I am upset about the decision to remove patriotic songs from the Last Night of the Proms...the result of forensic racism...you will be upset by anything if you look hard enough. Doing stuff like this is actually divisive. We welcome events such as Chinese New Year celebrations and the Notting Hill Carnival as an addition to the British way of life, but are then told that the traditions of the majority are not worth preserving. LNOP is such a happy event and surely saying that Britons shall not be slaves is a good thing.
Going to be orchestral only....presumably an opera singer singing in a virtually empty hall is too much of a risk. (Cynical mode).
Whilst the rules are such that you are not allowed to sing hymns at weddings or theatres are not allowed to have shows it is not too hard that similar rules will apply to the Proms. The flag waving ninnies will just have to sing it themselves in their own homes, a bit like we had to watch football at home too. Really should be a non-story if you think about it.
They've said that it'll be back to normal next year so presumably nothing to do with race. Pretty sure a newspaper made that up anyway.
This is one of the issues raised apparently...the fact that is sung in a song celebrating a nation that built some of its wealth by making other people slaves. I'm not saying we shouldn't celebrate our past, or our nation but I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't celebrate the nation's achievements quite so much without a firm acknowledgement that we were a bunch of bastards and pirates. Perhaps we just need new songs?
A statue of a male deer is going to be erected in Downing Street, so that Johnson can continue to pass the buck every day.
The past is another country, they do things differently there. No country in the world wouldn't offend 21st century thinking. Perhaps Italy should apologise for the Romans, Denmark should apologise for the Vikings and *****ls definitely should apologise for Ghengis Khan. Who sold the slaves to slavers? Africans with a long history of enslaving other tribes. If you have to take responsibility for your ancestors' sins how far back do you have to go.....I have Scandinavian blood, perhaps I should apologise for raiding all those monasteries. If you have to feel bad about the past, then surely you can revel in the good stuff as well.
Although a Conservative, I am not a fan of Boris, but just found this quote from him....all I can say is 'Go, Boris' because it sums up my feelings exactly. "If it is correct... I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions and about our culture, and we stop this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness," Mr Johnson told reporters.
One difference possibly is that we are still run by the same bastards that were doing their thing 300 years ago, and as a nation we have assets still that exist because we stole them from weaker countries. We are probably the only ones that do it with any kind of pomp and ceremony. As a nation we can be proud as punch of all sorts of inventions, innovations, sporting achievements, art and music - all sorts, but not our empire and I do think we should move on from looking back to empire days as if they were great times that forged Britain as a nation. People can sing what they like imo, but equally other people can be troubled by the singing.
Teacher: What us the chemical formula for water? Chilcs: H I J K L M N O Teacher: What are you on about? Chilcs: Yesterday you said it was H to O Sorry Chilcs, couldn’t resist
Don’t know how much is true, but interesting anyway. stolen from FB I wonder if you know some of these very interesting 1. In the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule of thumb.' 2. Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only... Ladies Forbidden'... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. 3. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs -Alexander the Great, Diamonds - Julius Caesar 4. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.' 5. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. 6. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's' 7. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice. 8. In 1696, William III of England introduced a property tax that required those living in houses with more than six windows to pay a levy. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up all windows except six. (The Window Tax lasted until 1851, and older houses with bricked-up windows are still a common sight in the U.K.) As the bricked-up windows prevented some rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was referred to as “daylight robbery”! Now, there you have the origin of these phrases. Interesting isn’t it!!
Pretty sure that mind your p's and q's is derived from the printing trade. In the old days letters were inserted individually and back to front before application of printers ink. Very easy to confuse a lower case p with a lower case q, hence mind your p's and q's. Could be apocryphal, but what I was told by a print layer. And I doubt the origin cited for the word golf....golf is an old word possibly meaning club or bat. At that time no one would expect women to play sport, so would not think to say women forbidden.
