I have decided to stop identifying as a football fan.

[Burney]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

[IUFG]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

well, yes, but you'll have to take up politics or the like so something else can become the target of your loathing :thumbup:

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

It's the Cricket you need to quit b. That's what really turns you into a ghastly old ****.

[Alberto Balsam Rodriguez]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:


How would we notice the difference? ;-)

[Pokster]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

You did that when you traded the Ashes in 2005

[AFC East]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

It's impossible for me to do that. When asked, I just say, "Yes Arsenal are abysmal at the moment." It takes the wind right of our anybody's sails, especially when they see how little I really care about the fact.

[WES]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

Not sure why you need to - all you need to do is tell them the truth. You loathe European football and couldn't care less how Arsenal do.

They would naturally assume that you therefore don't care how Spurs do on Saturday night. :shrug:

[Ash]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

That's the spirit! Chin up, stiff upper lip and all that.

[Sir C]

When people talk to me about football, I shall simply look blankly at them, then smile and say 'I'm sorry, I don't really follow football' and then change the subject. No more football banter, no more painful conversations with Tottenham supporters and no more feeling duty bound to defend the Arsenal when they're slagged off by supporters of other teams.

Just think how liberating it will be! :cloud9:

Bless your heart, but I’ve known you almost 20 years, and of all your qualities, good or and, you have never been any5hingclose to being a football fan. In 2004 you were bitching about how **** Thierry Henry was, for all love. No, stickball is you4 thing, and that’s fine.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

Bless your heart, but I’ve known you almost 20 years, and of all your qualities, good or and, you have never been any5hingclose to being a football fan. In 2004 you were bitching about how **** Thierry Henry was, for all love. No, stickball is you4 thing, and that’s fine.

Did he ever stand four square on the old North Bank like us c, repelling the invading Irons with his bare fists? I very much doubt it.

[Sir C]

Did he ever stand four square on the old North Bank like us c, repelling the invading Irons with his bare fists? I very much doubt it.

I had a skinhead, 96 hole oxblood DMs with razor blades poking out of the toes and a butcher's coat h. I expect we battled back to back for the honour of our club on many occasions.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

I had a skinhead, 96 hole oxblood DMs with razor blades poking out of the toes and a butcher's coat h. I expect we battled back to back for the honour of our club on many occasions.

Ah yes. I traded in my butcher's coat for a sheepskin that cost the equivalent, in today's money, of a fahsund pahnd when the North Bank could no longer give me enough of a challenge and I graduated to the Clock End.

[Burney]

Bless your heart, but I’ve known you almost 20 years, and of all your qualities, good or and, you have never been any5hingclose to being a football fan. In 2004 you were bitching about how **** Thierry Henry was, for all love. No, stickball is you4 thing, and that’s fine.

How dare you deny my lived experience, you fascist oppressor!

[Sir C]

How dare you deny my lived experience, you fascist oppressor!

Sorry about that b.

[Burney]

Sorry about that b.

Yes, well just don't do it again, lest I take to Twitter to express my outrage.

[Sir C]

Yes, well just don't do it again, lest I take to Twitter to express my outrage.

There doesn't seem to be much twitter outrage around recently. Even the Cleese furore seems to have diminished rapidly to nothing.

[Burney]

There doesn't seem to be much twitter outrage around recently. Even the Cleese furore seems to have diminished rapidly to nothing.

Yes well they couldn't get him sacked, professionally damaged or deplatformed due to him being rich, largely retired and 79 years old, so there wasn't anywhere they could go with their outrage. There was also the small matter of rather a lot of people agreeing with him and thinking it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

[Ash]

Yes well they couldn't get him sacked, professionally damaged or deplatformed due to him being rich, largely retired and 79 years old, so there wasn't anywhere they could go with their outrage. There was also the small matter of rather a lot of people agreeing with him and thinking it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

If he'd said that London was an 'international city' there would probably have been a lot of nodding and murmuring of approval from those who got so upset.

[Burney]

If he'd said that London was an 'international city' there would probably have been a lot of nodding and murmuring of approval from those who got so upset.

The extraordinary thing is that the same people who will happily celebrate every other ethnicity that makes its home in London will throw their hands up in horror at the mere suggestion that there is even such a thing an English ethnicity.

[WES]

The extraordinary thing is that the same people who will happily celebrate every other ethnicity that makes its home in London will throw their hands up in horror at the mere suggestion that there is even such a thing an English ethnicity.

Ethnicity, indigenous, immigrant and all that aside, what he said is true for the large majority of the biggest cities in the western world.

I love NYC but most Americans would tell you that it doesn't reflect a typical American city at all. Same is true of Toronto, Paris and Madrid to name but three more.

Point is, who cares? :shrug:

[Burney]

Ethnicity, indigenous, immigrant and all that aside, what he said is true for the large majority of the biggest cities in the western world.

