BBC News: “UK population ‘to rise to 71.6m’”

As being reported on the BBC website, the population of the UK is expected to increase from 61m to 71.6m by 2033, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As it states, just over two-thirds of this increase is expected to be related directly or indirectly to migration to the UK.

If the projected increase materialises, the population will have grown at its fastest rate in a century: by more than 10m in the 24 years between 2008 and 2029, less than half the time it took to rise from 50m to 60m between 1948 and 2005.

Bruce and Anton: Strictly Don’t Use the ‘P Word’

(Please note, this article contains words and phrases that some might find offensive)

The BBC website is reporting that Bruce Forsyth has said that people should have a “sense of humour” about the Strictly Come Dancing race row involving professional dancer Anton Du Beke who admitted calling his show partner, actress Laila Rouass, a “Paki”. Forsyth says that in the past the “slip up” would have been treated in a more light-hearted way. Talking to TalkSport he said:

“You go back 25, 30, 40 years and there has always been a bit of humour about the whole thing. Americans used to call us ‘limeys’ which doesn’t sound very nice, but we used to laugh about it. Everybody has a nickname.”

Is he right…???

“Have You Heard the One About the English & the Carry On Films…?”: Speak Out magazine article

(The post below will feature in the next edition of ‘SpeakOut’ magazine, due for publication in the second week of June.)

As a child my grandparents introduced me to the ‘Carry On…’ series of films. From an early age I was as scared by the totally non-scary Oddjob in ‘Carry on Screaming’ as I was amused by Barbara Windsor losing her bra during exercises in ‘Carry on Camping’. Even today, I still laugh at the double entendres and puerile humour of Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams et al.

I was both interested and pleased to see a feature in the Birmingham Post last year that asked people to send in their ‘alternative’ English cultural icons. Alongside 1970s football hooliganism and Raleigh Chopper bikes were the ‘Carry On’ series of films.

Then in a separate poll for the BBC, Kenneth Williams’ “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me” line from ‘Carry on Cleo’ came out as the nation’s favourite comedy one-liner. It obviously wasn’t just me that held the ‘Carry On’ films so dear.

Anti-Social Housing: ‘Right to Buy’ and Thatcher’s Legacy

Radio 4’s ‘Analysis: Anti-Social housing’ broadcast on Thursday 26th February 2009 explored the role, function and challenges facing the provision of social housing in today’s Britain. Much of the focus was on the Aylesbury council estate in Walworth, south London where Tony Blair, when Labour came to power in 1997, pledged to defeat poverty and social exclusion (a slide show of images from the Aylesbury Estate can be viewed here).

Central to this was the research undertaken by Tamsie Thomson from the Royal Institute of British Architects who has made an in depth study of the estate:

This estate was built in the mid 1960s in response to acute housing need and it had some of the most dilapidated housing in London. It was the densest ward in the densest borough in the densest city in England.

“I don’t think we need another film about the Holocaust, do we?”: A Beautiful Irony #3

In a 2005 edition of the BBC comedy ‘Extras‘ (Series One), Ricky Gervais’ character commends the actress Kate Winslet – playing herself – for doing a Holocaust movie. Dismissing his praise, she tells him it has nothing to do with spreading the message. She is doing it solely to win an Oscar:

“I don’t think we need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It’s like, how many have there been? We get it. It was grim. Move on. No, I’m doing it because I’ve noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust, guaranteed an Oscar. I’ve been nominated four times—never won. The whole world is going, ‘Why hasn’t Winslet won one?’ That’s it. That’s why I’m doing it. Schindler’s bloody List. The Pianist. Oscars coming out of their ass!”

Following Winslet’s success at the Oscars last night for her role in the Holocaust movie ‘The Reader’, her words now ring a little too close to the bone.

As everyone from Chaucer through to Doris Lessing have committed to print: ‘Many a true word is spoken in jest’

This work by Chris Allen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Based on a work at www.chris-allen.co.uk.