Nonsense or possibly gibberish

For some reason this New York Times article on the British drinking culture (registration or BugMeNot required) irritated me. (As an aside: a colleague sent me this article, I think largely because most of my co-workers think that I'm something of an alcoholic. Silly Americans.) Of course this recent interest in us loveable (well I'm loveable, theoretically at least) Brits and our drinking culture was sparked by Charles Kennedy's slip in to the politcal backwaters. I have to say on the Kennedy front I'm with The Friday Thing, For a pisshead, Kennedy was remarkably dull.

I'm not sure if it is the quotes from social anthropologist Kate Fox (and no I have no idea what one of those is — a social anthropologist that is, not a fox), By blaming the booze, we sidestep the uncomfortable question of why the English, so widely admired for their courtesy, reserve and restraint, should also be renowned for their oafishness, crudeness and violence.. Which seems, to me at least, to be a crock of shit. My guess is that the Britons who are "widely admired for the courtesy, reserve and restraint" are probably not the chavs (does anyone still use chav these days?) who are "reknowned for their oafishness, crudeness and violence".

Or if it was the strange linking of the England cricket team's drunken Ashes celebration to their subsequent losses in Pakistan? Or if it was the fact that a seemingly respectable broadsheet like the New York Times would feel the need to include quotes from the Sun, Star and Daily Mail — frankly you're going to get a pretty dim view of our little island if we're only judged on the nonsense that goes in to those papers. But basically, I think it just came down to the article's holier than thou (well holier than me, at least) attitude. Prudish paper.

George Galloway is on Celebrity Big Brother. Work shy bastard should probably go back to the House and do the job his being paid for, so somebody set up a website to encourage him to do just that. Although I'm not sure I agree with the whole, "...the place is going down the pan since Oona left." Tower Hamlets went down the pan a long, long time ago. True Gorgeous George ain't helping matters, but it was a shit hole long before the people were stupid enough to elect him to represent them last year.