Archive for March 2008

No, no, no

No Mandate Brown is appealing to “middle England” to support more devolution for Scotland and support the union.

The One Eyed Wonder of Wankistan says that the UK is “the world’s most successful multi-national state” but that the union isn’t “a contract of convenience that can be renegotiated”. Multi-national or multi-regional? Remember, as far as Liebour is concerned there is no such thing as England.

Also today, Jack Straw is going to set out a “statement of British values” that define British citizenship and press the non-existent case for a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. There’s that word again – responsibilities. It’s no longer enough that you live here, work here, pay your taxes here or were even born here – you must have some good old British responsibilities for the British good.

The Demon Headmaster will be pressing for more power at local, regional and national level with more power for city governments. The national level is, of course, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (which isn’t even a nation). The regional level, obviously, is England which must never be given any form of acknowledgment as a national entity. City government (aka City Regions – the EU’s favoured form of “local” government) will only apply to England … sorry, the English Regions … because local government is devolved.

Apparently, today is the first day of Jack Straw’s consultation on Britishness, British values and a British Bill of Rights. Has anyone English been invited to take part in this “consultation”? If Jack Straw and Gordon Brown get away with what they’re trying to do right now then that’s the end of England forever.

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Flying the flag

No Mandate Brown is grinning and giggling to himself over a report that says all British government buildings should be encouraged to fly the British flag to promote Britishness.

The British government is responsible for a relatively small number of public buildings in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but most belong to their devolved assemblies, particularly in Scotland.  Predictably, the Scottish government instantly denounced the daft idea and once again confirmed that the Scottish flag will fly from Scottish government buildings.

The report also makes provision for the English flag to be flown more often but the idea is to promote Britishness Brown’s British Britishness so don’t hold your breath.  The British government orders public buildings to fly the British flag on certain days and in the name of Britishness and preserving their cushy British jobs, British MPs will support the British government’s decision to force all British public buildings in England to fly the British flag.

Quite why Britishness Brown thinks Scottishness and Welshness are to be encouraged but Englishness is the work of the devil, I don’t know.  He supported the “sovereign” right of the Scottish people to determine the best form of government for themselves and he pledged to put their interests “first and foremost in all [his] acts and deliberations” when he signed the Scottish Claim of Right.  Perhaps it’s because destroying the English national identity will keep the union artificially alive and the English serfs will continue to pay their taxes to their celtic lords, thereby fulfilling his pledge to put Scotland’s interests before those of England.  Or perhaps he just hates England and English people.

Whatever the reason, the Cross of St George is the only flag that will fly at my house and every public building in my town that flies the butchers apron will get complaint after complaint until it’s taken down.

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Match it for Pratchett

Regular readers will know that I’m a big Terry Pratchett fan and that he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimers.

Terry donated $1m to Alzheimers research not long ago after discovering how badly underfunded it is.

Since then a website has been set up by a fan, Match It For Pratchett, with the aim of collecting enough money to match Terry’s $1m. So far it’s collected over $5k (net of Paypal’s fees which they will hopefully waive as it is for charity) which is a bit of a way off the $1m target but from small acorns grow mighty oaks as they say.

You can either make a donation via Paypal straight from the website or purchase a shirt via their Cafepress store for $20 (and that’s cutting his own throat no doubt).

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Institutional Anglophobia in the Police

For years ethnic minority groups have accused the Police of institutional discrimination – now it’s the turn of the majority to make the same accusation.

Former soldier, Craig Briggs, has wanted to join the Police since he was a child and joined the army to get some experience before applying. After serving 4 and a half years in the army he’s about to leave any day now and has applied to Greater Manchester Police. However, he’s been turned down before even getting an interview because he has the word “England” tattooed on his arm.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said “A family who aren’t of English origin who see England on your arm could feel you might discriminate against them. We live in a diverse society and try to ensure we give everybody equality.”

