16 February 2010

16/02/10

The Battle of Great Torrington took place in 1646.  Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavikur, was formed in 1899.  Howard Carter unsealed King Tutankhamen's burial chamber in 1923.  Canadians were granted Canadian citizenship in 1947, having spent the first 80 years of independence still being considered British subjects.  Fidel Castro became Premier of Cuba in 1959.

Not many interesting birthdays today.  Eugénie Blanchard of St. Barth's, France, celebrates her 114th birthday today.  The only other vaguely interesting birthdays:  John McEnroe (1959)*, Christopher Eccleston (1964), and Cathy Freeman (1973).

It is Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood Day in Lithuania, of all places.

*which means that Fidel Castro becoming Premier of Cuba wasn't the worst thing to happen on this day in 1959.

93 comments:

  1. Edwin,

    you're knowledgeable on these things.

    What do you know about Bill Douglas the film director? I bought his trilogy from BFI- My childhood, May ain folk and My way home and watched it last night.

    Really affecting, almost Beckettesque in the paucity of script but all the more effective for it. Grim but beautiful at the same time.

    I think I'm going to invest next in 'Comrades', his film about the Tolpuddle Martyrs which seems to be highly rated. Have you seen it and is it any good?

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  2. Best wishes Habib, get well soon mate.

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  3. And on today's show...the victims are...witches
    so we'll be sending Tanya along to meet some witches and ask them what they've been up to lately..

    Obviously, it'll be a light-hearted, whimsical piece but be warned...if anyone goes over the top..one of our very earnest and anal staff will pop on and remind you that in some countries witches are still routinely ostracised, imprisoned, even killed for their beliefs..

    ...and we'll probably tell you to consider the effects of your remarks on confused young witches who're trying to come to terms with their 'gift'. What you consider humour, might well be construed as hurtful and dismissive. Studies in Finland have shown a 3.7% increase in eating disorders and a 4.2% increase in self harm amongst teenage witches following a particularly viscous cartoon in a national newspaper depicting a snapped broomstick and an empty vodka bottle.

    Unlike you, Ms Gold is a highly skilled and ethical journalist and although occasionally sardonic, she is able to walk that fine balancing line between...oh fuck it..

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  4. Your Grace, I revere Bill Douglas, wrote this about him -

    1972: My Childhood directed by Bill Douglas
    This is the first film in Bill Douglas’ great trilogy about growing up in poverty in the Scottish mining village of Newcraighall (the other two films are My Ain Folk 1973, and My Way Home 1978), known collectively as the ‘Bill Douglas Trilogy’. My Childhood was filmed in Newcraighall, which is a suburb of Edinburgh - a very different Edinburgh from Miss Jean Brodie’s. Douglas’s trilogy is regarded by many critics as profoundly underrated.

    The Wiki entry is excellent -

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Douglas

    He is buried at Bishop's Tawton, not too far from Halberton, where a fine old Cif comrade's ashes are scattered (Cynical Steve) -

    http://thedoggerelsbollocks.wordpress.com/

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  5. Morning all, and best wishes to Habib.

    Having had another look at the bisexuality thread, I actually agree with many of the posts that are ostensibly 'opposed' to each other - for example, MsR displays a bloody refreshing view on not thinking sexuality is that important (other than personally), but as tonkatsu says, "I wish the world held your view" and it doesn't.

    There are still problems relating to orientation, and I actually liked the article, as it pointed out that these problems can come also from the gay community. What pissed me off was the tone (and in some cases the 'missing the point') of the responses to MsR - particularly given that that viewpoint would necessarily reduce the problems and therefore should be cheered.

    Feels like some posters on the thread are fighting the wrong people.

    My two-pennorth is that what really annoys me is the view - as particularly articlulated by Pratt97 - that if a bisexual person enters into a relationship with someone of the same sex "they are/become gay" and if with the opposite sex "they are/become straight". I think this comes from referring to relationships, rather than the people in them - a 'gay relationship', a 'straight relationship', because you can't have a 'bisexual relationship' (if there's only two people involved, kidding...) so people think that as the relationship 'has' to be one or the other, so too do the people in it...

    As MsR and many others point out, this is rubbish. Anyway...

    At the risk of bringing down the wrath of the UT (heh heh), I was actually thinking last week after another thread that it would be interesting to have a thread on bisexuality specifically (I wasn't the person who emailed Jess, though). Because it is of personal interest to me, and that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a placard-waving identity politics thing, rather a discussion of a complex topic (focussing on a detail, rather than a general principle) - am reminded of another 'gay thread' recently about stereotyping, annd exclusionary spaces. It's not an issue of world-changing earth-shaking importance, but there are interesting things to be said.

