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Recent Publications by New English Review Authors
In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas
by Theodore Dalrymple
Defending The West:
by Ibn Warraq
Nations, Language and Citizenship:
by Norman Berdichevsky
Romancing Opiates
by Theodore Dalrymple
Which Koran?
by Ibn Warraq
Our Culture, What's Left of It
by Theodore Dalrymple
What The Koran Really Says
by Ibn Warraq
Life at the Bottom
by Theodore Dalrymple
The Origins of the Koran
by Ibn Warraq
Why I Am Not Muslim
by Ibn Warraq
Spanish Vignettes: An Offbeat Look Into Spain's Culture, Society & History
by Norman Berdichevsky
Leaving Islam
Edited by Ibn Warraq
Wednesday, 31 May 2006
Name to conjure with

London's Evening Standard reports that a 79-year-old market trader has been given an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) for swearing at council officials.

His name? George Mothersole. I can't be the first person to conjure with this name. His schooldays must have been made a misery. You'd think they'd take this into account, as well as his age and the fact that the council officials probably deserved to be sworn at, because council officials often do.

And what did he used to sell at the market? Bananas.

Posted on 8:22 AM by Mary Jackson
Comments
31 May 2006
Send an emailEsmerelda Weatherwax
An ASBO. How times have changed. When my paternal grandmother (15 stone and very bad tempered) raced to my grandfather's aid with a rifle and fixed bayonet during an altercation in the market (this was early 1940 and my oldest uncle had brought it home from the militia, and probably against regulations, to show my youngest uncles) I believe that she was only bound over and fined half a guinea. That's 10/6 in old money, 55p or $1 & E1 in new.

31 May 2006
Send an emailMary Jackson
ASBOs are used by Stalinist New Labour to penalise the eccentric.

I hate to be pedantic, but wouldn't half a guinea (it was a lot of money in them days) be 52.5p, rather than 55p?

No wonder they got rid of them.

31 May 2006
Send an emailEsmerelda Weatherwax
You are quite right.
I ran out of thumbs doing the maths.

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