Monday, August 14, 2006

Antonia Bunce

via Labour Watch.

"Antonia Bance, the Labour councillor for Rose Hill & Iffley, was invited by the Department for Communities and Local Government on a three-day, all expenses-paid conference in Budapest on the finer points of blogging - the keeping of Internet diaries. She received a £500 bursary to go on the trip, which was attended by "several hundred" other bloggers and representatives from central and local government."

Why couldn't they have sent Bob Piper ? And held it in Ulan Bator ? Over an eighteen-year period ?

Only joking, Bob. There's still the odd bit of industry left to get rid of in the Black Country ...

11 comments:

Bob Piper said...

Of course there is, despite me personally closing down manufacturing industries by the week! Prat!

Stick to your racist ranting... it's got a certain sort of cliental.

Martin said...

Laban,

I think you're supposed to hide in the corner, now that the racism stick's been waved.

Along with your clientele, of course.

Bob Piper said...

good idea.

Martin said...

Laban,

You mean...people actually voted for this guy?

Crikey, I thought the state of Scottish democracy was bad...

Bob Piper said...

Sure did! Just exactly who do you represent? Although I don't suppose you've put your madcap ideas to the test have you?

Martin said...

Bob,

If you spend your days posting comments on blogs soon you won't be representing anyone.

I have never been elected to office, nor will I ever stand. Don't have the temperament for it. Besides, I have a mild disability which might impair my effectiveness.

Let's stop taking up Laban's space and have an e-mail debate. On the assumption that you've read my blog, you describe my beliefs as 'madcap'.

Ok, pick one and I'll debate it with you. The e-mail address is on my blog.

Anonymous said...

"cliental"

?

Oh, clientele.... Tsk, educational standards, eh?

Laban said...

Be fair - I often do typos.

Bob's blog is very entertaining. Reminds me of my sociology classes at Leeds circa 75.

Anonymous said...

B-*A*-N-C-E, please, Laban

AntiCitizenOne said...

Who's Bob piper?

Laban said...

Antonia - some of my witticisms fall on stony ground ...

"BUNCE n. British -- money or profit. A word dating from the 19th century and almost obsolete by the 1960s, except among street traders and the London underworld. In the late 1980s the word was revived by middle-class users such as alternative comedians in search of colourful synonyms in a climate of financial excesses. Bunce may originally have been a corruption of 'bonus.'" "The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (Pantheon Books, New York, 1990).
"British English: A to Zed" by Norman W. Schur (Harper Perennial, New York, 1987) says the American equivalent is "windfall." And that bunce is informal, "...Originally, just an profit (derived from bonus?) but latterly an unexpected one. It has now gained some currency as a verb, especially in the gerund, buncing, to describe the practice, in retail stores, of sticking new higher-price tags over the original lower-price labels on articles for sale."