    The tone of some contributors has narked me, as I say - probably a good job that this went up before I spent any time lovingly crafting a piece on the orientation of the soul...

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  6. your grace - just wanted to give props for
    "Josephine and her amazing technicolour combat trousers"
    which has just made my morning...

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  7. "Tell that to Victoria Climbie or any of the thousands of West African children being 'exorcised' by witch doctors. Tell that to the disabled children told their fate is caused by their demonic past or current possession."

    Oooh..here's a cracker..we should of course feel ashamed of being so flippant since persecution of African 'witches' is a very real and abhorrent practice. Then again, we can't really; we can't have Westerners just bumbling in an imposing their cultural hegemony all over the fuckin shop and belittling local custom and tradition...oh, it's so confusing..I want to help but if I do I become a cultural imperialist..it's so hard being a liberal..I know, I'll go down to Starbucks and bury myself in a big bubbly frappaccino and a roasted vegetable ciabatta..(organic natch..gotta 'do your bit')

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  8. Should I sell my Alexander McQueen tuxedo shorts on Ebay? Sorry but after dealing with imbeciles yesterday I need to consider the deeper questions of life.

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  9. Habib would know what I should do. He would be ready with an answer. Habib, get well soon.

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  10. @PhilippaBandmonkeyfish There are latterly a lot of very annoying Ciffers both above and below who clearly have clearly not passed any sort of verbal reasoning test and only turn up to cling wrap any argument with their usually narrow, intransigent point of view. I must work today anyway. There is writing to be done.

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  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxj1RDbp_iE

    One for a Habib smile. Outsourcing childcare to India. My 80 year old mum adores this

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  12. I am still in disbelief over the Brick Lane proposals. Private Eye will be over the moon.

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  13. Edwin,

    thanks for that information. There was a nice documentary about Douglas on the DVD, with his contemporaries saying that as a true artist he was never going to get the budget nor the attention from British Film funders.

    Also, the Scottish film council gave him a bum steer as the Trilogy did not conform to the 'Dr Finlay's casebook', kailyard, 'hoots mon' image they wanted to project.

    Philippa, glad to be of service!

    An LGBT article has just appeared about rural American LGBT's. I mean, nothing against them, do what you want to do etc, but do we really need another hand wringer about rural US LGBT's?

    How about that working class experience of the recession we've been after for a very long time.....?

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  14. Jay,

    is Brick Lane in the Tower Hamlets council area? I know Private Eye having been gunning for them for a while.

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  15. Thats the one, Duke, and this latest idea of theirs really is a cracker. Have a read. I would imagine this will get a full double page spread in the Mail.

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  16. Ha ha the Brick Lane proposal is on that wobbly line between spoof and Only A Management Consultant Could Think it Up

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  17. I thought it must be spoof until i saw the photo of the minaret with "illuminated crescent" on top - that bits already completed, attached to the side of a listed building. You couldnt make it up...

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  18. Well your post made me laugh, MF, so thats one function the article has served.

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  19. Is it possiible for professional identity bandits to discuss identity in standard prose?

    Take this last paragraph, a classic of its type:

    "The binaries of closeted/visible, rural/urban and online/offline should be questioned as they converge through media to privilege, and morally rank certain strategies of "being out" over others."

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  20. Another late start for us, so I can pop in to tell you that:

    A. I got an e-mail from Habib's friend Eddie, saying that Habib doesn't want anyone to worry about him. I replied, "Tell Habib, tough shit" -- in slightly politer language, since I don't know Eddie.

    B. As someone who lives in rural Iowa, works with kids who are 12-14 years old and has a 10 year old son, I can tell you that kids in this little patch of rural America don't get too worked up about sexual orientation. The overwhelming majority of them honestly seem to not give a shit -- in the sense that they think it's just part of who someone is and nothing to stop being friends with someone over.

    I think I might have told you a few months back -- we had a bit of a scandal about two 8th grade girls who were a couple, doing all the typically couple stuff -- writing each other's names on their notebooks, etc. It was only the teachers who were getting worked up about it. The kids couldn't see what the fuss was about.

    Don't know what Mary Gray would think of that.

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  21. Heyhabib - get better soon!

    MsR - hang on to 'em. They might be an inflation beating asset in years to come.

