The Real Cost…
Of an uneducated workforce.
Where else? Oldham.
A tip of the Raccoon tail to Saul.
- October 21, 2011 at 09:44
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Point taken Julia. I wasn’t precise enough. The usual suspects butt in
within minutes like they’re hanging on every word. I do believe I named
them.
- October 22, 2011 at 08:16
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Most blogs have “the usual suspects”. I’m one of them on several, albeit
not here. It’s unlikely they are sock puppets for the host, though – hosts
generally have more subtle ways of interfering with hostile comments.
Think of it this way – you’re not addressing a literary salon, you’re
butting in to somebody else’s conversation in a pub. If you interrupted and
said, as you did, “you are ignorant snobs and have no right to any opinion”
what sort of response would you expect?
Especially when you are challenged to go and find your sense of humour,
you call the landlady “a cretin”.
- October 22, 2011 at 08:16
- October 21, 2011 at 09:07
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I just said that the original post wasn’t funny. No bitter complaining and
no offence taken. Sorry guys.
I don’t see the various ripostes as ridicule, just a mindless defence of
this woman’s opinions. I haven’t come across another blog where hoards of
people butt in within minutes of any criticism. And yes, that is odd.
Maybe Anna Raccoon is also known as Gildas, Gloria and Engineer.
- October
21, 2011 at 09:18
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“I haven’t come across another blog where hoards of people butt in
within minutes of any criticism. “
Blimey, how many of them have you read? Three? Four?
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October 21, 2011 at 11:26
- October 21, 2011 at 12:19
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Nobody minds debate or disagreement, but insulting the host oversteps the
mark. You wouldn’t do it face-to-face, so doing it anonymously on a blog
seems to be a lowering of personal integrity. Yes – I know that many blogs
have their trolls, but that’s no reason for the more intelligent among us
(and I include you among the intelligent) to drop our standards to
theirs.
For the record, I’ve never met Anna, Guildas or Gloria, and they’ve never
met me.
- October
- October 20, 2011 at 19:53
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Thats what I like about this site, from Welsh Wails to Oldham (or is that
Hume) Howls in no time at all.
James, one of the more endearing qualities of the English is their ability
to laugh at themselves, an excellent example appears here regularly-Gloria
Smudd.
In these times of constant expositions of political ineptitude, downright
greed, and celebrity worship it is sometimes pleasing to see some examples of
silly mistakes, or perhaps you have it right-examples of working people having
a harmless joke.
Bitterly complaining about a joke at your expense will, as you have
witnessed expose you to further ridicule.
- October 20, 2011 at 18:11
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Oh Anna! as another who left the gilded shores of England some 53 years ago
to work in three successive countries, my heart bleeds for England now, and
for you in the face of these stupid blind nitwits who are just literate enough
to exhibit their ultimate crassness hereupon, Guardian readers or not.
I
hope your recovery continues apace.
(sent from Provence, actually, in
retirement).
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October 20, 2011 at 13:49
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That really looks like a simple job ; I could have done that standing on my
head .
Someone did .
On the other hand , much more convenient for helicopter pilots .
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October 20, 2011 at 12:38
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I thought the article funny…and tragic; because it reflects what my country
has become..
Living abroad attracts the bitterness (& envy?) ,
opprobrium & stupidity of the Little Englanders in our midst who have made
the once great Britain the Septic Isles.
I am used to getting a lot of
‘stick’ on various blogs from these thick ‘We won the war & are the
greatest’ morons who think that I have forfeited my right to an ipinion.
I
first went abroad to , successfully, find work; in doing so I was delighted to
find that there were more civilised & congenial places to live than the
land of my birth,,,sad but true…and it gets no better as the nation hurries to
its extinction.
- October 20, 2011 at 12:20
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Good.
- October 20, 2011 at 11:25
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A humourless, ignorant rant from Mrs Raccoon does not warrant a
light-hearted response. I completely fail to see any humour in the original
article. Really it is quite pathetic to see how many people jump on board to
defend this cretin within minutes of any criticism.
