Monday
Given the proximity of Remembrance Day (11 November), there is something particularly nasty about the theft of metal from war memorials. With prices of some metals at high levels, thieves are tempted to desecrate such things, as well as steal bells from churches, and so on. Boris Johnson is in trenchant form on the subject today.
Once again, I am reminded of how awful a lot of the comments on the Daily Telegraph now are, as shown by much of the commentary linked to BJ's piece. A lot of the sentiment is to the effect that all this thieving is caused by immigrants. But as one person put it, to steal scrap metal, you need scrap dealers, and they are, often as not, from the indigenous population. It is not as if thieving is something invented by people who come to this nation from abroad.
I wasn't sure which country you were talking about. But your last sentence "It is not as if thieving is something invented by people who come to this nation from abroad", means you can't be talking about Australia.....
Posted by gib at November 7, 2011 12:41 PM
gib, it is obvious which one I was talking about, you twit.
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at November 7, 2011 12:45 PM
The 'UK Affairs' tag would rather seem to give the game away…
Posted by Marwood at November 7, 2011 01:35 PM
The DT comments are overflowing with obsessive fascist scum of the sort I eject from here the moment they show up... they have been a feature of their comments section for ages and they are a good indication of what happens if you do not constantly ride shotgun over comments.
Actual meaningful discourse quickly becomes impossible as the lager louts take over unless The Management promptly takes a cudgel to them and heaves them out the door before they get too comfortable.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at November 7, 2011 01:39 PM
My comment was 10% truthful, 90% commentary on Australia's early white settlers, and apparently 100% failure...
Posted by gib at November 7, 2011 01:45 PM
I have a technical problem with the UK Telegraph comments section anyway. Any site that uses Disqus for its comments seems to be a severe memory hog.
I'm so glad Samizdata hasn't added all those anti-social networking widgets that also seem to slow browsers down.
Posted by Ted Schuerzinger at November 7, 2011 01:45 PM
Just when I am thinking of buying the Telegraph again (I used to buy it - I was a subscriber for years, but then as a lad I subscribed to Newsweek for years). A warning lik this will come up.
Although it is really the American coverage (not the bog poor comments section) that puts me off the D.T. and S.T. (and of course there are the film critics and ...).
That and the fact that I always had great difficulty in physically reading these newspapers.
A broadsheet format (and with pages that fall out) was not really created for people with coordination problems.
Posted by Paul Marks at November 7, 2011 02:25 PM
gib, when you are in a hole, put the shovel down.
(Hint).
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at November 7, 2011 02:48 PM
Yes, plenty of home grown evil thieving scrotes about. No need to blame foreigners. And yes you need scrap dealers (always a fairly dodgy lot in my experience). It's pretty hard not to know where a piece of metal comes from when on it is a list of names like... Private David Jenkins... Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Sgt Ian McTavish... The Black Watch etc isn't it?
I don't know why they bother really. Apparently our copper 1ps and 2ps are worth more in scrap than their face value. All you'd have to do is keep going down the bank and swap the worthless paper stuff for Copper coins and melt them down.
Posted by RAB at November 7, 2011 04:09 PM
Johnathan, I thought gib's comment was amusing. Gave me a good snort. FWIW.
Posted by Laird at November 7, 2011 04:29 PM
RAB wrote:
'It's pretty hard not to know where a piece of metal comes from when on it is a list of names like... Private David Jenkins... Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Sgt Ian McTavish... The Black Watch etc isn't it?'
That's Royal Welch Fusiliers, if you please.
llater,
llamas
Posted by llamas at November 7, 2011 04:58 PM
There's always one, isn't there? ;-)
Look llamas, I'm Welsh, so I outrank you, right! And I'll spell it anyway I bloody please see?
Besides it looks like you can spell it both ways, at least as far as the new combined Regimemt is concerned...
http://www.army.mod.uk/infantry/regiments/3472.aspx
The word Welsh is and English word for Foreigner by the way (bloody cheek!!). We should have called it the Royal Cymru Fusiliers.
Posted by RAB at November 7, 2011 06:40 PM
I thought "Welch" were the folks who sell grape juice. (And really, doesn't that look better than "Cymru's Grape Juice"?)
Posted by Laird at November 7, 2011 07:33 PM
Probably bogans who'd steal the eye from a needle returning the motherland from the Penal Colony.
Posted by Regional at November 7, 2011 07:49 PM
Well if you're talking Grapeshot rather than juice, Laird...:-)
My auntie Lizzie used to grow grapes in Pembrokeshire, but if she'd managed to grow enough of them, I'm pretty sure we'd have put "Auntie Lizzies" on the label. ;-)
Posted by RAB at November 7, 2011 08:23 PM
What with global warming effects on agriculture, I can see the day when we'll be treated to the sight of rosy-cheeked Yorkshire maidens merrily stomping tubs of grapes.
Posted by Vinegar Joe at November 8, 2011 12:15 AM
