Monday, February 09, 2009

This is Not an Irish Joke


A reader sends this photo in of builders installing bollards to stop nurses parking on the pavement outside the Royal Hospital in Belfast.

They are clearing up at the end of the day. How long do you think it will be before they realise they can’t get their van out to go home?

Doh...

UPDATE 12.25: Or Not. Seems this has been about for some time, and may well be in Manchester rather than Belfast! The Snopes website has the truth. I think.

32 comments:

Donal Blaney said...

This casual racism is precisely what, in Derek Draper's sober assessment, the Tories need to stop :)

Anoneumouse said...

classic

Kim Howells said...

One of the bollards might be removable to allow access?

Bob said...

This is years old!!!

Sue said...

Silly billys!

Anonymous said...

Whose Derek Draper?

Chris Nicolson said...

The bottom right-hand bollard has been digitally cloned. The rest are sitting in the centre of their removed paving slabs, whereas the cloned one is sitting on top of the slabs, across a join.

subrosa said...

Iain that one's being going round quite a while. I heard they decided to remove the lamp post to get the van out.

Wallenstein said...

I heard they decided to remove the lamp post to get the van out.

Nope, the bollards just lift out using a key.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/bollards.asp

scotch said...

Y'know Iain, just saying "This is not an Irish joke", doesn't magically make it not racist. That's right up there with "some of my best friends are black/gay/scottish"(delete as applicable).

Guido Fawkes said...

Errrm, if they are in Northern Ireland it is very likely that they are actually British passport holders.

scotch said...

Don't quite get your point Paul.

Scary Biscuits said...

Scotch, please explain to me what is wrong with racist jokes? Jokes, by definition, are not meant to be taken seriously. Anybody who does is a complete idiot.

There used to be a saying 'sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me'. I.e. if you find a comment offensive, it says more about you than the person making it.

Personally I find English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh joke hilarious, especially the old ones. The fact they have become virtually illegal says a lot about the decline of British tolerance, not to mention our sense of humour and ability to laugh at ourselves.

Oh and some of my best friends are gay/black/racist.

Anonymous said...

The Luck of the Irish!?!!!

scotch said...

Scary Biscuit:

Make fun of me for my opinions.
Laugh at my hairstyle.
Tut over my dress sense.

But if you start defining me by my race - or my colour- or my sexuality and using that definition as a tool of your ridicule - then you are abhorrent, sir, and I'd appreciate if you could move out of my way at your earliest convenience.

Will that do?

an ex-apprentice said...

I recognise them!

They are Lithuanian!

Dale, this is racist!

I'm reporting you to that nice Mr Draper!

jailhouselawyer said...

Martin Day: I suspect that this was designed to stop owners of two jags from parking on the pavement.

Unknown said...

Haha! You fall for all the online stuff that's been around for quite some time.

I have a very helpful tip for you Iain, if you want to be more "aware" of the online world, make sure you check both Digg and Reddit both in the morning and evening. It's the hub of the internet. If you aren't there, then you're doing it wrong! ;)

http://digg.com/
http://www.reddit.com/

It's where "the rickroll" went global, where the FAIL meme started http://failblog.org/ and where XKCD http://xkcd.com/ became a household name. Also, it's where "anonymous" play out their "war" against scientology.

Enjoy!

an ex-apprentice said...

This serious stuff!

All you people mock my Mother Country. Great Lithuanian nation. Birthplace of civilisation. Come on here, laugh up sleeve, make joke, tee-hee, look down nose.

Bollards is tricky creature, easy mistake to make, how many bollards you do, Mr Dale?

Have you know man on left is famous in my country. Actual credit with discover wheelbarrow, make whole construct industry hi-tech, 21st century.

Is holder of Cross of Saint Athanasius, with Blue Riband. And Kit-Kat. So there.

I tell Ambassador of this slur, this insult to Lithuanian peoples, he get on bike, come round see you, deliver diplomatic protest with swift kick up arse, you laugh other side of chops then.

Dick the Prick said...

Utter Bollards!

DespairingLiberal said...

Old hoax image. Not to let that get in the way of a good xenophobic and Little Englander Tory racist joke, eh Iain?

Iain Dale said...

Oh give it a rest. I come from Essex. Do I rail against Essex girl or Essex boy jokes? Do I hell.

Plato said...

Cue sermon:

Why is it that a recycled joke gets some of the more beardy commentators tutting at this?

Checking Digg etc every morning and night just to make sure that no one can play a little prank is rather sad don't you think?!

I laughed at it and if someone has been a mischievous about it's provenance then its a good laugh all round.

And I agree - it's completely out of order to make fun of salt of the earth manual workers who are still suffering from the Thatcherite yoke of greed by jackboot-wearing, toffy-nosed, congenitally nasty, selfish, grasping, do-nothing novices - have I missed anything Mr D Liberal?

Anonymous said...

The bottom right-hand bollard appears to have been added in, by PhotoShop or similar.

Unknown said...

@DespairingLiberal
Not to let that get in the way of a good xenophobic and Little Englander Tory racist joke, eh Iain?

Idiot.

I'm a liberal too, and you reflect badly on us all with pathetic diatribe like that.

Point 1) Free expression. People can say what they like. I may disagree, but i'll fight for their right to say it.

Point 2) If you really think this is "racist" or "xenophobic" then you need to join the Labour Party - where morons try to silence or attack others by making disgraceful claims of various *isms.

I'm sickened that idiots like yourself seek to throw around such distasteful accusations so easily. If you only knew what true racism is like, the effects of true xenophobia, then you would be embarassed at how inept and disgraceful you sound.

Rant over.

an ex-apprentice said...

Dear Mr Dale,

That DespicableLiberal, he very sensible bloke, I always say so.

Xenophobic not in my Anglo/Lithuanian book of handy plumbing expressions, but I bet he hit nail on head, just like usual.

Sorry to see you come from Essex. That explain a lot. I forgive you, cancel Ambassador.

Scary Biscuits said...

Scotch (assuming your race is Scottish), you asked me not to laugh at you on that basis, so here's a joke doing just that, enjoy:

There is a English man, A Scottish man and a Irish man standing at the top of a slide. Then a genie appears and says "when you go down the slide what you say is what you will land in!". So the English man jumps down the slide and says "silver" and amazingly he lands in a pot of silver. Then the Irish man jumps down the slide and says "gold" and he lands in a pot of gold. When the Scottish man jumps his so excited he says weeeeeeeee!

You also asked the same for jokes on colour. Here you are.

Little Black Sambo said...

If they were Irish, would they have demolished the building when they needed to get their van out?

John said...

Racism??? *roll eyes*

It's a joke guys, laugh at it don't analysise it!!

lighten up...

John said...

Scary biscuits, everytime I see your picture I feel like a cup of tea and a digestive...

hmmmm yummy

Me said...

There are three sorts of people I hate - chinkies, racists and hypocrites.

Martin S said...

And ex-Apprentice forgets one very important point.

REAL Vodka is from Lithuania.

And Lithuanian Mead. Don't forget that! We shared a bottle with a Lithuania friend at Christmas.

A most excellent drink!