Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[StephenMcK]

According to the editable 'Wiktionary', 'the man on the Clapham Omnibus' was 'first put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News, who attributed it to Lord Bowen.'

Meanwhile, down under, I see that there's a 'man on the Bondi tram'.

I'd want to leave 'White Van Man' as it is, being quite gender specific (Sarah Kennedy, formerly of Radio 2, is credited with having coined the term on her very early morning show).

Yes, I like to have him around as a reference point for when people say to me ... 'you're the kind of gay man I don't mind. No, what really make my skin creep is those terribly camp, effeminate, queeny types - all limp wrists and shrieks. Really, it's such affected behaviour. What makes them like that?'.

'Oh, I'm not sure I reply, '... it's a bit like those neanderthal types you see in builders' vans, always exposing their bottom cleavage, going around scratching their private bits and bellowing salacious comments at passing young women. Really, it's such affected behaviour. I wonder what makes THEM like that?'.

Going back to the 'omnibus' reference (and I see the first 'omnibus' was in 1829), I suppose it was a nod to the emergence of the first mass transport systems and the growth of a commuting class, but today perhaps we need to be referring to the everyday 'person on the tube-train-light railway network-cable car-clipper-segway-skateboard-rollerskate-scooter-bus'.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'd want to leave 'White Van Man' as it is, being quite gender specific (Sarah Kennedy, formerly of Radio 2, is credited with having coined the term on her very early morning show).

Yes, I like to have him around as a reference point for when people say to me ... 'you're the kind of gay man I don't mind. No, what really make my skin creep is those terribly camp, effeminate, queeny types - all limp wrists and shrieks. Really, it's such affected behaviour. What makes them like that?'.

'Oh, I'm not sure I reply, '... it's a bit like those neanderthal types you see in builders' vans, always exposing their bottom cleavage, going around scratching their private bits and bellowing salacious comments at passing young women. Really, it's such affected behaviour. I wonder what makes THEM like that?'.

That reminds me of a Welsh bloke I worked alongside in Bristol, who didn't like blacks. "But you get on all right with Carl [who workerd on the Fitters' section] don't you? He's black". "Oh" Taffy replied, "Carl's all right; it's the rest on them I can't stand"!

The reason for my mentioning his being Welsh - which I then went on to remind him of - was that Bristolians - many of whom have long memories for things they would do well to forget, but short memories for matters they would do better to remember - retain a particular dislike of Welsh people for the fact that a great many who had been made redundant from the coal mines in the slump of the early 1930s were brought in as replacements for local engineering workers, and paid lower wages.

[kernelbogey]

like those neanderthal types you see in builders' vans

I'll have you know, Stephen, that it's now known that Neanderthals were quite civilised folk.

It's them homo sapiens that are the problem....

[StephenMcK]

I should have gone with 'Sun readers' but then I might be accused of being culturally insensitive.

[cloughie]

I had thought LMcD was more outraged by the VERY EXISTENCE of "smart motorways", so (ignominiously) called!

We don’t have motorways in Cornwall - now that is smart!

[Alain Maréchal]

a reporter on BBC Breakfast informed us that smart motorway cameras 'don't operate continuously all of the time'.

A student of English asks: If the cameras operate from, for example, 9am to noon, and then again from 4pm to 7pm, do they not operate continuously between those hours? What they would not be doing is operating continually. Thus, I think, the reporter may have been grammatically correct, even if not factually.

I ask for clarification. These are the sort of expressions that trip up we higgerant furriners.

[cloughie]

Or just 'white van driver'. Many years ago my daughter discovered that it's very easy to adopt the style once at the wheel of said vehicle, on a trip moving brother and belongings back to uni and collecting family items from elsewhere; she had a great time, he less so.

I hope she enjoyed a Yorkie bar or two en route!

[Serial_Apologist]

We don’t have motorways in Cornwall - now that is smart!

You are a single-minded lot down there!

[kernelbogey]

A student of English asks: If the cameras operate from, for example, 9am to noon, and then again from 4pm to 7pm, do they not operate continuously between those hours? ...

I believe they would be operating continually within those hours, during which they operate continuously.

[cloughie]

You are a single-minded lot down there!

No, just how it is - There aren’t any in Dorset, Norfolk and much of Wales!

[LMcD]

No, just how it is - There aren’t any in Dorset, Norfolk and much of Wales!

.. or in Suffolk - why on earth would the UK's largest container port need a motorway, for Heaven's sake?

[oddoneout]

I hope she enjoyed a Yorkie bar or two en route!

Wasn't that truckers?

[Serial_Apologist]

No, just how it is - There aren’t any in Dorset, Norfolk and much of Wales!

Single carriageway minded, I should have clarified.

[cloughie]

Single carriageway minded, I should have clarified.

Certainly on the A30 at Bolventor at the moment!

[LMcD]

Wasn't that truckers?

Does anybody else remember Cornish-born Radio 2 presenter Sheila Tracy aka 'The Truckers' Floozie'? I believe she was a fine trombonist.