If there’s a self flagellation bandwagon to jump on, barely known celebs will jump on it if it gives them some exposure. I mean, does anyone actually know who Leigh Francis is?
Leigh Francis broke down in tears on Thursday night as he issued an apology for playing black people on his noughties sketch show Bo’ Selecta!.
Oh, right, a forgettable show from around fifteen years ago that everyone has long since forgotten. And I didn’t watch at the time, so no wonder I’d not heard of him. I hadn’t missed anything I suspect.
But, you know, black lives matter and a need for relevance and out comes the emotional incontinence and look at me! Look at me! Because, no one was. And if by some chance anyone was actually offended by his show back then, they had long since forgotten all about it.
Still, he’s got himself in the papers and the Mail can publish pictures of all those offensive characters so people can look at them and be all offended good and properly, just in case they weren’t offended fifteen years ago.
It’s been a weird few days, I’ve sat and thought about things and what I could post to help things.
Vanity, thy name is a Z list celebrity no one has heard of. Why would anyone want this pathetic bull’s pizzle to post anything to “help things”? Were people sitting about with baited breath waiting for Leigh Francis to post something profound in our hour of need? Nah, more likely, their reaction would have been much as mine was: “Who?” But, you know, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and we have all heard of him now, so that’s all good.
Leigh was among the 25 million people who took part in Blackout Tuesday on social media for the Black Lives Matter movement, following the senseless death of George Floyd.
A fatuous virtue-signalling twat, then.
I was thinking, Lee Francis, that’s a motorcycle isn’t it? I think I might have been confusing Lee Enfield and Francis Barnett. Anyway, blacking up for comic effect doesn’t bother me. The Two Ronnies did it from time to time. The best story I heard about getting offended by black faces was some woman who visited a pub in a former mining town and kicked off about a framed photograph of some miners at the end of their shift.
Longrider, you may recall me posting about 2 self-employed builders telling me they had recieved £7k+
covid compo. You suggested they might be liars.
See opendemocracy.org 3rd June for the answer (sorry, dunno how to do links on phone).
I’m still a bit puzzled as your original comment suggested that they weren’t adversely affected by the lock-down, so didn’t need to claim. That’s why I suggested that they might have been economical with the truth in making their claims. My business, for example came to a dead stop on March 23rd.
Yes that was the point of my post but their accountants led them to make claims nevertheless, perhaps spotting a loophole.
If their businesses were not adversely affected, they could be in trouble. But we will see. Depends on whether HMRC do any serious investigations into possible abuse.
Germany’s tax & fraud guys are digging through claims paid quickly and have found quite a lot
Mostly RoPs and immigrants, many said they worked for businesses that had closed years ago or never existed
My understanding was that self employed could claim the grant working or not. Personally my situation is as yours. Unfortunately it is the period when I earn the majority of my money for the year. It’s going to be a long cold winter
You are correct. However, the proviso is that your business has been adversely affected. Mine certainly has. The two people we are discussing appear not to have. At least, that’s my understanding of the case. And, like you, my work is pretty seasonal. That said, the season will probably just extend into the winter when things get going. We have a backlog of people who want training. I’ve also started to pick up advanced work, which doesn’t require the DVSA to be open for tests.
But how can anyone be sure their business would not be adversely affected, so best put a claim in in anticipation.
By the time the scheme was in place, we already knew.
I think that would depend on the nature of the business: it is not just doing the work, there is also seeking out future work, surveys and quotations. There may be enough work in-hand to keep working through lockdown but there may not be any work for a while when lockdown ends.
If it turns out the damage to the business was, like the Great Panic itself, a false alarm, and anyone investigates just own up and say turns out I was over-cautious. Which is more than any of our politicians and experts seem prepared to do. The grant is taxable in any case so if the business does emerge unscathed some of it will be recovered by that.
Perfectly true. However, most self employed suffered immediately as our work just stopped mid March, hence the loud clamouring for a similar bail-out as was applied to the employed on PAYE. I’ve put the money to one side just in case and have survived on my meagre pension.
On the post lockdown point, I was worried about this. However, it looks as if the end of our season is looking busy as we have a queue of people clamouring to get going. Even offering more money to jump the queue.
Can’t say I was sorry to lose the black and white minstrel show not because they blacked up but because they were rubbish.
Apologising had been going on for decades and will only ever get worse. The Green Man & Black’s Head pub of my childhood lost the Black’s Head by 1980; Lutons Mecca Ballroom became something spangly late 80’s.
I make my stand when student types query the local Blackboy Road. I tell them it reflects Victorian plutocrats exploiting working class children by sending them up chimneys
Well it might be true.
Just a forgotten has-been trying for some relevance. Irritating little shit and nothing more.
We have a black boy pub and black boy hill in Bristol many thought it was to do with slavery but turns out it was named after Charles 2 whose skin pigment was dark so nicnamed ‘black boy’. Not everything is about the slave trade.
Authour Michael Connelly has a detective that has The belief ‘ everyone counts or no one counts’ a much better mantra to adopt. It encompasses everyone regardless of race, background, religions or politicsl beliefs as mattering.