But not if you’re English though, that would just be too offensive wouldn’t it? If a “family who aren’t of English origin” living in England are offended by the word “England” then they really chose the wrong place to live. This is nothing short of racial discrimination – I very much doubt that people “who aren’t of English origin” would find themselves barred from joining the Police if they had a tattoo bearing the name of their country and the very idea of banning potential recruits from joining the English Police force because they have the name of their country tattooed on their arm is not only deeply offensive but absolutely outrageous. A complaint will be winging its way to the Equality and Human Rights Commission shortly.

Update:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to make a complaint about racial discrimination.

In today’s the Sun newspaper is a story about a soldier who has been refused an interview for Greater Manchester Police because he has the word “England” tattooed on his arm. Apparently this could be considered offensive to people who are not of English origin.

This is outrageous – why should the word “England” tattooed on the arm of an English policeman in England be considered offensive to anybody, regardless of their origin? Would this rule be extended to the same people who are not of English origin if they had the name of their own country tattooed on their arm? I very much doubt this is the case.

To show pride in your country of birth is not something to be ashamed of and this rule – which apparently emanated from the Home Office – is clearly discriminatory towards English people.

Stuart Parr

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Shropshire Star: MPs ought to pay for EU treaty treachery

The following letter appeared (very belatedly) in the Shropshire Star last night:

MPs ought to pay for EU treaty treachery

MPs vote not to give us a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty by 311 to 248, this is despite all three main parties promising a referendum.

Labour and the Lib Dems both claim that the EU Reform Treaty and EU constitution are different enough not to warrant a referendum – this is an outright lie.

The EU Reform Treaty produces the same end result as the constitution except references to the flag and anthem of the EU are moved to an appendix which is voluntary.

The constitution replaced existing treaties, the EU Reform Treaty amends them. The payload is the same, it is the method of delivery that is different.

A private referendum by iwar.png showed that 88 per cent of the electorate wants a referendum on the treaty. David Wright and all the other (mostly Labour) MPs who voted against a referendum did so in the full knowledge they were going against the wishes of their constitutents.

I will do everything I can to ensure that David Wright loses his seat at the next election for his treachery.

Stuart Parr
Telford

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Oi Darling, you’re barred!

Alistair Darling, King of the Caterpillars, gave his first budget the other day. I really didn’t have the energy to give it the fisking it deserved but needless to say it was shit. More taxes and £14bn of extra government borrowing over the next two years to pay for whatever crap it is he intends to overspend on.

It’s quite clear, even to someone without a degree in macroeconomics, that the country is insolvent. No Mandate Brown was about as prudent as Heather Mills with our money during his ten year reign of terror at the Treasury creating tax and spend policy after tax and spend policy, borrowing more and more money to pay for it and moving his own borrowing targets around when it was evident he was going to miss them.

One policy that has really got peoples’ attention is the huge hike in tax on booze which the pub industry has said is the final nail in the coffin of the traditional pub. Christ knows how many pubs are going out of business on a weekly basis – it’s a lot and it’s only going to get worse. The simple fact is, it’s already cheaper to drink at home than it is to go to the pub. With the latest tax increase, it’s just going to be too expensive and casual drinkers are going to plump for a 5 litre bottle of Lambrusco or a 6 pack of Stella at home rather than pay pub prices.

We all know booze is almost a national hobby in England so it’s unsurprising that an internet campaign has kicked off to get Alistair Darling barred from every pub in the UK inspired by a pub in Scotland that has actually already barred him because of his budget. It’s taking off pretty quickly – there’s a Facebook group, some posters and talk of at least one industry publication considering supporting it nationwide.

I have this image in my head of posters of Al Murray pointing his finger with the words “Oi Darling, you’re barred!” in pubs up and down the country. What better way to show the contempt that Depression Darling deserves? Pub landlords are only the tip of the iceberg – the disastrous mismanagement of the economy by successive Scottish chancellors has brought the country to the brink of depression with absolutely nothing left in the bank with which to weather the storm. In short, we’re screwed.