I love NYC but most Americans would tell you that it doesn't reflect a typical American city at all. Same is true of Toronto, Paris and Madrid to name but three more.

Point is, who cares? :shrug:

Who cares? People who lived or grew up in that city when it wasn't like that and preferred it that way. Me, for one. :shrug:

This idea that cosmopolitan diversity is great is not universally shared. Some of us feel something important has been lost.

And anyone who tells you Paris is a better city now than it was 30 years ago is a fúcking idiot, by the way.

[Pokster]

Who cares? People who lived or grew up in that city when it wasn't like that and preferred it that way. Me, for one. :shrug:

This idea that cosmopolitan diversity is great is not universally shared. Some of us feel something important has been lost.

And anyone who tells you Paris is a better city now than it was 30 years ago is a fúcking idiot, by the way.

I know that this come as hard to believe... not everyone thinks the same way as you about this

[WES]

Who cares? People who lived or grew up in that city when it wasn't like that and preferred it that way. Me, for one. :shrug:

This idea that cosmopolitan diversity is great is not universally shared. Some of us feel something important has been lost.

And anyone who tells you Paris is a better city now than it was 30 years ago is a fúcking idiot, by the way.

Oh, I would never argue that there aren't people who would prefer it to go back to what it was, only that the point has no practical outcome. We aren't exactly going to start deporting people because they aren't ethnically English or French or whatever, are we?

NYC is miles better than it was 30 years ago, BTW. And I expect Paris is as well. You're thinking about ethnicity only, I think. 30 years ago Paris was a stinking mass with appalling infrastructure. I know many people who visited it back then and hated it because of the people, the smell etc. NYC is much better in no small part because of the sort of people you are objecting to (Trump as well). If you threw out all the illegal Mexican immigrants in NYC the locals would be devastated by the impact on their lives.

[Burney]

I know that this come as hard to believe... not everyone thinks the same way as you about this

Where did I say they did? :shrug:

I simply said it was a perfectly reasonable (and demonstrably factual) point that Cleese was making and that his feelings are echoed by many, many people.

[Burney]

Oh, I would never argue that there aren't people who would prefer it to go back to what it was, only that the point has no practical outcome. We aren't exactly going to start deporting people because they aren't ethnically English or French or whatever, are we?

NYC is miles better than it was 30 years ago, BTW. And I expect Paris is as well. You're thinking about ethnicity only, I think. 30 years ago Paris was a stinking mass with appalling infrastructure. I know many people who visited it back then and hated it because of the people, the smell etc. NYC is much better in no small part because of the sort of people you are objecting to (Trump as well). If you threw out all the illegal Mexican immigrants in NYC the locals would be devastated by the impact on their lives.

I've no idea about NYC and don't much care as it's not somewhere that interests me. You are 100% wrong about Paris, though. So much so that it's not even worth arguing about, tbh.

And the point that is being made - and is well worth making - is that greater diversity does not make for a better city. It simply makes for a more ethnically diverse city in which indigenous people do not want to live.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Who cares? People who lived or grew up in that city when it wasn't like that and preferred it that way. Me, for one. :shrug:

This idea that cosmopolitan diversity is great is not universally shared. Some of us feel something important has been lost.

And anyone who tells you Paris is a better city now than it was 30 years ago is a fúcking idiot, by the way.

So, you never lived in a foreign city and spoken English on the trains/tubes etc?

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

I've no idea about NYC and don't much care as it's not somewhere that interests me. You are 100% wrong about Paris, though. So much so that it's not even worth arguing about, tbh.

And the point that is being made - and is well worth making - is that greater diversity does not make for a better city. It simply makes for a more ethnically diverse city in which indigenous people do not want to live.

Other than the Church having burnt (damn those Muslamic ninjas) I found no difference centre-ville between now and the '90s.

I haven't been to the suburbs (and I only lived in one for a month in 1997, so it wouldn't have been a fair comparison.)

But I've lived in the centre for 3 different periods in the '90s and again for the last 2 years. Sod all has changed.

Other than those sodding green scooters cluttering up the streets.

Oh, there's more homelessness, just like central London. But they're all immigrants. If that's what you're referring to then yes, there are more immigrants on the streets than before. But in terms of quality of life for the natives or us travellers/ex-pats, nada.

The city's become more international, more foreign lingos spoken. But as long as you have the cash to pay your way, the natives are happy.

The major globally connected cities are going to become ever more internationalised, and there's nothing you or Farrage can do to stop this.

[Peter]

I've no idea about NYC and don't much care as it's not somewhere that interests me. You are 100% wrong about Paris, though. So much so that it's not even worth arguing about, tbh.

And the point that is being made - and is well worth making - is that greater diversity does not make for a better city. It simply makes for a more ethnically diverse city in which indigenous people do not want to live.

In which some (a fairly small minority) indigenous people do not want to live.