I hear from at least two third party sources that I am going to be taken to the Standards Board for the use of a word that is in common use in the English language although not perhaps in Conservative circles in Broadstairs.
I also hear that the press has been informed prior to the actual event!
I have no doubt that this will be the same person who can’t spell misogynist and chooses to hide behind Anonymous and is being prompted by a fellow Councillor who cant find anything to attack Labour about so is reduced to trying to discredit me.
For information and with acknowledgements to Wikionary here is the definition:-
From Arabic بِنْت (bínt, “girl, daughter”).
The term entered the British lexicon during the occupation of Egypt at the end of the nineteenth century, where it was adopted by British soldiers to mean "girlfriend" or "bit on the side". It is used as a derogatory slang word in the United Kingdom, meaning 'woman' or 'girl'. Its register varies from that of the harsher bitch to an only slightly derogatory, almost affectionate, term for a young woman, the latter being more commonly associated with the West Midlands. The term was used in British armed forces and the London area synonymously with bird in its slang usage (and sometimes brass) from at least the 1950s. The term has also famously been used in the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which the Lady of the Lake is referred to as a "moistened bint", and in the phrase "grotty Scots bint" in the "English English" scene of the film Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Following the Second World War, workers were imported from Yemen to fill the vacancies left in the Tyneside ship-building industry. The term found its way into the Geordie dialect from the late 1940s onwards and is still used to this day. Although the term can be used in a derogatory sense, in general it refers simply to (usually young) females.
Sorted.
Next onto a brief comment on last night’s Council meeting when Labour tried to fulfill our election manifesto promise to reduce Senior Councillors allowances by 20% to reintroduce Councillors Community Grants. We were then treated to the screams of pain from the Tory benches who were crying crocodile tears about how this allowance was to encourage disabled and other less well off individuals to stand as Councillors.
The hypocrisy of this sickened me as these are members of and wholehearted supporters and advocates of a Party whose national Government has been on a continual and relentless attack on those less fortunate in society.
The whole point of Councillors Community Grants was to help Groups in their Wards, we don’t forget of course that in May 2003 one of the first things the Tories did after taking power was to treble Senior Councillors allowances followed shortly afterwards by the removal Councillors Community Grants.
Finally I see that the QEQM Hospital has gone all techno on us with the introduction of handhelds to record and diagnose patients condition. Although these still require the human input and as such MAY be open to mistakes it is only a short hop from this to the introduction of one of Dr. McCoys tiny diagnostic tools.
StarTrek has of course predicted the use of lots of things that are in common use today.
In Star Trek, “tricorders” are handheld devices used for sensor scanning, data analysis and recording data, similar devices are in common use now, barcode scanners, are good example.
Handheld “communicators” that look like walkie talkies with a flip top — in other words, much like a clamshell mobile phone.
Throughout Star Trek touch-based control panels called PADDs (personal access display devices) were frequently used by crew members. They resemble the tablet-like touch screen computers of today.
Uhura, for a time the Enterprise’s Communications officer, wears a giant silver earpiece while sitting at the communications station. This reminds me of the bluetooth headpieces of today.
Star Trek foresaw the convenience of portable digital storage. We now have USB flash drives that hold gigabyte upon gigabyte of data.
When Scotty meets an at-the-time-of-filming modern computer, he’s confused when it doesn’t respond to his voice as the Enterprise computers do. Today, he might have had more luck with many computers having voice controlled software, smartphones, cars and other electronics now also have voice activation options.
Star Trek ships were able to locate crew members with precision before beaming them up. The U.S. government declared GPS functional in 1995 about 30 years after the GPS type location concept appeared in Star Trek for the first time.
Beam me up Scotty.