See Also:

Devil’s Kitchen, Man in a Shed, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Fora, MacNumpty, Toque

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Shropshire & Telford NHS Trust loses £2m per year treating Welsh patients

The following letter has been sent to the press in the West Midlands and Shropshire MPs:

Tom Taylor, Chief Executive of the Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust, has confirmed what the Shropshire branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament has been saying for the last couple of years – that treating Welsh patients in Shropshire hospitals is costing millions of pounds that could be spent treating English patients.

Mr Taylor says that treating Welsh patients in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford is costing the Trust £2m per year because of differences in funding and targets.

The Campaign for an English Parliament doesn’t have a problem with Welsh patients being treated in English hospitals but the NHS Trusts involved have a responsibility to ensure that in treating patients from another country they don’t compromise the treatment of patients living in England. It isn’t unreasonable to expect the Welsh government to pay the going rate for medical treatment in England, especially when in some cases they are entitled to medication in English hospitals that English patients aren’t allowed simply because they are Welsh. Who says the world had seen the end of apartheid when white rule ended in South Africa?

The differences in medical treatment are a result of the botched devolution settlement introduced by Labour in 1997 which gave Scotland and Wales their own governments to handle domestic affairs but left the same English affairs in the hands of British MPs representing all four home nations.

Mr Taylor said that it would be much easier for the Trust if the “English Parliament” made Wales pay the going rate and said “this can only be resolved through the financial allocations between the Government of England and the devolved Welsh Assembly”. The fact that Mr Taylor believes there is an “English Parliament” or a “Government in England” to represent English interests when England hasn’t had a government for over 300 years shows a disturbing lack of understanding of the reason why his hospitals are losing so much money every year. Like most of us in England, Mr Taylor and the Shropshire & Telford NHS Trust would be benefit enormously from the creation of an English Parliament to represent the interests of English people like the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly do for Scottish and Welsh people.

Stuart Parr

Shropshire Branch

Campaign for an English Parliament

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Tory Turncoat

A lot of people I talk to were of the opinion that Camoron would ditch the proposed English Votes on English Matters/English Grand Committee idea once they got into power.  How wrong they were.

David Cameron is poised to draw back from proposing to slap an all-out ban on Scottish MPs debating and voting on so-called English-only legislation in a “compromise” move, according to a well-placed senior party source.

[…]

Mr Cameron will reject the so-called East Lothian Answer proposed by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Scottish Secretary, involving the setting up of a stand-alone English grand committee.

[…]

But the senior party source claimed Mr Cameron supported the method of an English-only bill being debated exclusively by English MPs at just its key committee stage. While Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs could debate and vote on the legislation at the later stages of a bill, they would not vote against what English MPs had overwhelmingly decided at the scrutiny stage of an English-only bill.

This solution, he added, would enable all MPs to have a say and a vote on a matter.

And how exactly does this address the West Lothian Question?  How does it attempt to bring any semblance of fairness, equality or democratic accountability to the governance of England?  It doesn’t of course because for some unknown reason David the fucking moron can’t get it through his thick poncy skull that SCOTLAND DOESN’T VOTE CONSWERVATIVE.  It is in England that the Conswervatives will get elected and it is English people that they need to concentrate their efforts on.

Camoron is a liability, an absolute fucking cretin.  Every time he opens his stupid mouth the Conswervatives drop god knows how many points in the popularity charts.  His only saving grace was that he appeared to recognise that the West Lothian Question is morally and democratically wrong.  Whether he still thinks it’s wrong or not I don’t know but if he does then he’s not interested in sorting it out.  For too long the English have been treated as voting fodder for the Brit-Scot Nationalists.  David “I’ve got Scottish blood coursing through my veins” Camoron is no different.  To be honest, I’d rather Liebour got back into power than that lying, turncoat piece of shit Camoron – at least when Liebour refuse to allow England parity with the rest of the UK, we can point at them and say “but that’s not fair, you gave it to Scotland”.  If the Conswervatives get in they’ll just go on about how Liebour left them in this mess and there’s no workable solution and ever so sorry but we’ll have to continue to treat you like third class citizens in your own country at the mercy of the anglophobic whims of foreign politicians because that’s good for Britain.

