Prompted by The Guardian's 'Reading the Riots' analysis of the civil unrest, The Times belatedly sent two of its staff out to Hackney to do 'After the Riots' research.
The youngsters came back full of beans, excitedly babbling about their experience with East London's social underclass whose base is the seedy but thriving area around Marray Street.
They recounted their digging into the drug infested epicentre of some of the worst of the rioting as the art desk searched Google Maps for Marray Street so they could do a graphic.
But they couldn't locate it so they called out to the reporters for the spelling. M-A-R-E they replied.
And some people think the broadsheets are full of posh people?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's another anecdote which I'm inclined to believe but, for legal reasons, will not name the footballer involved or his club.
A Premiership player was out on the town and got drunk. No surprise there. He got a minicab home. The driver, recognising the £50,000 a week or so player in the back, decided to sneakily add a tenner to the fare.
The player spotted this and punched the driver in the face, breaking his nose. The club got a call about it and sent out a 'fixer' to sort it out.
The fixer happened to hate this particular player because he was always having to be bailed out. He went to the minicab office and said: 'How long is your driver going to be off work?'
'About two weeks' said his boss. 'Two months? Blimey. Let's call it ten weeks then to round it up,' said the fixer. 'Er, okay' said the minicab boss. 'And how much does the driver earn a week?' asked the fixer. 'About two...' The fixer cut him short: 'Two grand a week? Fair enough. That's £20,000. If I get the player to write a cheque for that, can I be sure nothing else will happen?'
'Okay' said the minicab boss, confused. The fixer went back to the club and the player. 'Write a cheque for £40,000 and the whole thing will be forgotten.' The player paid up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm told that Coca-Cola chiefs in America are apparently very unhappy with the British habit of calling the regular version of the fizzy drink 'Fat Coke' instead of just Coke or Regular Coke. Now you know, I dare say you'll all stop doing it immediately.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I couldn't help but notice, at White Hart Lane on Sunday, that Liverpool fielded a side completely made up of white men. It's unusual in this day and age. We were racking out brains for the last time this might have happened and reckoned it was probably the Blackburn Rovers side of the mid-1990s that went on to win the league. Or have I got that wrong?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's nothing like a nice little gypsy eviction to bring out the hidden Nazi in many. I know that it's an illegal campsite, I know how awful it is if you live nearby, and I realise that they should have been moved out long ago. But the number of comments on various newspaper comment sections about bringing them out in body bags and bombing the site is nothing short of disgusting. The Nazis looked at gypsies like they looked at Jews and homosexuals. Just swap the word pikey for Yid or poof and see if it's still as funny.
Don't have night marrays....Solly
No comments:
Post a Comment