MY American cousin is coming over!!!!!!!

[Rsmacker]

Holy shit, that is the scariest thing I have seen in a long time. "Iloveshellsuits.com"? Fuck that for a game of soldiers, I'm NOT going there, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Generally the only lunge made by shell-suit wearers over here is to steal your car stereo or to get their Methadone at the dispensary.

Perhaps it's a misprint, it should say "within 10 secs of wearing it you will have the irrestistible urge to perform a LUNG-Y" - which, as I'm sure you are aware, is a rolling, hacking phlegm-heavy green ball of flob, ejected from the mouth indiscriminately in the street with not a care about hygeine, TB, or the people walking along dodging them.
I believe from my research via Beavis & Butthead, it is known over there as "hocking a loogy". Nice.

Shellsuits, loved by Scousers, burglars, Chavscum and general ne'er-do-wells all over the UK.
(Official traditional dress of Stoke-on-Trent)

Shellsuits - Just Say No NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[shobet]

Oh thank you, the last few posts have made me wet my y-fronts! I'm sitting here in a pool of pee laughing myself silly. I've not laughed so hard since the last time I pissed myself. I only wish I'd had a shell suit on, all the wee wee could have pooled in the bottom of the legs, to be disposed of later. Now I know what the swish swish sound is when you pass someone walking in a shell suit is.

I've not seen any racism in this thread, only comedy and a bit of leg-pulling which has riled people somewhat, but seriously there has been no racism just opinions, to which we are all entitled to unless Stoke County Council has made them illegal?

For Fuck Sake I'm Welsh, I can live with sheep-shagging jokes, so you can live with jibes about how much of a shite-hole Stoke is!

Have you moved from Stoke perchance or are you still stuck there, hence being a tinsy bit irritable?

[Endrik]

all this talk made me wonder.... maybe I should go to the Stoke instead of BCB

[shobet]

all this talk made me wonder.... maybe I should go to the Stoke instead of BCB

I wouldn't...

[SEAN RAF]

Wow!... That really is some effort you’ve gone to there to hammer home your point that my home town is a shit hole…I mean, that is way beyond the remit of someone who is merely bitter…

You see, I can only argue about the condition of Stoke from the perspective of actually living here.

Yes, I do think you are narrow minded and racist. Why would I have to know your ethnicity before I can form the opinion that your comments so far are racist?

Do you really have to refer to a dictionary to provide me with a definition as to whether you are racist or not?

“…Otherwise, we’d, erm, “they’d” be burning out the Poles, Lithuanians, Romanians, Pikeys, Somalians, Kurds, Asians and other assorted detritus who have come to MY country and turned it into a shit-hole, leaving me with my back against a graffiti covered wall surrounded by litter and broken glass with nowhere else to go.” (Rsmacker, 2007) (My underlining)

Interesting word…detritus…and they’ve come to YOUR country and turned it into a shit-hole…

When people like you insist on reinforcing negative stereotypes about certain people, races and places, you are accomplishing nothing other than damage. I recall another post where you tried to perpetuate the myth that Liverpool was particularly risky to drive into because of car crime. Can you back up this claim with the same ‘exhaustive’ research you have devoted to my home town?

Where I live, Stoke-On-Trent, is a beautiful, vibrant place. Vera’s American visitors will have a great time here, which is all I wanted to say.

[24seven]

What on earth is going on in my thread!!!!!!! you guys better calm down....

You know the strange thing is that when i go abroad i love coming back home strangely enough, shit hole or not, the whole world has become shite and it is man that destroys this planet and will destroy it in the end!

Yes my birth place is England but both my parents are not!!! the same goes for my cousin whom i call American she too was born in America BUT both her parents are from Europe!!! they ALL came to seek a better land for themselves and us, you know the way things have changed so much i wished they never came to this country but they had no choice during the 2nd world war.

We have it easy compared to what they came from YET THEY NEVER MOANED!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE PEOPLE WENT THROUGH, AND I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, THEY NEVER MOANED!!!!

As for America i have always had a fascination with that country since i was a small kid, I have no idea why i love it so much but to me it is an amazing country! get out there and see it!