Britain, Britain, Britain.  Fuck Britain, I want out.

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DUP to support internment?

On the Our Kingdom blog, Tom Griffin opines that the DUP will support Liebour in its attempt to increase the amount of time the British state can detain you without charge from 28 days to 42 days.

This would be a bizarre stance for a Northern Irish party to take, particularly when internment was such an unpopular policy there during the Troubles. Supporting even a watered down version of internment is surely political suicide in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately not in England where too many people are prepared to roll over and play dead but in Northern Ireland it was just about the most effective recruiting tool for the IRA.
Internment, whatever the time limit you put on it, is unconstitutional, illiberal and immoral. Co-incidently, those are the three words I’d use to describe No Mandate Brown’s Prime Ministership.

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It’s over a few miles of sea, not another bloody planet!

I just looked up Orange’s international calling rates to see how much my 20 minute phone call to the Netherlands cost earlier.

Two questions:

Why is it cheaper (30p/min) to call the USA than it is to ring the Netherlands (45p/min) and why is it cheaper (25p/min) to ring of a pay as you go mobile?

I wish I’d checked BT’s prices before I rang though, they only charge 10p/min!

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You talkin’ to me?

Here’s my god daughter, Emmy, born in the early hours of this morning …

Emmy

Shropshire Star: Concern grows on ‘health apartheid’

The following article appears in tonight’s Shropshire Star:

Concern grows on ‘health apartheid’

A member of a Shropshire political group has criticised the “health apartheid” of the NHS, which he claims is responsible for county patients receiving poorer services that those in Scotland and Wales.

Stuart Parr, of the Shropshire branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament, says people who live in the county are being discriminated against and claims that it is even tantamount to a form of racism.

He has written to all five Shropshire MP’s asking for support for a fairer system.

It comes as Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has written to the Health Minister asking for hospital trusts to be banned from charging Blue Badge holders.

Mr Parr’s letter refers to the announcement by the Welsh Assembly Government that Welsh hospital parking charges will end, while patients in England will pay.

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Shropshire Star: Claims City Region costs won’t be fair

The following was in tonight’s Shropshire Star:

Claims City Region costs won’t be fair

People in Telford will be paying on average substantially more towards the controversial West Midlands City Region than their counterparts in Birmingham, campaigners claimed today.

The operating cots of the city region will be divided into 10 equal shares – meaning the one million residents of Birmingham will pay the same £37,000 bill as Telford’s population of just 160,000.

Critics say this is an unfair burden for Telford and an illustration of how public money is being wasted on what it claims is an unelected quango.

Details of the costs have been obtained through a Freedom of Information request by West Midlands NO!, a campaign founded by Telford man Stuart Parr.

He said, “The city region will not be funded on a pro-rata basis as previously thought, but by simply dividing the costs into 10 equal shares.

Benefit

“This means, for example, Birmingham’s one million residents will be collectively paying the same £37,026 contribution to the running costs of the city region as the 160,000 residents of Telford.

“This is hardly a fair distribution, especially when Birmingham City Council openly admits that Birmingham will benefit most from the city region.”

Mr Parr said Telford & Wrekin Council was also expecting to spend at least £77,000 monitoring and working with the city region and had set aside another £100,000 for costs associated with membership.

He said no cost/benefit analysis of city region membership had been conducted.

“This just confirms what we’ve been saying all along – the city region will be run by Birmingham for the benefit of Birmingham and the rest of us will be paying for it,” he said.

Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet recently voted formally to join the city region limited company, with Councillor Andrew Eade, council leader, being appointed a director.

Councillor Eade has repeatedly expressed scepticism about the city region and has come under fire from political opponents for joining up. He told full council last week he still believed it was “regionalisation by stealth” but felt he had to protect Telford’s interests.

