Real England

"like all normal lads i wait for Match of the Day to finish before i decide to go to the pub on a Saturday night"

Got to the pub for his usual turnip stout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1prYNQpO7w

Hadersfild

a Serbian film called Huddersfield, that's a strange one.

We’ve had to stop people fighting and urinating in their seats’: the ugly new side of theatre audiences

You wouldn't have seen that kind of behaviour at Shakespeare's Globe in Elizabethan times.

Where else could this happen but Grays

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/11/essex-pub-landlady-benice-ryley-replaces-golliwog-doll-collection-that-was-seized-by-police

Ryley denied that she or her husband were racist. “I’m not a racist in any form.” She confirmed that her husband had been photographed in a T-shirt from the far-right group Britain First. She said: “I don’t think Chris is a supporter of Britain First, he was just wearing that shirt because it was convenient at the time.”

I read the whole article and literally lolled when I got to those lines.

Tony Daly, who manages a nearby charity shop, said the dolls made his “blood boil” and said he was shocked they had been on display in such a diverse area.

I think that chazza is the one I had a nose around in on a recent and ill-advised sojourn to the fine hamlet of Grays! The guy working there was chatting with some customers about Michael Jackson, the gist of the conversation being that MJ must be innocent of everything he was ever accused of. Not sure how they came to that conclusion tbh. Can't be certain it was him either so I might be maligning the fellow. The books, by the way, were arranged on the shelves by spine colour, it was very odd.

The books, by the way, were arranged on the shelves by spine colour

Charity shop down the road from me does the same - completely useless unless you're looking for Penguin lol

Read about the allotment lady and allotment wars.

Re the food bank allotment lady whose garden got salted - Mum told me there was a survey in The Times of which 5% of people admitted (ADMITTED) to sabotaging other plots. British gardening is a cutthroat and horrible culture

— the sloop johnbie (@fireh9lly) April 12, 2023

Only 5%?

friend of mine once wanted to piss on Stanley Gene's cabbages but only because fuck Rovers tbh

wouldn't want to get doing that, especially by Stanley Gene

caught

therein lies the thrill

it's easy to imagine lots of hatred and murderous intent bubbling under the genteel facade of the Gardeners' Question Time studio audience

"Yea milord, verily shall thy subjects quaff deeply of the Pepsi Max Cherry on thy crowning day; huzzah!" pic.twitter.com/8HE0i9fKeZ

— Tina Kover (@tinakover) April 13, 2023

This’ll get the young ‘uns fired up. https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/national/23455417.council-official-t-dawg-makes-rap-video-photo-id-reminder-voters/

fuck it i managed a line and a half and my toes may never uncurl again

deary me pic.twitter.com/vyASZXZjUJ

— migra falko (@migrafalko) April 20, 2023

beautiful short film about England

#StGeorgesDay2023 Trafalgar Square. London. Be there or be square. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/jCz2YEyveS

— #DontBeABystander 🍅 (@Nikhedonia11) April 23, 2023

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuZ-TLnXgAAVHe3?format=jpg&name=medium

how/why does one become a pearly king or queen? I know they do charity stuff. Is there a particular demographic?

Is it not a family thing?

it wasn't just racists that decided to become pearly kings & queens...

The reporter identified her politics accurately pic.twitter.com/P9w8od5UG4

— James (@fredfelt) April 26, 2023

the artisans at the celebrations factory have been busy:

https://i.imgur.com/3Zseh56.png

At the Saturday craft market in town, a guy walking around wearing a 'no-one knows I'm a lesbian' t-shirt.

pic.twitter.com/5O1QBodFKv

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) May 5, 2023

Really good writing. Harrowing stuff, about life in this country.

https://t.co/QfswzZEBxh

— horses noise (@HINIONGE) May 9, 2023

^^brutal read, and matches my different-but-same experiences in getting any help from UK care services
(also the appearance of an IRL old friend halfway thru the story knocked the stuffing out of me ;_;)

Too much too familiar to finish that tonight

Aw man, I know that guy (the writer of the article), was Twitter pals back when I was on it, briefly knew him IRL too, fuck

Yeah, me too.

it makes me sadly think about old friends who have either died or disappeared off my radar in the last decade. Some of them might be struggling on elsewhere, some of them I'm almost certain they must be dead by now.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxNXNhtXgAADtbv?format=jpg&name=small

the van-driving yeomanry classes are revolting

that van doesn't look like a van should, way too clean and neat and with all sorts of 'stylish' bodywork features. certainly a luxury van

as a posho, I know a posh van when I see one, you can tell from the handshake. probably thinks of Pimlico Plumbers as common

lazy English workmen, can't even be bothered to update the prime minister's name

I used to work with the guy that owns it, he's probably one of the most objectionable people I've ever met in my life. I gave my notice at the company and told them it's bad enough living around the corner from this a-hole, I don't want to see him every day at work as well. The boss agreed that he's a colossal arsehole and very hard to deal with on a daily basis, but he's also a very productive one and never takes days off!

last line needs three exclamation marks

wishing calz's foe a very cost of vanning crisis

"But he's a hard worker" is the employment equivalent of "But they've got a good personality".

yep, behind nearly every workplace arsehole is an enabler

I've talked to 3 other people who previously worked with him and they were all in agreement that working with him was way too stressful and his unacceptably awful behaviour is enabled by a management clique who think he's a "character". One of them told me he got walled by a 19 yr old Labourer after running his mouth and was so humiliated he never returned to that site. Heh! I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall.

I mis-read that as Labrador

that would have been good as well!

My opinion is that if someone's an arsehole, it doesn't matter how good they are at their job. Their behaviour is having a negative effect on their co-workers.

It doesn't matter what skills they have, they're a net loss and need to go. Especially if they in any sense come into contact with customers.

Obviously but if management think they're useful they turn a blind eye. Speaking from experience here as there's one particular guy where I work with who is a horrendous bully, just completely unemployable anywhere else, but because he works really hard and knows his job inside out he's allowed to get away with - despite all the anti-bullying/harrassment programmes and schemes and box ticking shite management bombard us with. The other factor is that he's a snitch and an inside man and when I worked with him he would spend an hour in the manager's office every morning telling her - whether she wanted to hear it or not - how badly everyone had done their job the day before. When we got a new overall manager I tried to gather lots of evidence on his horrible behaviour to present to her - all that happened is I got moved on and he quickly made himself indispensable to her by bypassing his line manager and going directly to her to inform on his colleagues. Thankfully I don't have to work with him anymore!

You can’t park there mate. pic.twitter.com/rv7I0XeaxH

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) July 13, 2023