3184 days ago
The Guardian's Stuart Jeffries pens a lengthy piece on rugby and tackling in schools which says nothing in particular in a fairly tedious way. But in the way it treats No 8 and Eton College it says far more about this awful publication than about the art of the scrummage.
Mr Jeffries, a grammar school boy, seems convinced that many rugger players are toffs and thus manages to get in several paragraphs about Eton. The only minor issue with this approach is that because of the Wall Game and rowing, rugger is a relatively minor sport at Eton. To lambast rugger as a game which most public schools in England play would be accurate if rather pointless but to single out the one major public school where rugger does not dominate the winter term, is just the Guardian way. Never let facts get in the way of a spot of Eton bashing with a dose of Call Me Dave abuse thrown in for good measure.
For the record I am no particular fan of Eton or of Call Me Dave but facts do matter.
And that brings me to the author's insistence that at his grim North Midlands grammar school, as a Number 8, he was forced to bind onto the two second rows by sticking his hand between their legs, rubbing past their testicles and grabbing their shirt. At length he describes the homo-erotic nature of this encounter.
My father
4355 days ago
Labour MP Paul Flynn was not on my radar until today when he tweeted out to the 5,699 imbeciles who follow him: “Hunting toffs are livid. They thought they were above the law that they manipulate. Vote for compassion with your cheques to RSPCA.” That says it all. For Flynn it was not the “inedible” he was trying to protect but the “unspeakable” who he wished to persecute, driven by nothing other than class envy and hatred.
The RSCPA describes “foxy woxy” as one of Britain’s best loved mammals. I remember it as the vermin who killed our chickens and geese when I was young. Foxy woxy killed not just one to eat but would leave a trail of destruction if he entered the coop. Foxy woxy is a vicious killer. Roach and perch yanked out of a canal are not vicious killers but they suffer what cannot be a pleasant experience (for them) purely to give (predominantly) non toffs pleasure. Flynn and the RSCPA have not campaigned to ban coarse fishing.
Personally I would ban neither. But then I am not a twisted individual driven by class hatred. Revolting bigot that he is, Paul Flynn is just that. And as it happens Wilde was wrong. Foxy woxy is edible. If anyone manages to kill one please send it to me at Real Man Pizza and I shall cure it and cook it and invite readers of this blog up for a special meal. Wild was also wrong about those who hunt. Drawn from ALL classes they are and were generally decent folk. Unlike the tossers that are Paul Flynn and those who run the RSPCA.
For the record: I have never fox-hunted in my life. I do fish. And I would say that I am comfortably middle class. Certainly not a “toff.”