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Press Release: City Region funding doesn’t add up

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Information provided to the West Midlands NO! Campaign following a Freedom of Information Request has raised some serious questions about the City Region.

The City Region will not be funded on a pro-rata basis as previously thought, but by simply dividing the costs into 10 equal shares. This means, for example, Birmingham’s 1m residents will be collectively paying the same £37,062 contribution to the running costs of the City Region as the 160,000 residents of Telford or the 305,000 residents of Dudley.

This is hardly a fair distribution of the operating costs, especially when Birmingham City Council openly admits that Birmingham will benefit most from the City Region:

“The benefit to Birmingham will be that the city region partners all recognise the unique role of Birmingham at the heart of the city region. The partners have supported, for example, the investment in the redevelopment of New Street Station and the extension of the Midland Metro through the city centre. In the future, the partners can be expected to support investment in other projects that are vital to Birmingham’s continued development as the regional capital and as a successful international city. Birmingham can therefore expect to benefit significantly if powers and resources are devolved to the city region, because many of the projects that the city region gives priority to will be projects in Birmingham.”

Birmingham City Council claims that it will not spend more than the £37,062 contribution to the City Region’s budget but Telford & Wrekin Council is expecting to spend at least £77,000 monitoring and working with the City Region and has set aside another £100,000 for costs associated with membership. Is Telford wasting more taxpayers’ money than it’s already wasting by joining the City Region in the first place or is Birmingham hiding the true cost of the City Region?

The response also confirms that no cost/benefit analysis of City Region membership has been conducted meaning that hundreds of pounds of taxpayers money has been committed to funding a project when they don’t know how much it will cost or what, if any, they can expect to gain from it. If this decision had been made by a company, the shareholders would have been baying for blood by now!

Stuart Parr, founder of the West Midlands NO! Campaign, said: “This just confirms what we’ve been saying all along – the City Region will be run by Birmingham, for Birmingham and the rest of us will be paying for it”.

Andrew Bridgwater, West Midlands NO! Campaigner, said “If the City Region is going to turn a profit then surely it should be self-funding? Unless we’re being misled and the City Region is going to cost money for as long as it’s there, I see no reason why taxpayers’ money should change hands at all. In fact, if it is going to cost more money than it makes then all the more reason not to hand over any cash”.

[ENDS]

Terry Pratchett donates $1m to Alzhemiers research

Terry Pratchett is donating $1m to Alzheimers research after being diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of the disease.

He said:

Personally, I’d eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.

I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along.

Say it will be soon – there’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation.

In most cases, alongside the sufferer you will find a spouse suffering as much.

It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.

God damn it, what am I going to read when he’s too ill to come out with stuff like that?  Even when he’s facing a serious debilitating disease he’s still funny.  And why isn’t there enough money being put into Alzheimers research?  There seems to be plenty for piss useless things that we don’t want but not for saving peoples’ lives.

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Climate Change lies exposed

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has concluded that the floods last year were nothing to do with climate change despite the hysterical wailing of eco-terrorists and the British government that we only have ourselves to blame.

In response to the report, the Environment Agency has admitted that the floods had nothing to do with climate change – a natural event that has been happening for millions of years – but bizarrely still tried to use the floods to scare people into swallowing their ill-informed propaganda:

Although we cannot attribute last summer’s floods to climate change, climate change predictions mean we can expect to see more extreme weather events such as flooding in the future

Unbelievable!  Even when they’re exposed as liars and propagandists they still continue to peddle the myth.  If a house fell down and the type of bricks used was blamed and it was later discovered to have been a freak accident and not the type of bricks, would you expect people to be warned that more houses were going to fall down if they kept using the same type of bricks?

