THE BRITISH THREAD II

I don't know. How?

Prince Harry does it again, albeit three years ago: "Pakis, ragheads". That'll go down well in certain quarters, less so in others. Just what the royals don't need at the moment. His daddy will be pleased.

I wonder who leaked this stuff? Naughty.

Made headline here too McTag, don't know what the fuss is all about, isn't that just how young people talk?

Just seen the footy on MoTD- Chelsea were well hammered here tonight.

Big psychological blow I reckon (just wanted to see if I could spell that) for Lampard and Terry & Co and where was Ashley Cole for the second goal?
Steve will be well chuffed.

Wigan won again, come on you pie-men!

And just think Queenie how many men there are in this country, or even in Huddersfield, who would give their high teeth to keep you snug and warm.

The sacrifices some people make for art. It makes me feel humble.

Why thank you spendius. My cousin lives in Huddersfield.

Well he didn't mean harm, really. Just ignorance. I dunno, yeah it's stupid because he should know the papers would blow it up...
Maybe he meant it ironically.

He's in Iraq for fucks sake though, in the frikin army. Thats political correctness for you: he's technically allowed to kill Iraqi's, but not call them rag-heads.

Good point, PQ, very. We can bomb them, shoot them, starve them even, but mustn't call them ragheads. I never thought of that before in quite the same terms.

Spendy, what are "high teeth", for goodness sakes? This is the British Thread after all, and we must keep our standards up. To whom would the others turn for guidance, if not to us?

Kleig lights? I had never heard that used before (GWB used it in his news conference yesterday). Is that a term used in Britain? We normally just say "spotlight", no?


"A Klieg light is an intense carbon arc lamp especially used in filmmaking. It is named after inventor John H. Kliegl and his brother Anton Tiberius Kliegl. Modern klieg lights use a tungsten-halogen filament. They usually have a fresnel lens or ellipsoidal lens.

"

What I liked most was the way Harry spit that fag out.

Third in line smokes eh?

What about asking him to go light up in a pub and get the landlord to call the cops.

Sooty has the right idea. Good old Sooty.

I just saw a restaurant owner pleading for some easing of the bank loan restrictions and one of his staff was making pretty patterns in a slice of melon with a stainless steel utensil of some ingenuity.

Boy oh boy are we in the ****.

Personally, I just can't enjoy a melon unless it has first been carved by an expert trained in the aethetic and artistic presentation of foodstuffs.

This costs. Give him the money. For is the labourer not worthy of his hire?

That makes sense.

The other 59,999,999 of us will be entitled to the same privileges won't they?

And not just for the melon course. Of course.

Aesthetic tastes and/or artistic appreciation don't suddenly vanish once the melon has been churned by the molars and swallowed through the gulp reflex to join the still undigested pie and chips from lunch and take its natural path to bobbing about in Liverpool Bay. Say. I'll not discuss it being spread on the fields on account of how tasteless most people seem to find that perfectly normal scientific process.

Do you like the aesthetics and artistry of inside leg measurements in tailors shops? One wouldn't expect a person who thinks of melon in this refined way to purchase ready-mades.

It is necessary in order to get a firm grasp of the economic situation that readers here be made to realise the very simple fact that Mac's stated view is held by a number of people who can swing any election.

It has an unassailable position in British political life and there is nothing anybody can do about it except buy a cave somewhere nobody has any interest in and learn how to live on bush tucker.

Morning, all.

I'm glad you wrote "Mac's stated view" and not "Mac's view", Spendy.
FYI I had pot noodles for lunch yesterday...a first for me, never eaten that before. (may be some time before I do that again).

My chosen tailoring this morning is a pair of work trousers from the Co-op. Very comfy, very roomy, very not Savile Row.

I come from a time of food rationing and sealing wax, where people saved brown wrapping paper and string, and darned socks, and ripped down handknitted jumpers and knitted afresh with the old wool. And saved silver paper. You can take the boy out of the '40's ........

Okay Mac. You were jesting earlier. A modest proposal kind of thing.

I presume from your latest post that you don't wish taxpayers to bail out the restaurant owner I mentioned nor anyone else in the same kind of work.

If so we are at one on the matter.

As the delicate preparation of melon, and other items, is more common in the South East do you think the bail-outs represent a transfer of wealth from the provinces to that region, as does the lottery and much else?

Cripes--I'm starting to sound like Alex Salmond. If Scotland extended itself to a line just north of B'ham I could be a Scot Nat in no time.

A casual glance at the tangle of lying and cheating the local authorities are getting trapped in over waste disposal strongly suggests that we go back to that idyll, minus the bad stuff. And it sounds more fun.

Those things were, obviously, activities for ladies which were both admirable and useful in a number of ways. Men had allotments and pubs.

I see that another alpha female has developed foot in mouth disease.

I'm not suggesting you are from my mother's generation McT but your description above fitted her to a T. And rubber bands. People were healthier and happier before the era of enforced consumerism.

The impression you might have given Steve is that I wrote that. Mac wrote that. Okay? I come from the distant past.

I know such as well ... and I'm neither (really) from your mother's generation nor from spendis distant past).

Rubber bands made us happy, too - not sure if healthier as well.

Hey seen this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/16/mps-expenses-exemption


MPs to be exempt from publishing expenses

Ministers are poised to exempt all MPs and peers from having to publish details of their expenses, only weeks before MPs were due to be forced to disclose more than 1.2 million receipts covering claims for the last three years.

The move next week will allow parliament to nullify all the long-fought victories by campaigners and journalists to force MPs to publish details of all their individual receipts for their second homes, including details of what they spent on furnishings, maintenance, rent, mortgage payments, staffing, travel, office staffing and equipment.

The changes will be retrospective and all pending requests for more information under the Freedom of Information Act will be blocked.

The changes will put MPs and peers in a special category as the only paid public officials who will not have to disclose the full details of their expenses and allowances.

In Scotland, MSPs are required to declare all of their expenses to the Scottish parliament.

The proposed changes were contained in a parliamentary order released at the same time as the government announced proposals to build a third Heathrow runway, compensate policyholders at Equitable Life and MPs debated the crisis in Gaza. ...."


Diabolical liberty, or what?
We are not to know how our representatives are spending our money on themselves.
As to the timing of the announcement, draw your own conclusions. Looks to me very like an attempt to bury it and stifle controversy.