    Jay where is the photo? The whole thing sounds completely mad.

    Philippa. I have a friend who sleeps with women and men yet goes mad if you call her bisexual. She insists she is heterosexual - she only sleeps with women 'for fun' and all her serious relationships have been with men - and that is her reasoning.

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  22. The Mary Gray thing is a hoot.

    According to what I've read in Larry McMurtry's novels, young Texans will shag anything that moves except tumbleweed.

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  23. PCC, look at DavidS's link for the "stainless steel tower", euphemism of the month.

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  25. "The binaries of closeted/visible, rural/urban and online/offline should be questioned as they converge through media to privilege, and morally rank certain strategies of "being out" over others."

    I'm guessing our Mary took a few courses which managed to combine all the "best practice" from structuralist, post-structuralist, social constructivist and deconstructive theory...that paragraph has the scent of Derrida all over it. Chuck in a soupçon of deprivileging and de-centring and we'd have a full house..BINGO!

    Seriously, I doubt this shit would even pass muster in the more outré UK cultural studies departments these days...but it'll always find a light on in the window of Guardian Towers.

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  26. 'young Texans will shag anything that moves except tumbleweed.' Lol.

    Jay - agh seen it now. Hideous. Good comments on that article by the way.

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  27. Monkeyfish very very amusing.

    I note Matron Jessica of the lower sixth has removed any reference from me and others of her picking on me.

    Me thinks Jess had very disappointing Valentine's day and despite being a strident third wave feminist she wanted the accoutrements but could not actually ask for them.

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  28. @Jay I suggested to deano that he should add Minarets to his structure. See I was so very on trend.

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  29. When did Deano get involved in the destruction of Brick Lane? Sly old git...

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  30. MsR
    "I suggested to deano that he should add Minarets to his structure. See I was so very on trend."
    Ha! Brilliant - he should apply to his local council for funding...

    Princess - can't help thinking "women sleep with women for fun, men sleep with women for etc etc ..."

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  31. monkeyfish,

    I've put a request on WADDYA.

    Jay,

    just read that article now. It's a classic CiF 'left and right unite' underneath. Private Eye will be sharpening the knives as we speak.

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  32. @philippaB it is all derivative of Oscar Wilde's famous "Men marry because they're tired. Women because they are curious."

    The rest is just identity politics:)

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  33. Women marry for fun, men for... Darker reasons...

    Surely? = )

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  34. ah, MsR - should have guessed that tanya gold didn't come up with it all by herself...

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  35. Coming in here is like walking into the toilets at school. It's where the cool kids hang out and smoke.

    I've never been one of the cool kids myself though, far from it, so I'll just back out, mumbling apologies and hoping that you don't grab me and bog wash me or give me a wedgie.

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  36. Now this is an interesting development Israeli Palestinian confederation

    Lets hope it doesn't come to nought...

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  37. come on tiger....don't be such a woos...we don't bite. We won't make you smoke either - just btreathe in a little sulphur from time to time.

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  38. Evening all

    Welcome to the dark side, tigerdunc... mwahahahahahah!

    That TG witches article is dross. Haven't looked at much else yet.

    Sending more good vibes to Habib. x

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  39. I thought Tanya's article was pretty funny. You know, for Tanya.

    Duke's post on the Wainwright thread is funny as well. And very green (-;

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  40. sheff - No need to make me smoke, I'm a willing volunteer.

    And I'll take my sulphur with a dash of brimstone and just a hint of eternal damnation please.

    Cif is just all too predictable nowadays. I still like it and have a strange loyalty towards it, but I really think a major overhaul is in order, new writers and a new approach rather than just fucking around with the front page. Otherwise it will wither and die as the same ATL and BTL contributors waltz around in the same arguments and counter arguments.

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  41. @tigerdunc - as monkeyfish has so eloquently observed above, the crisis at the heart of Cif is its obsession with identity politics, an idea whose time has passed.

    So, yeh, a major overhaul is required, but that would mean a retread of the Guardian itself, ditching the Islingtonians who Matt has dinner with, and bringing in a whole batch of writers who understand that politics is about economic interests.

    As that's not gonna happen anytime soon, the same debates will go on being recycled, the same entrenched positions dug ever deeper, and the posters who kick against the pricks will be increasingly alienated, bored or banned.

    Still, I always get the impression that, for a lot of the daytime posters, it's a fun way to spend your working day.

