Village idiots?

[Anakena]

The children of Scalloway, Burra, Trondra, Tingwall, Whiteness Weisdale and Nesting, pupils of Scalloway secondary school, faced with the seemingly imminent closure of their school must be regarding the prospect of being forced to attend the Lerwick AHS with ever mounting anxiety given the snide proclamation made about them by the Lerwick Up Helly Aa committee and it's members, an organisation of some one thousand men.

Even by the astonishingly low standards of these self proclaimed Brave Noble Hardy Vikings surely, surely, slandering and publicly humiliating a group of twelve to fifteen year old children they don,t even know by labelling them as Village Idiots because they don't live in Lerwick must be the utter nadir of all.

If a child misbehaves in class, they are made to stand up and explain their foolish actions to the teacher and their classmates. I propose that the entire Lerwick Up Helly Aa committee be summarily rounded up and put on a bus to Scalloway school to stand up before all the children they so eagerly slandered and explain their comments.

 

[Mod Edit - Added a poll, contact a mod if you wish it to be removed]

[Siccar]

I think it may have been a light hearted dig to see if anybody would bite. You widna last long as a fish.

[mhutch]

xenophobia can stem from an unwillingness to accept or understand local humour, theres a few more bills to go up yet

[Ghostrider]

Until an hour ago it was a localised issue, that only a limited number of folk had heard of, fewer had taken seriously, and fewer still were likely to remember in a week or so.

 

Its now worldwide for all to see (thankyou the power that is Google), and likely to grow and grow. I'll refrain from offering comment or opinion on what was said, as I did not hear it being said, but any complaint, explanation and/or apology would have been far better requested and discussed privately with UHA representatives, than on a public forum.

[mhutch]

Until an hour ago it was a localised issue, that only a limited number of folk had heard of, fewer had taken seriously, and fewer still were likely to remember in a week or so.

 

Its now worldwide for all to see (thankyou the power that is Google), and likely to grow and grow. I'll refrain from offering comment or opinion on what was said, as I did not hear it being said, but any complaint, explanation and/or apology would have been far better requested and discussed privately with UHA representatives, than on a public forum.

 

can you pippn muckle idder ?

[RFR937]

I'm supposing all the repliers to the question have kids at one of these schools ?

[mhutch]

Voe and Mossbank will be chopped too n will perhaps appear on the up helly aa bill too , got to expect n accept up helly bills, they could be even worse wi provocation

[Ghostrider]

I'm supposing all the repliers to the question have kids at one of these schools ?

 

No. Just making an observation that I think some people are being over sensitive, and by posting this thread are actually doing more harm than the original statement ever could have, as it is drawing attention to what was said, where, and exactly what it means.

 

For the record, I read the bill on UHA day, including the allegedly "offensive" mention, but it has taken until now and reading the original post three times and then going back and re-reading the bill, for the penny to drop as to what exactly the OP is getting at.

 

I would expect a large percentage who read the bill, like me, really paid awfully little attention to that one small mention, and immediately forgot about it. However, now I will assuredly remember it, simply because of this thread.

 

Sometimes it pays in the long run just to let something slip, or at least take it up with the originators in private correspondence.

[RFR937]

To be honest I'm with you on this one Ghostie , just feel a little bit sorry for the first poster who seems to have been berated for letting their feelings be known , personally i'm pretty thick skinned about UHA bill comments but as a father of 3 kids who could be affected I can understand how it might upset , for all that I still can't see what could be gained from the comment , maybe I'm one of those "village idiots " to? On the bright side , come the future I'd like to see anyone tell my three their idiots , it'll be a laugh watching the protagonists heads roll !!

[Mattie]

So what exactly did the Lerwick Up Helly Aa Squad and Committee say?

Before proceeding!

[Guest Raven007]

, but do you no think its getting a bit boring , year after year the same thing ower and ower again ? i certainly think it needs a freshen up , new ideas ?

[jz]

So what exactly did the Lerwick Up Helly Aa Squad and Committee say?

Before proceeding!

 

Will the AHS really need any more village idiots?

 

See http://shetlopedia.com/images/7/75/LUHA_2011_Bill_-_Kozetland1.JPG

 

@Ghostrider - As the bill is on the front page of Shetlopedia this month it already has been made "worldwide".

 

Personally, I don't think it is so offensive. Just not funny.

[exciseman]

What will happen is that the ‘Toon’ youngsters will grab on to this proclamation as a weapon to bully the ‘Country’ youngsters when they arrive at the AHS.

Use of the term ‘Village Idiots’ towards bairns is much more offensive than the use of the ‘S’ word a few years back

[EM]

, but do you no think its getting a bit boring , year after year the same thing ower and ower again ? i certainly think it needs a freshen up , new ideas ?

That's what I was thinking a few years back, but my observation has been that the recent (last three) have been more in the old style and have shown less of a reluctance to cut hard. In recent years there certainly has been much harder hitting material than the Scalloway line. I think more people complain about Bills which are insipid and PC than about the hard jibes. It is, however, important that such satire is well done, and in this case I would agree that the Scalloway bit was relatively lame.

[guy fawkes]

From a completely neutral perspective, I feel this is quite a derogatory phrase to use. I agree you don't want the proclamation to be too tame but there is something distasteful about aiming it at children. Usually the proclamation, quite rightly, is aimed at daft adults who should know better. These children have done nothing to deserve being called "village idiots". It is easy for the posters to say it would have been better ignored, then no one would have remembered. I think it would have been better left out altogether. Teenagers have a hard enough time coping with growing up without an added reason to be bullied and taunted.