MY AMERICAN COUSIN IS COMING ON MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPPEEEEE! AND THEY WANT TO SEE LONDON AND SOME CASTLES! They want to see some history.

So to all those who wished me well, i see most of you American, many thanks and to the others, i think you all need to get out more and see the world!!!

Now stop bitching guys and be nice and not in front of a lady!
=-O

[Rsmacker]

Yes Sean, "detritus". The ones who pick-pockets on an industrial scale, the ones who import the vast majority of smack to this country, the ones who carry BIG knives as the norm and can't wait to whip them out at the slightest provocation (like pipping your car horn at them), the ones who rent houses then tag into the streetlighting to power up their new cannabis farm, the ones who make a bee-line to our shores not because they want to be like Mr Smith the Briton, but because they will be able to do as they please. I'm talking about the ones who treat their women like dirt, who kill their daughters as a matter of "honour", the ones who practice primitive genital mutilation, who "exorcise" demons from children by abusing them, the ones who tell my friend they hate using his business because they have to speak English, it's the only place they have to do that and they resent it. The ones who suddenly forget how to speak any English when talking to anyone in authority. I mean the ones who buy a piece of shit car, don't bother to tax or insure it, then shrug their shoulders when they clang the motor you have worked hard for and paid your way. The ones who you wouldn't dare ask to please keep their voices down as your baby sleeps, because you know they wouldn't appreciate their drinking session interrupted and may possibly get their shooters out. Need I go on?

I'm NOT talking about the many people who come to this country to make a contribution, Mr Khan who greets me cheerily every morning and flogs me another 3 boxes of Pakistani Mangoes (get 'em now guys, the season won't last long and they are Grade Fucking A, the best in the world.), the foreign doctors and nurses who keep the NHS going, the people who clean the hospital bogs because no-one born and bred here will lower themselves to do it, the ones who laid their lives on the line fighting tyranny then get denied entry for life-saving treatment by some pen-pushing prick. Nor am I talking about the ones fleeing war and persecution, who need a safe haven, somewhere to get their dignity back before rebuilding their lives.

They are welcome to come to MY country, YOUR country, OUR country, but I'm sorry, the "detritus" can fuck right off. Why should I put up with it? Why should I see my society and country change beyond measure without protesting? If I don't like the way things are going here, what should I do - have a riot or just whinge a bit? Or maybe I should just pack up and leave this country, forget my roots? Where would I go, this is my ancestral home.

This has nothing to do with reinforcing negative stereotypes, if you think you can walk down Oxford Street with your wallet in your back pocket and it not get liberated by a Romanian beggar, you go right ahead, don't fall for the stereotype that they are expert dips. For some people crime and deviance is a way of life, that is indisputable, like it or not. (I know plenty of tea-leaves, but none whose whole family are active members of a team, or who have all upped sticks to go to another country because the pickings are better and the chance of being punished slim.) We have plenty of scumbags born and bred here, British through and through, but in recent years the depths have been plumbed as never before, and it isn't our homegrown villains that have done it, vermin though they are. Politically incorrect to say it, but true. And you know it.

Another thing you know is that Liverpool isn't exactly a wonderful place populated by zany wisecracking working folk who all love the Beatles. Parts of it make Stoke-on-Trent look like Heaven. However, joking about Scousers being car thieves is like joking about Welsh sheep-shaggers, thick Irishmen or tightwad Jocks - it's a JOKE, albeit with a grain of truth. I believe Bristol is the current car crime capital of Britain, but Liverpool is the place where one of my staff stopped the lorry to ask for directions and was kept talking by a very helpful man who couldn't decide whether he needed to turn left or right. After a few minutes while the man deliberated, my guy looked in the mirror and saw 2 blokes tearing off with boxes of stuff from the truck. Instantly the helpful man scarpered too. That's good enough research for me, whether it is exhaustive enough, I can't say. Phone an insurance company, tell them you have an Imprezza and ask if moving from Stoke to Kirkby will mean an increase in your premium, then make your mind up about Liverpool and car crime.
That said, never had any violence or intimidation in Liverpool city centre, unlike working a door in Stoke. Never again.

