Now that ISN'T funny.

Well, what's wrong with that, if he was using the phrase as meaning 'down to earth'? Good heavens, did he think someone might think he was being racist...?

I don't get it

Does he mean NF doesn't call a spade a spade?
Like the Australians who call a spade a shovel?

Or have I missed the point and it actually was racist?
(Does anyone actually use that word any more to describe a black person?)

On the fens a spade is called a digging shovel!

It wasn't racist surely?

Not in Dudley. They would mean that they believe NF says it like it is!

In Wednesbury (not a million miles fom Dudley) a spade is a bloody shovel.

Precisely Galen. Just seen the Express & Star headline. Nigel says he will win seats in the Black Country. But, from which Party? Dudley North is Labour, I think. I suspect Labour rank and file relate more to NF than to intellectual socialists like Milliband. Whereas Tory disaffected would turn further to the right.

I'm left wondering (if he was really meaning "down to earth") why he then felt the need to add "that's a joke by the way"

Considering the speaker was referring to NF , it's really stretching to interpret this as non racist.

I think he couldn't resist the opportunity to sound as though he was being clever with double meanings.

Yes. He did rather ruin the effect by saying it was meant to be a joke...

<oh crumbs> emotion.
I dont understand this thread either.

I am staying off gransnet for several hours more.

And again soon .

I'm no fan of NF but it wasn't him who used the phrase, it was 'one chap' speaking about him.

That's what I said in the OP ruby

Very
Non comprendo
Please don't tell me that phrase is racist......

[givesupandwandersofftowaterplantpots]

[joinsloopylouwateringplantpots]

Thankfully in most places the term is no longer used, but the phrase "spade" was sometimes used to refer to people of colour/negroes/Afro Carribeans etc. It is sometimes thought to sort of relate to the suit "spades" in a deck of cards.

Jo1book, I always think of Ukip as being further to the right of Tory.

I thought everyone would know that, phoenix, which is why I didn't elaborate in my previous post.

I was obviously wrong!

First used in the 16th Century, according to Mr.Google.
At least the fatal phrase was uttered in The Black Country and not in the
'people of colour' country.
PC madness yet again.

May be there are north uk and south uk phrases.
In the county I live in, there are lots of verbal variations in different sections.

I get a bit annoyed, to be honest, that everyone thinks that everyone knows all the different words and phrases.

I shall start a thread!

Must be nice to be as innocent as you, soon.

Nonsense!

It's not about North and South at all, just about making the effort to understand, reading things carefully, twice if you don't understand, then asking clear questions rather than making wide ranging assumptions about language distribution.

Most language is comprehensible if you make the effort!