Where is Guildas the monk?
If the original piece was jokey I would have taken it. It wasn’t.
And just to destroy your stereotype which really just deflects the
argument, I don’t read the Guardian.
- October 20, 2011 at 12:05
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“I completely fail to see any humour in the original article.”
We’d noticed.
- October 20, 2011 at 12:05
- October 20, 2011 at 10:34
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Someone did this on purpose.
To suggest that the entire population of Oldham is uneducated or illiterate
is far too sweeping a statement. It is also loaded with ignorant snobbery and
written by an old woman who has left these shores. No, you are not entitled to
an opinion.
So my old dear, may I say, how thrilled I am that the Frenchies do health
care so well.
I taught at Hume Grammar for a while. The best and brightest. Back in the
SE of England they are not even close. So, sod off.
- October 20, 2011 at 11:02
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It might be safe to assume that the pupils of Hume Grammar were brighter
than you, if that ill-considered and blinkered rant was anything to go
by.
Just because someone has left these shores, it doesn’t debarr them from
having an opinion, or a right to express it. If you had been following this
blog, you’d know that Anna is of Northern extraction herself, but has lived
in many places including the SE of England, so she’ll be well aware that
there are bright and not-so-bright everywhere. It’s also undeniable that the
general standard of education in Britain has slipped somewhat in the last
couple of decades or so.
From the humourless nature of your response, I’ll assume that you are a
Guardian reader. On this blog, we like humour. May I respectfully suggest
that you return to the navel-gazing at CiF, and refrain from insulting our
landlady?
- October 20, 2011 at 11:29
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“To suggest that the entire population of Oldham is uneducated or
illiterate is far too sweeping a statement.”
Nah, it is merely a statement of fact…
- October 20, 2011 at 19:39
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To suggest that the entire population of Oldham is uneducated or
illiterate is far too sweeping a statement. I taught at Hume Grammar for a
while.
Would be Hulme Grammar – the one with an ‘l’?
http://www.hulme-grammar.oldham.sch.uk/
- October 20, 2011 at 11:02
- October 20, 2011 at 10:04
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You’re all missing the point – it’s an artwork. The artist is making a
post-modernist ironical comment on the fact that the public sector is more
than 50% of GDP.
Eat your heart out, Banksy.
- October 20, 2011 at 09:58
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Woodsy 42 nearly has it right – but not quite. In addition to be twinned
with obscure (but picturesque) bits of the EU, Chaddeton is also twinned with
WongaWonga and the upside down sign is to show inter-community solidarity.
Local gossip says that the councillors wanted somewhere a bit more
adventurous and exotic to take council tax payer funded trips to.
- October 20, 2011 at 09:52
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The fastenings for this sort of sign are on the rear and it might be that
the maker’s name is on the reverse but unusually is upside down.
Near here we had set of 20/30 m.ph. signs erected facing the wrong way. It
took the council a fortnight to notice.
The latest ‘funny’ is a one-way road off the main road that has a bike
‘contraflow’ lane, (are they stupid?). Either side of the junction the main
road is signed with ‘no left turn’ and ‘no right turn’ signs yet the side road
has a sign at its entrance inviting cyclists to commit suicide. But surely the
cyclists are also banned by the main road signs from making the necessary
turn, so how can they get there? Silly me! They ride on the pavements of
course!
- October 20,
2011 at 05:54
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And then there’s this one, although since it was China, perhaps we
should forgive them?
- October 20, 2011 at 00:47
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Aren’t you all being a bit “This-way-uppist”?
- October 19, 2011 at 23:42
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Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance, but only if you can
read.
- October 19, 2011 at 23:24
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Is not the UK a fantastic job creation scheme?
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October 19, 2011 at 22:11
- October
19, 2011 at 21:35
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Those dratted Aussies and New Zealanders come over here and take all our
jobs!
{ 36 comments }