ago) link
Begging people itt to NOT link to polls as reported by the Trollegraph of all things.
― nashwan, Friday, 28 April 2017 11:41 (seven years ago) link
The Telegraph is the only website I can see at work, CNN too, so that's my excuse.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 11:43 (seven years ago) link
It is quite an education tbh.
only having access to the telegraph at work would vastly improve my productivity tbh, maybe i should have a chat with the it folks here about our settings
― ben "bance" bance (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 April 2017 11:59 (seven years ago) link
The Election in pictures: Tracey + T Watson in a real England style photo op outside Fultons Foods in Batley!http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/1126159/img.jpg
― calzino, Friday, 28 April 2017 12:01 (seven years ago) link
I had no idea workplaces had political firewalls.
― Alba, Friday, 28 April 2017 12:47 (seven years ago) link
I'm wondering if this is a specifically English/British trait because you're very right lex, the little lord of the manor "my family and bollocks to everybody else" mentality feels like it runs thru the history of Englishness, you could write a great book about it, but am I just sulking about a world-view that's more or less universal?― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, April 28, 2017 4:09 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, April 28, 2017 4:09 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
the trait that is unique to england for me (not all english) is defining a good day as one on which you've made someone else's day worse, and a really good day on on which you made your own day worse too.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 28 April 2017 12:48 (seven years ago) link
Meanwhile Liam Gallagher continues to have an excellent week with straight-talking Beatles and curry obsessive Michael Dugher now chief exec of UK Music.
― nashwan, Friday, 28 April 2017 12:49 (seven years ago) link
Used to be the BBC but came in to work one day to find the BBC blocked and somebody discovered we could get the Telegraph.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 12:52 (seven years ago) link
someone in yr it department clearly has a sick sense of humour
― ben "bance" bance (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:11 (seven years ago) link
check how old they are
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:12 (seven years ago) link
that information technology department in full:
http://c0.thejournal.ie/media/2014/05/the-fast-show-special-752x501.jpg
― ben "bance" bance (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:15 (seven years ago) link
bbc is basically the telegraph now amirite
― mark s, Friday, 28 April 2017 13:15 (seven years ago) link
the bbc isn't routinely troubled by intense pressure to provide positive coverage to advertisers tbf
― ben "bance" bance (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
The columnists on the Telegraph are really something else. Thank God they're Premium rate so you only ever get to read the opening paragraph.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
yes telegraph is just a garbage fanzine these days
weird that the barclay brothers once owned the european (not that i ever read it, maybe it just aggregated horror stories abt life on the continental bit of the continent)
― mark s, Friday, 28 April 2017 13:23 (seven years ago) link
a garbage fanzine
shirley manson was a great frontwoman tbf
― ben "bance" bance (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:29 (seven years ago) link
expert political science sonned by brit-pop joek
― mark s, Friday, 28 April 2017 13:46 (seven years ago) link
i'm only happy when it reigns
― imago, Friday, 28 April 2017 13:51 (seven years ago) link
Theresa May's latest gaffe - she doesn't know where she is, but is "erm...pleased to come to ..erm.. this particular town".
― calzino, Friday, 28 April 2017 13:55 (seven years ago) link
we've all been there tbf
wherever there is
― Brexectile dysfunction (Noodle Vague), Friday, 28 April 2017 13:57 (seven years ago) link
anyway, maybe cut back on her benzos