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  42. ***Shitdribble article alert*** ***Shitdribble article alert***

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  43. Jessica has just asked Turminder (on waddya) to write something - which i really hope you'll do turminder. where are you? come out of hiding and tell us what you have in mind. it's time the chaps on the UT had a go atl.

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  44. Your Grace

    Which one? So many would fit that description... :p

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  45. You'll have to be a bit more specific your Grace - shit dribble is everywhere...

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  46. Hank - yup, couldn't agree more, monkeyfish has it pretty much spot on, although I'm not sure about the whole 'Islington mafia' thing.

    That stereotype is a bit old hat now ( It was very Tony Blair) and of course, once you start tarring a group with that brush, you are playing the exact game that you accuse them of playing, i.e indulging in identity politics.

    What I have asked for before, but never seen, is a 'mission statement' from Matt (and formerly from Georgina). I'd like Matt to lay out exactly what he wants CiF to be, what he wants it to stand for and where he wants it to go, because I am under the impression that they don't really know at Guardian Towers.
    I don't think that the obsession with identity politics is deliberate policy, I think it is a result of a lack of clear vision and ambition. It is what you end up with when you get lost.

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  47. Just put 1200 words into the ether about life lower down the food chain. Doubt it'll tick the boxes tho, if Jess KBs me i'll post it here pals. Hiya Tigerdunc, good to see ya! =)

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  48. Hank

    it's a fun way to spend your working day

    Too right! ;-)

    My working day can be hectic, or it can be a boring piece of pish as, unless we have a major project going on, it's reactive. Even when there is a project, a lot of it involves "hit the go button on the programme and wait 45 minutes for the job to complete".

    I have to grudgingly admit that Tanya's article today wasn't too bad. At least no-one's face got ripped off by tweezers or something.

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  49. But that having been said, there is what could be an interesting and amusing thread developing on a sequel to Taxi Driver by Peter Bradshaw.

    The article and thread that is. Not Taxi Driver. That was Marty Scorsesese.

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  50. @Jay and @MF

    If I may paraphrase that paragraph you quoted:

    "New York people saying they're gay on Twitter are seen as cooler than anyone else."

    (The old sub-editor gene has returned to life.)

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  51. Bingo, TigerDunc! Although I'm pretty sure their policy revolves around maximising page hits. I'm disgusted that Andrew Brown's latest has generated over 1000 comments - I've refused to click on the damn thing.

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  52. Your Grace - i see we have a choice

    1.The Enduring Legacy of Pauline Hanson
    2. Female touch is boosting hedge funds
    3. Labour should listen to James Purnell

    dear god.. my heart beats with wild excitment....

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  53. Sheff,

    the shitdribble article is the most outrageous puff piece for a post election New labour figure I have seen yet.

    I would say CiF should be ashamed for publishing it, however.....

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  54. thauma

    I'm refusing to look at any of them - I value the shreds of sanity I've got left.

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  55. Right, the highlife beckons for yours truly..getting my beer bought for making up the numbers in a domino match..not sure I've played since I was 8 or 9..

    "yeah, don't worry..I know what I'm doing..I play all the time.."

    "You sure..it's an important tie"

    "Relax.."

    Wish I hadn't volunteered now..they take their dominoes very seriously round here..still, what's the worse that can happen?

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  56. MF - I recently discovered that I have a dominos set in a multi-game package - can't quite remember what the rules are as, like you, I haven't played since I was about 9. Don't remember it being very complicated and was shocked to discover that certain people take it very seriously indeed!

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  57. thaumaturge

    I don't mind if they throw in articles that are aimed purely at getting hits and clicks, that's the reality of a commercial world and a trade off I'm happy to make.

    I just wish they would do it with a little more grace and wit than simply lobbing another piss poor Andrew Brown article into the tank.

    Hell, if they published a few more open threads on more mundane and even downright silly subjects and told everyone what they were for, I think they would get a huge number of hits.

    And thank you to all of you for your welcomes. Before anyone asks, I am NOT organizing The Untrusted annual/bi-annual/spring get together/piss up.

    And lastly but by no means leastly, a hearty 'get well soon' to Habib.

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  58. @thauma - I was against bringing in Irish workers from the start. Fine, get the roads built, then send them home. As it is, we've imported a whole bunch of idle slackers who've brought their popery, their rugby and their contempt for temperance with them.

    It's no wonder this country's in the mess it's in.

    (Note to BB - that was irony btw xx)

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  59. (Note to Hank - I was playing Ernie to your Eric, you silly bugger! xxx)

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  61. Ha ha, even funnier, Beckham's just scored against the Mancs...

