Express & Star

Peter Rhodes on the demise of jokes, forgotten history and getting personal with Mr Lammy

Read today's column from Peter Rhodes

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Hot-headed?

ARE drivers in some parts of the country better than others? I can drive in the West Midlands and not witness a road accident for years on end. But almost every time I venture into Northamptonshire there's a car or two in the ditch or on its roof, festooned with "Police Aware" tape. Another two seen near Corby on Monday. Very odd.

IN his tribute at Gordon Banks's funeral this week, Sir Geoff Hurst recalled how the legendary England goalie always had a new joke to tell. Those were the days. Telling jokes was a great working-class tradition, like whistling and getting the coal in. And then, somehow, it faded away. Stand-up comedy, once dominated by the Tarbucks, Monkhouses and Mannings, was taken over by posh kids who learned their trade not at the Wheeltappers and Shunters social club but at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Working blokes, cut off from their comedy heroes and deprived of material, simply stopped telling gags. And whistling. And getting the coal in.

INCIDENTALLY, which team did the England side including Geoff Hurst and Gordon Banks beat to win the 1966 World Cup? I bet most Brits would instantly answer "Germany." In fact,, it was West Germany. How many under-40s are even aware that such a country ever existed, or why?

AS a general rule, when somebody says: "Nothing personal . . ." they are about to say something deeply personal. Take David Lammy MP who denounced Stacey Dooley posing with an African child for Comic Relief. "The world does not need any more white saviours," sneered the MP. Dooley responded: "David, is the issue with me being white?" At this, Lammy crumpled like a paper bag and posted: "This isn't personal and I don't question your good motives." Funny, because it sounded exactly like a personal, sneering, holier-than-thou attack on the TV star from a politician who ought to know better. Nothing personal, Dave.

AND yet, for all his hot-headed rudeness, Lammy went on to make a good point that Africa is no longer the hell-hole of poverty and starvation, so beloved of the "poverty porn" charity industry. The portrayal of Africans as helpless half-wits, unable even to dig a well or treat donkeys properly until the white man's charity rides to the rescue, is offensive, outdated and probably counter-productive. In reality, great things are happening on the continent and the way forward is fair trading, not handouts. For the second time in half-a-century, a wind of change is blowing across Africa. We'll find out on Red Nose Day next week whether Comic Relief has sensed it.

UNTIL four hours before Storm Freya ripped into us on Sunday night, the BBC Weather website was cheerfully forecasting "a fresh breeze" for my part of the Midlands. Some breeze.

PS. Since writing the item about the demise of jokes, a reader has threatened to cut off the bottom of my trouser leg and put it in a library. That's a turn-up for the books.

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