The reason I've spent considerable time and effort "hammering home" my point isn't to prove Stoke-On-Trent is a shit-hole, it's because you decided to come straight out and call me an arsehole and a racist. Whether you agree with my views or not, throwing insults is out of order, even if it is petty and childish and is not going to ruin my week. Rather than just call you a helmet-licker in retaliation, I thought I'd put my point across in detail and let others decide who exactly is the Balloon Knot here. My weak spot, you see, I just can't ignore an unjustified insult, I HAVE to say my piece, however disproportionate or how much effort I have to put in. Still, next stage would be throwing punches! How much trouble have I got into over the years because of that.....??!! :ROTF:
However, that's not going to happen, even if I bumped into you tomorrow and miraculously knew who you were. The joy of getting it off my chest through a Message Board, the Keyboard is Mightier than the Sword, or summat!

Now, 24seven, sorry to hog the thread, point of principle, I'm afraid. Home is always good to see, no matter where in the world it is, shit-hole or not. It's where the heart is. Whenever I arrive home on a plane I can't believe how green Britain is, despite the amount of concrete we seem to chuck up. Make sure your guests get to see some of the natural beauty of our country, we can't see it because we are too used to it sometimes. Oh, and best castle, apart from Tower of London, has to be Caernarfon. Just don't wear woolly jumpers in case you all get jumped and shagged.

[SEAN RAF]

Again, wow! You are really determined to enforce your negative views about Stoke-On-Trent. I appreciate your anecdotal evidence about just how bad everything and almost everyone (especially foreigners) is in the UK, but if I wanted to be morally panicked I’d buy the Daily Mail.

I’ve lived at 28 different addresses in the UK so far, mostly because I was either pursuing work or education. I’ve lived in Stoke-On-Trent for the last 6 years, the longest I’ve been settled since I was 5 years old. Not because Stoke is better than anywhere else, but because it’s just as good as anywhere else. And, just like anywhere else, Stoke is populated by good, hardworking people who inspire me to attempt to be nothing other than a decent human being.
If I feel pissed off or wronged in any way, I never contemplate the notion that the fault lies at the feet of one of the foreigners you’ve listed so far. I see people as individuals, not as races and nationalities to be blamed and vilified for all of our societies ills en masse.
As a white, relatively young, healthy, working class male with a UK passport I can pretty much join the population of any country I choose. That freedom is enjoyed by a minority globally. I don’t have to stow away in shipping containers or lorries, I don’t have to deal with black markets, and, almost universally, I would be welcomed and encouraged to contribute and prosper.

The thing about myths and ‘grains of truth’ is that the grain is sustained by ill informed people who can only make sense of their own particular realities by relying and leaning on the stereotypes that most other people are willing to question and challenge.
I’m just giving an account of my reality; I have never been racially abused, I have never encountered any difficulty in access to health care, education, social security, housing or employment and my mobility has always been unhindered.

I live in one of the most prosperous countries on the planet, in a great city, Stoke-On-Trent.

[Rsmacker]

If I feel pissed off or wronged in any way, I never contemplate the notion that the fault lies at the feet of one of the foreigners you’ve listed so far. I see people as individuals, not as races and nationalities to be blamed and vilified for all of our societies ills en masse.

I didn't blame foreigners for being pissed off, and I certainly don't condemn ALL foreigners en masse into my "detritus" category. Apart from female genital mutilation, most of the things I have said above have involved me or close family, that's not anecdotal evidence. Hey, but perhaps I'm wrong, ask a police friend where their largest proportion of arrested pick-pockets originate, and how many times they have been arrested. Maybe it's Coventry, not Romania. Oh, and while you are at it, ask why they send warnings to people to beware of the "African Car Scam" rather than the "It Could Be Absolutely Anyone Doing It - Don't Blame The Africans You Racist Car Scam".

Yes, it's great being a working class white Englishman, the world welcomes you with open arms. Except :
Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Congo, DRC, East Timor, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the OPT, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger,Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Russian Federation, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia.
That list is the current Foreign & Commonwealth "Don't go" list, I'm sure there are others, like Zimbabwe, where you would be welcomed warmly. Very warmly.
Like you say, almost universally. But what do the Foreign Office know eh? Perhaps they are all rabid Imperialist Daily Mail readers. Fuck it, I don't think I've never even met a Burundian, so why would I avoid their country, that's just purporting a myth, I bet they are all nice as pie. I'll buy you a ticket Sean, you go and tell me what it's like, then we can put the Foreign Office straight.