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  62. Excellent post on the purnell thread from rednorth. Small sample:

    "the Beast by its true Name: viscous, evil, careerist troughers feathering their own nests while kicking away the crutches of the disabled and calling it 'empowerment'.

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  63. The Taxi Driver thread, tigerdunc, should have been posted during the day. Would have been a lot busier.

    Maybe they could run a sequel tomorrow.

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  64. Hi folks, and a very "hi"-ish "hi" to tigerDunc (no, you don't know me. Know, it doesn't matter).

    Just browsing youtube for "Orpheus in the Underworld", as we're playing the overture in our band, and guess what? I found out just *why* it is so effing boring with the operetta so witty, fresh, sexy and full of irony: The overture wasn't composed by Offenbach (a true Parisian!), but by Austrian composer Karl Binder.

    It has always been my view that it all went downhill for the operetta when the centre of the operetta went from Paris to Vienna (and the character of the operetta from witty to schmaltzy (pardon my identity politics here)), and this little-known fact really confirms this notion.

    Just compare this version of the overture (and notice how the whole thing comes to a schmaltzy, Austrian halt around 6:30) with this NSFW clip from a scene which is more typical of the tone of the operetta than all the melodies of the overture put together (okay, maybe minus the Can-Can, that one *is* typical for the operetta when played elegantly).

    We also play music from "The Third Man" - The filmmakers had a hard time convincing the producers to go with the simple zither melodies by Anton Karas instead of going for a more symphonic sound, so naturally, the score got arranged for wind orchestra.

    I'm starting to call the up-coming concert the "Concert of Very Dubious Arrangements" ...

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  65. I was against bringing in Irish workers from the start. Fine, get the roads built, then send them home.

    A reasonable point, hank, but don't forget the canals and the railways. Here's one for the navvies - Navigators

    Apparently most of the Irish navvies in the 1850's were LGBT, and could only express themselves covertly through the underground, yet sensitive and artistic media of folk-song, traditional dance, strong poteen and bar-room brawling. I'm thinking of pitching an identity article to Cif on this neglected topic. My article will encompass immigration, racism, imperialism, homophobia, fear of folk music, class warfare, substance abuse, misogyny and soda farls. What d'you think? Is it a goer?

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  66. Sounds like a winner to me, scherfig. Any chance that you could stick any of the navvies in a burka?

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  67. scherf

    My father in laws antecedents were navigators and dug canals in Gloucestershire. Its a shame he's no longer around as he had some good stories from those times - probably apocryphal but good stories nevertheless.

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  68. "Dug canals in Gloucestershire" - you're so middle class, sheff. My antecedents dug holes in Camden. And that was before Camden was fashionable (-;

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  69. Excellent suggestion, Hank. Re-writing history is what I do best. I sense a connection between the Paddy drunkards on the railways round Manchester and the purdah wives of the Muslim soldiers in the Punjab who rose up against the Empire in the Indian mutiny of 1857. That may just clinch it regarding acceptance from Cif. Thanks for the help.

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  70. "My article will encompass immigration, racism, imperialism, homophobia, fear of folk music, class warfare, substance abuse, misogyny and soda farls. What d'you think? Is it a goer?"

    Un..fuckin..doubtedly..the world needs to be told about this. The dogged resilience, determined resistance and sheer chutzpah of those mincing, shovel-wielding gender revolutionaries can serve as an inspiration to any young LGBT taking their first tentative steps towards self affirmation. The battle to overturn the latent Celto-xeno-homo-phobic attitudes of both the British establishment and working classes and forge an authentic queer sense of gender and sexual identity is a saga that the world has been denied for for just too long.

    I'd suggest Liam Neeson for the part of Sweetcheeks O'Toole and Colin Farrell for his soulmate Sergio..go for it.

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  71. Btw, sheff, just read that Purnell thread. Some little dick, straight out of university, PPSing for Purnell and posting a defence of him on Cif.

    And some other little wonk called James Plunkett posting similar shite on Cif earlier.

    Middle class careerists without a principle between them. Emblematic of NL and Cif.

    It's nauseating shit.

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  72. You lost at dominoes then, MF?

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  73. No..we won..but I don't think I'm getting asked back. Won 4 out of 6 games and we won overall but I had one eye on the match..(Rooney's gotta be burned out by the summer btw)..and it seems I inadvertently transgressed every code of etiquette in the Domino lexicon. Had to tell our 'captain' and 'expert'.."I don't care how fuckin old you are, you wave that stick in my face again and I'm gonna feed it to you"..seriously, you'd have thought it was fuckin important.