Get it through your thick skulls, climate change is a natural event largely unaffected by human activity that has happened for millions of years and will continue to happen for millions of years to come.  The only consensus amongst the scientific community on climate change is what they are being paid by the tax-raising departments of governments to say and there is no justification for the punitive taxes being levied in the name of tackling climate change.  If these cretins are so convinced of their claims then lets help them on the road to salvation by building a bloody great balsa wood ark, filling it full of climate change propagandists and floating it out into the Atlantic.

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MEP heckled for criticising hypocrisy

West Midlands UKIP MEP, Mike Natrass, was heckled in the European Parliament for suggesting that MEPs should use the integrated tram system that stops outside the parliament building instead of turning up in 50 chauffeur-driven limo’s.

He made his comments during a “debate” on Sustainable European Transport Policy when they were talking about EU taxes on fossil fuels and road pricing as a means of stopping people using their cars.

Madam President,

The UK should make its own laws so I reject this proposal. But I don’t dispute that more efficient cars are a good idea or that working from home cuts down pollution.

What concerns me about this report are words like “pricing policy” and “tax on fossil fuels.” because no current serious alternatives exist and these taxes are very inflationary.

The future must be about encouraging innovation and technology, not about tricking people who have no alternative, into paying more tax.

Most public transport systems are good for the commuter but don’t fit the needs of the businessman who must drive to work in order to use the car to visit clients later.

But Madam President, The City of Strasbourg provides a first class tram system with a tram stop outside this very building. So why aren’t MEPs here in Strasbourg leading by example?

They don’t visit clients they just come here to misrule Europe.

Yet almost all of them use Chauffer driven Limousines and ignore the trams.

If MEPs complied with their own words then perhaps the public would listen? In simple English Madam President this house is guilty of gross hypocrisy.

Now what were MEPs saying about a sustainable transport system please because, like the no smoking rule in the parliament dining rooms, MEPs ignore it.

One rule no rules for them, one rule thousands of rules for us.  What a bunch of hypocrites.

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More British propaganda in English schools

Lord Goldsmith, the former British Attorney General, has told No Mandate Brown that children should have to go through a citizenship ceremony when they leave school and pledge alliegence to the Queen like they do in the US to their flag to promote Britishness.
The Scottish government have, of course, rejected this out of hand and no doubt the Welsh government will do the same which means that it’ll only be the English identity that is targeted.  More of the same then.

My children are English, they won’t be taking part in any faux-Britishness propaganda.

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Weather Warning: Another let down

Once again the British government has promised severe weather and once again we’ve been let down.

Several times in the last few months the Met Office and Environment Agency have made promises that they can’t keep – catastrophic winds, apocalyptic downpours and floods of a biblical nature.  Have any of them happened?  No.  Once again the British government have made promises they can’t keep.

Yesterday evening I chained my car to the drive and built an ark in the back garden big enough for me, the wife, the kids, the dog and the goldfish after seeing the weather warnings.  This morning the chains have been nicked and the council have put an enforcment notice on the ark because it hasn’t got planning permission.  And for what?  A bit of drizzle and light breeze.

The British government should stick to what it’s good at – fleecing the English taxpayer and selling peerages to rich fat people – and stop making promises on the weather that it just can’t keep.

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Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett’s first ever Discworld book, The Colour of Magic, has been made into a film and is being shown on Sky One over Easter.

I was really looking forward to it so I had a look at the Colour of Magic website and was surprised (and disappointed) to see that Twoflower is being played by Sean Astin, an American.  Twoflower is from the Agatean Empire which is, of course, a parody of the Orient.  He’s supposed to be Oriental, not American.  Or at least foreign looking.  In an interview on the website, Terry Pratchett says that Twoflower is only exotically foreign in the book and not specifically Oriental and that Sean Astin said he wanted to be in one of his films so he let him play Twoflower.  Talk about selling out!

Anyway, the poor casting decision for Twoflower is made up by casting Laura Haddock as Bethan, Cohen the Barbarian’s warrior hairdresser girlfriend.  I’m still excited about watching the film but I just know I’m going to be shouting “no, he’s supposed to look like the bloke off the Halifax adverts” at the telly when he comes on.

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