I am not trying to be controversial, but...........

Grammaretto Re your comment about the German girl and our constant remembering about the war and repeatedly showing war films. I have to admit however that I thought the recent films to be generally very good.

I live in the Dordogne which you will know was occupied by the Germans and there are many sites of Nazi atrocities in the area. We have few German tourists but I have noticed that plaques on many buildings where atrocities were committed have been altered and the word Germans replaced by the word Nazis. Driving around one sees many small memorials dedicated to one or more who were killed by the Nazis.

There are still divisions between those whose families were collaborators and those of resistance members. It's 75 years since the war ended and I suspect those divisons will not be healed for some years yet. I just hope that the divisions that are occurring in the UK may be healed more quickly.

Mmm. I wonder what these wanton idiots would call you EllanVannin. I am still trying to find out why some people indulge quite so much in name calling. I imagine it's much the same explanation as why some people swear.

Maintenance covers could be anything anywhere even something that goes over a vehicle, but a manhole is known by everyone.

People usually manage language changes EllanVannin. They are constant.

Manhole - Operative Aperture, has been for years

Davidhs I think that sometimes we are too politically correct so that comedy programs like we saw when we were younger would not be made now. I would like to see more satire - bring back That Was The Week That Was.

I've never liked Benny Hill as I thought him smutty but I laugh out loud at Dave Allen. The Catholic church didn't take too kindly to Dave Allen but I think that most institutions need to be laughed at sometimes.

I always thought that Warren Mitchell's character in Till Death Us Do Part was intended so make us more aware of the racism in society at that time, not that we should agree with him.

Poor Churchill will have to be guarded this weekend. There's a determination to remove him by these wanton idiots which will only encourage the extremists, then everyone will be happy because it'll be an excuse for a free for all.

Expect violence this weekend !

Maintenance covers could be anything anywhere even something that goes over a vehicle, but a manhole is known by everyone.

There's still not another name for a manhole

Of course there is. It called exactly what it is - a maintenance cover.

Can't be any worse than what we're known as ExD--white sh*te.

There's still not another name for a manhole

Have we no black Gransnetters? Am I allowed to use that word? I know 'coloured' is offensive, is 'ethnic' more correct?
Anyway, I was wondering if all the members on here were white Caucasians?
I'd like to hear what sensible Mums and Grans of different race really think about all this?
Are we really as horrible to you as you say? Do we really discriminate to such a degree?
Are you sure some people aren't seeking out offensive remarks which were not intended?
What do you want to achieve?
Where does all this hatred come from, surely not from hundreds of years ago? In that case - look to the Egyptians who used African slaves to build the Pyramids - do the Pyramids have to be demolished too?

And I'm sorry if anything I've written is abhorrent to you, if it is, please point it out so I can avoid it in future.

No more black jelly babies ?

Do you remember all the hoo-haa about men/women equality when the word man was replaced ?

Someone mentioned today on the radio that History is never neutral.
I thought that summed it up well.
The statue of John Hamilton in Hamilton, NZ is being taken down as many people now find it offensive.

A time and a place for everything?

We host young people from all over the world and have hosted many Germans. Only one has said she is sick to death of the way in UK we harp on and on about the war and the Nazis. We show war films again and again. She wasn't born then. She doesn't want to keep hearing about it.

The removal of GWTW is pointless as it was based on the book. Will there be a book burning next? This is getting silly....

Remind me not to sit in the sun in case I go brown and upset someone if they think I'm taking the Mick !

I'm getting brassed off with it all now !

And now you're supposed to laugh at/about men and women's bits and pieces ? Because that's all that comedy seems to be about today. Times they are a changing.

Iam64 I wasn’t particularly thinking of investments more products bought every day. Let’s start with Chinese goods, produced with cheap labour in environmental conditions a far cry from our standards phones, TVs and all the other consumer stuff. In addition much of the infrastructure over there was built using forced Labour not many years ago.

We benefit today from exploiting others every day, but that’s different isn’t it we gloss over that.

As I found out visiting a small hotel in northern Germany the host was obviously very conscious and even apologetic about the Nazis, this came as a surprise. Basils sketch was farce, no more and I’m sure at the time caused no offense to Germans, much more to hotel owners that one of them could behave like that.

I’m not a John Cleese fan do I don't mourn the loss, comedy in general 50yrs ago was SO politically incorrect although we laughed at the time. It’s a pity it hasn’t been replaced with something entertaining, just a diet of reality shows that feature the public or celebrities making fools of themselves.

I've just been reading that it was because the major made racist comments about the West Indian cricket team. It's ages since I watched the episode, so I can't remember. Apparently, later editions were edited.

lemongrove, quite right about the Faulty Towers episode that has been pulled. I hope that like GWTW it will return. Basil was the one who was humiliated, the German guests had impeccable manners - I'm smiling just remembering it.

Grammareto, you're right of course about the difficulties in buying or investing ethically. We can only do our best. It is no bad thing that the BLM campaign is making sure we reflect on our history. I identify as English, though according to my DNA test, like most of our population I'm a mix of Northern Europe, Scotland and Ireland. I have always enjoyed learning about our history, wouldn't it be good if it regained its importance on our school curriculum and university degree courses.

I used to subscribe to the Ethical Consumer magazine and tried to be as careful as possible about what we spent our money on and how we earned it. However I became really depressed after a while to see that everything was implicated.
I couldn't even buy dog food as the company belonged to a Multinational which was busy wrecking the planet and creating global misery.
I still try to do my best and a group of us started a community shop which has is morally and ethically as sound as it can be!

I watched the David Olusoga programmes about the proceeds of slavery . They are very good and important.

growstuff yes, the joke ( in that particular episode of Fawlty Towers) is on Basil Fawlty not the German visitors, but it came about because Basil was hit on the head and after discharging himself from hospital became manic back at the hotel.
It may be regarded as xenophobic by some, but certainly isn’t a race matter.

Not all of us Davidhs, some of us lucky enough to have investments, ask the financial advisor only to invest in ethical schemes. I'm sure that doesn't ensure total compliance but it does suggest that the financial advisors are well aware that some clients take that option.

“I wouldn't mind betting that many people today don't know where their pension funds or bank savings are invested.“

And most don’t care as long as their life is comfortable, if every investment was ethical, and developing countries were rewarded fairly for resources we use our standard of living would fall dramatically. We are all exploiters !.

That episode has always been controversial. I must admit I've never really understand the offence. Basil was the one who was made to look like an idiot. He reflected the views of many and the views of the anti-PC brigade, who forever claim they can't say what they want.

Unfortunately, I think the subtlety of the humour escaped some and some did see it as being anti-German. It's been shown on German TV and Germans I know laugh at the stupidity of one Englishman. Many Germans did, and still do, suffer from xenophobic abuse. One only has to look at some of the tabloid headlines depicting Merkel as some kind of Nazi.