    And I had to make up the 30p a pint to get Kronenburg..cunt was only prepared to buy me Fosters.

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  74. "Middle class careerists without a principle between them. Emblematic of NL and Cif."

    You think that's bad..take a look at the contemporary left..with particular emphasis on comments 7 and 16..see if you can guess who I am btw...Me and Sunny have this 'love-hate' thing going on btw

    the contemporary left..read it and weep

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  75. Dominos etiquette - lol, only in Middlesbrough.

    James McIntyre's thread btw, MF. He's one of us. You'll feel like you've come home....

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  76. Oh yeah he's a real socialist firebrand...what the fuck..other than the usual mindless 'taking things forward' platitudinous dynamic sounding bullshit..does that article say?

    The 'zigzagging' thing was good though..possibly inspired by the Winter Olympics and a reference to the Slalom..I think the downhill would be more appropriate as it goes. Congrats on your recent 'Orwellian' interventions btw ;) Kinda hits a few panel pins firmly au maison.

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  77. well done turminder, look forward to reading it (here if not there!)

    just had mates round for pancakes. apart from one of them leaving the gas on and nearly blowing us all up, it was very nice.

    just want to gauge the room - - twattish or funny?

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  78. Yeh, just read Sunny's thread, MF. He's an arse. But he's done ok, made some money, thanks to Cif and NewLabour.

    He pushes the whole diversity shit, plays the victim card every professional Muslim does, and pretends that the War on Terror takes precedence over everything else, and that identity politics matters.

    As every other Guardian writer does.

    Sunny's fucked the chances of working class muslims.

    Not surprising then that he's welcome at the Guardian.

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  79. "just want to gauge the room - twattish or funny?"

    What? Which?

    Jeez, this is like one of those Cif polls which asks - "A: Do you think newspaper editors are paragons of virtue?; or B Do you think newspaper editors are corrupt as fuck (and btw, if you post any reference to the BellaM who's on the editorial staff of Cif, and her dad is Alan Rusbridger, bleeding heart liberal egalitarian, not a hypocrite oh no) you'll get banned..

    I'm going twattish and funny, PB. Not very funny though. I'm not laughing much.

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  80. Hank

    Sunny's a Sikh...correction..Sunny's an atheist who spends his time taking offence on behalf of any 'persecuted' religious minority...well obviously fat American evangelicals can take a flying fuckin jump..and Zionists...who have grievously distorted the life affirming message that is Judaism...other than that all religions have a rightful claim on our respect and protection..oh..except Catholics and those Hindus in the BJP who are islamophobic fascist bastards...oh yeah...and moderate Muslims who don't appreciate that radical Islam is the product of Zionist neocon manoeuvring and have the fuckin nerve to say they quite like it in the West...other than that...he's a broad-minded atheist..but not one of those enlightenment fundamentalist 'New Atheists' who are part of the problem.

    A Guardian wet dream as you say.

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  81. Hang on - that should have said - Bansky (bolded) - twattish or funny?

    Am sure I got the tags right. Didn't notice earlier...

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  82. Banksy - twattish.

    A cartoonist who uses walls. Not a very good cartoonist either.

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  83. SunnyH - twattish.

    Can we do everyone like this?

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  84. "Bansky (bolded) - twattish or funny?"

    Frankly..passé

    Used to love the guy...bored with him now..I'd do the clichéd..til he sold out thing etc. but once I found out he was ex-public school..which probably means he had all the right connections etc and frankly, never developed..I'm bored.

    He had a point once and a message but it just looks like it was all a cynical PR exercise from today's perspective.

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  85. @Hank

    I used to think the same, but as Sunny has climbed up the Establishment bloggy greasy pole he's got more and more didactic and arrogant. It gets on my nerves these days.

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  86. Jeez, I wouldn't even recognise Banksy if he waddled over to me with a Pinot Noir in the one hand and a tax avoidance brochure in the other.

    You guys are missing a very big picture.

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  87. Oh fucking lord above! I come in from a night out and the first glass of (much, much missed) booze in ages. And I see a warning that the shitdribble has put up another of his odious articles.

    Well shall i read it? Or should I go to bed with my - one glass of wine mellow- in tact? HHmmm Bed methinks. I will read fuckpig Purnell tomorrow. Nite all.

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