Jude Collins

Monday 19 March 2012

Those Ontario riots: I feel so ashamed - don't you?


Oh dear. You have disgraced yourselves again, as  W B Yeats told the Abbey audience at that Synge play (or was it the O'Casey one?)  Like you, I'm horrified and ashamed at the scenes of rioting coming from London, Ontario. A lot of people got cuts and minor injuries, it seems, and thousands of dollars-worth of property was damaged. It appears to have been perpetrated by students from a nearby college or colleges, which makes me feel relieved that when I was a student, I never let alcohol pass my lips ("Lips that touch liquor will never touch mine", I used to explain to beautiful girls in bars),  never got into fights of any kind, acted in a responsible way, and never woke up next morning saying to myself "Holy Mother of God, part of my skull is missing and  I'm going to throw up, I know I am". But out of adversity comes opportunity: with our experience of those awful  Holylands disturbances, we're now in a position to ship out the Vice-Chancellors of UU and Queen's to Ontario, where they can explain to the authorities there how they've managed to deal with those disgustingly young people - sorry, I mean disgusting young people in the Holylands who spoilt things for everyone else by drinking in public and smashing things and giving people cuts, despite what sober responsible grown-ups told them. I mean, as that grave-faced man in the BBC clip from Ontario said, enough is enough.

By the way -  I assume, like me,  you never got pissed or bolshie when you were young? Right. I thought not.

5 comments:

  1. Jude
    What is your point ? Should the 'celebrations' in the holyland in recent years be laughed off. Just a bit of fun. To hell with those few non students still left there.
    I certainly had a few drinks when I lived there many moons ago. I don't remember bringing my 200 mates out onto the street to party all night.
    I presume you would be content for this to happen in your own back yard?

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  2. Gio - you're absolutely right. I'm ashamed of myself.

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  3. Reasonably quiet this year, Matt should keep that group of constables ready for the twelth, ope ,sorry, diden't mean to hurt anybody's feelings.

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  4. Anon 11:43
    I am glad it was quieter this year.
    There is plenty of anti social behaviour around the 12th alright. I hope it is well policed.
    No doubt we can look forward to a light-hearted piece from Jude playing it down.

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  5. You impress me more and more, gio. Clairvoyance as well as everything else...

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