Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

just going to interrupt to harrumph over a lil bit of dumbing down: "The tea fields of Ceylon [as Sri Lanka was then known in the UK] are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo."

why not put "[the battle not the station derp]"?

*goes out to buy telegraph*

Presumably the writer or the sub was frightened that using the historically appropriate name might make the readership get a bit testy.

The lion at Waterloo

Sounds like a pub to me. What lion anyway?

i *think* it's outside the entrance that leads sort of diagonally on to the concourse?

Napolion Bonapurrte

lol actually this has opened a whole can of worms... the waterloo lion (the one at the station, not the one on the battleground), was MOVED in 1966 (a few years before sri lanka was so named) to somewhere NEAR waterloo station

You confused me by making it seem as if there were lions present at the Battle of Waterloo, led around on chains by Mamelukes no doubt

you mean the stone lion that's now on westminster bridge?

http://www.moodmapper.com/idx_result.asp?mood=199&place=113

never heard of the lion brewery before tbh

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lJclA8pn1kw/TDSZqQWDlVI/AAAAAAAADnY/LK0blzwi14M/s1600/lion+waterloo.jpg

not sure what it represents, exactly. not 'what a tragic waste of life' tho, clearly!

King William I of the Netherlands ordered the construction of this monument in 1820, to commemorate bravoury of his son, the prince of Orange, who was wounded here during the battle.

another typical monpolisation of history by the ruling classes then.

Can tell it's a Dutch lion and not an English one by the way it has expertly trapped that cannonball with its paw

ha

nice

A+ tom

The great question now, ostensibly, is whether her "brand" is strong enough for her to "go it alone".

ilx for beginners really

So sang Steven Patrick Morrissey in the unbearably sad I Know It's Over, from an album titled The Queen Is Dead – the Smiths' masterpiece, released in 1986.

Lot of background filling there. Reads like Dan Brown.

what a dreadful piece...so lacking in actual points. and the final insult, indie is too white cos people didn't want to go and see GORILLAZ

99% Caucasian males, limply strumming away, in endless tribute to the same old white-bread influences.

That reminds me, I haven't been to a folk gig in a while

Why do I read the comments on Guardian articles? :(

or maybe

Why do I read the comments on Guardian articles? :(

so few people seem interested in the creative cross-pollination it might inspire

If the creative cross-pollination it inspires sounds like the Gorillaz then they're right not to be interested.

John Harris has been blinded on the road to Damascus and all you miserable gits can do is mock him.

fuckim i'm sure he's got private health

In keeping with his catholic tastes, Albarn – a passionate fan of the music of west Africa – was performing alongside Bobby Womack, the rap trio De La Soul, and Snoop Dogg

Didn't know Snoop was Cameroonian tbh

didn't know albarn was catholic tbh

the rap trio De La Soul

that explains that snoop dogg track about always going to half five mass on a sunday because your parents would forget you hadn't been

C'mon, Albarn wrote a song called "Popescene" ffs

popescene but not heard

might take harris more seriously if he sorted out his shit 1978 grange hill haircut

anyway don't read the comments, don't read the comments, aaaaaaaaargh i read the comments

jesus...can't stand kira cochrane, it's like she sat down one day and realised she had nothing to write about so would beat the drum for the most obvious takes on "women's issues" imaginable...

i heard that haye exchange on the today programme and had to wonder if he's the morrissey of boxing

making gangrape comments in front of his hometown

In all walks of life, rape jokes and rape analogies are becoming commonplace

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh...

It's never a good sign when an evening ends with you and your friends bellowing, "No more rape jokes! No more rape jokes!" from the back of a bemused crowd.

i mean...okay i'll bite, as much as i don't think a rape joke is by default funny, and probably unfunny almost all of the time, i am pretty sure this sort of reaction is why comedians would make rape jokes.

as for people using "rape" for various other meanings, isn't it just due to the impact of the word rather than any actual lack of understanding about rape? i mean if you look at the issue surely rape is becoming more recognised as a serious crime rather than less, at the same time as the word has begun to be used more casually?

isn't it just a matter of language...words which are taboo just can't retain their impact, regardless of their meaning.

Wot, no Alan Pardew? Personally, I'm not aware of much casual use of the word "rape", hardly comparable with its use in the 60s + 70s for example.

amazed no pardew or souness!

we need to return to the days when nobody used the word "rape" ever obviously. there were no recorded rapes then!

haven;t read the article but yeah people use it way too casually and it's weird, but it's up to them really, if they want to. stand-up comedians are the worst people.

My problem obv. is I'm not hanging around with enough wankers to have noticed the increase in casual use

it's a bit like how 'prison rape jokes' became this really easy go-to on panel quizzes. people who make these jokes are massive, gaping arseholes, but i'm not 'offended' by them, just kind of pitying.

patient zero:

http://britlitwiki.wikispaces.com/file/view/rock.jpg/143866901/rock.jpg

good work getting "prison rape" and "massive gaping arseholes" in the same post
xp

isn't it just a matter of language...words which are taboo just can't retain their impact, regardless of their meaning.

really well put tbh, and lack of ability to express this clearly is what gets me into trouble in other threads on similar subjects tbh.

yeah, I think the rise I've noticed in actual rape references and jokes is much more troublesome than 'rape' as an intensifier, stupid and thoughtless as that may be. I've been at pub quizzes where literally half of the team names were 'hilarious' rape jokes, made me wish I had deflated their party by having a team name citing an unpleasant rape statistic or some such.

What weird unpleasant people you all seem to associate with

'Rapey' has been a favoured descriptive term for about 10 years now.

Descriptive term for weird creepy stalkerish males on internet forums? I've only ever heard/seen it used here.

it's a bit like how 'prison rape jokes' became this really easy go-to on panel quizzes

And every cop/detective drama, no matter how high or low brow, will add a reference.

First saw 'rapey' and 'hatefuck' on Popbitch first, possibly during their era of the pram-face.

the tolkeinian cosmology of popbitch