Strangely, the violence and intimidation I experienced in good old Stoke wasn't from Johnny Foreigner, it was from white working class Englishmen (and women). I'd say Stoke isn't unique, it's a scene enacted out every weekend up and down the country, and it's our very own countrymen doing it. Great.

I've been all round the world and on more than one occasion been mortified by the behaviour of Brits abroad. Fancy going to beautiful Prague? I know one thing, the blokes you see staggering about with bottles of piss in their hands at 10am, or singing and fighting in Wenceslas Square at night aren't Eastern European. Any busy Med resort in the Summer months? Who is making the most fuss spewing and brawling? Of course, again, I could be wrong, because I've not been to EVERY busy Med resort, but I'll make an informed guess. Would that be fair, or am I making wild generalisations again?

I'm glad you have never had any problems accessing any of the services our fathers and their fathers set up for us, and in some cases laid their lives down for. Obviously, if you haven't had a problem, the problem can't exist. Silly me. I must start reading the Daily Mail, apparently it will morally panick me, I take it you have read the Daily Mail, and are not just going on the popular opinion it's a reactionary shit-sheet? ( I wouldn't read it because it is shit, simple as that. For the record, I read a real newspaper - The Daily Sport. Well, I look at the pictures....)

[SEAN RAF]

Thank you once again for your views. I accept the fact that I might not be welcomed in Uzbekistan amongst others, so I’ll have to settle for Switzerland, amongst many others, for my welcome.

With a world population at around the 6.6 billion mark, as a UK passport holder, I would still (even taking into account that impressive list of the inaccessible impoverished and unstable nations you’ve provided) be able to enjoy around 77% freedom of movement around this planet…I can’t moan about that…though no doubt you could.

I didn’t say that I had never encountered any problems, nor did I claim that problems don’t exist. As a white, working class, British male (British, not English), I just don’t encounter as many difficulties as other individuals, purely because of my good fortune to be born into my particular demographic.

Quote:

“Apart from female genital mutilation, most of the things I have said above have involved me or close family, that’s not anecdotal evidence.” (Rsmacker, 2007, Rsmacker’s own italics)

I forgot to thank you for your earlier post when you kindly referred me to the OED…I’d like to return the favour…anecdotal…I’ll let you look it up for yourself.



Stoke-On-Trent – It’s quite nice.

[shobet]

My other half (who is one of those Jonny-foreigners) has been to Stoke...
















I bet you thought I was going to say she thought it was shit didn't you?





























Well you're right. She thought it was shit and I've been berated for slagging of Robbie as he's a "Nice bloke, shame about the problem of a bigger ego than a dick" and from what I gathered his ego is not that big :O

With a turn of phrase like that, small wonder she wrote for Rolling Stone! I wish I was that eloquent but I have trouble tying my own laces. Would they have me in Stoke, it strikes me as a slip-on kind of shitty, sorry city?

[24seven]

They're Here!!!!!!!!!!! And They Love Stoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Child Of Norther]

Insults and Stoke

Ahahahahahahahaha!

Man, got lost in Stoke once... Bad times

[24seven]

Spent the day in London yesterday and all i can say is - Glad to be back home!!!

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k41/247even/usaguests087.jpg

With Blair Stepping down it was a busy day, packed with police on the ground police in the air and police everywhere...loads of people, roads full of cars rushing around....you can keep it all!
The pic shows Downing Street, we were trying to get past and all these people with plackards demonstrating, d'ya think he gives a ****? Does anyone work in London?

[Snoogans]

Spent a week in London a few years back. Stayed with a friend who lived in Barking. (A suburb a few miles out of the city centre). She worked in the city, and so one morning I "commuted" in with her. Christ, never again! Forty-five minutes of absolute purgatory crammed into various buses and tube trains, surrounded by hundreds of pissed-off people. How anyone can deal with that twice a day is beyond me.