Bollocks to Blair
(From The Times) Two stallholders at a Norfolk fair have each been fined £80 for displaying t-shirts bearing the words “Bollocks to Blair”.
According to Norfolk police:
The notices were issued under Section 5 of the Public Order Act as the language was deemed to cause harassment, distress or alarm at an event, where a cross section of people were present including families and young children who may have found the displays offensive. Police did receive a complaint from a member of the public.
This is not the first time police have acted against someone for offending the Rev Blair with this t-shirt. In September last year a 20-year-old gamekeeper from Goucester was arrested at the Midlands Game Fair for wearing it. She was forced to cover up with a friend’s coat.
Bollocks to that.
Wouldn’t the court case that allowed “Never Mind the Bollocks” to be displayed in record shops have had some bearing on this. In that case didn’t they rule the Bollocks had meanings other than as a swear word?
I’d have thought some precedent here. I know the LP Never Mind the Bollocks was just that, but it was still on display and could presumably have caused similar ‘offence’. It went to court, and the Sex Pistols won. One can’t help but think, therefore, that the Rev. Blair is charmed when it comes to judicial decisions.
Hah! Looks as though the two Andrews were writing the same sort of sentiment at the same time here. Bollocking good coincidence, that.
I’d come across it before too.
http://davidp1.blogspot.com/2006/05/spherical-objects-part-2.html …
Typical Blairite freedom of speech.
I suggest someone send bulls testes to Blair.
Or Maybe just reissue the T-shirt with ‘Testes To Blair’ on it. Grammatically correct and cannot be misconstrued and totally in-offensive.
I agree it’s stupid, but this isn’t about Blair – the police obviously thought ‘Bollocks’ was offensive. If it had said ‘Bollocks to Gloria Hunniford’, the response would likely have been the same.
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
The guy who proved in court for the Sex Pistols that bollocks wasn’t offensive was John Mortimer, of Rumpole fame. The case is covered in quite amusing detail in Geoffrey Robertson’s autobiography, ‘The Justice Game’, along with similar examples from a golden age when UK judges took it for granted that petty censorship like this was – well – a load of bollocks really!
One might imagine that the complainant and/or the constable(s) involved took that action against the display of the word “bollocks” because, ahem, they didn’t have any themselves.