Passed on from one the land’s great debating and legislative chambers … without comment but with thanks to my friend Rupert Wright for spotting it …
And Lord Walton of Detchant has spoken against a government proposal under which courts could stop people being annoying in public, by pointing out that it would stop him from taunting Sunderland fans.
‘My friend Lord Shipley … is for reasons best known to him, … a Sunderland supporter. If I were to chide him and say that he is foolish to continue to support that team, which has been absolutely hopeless all season … he would reasonably regard me as a confounded nuisance. If one looks at this clause and interprets it in a strictly literal sense, I would potentially be in breach of this statute.’
I should have thought Lords Walton and Shipley would have avoided all the work and bother involved in being a supporter. Surely they have ‘people’ they can pay to be fans on their behalf.
Come tax time, they can write off the expense don’t you know, while claiming to bolster ’employment’ (under ‘Public Works’ you see) among the lower clas…oops, should I say, among those who so obviously lack breeding.
Which is a charge no one can level against our esteemed Lords: when it comes to breeding, or more to the point, inbreeding, Walton and Shipley are second to none.
“Tally Ho, Sunderland! Aren’t they absolutely super?”
Read their biogs. One is a medical practitioner who studied at Durham (assumed to be a Mag) the other is a long standing Lib Dem councillor type. Neither the toffs you make out…..now if we were talking about Gideon Osborne or Cameron……proper toffs
I am sick and tired of nebish politicians telling us what we can think or say, it is not as if any of them are making a reasonable job of protecting this country from the ravages of unelected Bureaucrats dictating how we can live and how our money is spent by Brussels.
Most football fans are adults and banter is part of the enjoyment of the game.
Get of our case you purse lipped.potificators from both houses of hot air.
Ravages? …..like the European Convention on Human Rights…..or the Working Time Directive
This sounds like a transcript of a typical “discussion” going on in pubs and work places region wide between Sunderland and Newcastle fans!
If it means that t**** like Lord Walton of Dechant are sent to prison in chains, I support this law wholeheartedly.
Has he form Pete, apart from the obvious of course?