@finm its a lot better in the world of weegie than it used to be. But in the past (and I don't know now cause I have never been since a boy) if you wanted real religious bigotry & hippocracy visit the islands.......................there a fekin hoot John
during the arren run on sunday all the group bar me and the polish girl :Hungry: where English born, got blethering to a fella who said he experienced a lot of "remarks" since he moved to oban but none when he lived in paisly.? it does seem the more remote the area the bigger the ignorance. i was sitting on the seafront having a chippy on the way up the road next to the bike parking when i heard some prick in his thirty's mouthing of to some English people walking past, he had had a few but not enough ignore my displeasure. he left. so yes it's out there much to my embarrassment.
I had a great time on Harris and Lewis a few years ago. I was supposed to be on a working party to St. Kilda. It got cancelled at the last minute so I went to Harris anyway and had three weeks based in Leverburgh. The locals, the real gaelic speakers, were fantastic. Kindly, cheerful, not at all stand-offish and not the remotest hint of any anti-English bullshit. The only grief I got was in a pub in Stornoway from a tetchy, sullen barmaid who didn't sound local and thought I was polluting the air with my English accent and some scrawny little pissed up scrote who'd probably never been further than the end of the street in his life. He kept shouldering into me making unconvincing hard-man noises. He must have been 5'0" in his stockinged feet and about 9 stone. He was like an annoying insect. A fine, no-nonsense lady in her sixties, clearly embarrassed, belted him solidly round the head and told him to mind his f**kin' manners. I adopted a little bar in Leverburgh which was the only one for miles around and the locals there were brilliant. I was never excluded from the conversation nor the rounds and I had some cracking whisky knees-ups. Someone would forget himself now and then and refer to "English Bastarrds..... Nay offence!" but none was taken. It was more a figure of speech and quite funny - and I usually got a whisky out of it. I had no sense at all that my being English was an issue. I think the people I met were ashamed of all that. In fact I was warned to expect "a***oles" in Stornoway and to take no notice of them and avoid certain pubs. The visitors locals weren't keen on were usually certain other mainland Scots. Edinburgh people were posh jessies and a party of Glaswegians over for a wedding didn't go down at all well. There were mutterings, much scowling and people turned their backs and switched to speaking gaelic. And I think that was pure old fashioned snobbery. Glaswegians, I gathered, were common. Though they were pleasant enough to me, if a bit shouty. The locals were pretty much all SNP voters, not from any great enthusiasm but because they felt there was no-one else. I think we all know that feeling. I dropped Gordon Brown's name into a political discussion once and the response was electric. I had no idea the gaelic language was so rich in words for female genitalia. Calvinist Presbyterianism is a pretty strange brew I admit and there's no shortage of religious double standards but all in all I found the island a very welcoming place and I really must go back one day. Long way to ride a Streetfighter from Dorset though. I seem to remember it rained occasionally too.....
don't go to scalpy and if you do avoid the macsweens, you will get the big island welcome in English and they will be slagging you off in the garlic. horrible man. prejudiced is every where. the wife and i done tour of the islands a few years back, we stayed the night in lewis at a B+B owned and run by a retired R2 presenter and pop'd out for a Chinese which oddly enough was probably the best Chinese meal we had ever had. the only other people in the restaurant was a group of cockanees a bit drunk and loud but harmless, to be honest they had me in stitches more at them than with them, they tried to put on the finest Chinese accent to order there meal the waiter replied in pure east end with a choice quip or two of his own, freekin hilarious the tears where running down my face when he took our order. you could feel there embarrassment across the restaurant. brilliant.
gonna change the word prejudiced to ignorance, i think it was bradders that said in another thread if you spend 5mins trying to get to know someone your opinion often changes.
Shan't buy his haggises again then. I prefer Mr Hall's anyway. I'd heard they're a bit presbyterian fundamentalist on Scalpay. Don't like tourists on a Sunday etc. I did go for a walk round there but it was a bit nondescript and I didn't linger. I spent my Sundays fishing off Renish Point.
worked for a mcsween from scalpy, makes me shudder every time i think off him.started looking for another job after 6days. worked for a few greedy people in the past but he was nothing other than a crook. alledgedly. oh if your buying black pudding it must be stornaway. food of the gods.
Heed my warning, if the Jocks vote for independence, we'll have our own Sangatte, in Carlisle, within a month.
i am developing an unhealthy interest in Nicola sturgeon's legs. is that wrong? good debate last night on stv.
Seriously I don't give a damn either way. If you want to "be free" that's fine by me. But please don't come running back when you realise that Salmond has pulled the wool over your eyes and shafted you up the arse. Dry.
interesting debate going on over on ducati up north if anyone is interested. also some nice photos of an odd looking triumph.
