yeah i don’t know the etymology of that one … possibly related to saying something you need to do but is a real pain is a real fag
No discussion of politics or politicians please. Thank you.
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Well at my old place fags, as in personal slave, were called doggies. I’m not sure I want to explore its etymology.
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Can I sue the Beeb for the psychological damage that I may have been subjected to through listening to every episode of “Beyond our Ken” and " Round the Horn" in my formative years. And does the Beeb play anything by Phil Campbell and his illegitimate children and if so How??
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The only bits of Round The Horne that could be played today is the opening music and
“Hello , my name’s Kenneth Horne”
I always try and put some episodes on the iPod in time for my holiday
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I don’t have any particular axe to grind on this song but I must admit I don’t like the double standards. I have teenage kids that have mainstream radio on a lot and there are plenty of rap songs on that have the N word and four letter words and they are blanked out, in fact some songs seem more blanks than words. This song was written in a different time and things move on and change, I get that, but why change the words now rather than blank them out like current songs ?
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Yes indeed, my post is harmlessly showing a picture of a man blowing a fagott.
Here is a picture of a man blowing a horn:
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It’s an interesting question; firstly violence is never the answer to a perceived slight. Sanctions are probably going too far but I suppose you need to look at the artefact to make a decision- if it was developed just to cause offense then I’m not going to lose sleep if the creator suffers a financial penalty.
I’d turn the question around slightly, is it acceptable behaviour in a civilised society that people do things purely for the reason of being offensive?
Literature, such as, Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ causes offense. Is this by design? Did Rushdie intend for Muslims to be upset, or was the upset incidental and unexpected? If intentional I have to ask why; I wouldn’t propose to censor him for it but I might view him differently; I’d still want to have the freedom to read the book though…
If we look at people smearing bacon on Mosques; well that’s clearly wrong and I’d be happy to see that behaviour ‘censored’.
What about trolling on social media? I guess it’s all attention seeking and those doing it (however irritating) should be pitied. Happy enough to see them excluded from the relevant forums if they’re making them unusable for others.
Frankly, I’m very much against things being banned or changed- The Fairytale of New York as naff as it is was a product of its time. Would the same characters speak in the same way today? Probably. Should it have been modified/changed; probably not but… I’m not going to get wound up about it- I simply don’t care.
Frankly much of what people describe as ‘PC gone mad’ I see as simple good manners; as my mother taught me ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’. I see little value in offending people for the sake of it, and I see little point in taking offense at efforts to avoid upsetting minorities (however misguided); for me the intention (in all cases) is the important thing.
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ooh matron
in my best Kenneth Williams
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The BBC is in a can’t win situation here and do wonder if the fuss about it is turning a molehill into a mountain.
Personnally, I am finding it all very amusing as the “Gammons” and Piers Morgan will be apolectic about it and create a big fuss about something they probably will never hear, because they probably don’t listen to R1 or R6.
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I might be wrong, but I think they recorded a new version in 1992 with the word changed to haggard. So I guess there are actually two versions flying around.
As you say, plenty of other situations where the offending word is just beeped out (and in the 80s/90s, b-sides of 12” records often used to have the ‘radio edit’ as an extra track). So I guess it’s nothing new.
As to whether a changed word or a beep is more distracting : I can’t make my mind up !
And one chooses to make comments like that.
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Good for you. That’s just super. Now just tell me how that’s relevant to the discussion.
I agree that it’s the thoughts that count, not the language. So it’s with little downside that I choose language that I feel has a low chance of being interpreted differently (particularly in a pejorative sense) to my intent. If I make a mistake, I’ll happily accept the correction without being counter-offended, adjust my language and move on. I don’t find this difficult to do. I don’t feel it impinges at all on my rights. It just seems a decent way to behave.
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A Pure Disgrace!
Maybe we should eliminate everything that causes offense. I saw Debbie Harry sing the song in person at a concern last year and she omitted “faggot”. Blondie were pioneers in the punk movement. Let’s cancel culture altogether 
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Does anybody think that following this, Radio 2 will play the correct version of “Don’t marry her…” By Beautiful South ?
Answers please on a postcard …
To the Fat Controller , BBC2
My wife once caused great hilarity while travelling in the US by referring to a pile of filthy fag butts. It took a few moments for the locals to realise that she was talking about the full ashtray on the table, and not them.
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I guess it depends on your use of language. If it’s just a means to an end… then you use language as a disposable parameter, if however you enjoy language, it’s richness and diversity and enjoy the words for what they are and how they have evolved along with their literation … indeed as a poet may do … then it’s a different matter… sure in the limit there are some extreme taboo words I would exclude…but that is a tiny handful.
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Ha!–Forty years ago Auntie Beeb was playing this with far more --ahem-dubious lyrics than the Pogues–funny
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