Stewart Downing (with added allegations Reply#103)

[ozzjim]

Nope. For either.

[Dave]

As far as I can tell he's being insulting about nobody other than Scousers.

And there's the best part of a forty page thread of people doing that in the other forum if you want to go and get really indignant Fergal.

[lovejoy]

Fergal I think it was meant tongue in cheek playing on a regional stereotype.

[Percy McCarthy]

Is she black?

[Fergal]

Fergal I think it was meant tongue in cheek playing on a regional stereotype.

Well I probably overreacted a bit... The stresses of a long few days dealing with some very unpleasant shite.

[Risso]

As far as I can tell he's being insulting about nobody other than Scousers.

And there's the best part of a forty page thread of people doing that in the other forum if you want to go and get really indignant Fergal.

I think to be fair to Rob, it's clumsily worded.  If the object of the joke is to poke fun at Scousers by saying that they're descended from Irish people who didn't travel very far, well that's just about OK I suppose.  It's the "right, where's the dole office" bit that I think tips it over into being offensive, as if the Irish people were only travelling anywhere to claim dole.  But I'm sure it wasn't Topdeck's intention to cause any offence.  He should know about being a work shy scrounger anyway, the public sector striking leech!

[TopDeck113]

You've got me sussed, Risso.  Although I'm finally back in school tomorrow... for a training day!

[ozzjim]

As far as I can tell he's being insulting about nobody other than Scousers.

And there's the best part of a forty page thread of people doing that in the other forum if you want to go and get really indignant Fergal.

I think to be fair to Rob, it's clumsily worded.  If the object of the joke is to poke fun at Scousers by saying that they're descended from Irish people who didn't travel very far, well that's just about OK I suppose.  It's the "right, where's the dole office" bit that I think tips it over into being offensive, as if the Irish people were only travelling anywhere to claim dole.  But I'm sure it wasn't Topdeck's intention to cause any offence.  He should know about being a work shy scrounger anyway, the public sector striking leech!

What you saying about the public sector workforce, you c..........

[nodge]

So are the Irish who managed to drag themselves all the way to Birmingham, work shy too?
I know some English people who can barely haul themselves off the sofa to sign on never mind go to another country.
It's not really a very good joke is it as you'll probably find that the majority of the Irish came to find work not benefits and did some of the shittiest jobs going.

[Dave]

So are the Irish who managed to drag themselves all the way to Birmingham, work shy too?

Quite obviously not, otherwise the joke wouldn't work.

[pauliewalnuts]

Is she black?

One of her eyes is.

[Lizz]

Is she black?

One of her eyes is.

Very good.

[nodge]

So are the Irish who managed to drag themselves all the way to Birmingham, work shy too?

Quite obviously not, otherwise the joke wouldn't work.

It doesn't anyway

[saunders_heroes]

You've got me sussed, Risso.  Although I'm finally back in school tomorrow... for a training day!

As far as I can tell he's being insulting about nobody other than Scousers.

And there's the best part of a forty page thread of people doing that in the other forum if you want to go and get really indignant Fergal.

Did you miss the part about the work shy lazy Irish who just came over here to sign on then?
As I said earlier, that post wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes on here if the same stereotypes were spouted about black people.

[Dave]

You've got me sussed, Risso.  Although I'm finally back in school tomorrow... for a training day!

As far as I can tell he's being insulting about nobody other than Scousers.

And there's the best part of a forty page thread of people doing that in the other forum if you want to go and get really indignant Fergal.

Did you miss the part about the work shy lazy Irish who just came over here to sign on then?

Obviously, because that bit didn't exist and is just something that you have misunderstood.

The point is that there are lots of Irish people who emigrate all over the world. Happy so far? The majority of them go to look for work and end up all over the place. Still with me?

Those who don't want to work are the ones who get no further than Liverpool (where lots of boats docked), thus giving us the stereotype of the work-shy scouser. Nothing offensive towards Irish people, a fairly typical dig against Liverpudlians.

It's clearly not a particularly funny joke though if it needs this much explaining.