Good bloody grief. Piss off you boring tosser. No sense of humour at all. Tell you what, if El Reg wants to talk about sheep shaggers, us Aberdeen fans are more than proud of the fact, so next time there's talk of sheep, spare a thought for the Dons and leave the boring welsh to moan amongst themselves.

"We're only sheep-shagging bastards!" (TM)

so there!

besides i dont see ne kiwi's or ozzies complaining and they got way more sheep than wales.

I suppose you also find baa baa blacksheep an opressisve hymn, doubly racist in your eyes no doubt.

if you aint worked it out the english just give us shit cus they are jealous, get over it you hyper sensitive tit.

It's iechyd da - not lechyd da. I know the Reg tries hard and changes the banner on St. David's day - but sadly your welsh credentials have taken a knock.

The flame is well over the top but I didn't find the article funny either. Ooh, sheep shagging and Wales. Hilarious. You must be up for that Perrier award thing.

Mind you, it was probably enough to make an Englishman laugh...

M

A Welshman walks into a pub with a sheep on his shoulder. The landlord asks, "Where the f#@k did you get that. "In Wales" the sheep replied, "There's thousands of 'em over there"

I'm Welsh, albeit resident in England for an arbitrary time period. I laughed.

I think Mr. Bevan could do well to take a leaf out of the book of an ex-colleague of mine who was from Wales. When confronted by the inevitable 'sheep shagger' comments, his only reply was 'We shag them and you eat them!' See, Mr Bevan, that is what is technically known as a JOKE, as is the original article.

I do think the Welsh and Wales do get a bit of a raw deal from actual and would be comedians. They are a bit of an easy target and I guess it does somewhat rankle with some of them. Is it our only remaining "legal" racial target remaining? Have we given up with the Scots and Irish? Perhaps the Cornish should be next?

Nick - no Welsh blood but a touch of sense perhaps.

next they'll be saying associating an Irish man with a pint is racist!! Some people really need to remove the stick from where the sun dont shine

Now, im off to pick some potatoes and drink some whiskey and beat my wife!

WTF is complainant D Bevan on about? To me, the piece made only affectionate mention of Wales.

If Mr Bevan wants to make the mental jump between Wales, sheep and bestiality then it is in his own head: nowhere did El Reg suggest that Welshmen like to shag sheep. Nor did the article imply that the Welsh have red hair - being acused of tending to ginger would be legitimate grounds for complaint.

As a quarter-Welsh myself (and from personal experience), the fact is that in the north of their country, the Welsh insist on using their gutteral 'language' to annoy English speakers. What's more, they burn down our holiday cottages. In the south, they slouch about on street corners blaming us English for destroying their mining industry (which, to be fair, our Tory government did). So the Welsh can hardly complain if they are widely perceived as belligerant, touchy, and chippy. As, indeed, Mr Bevan's letter confirms them to be.

Next up: complaints from EU grapefruit-growers.

PS: what is the Welsh word for 'wanker'?

I would have thought this disclaimer from the original article

"Clearly, the difference in these two results means that a compromise standard is required. The El Reg Ssx uses the classic Cheviot as its sheep of choice, with a wooldrag of 50. Wm is in this case 0, since everyone knows that Welshmen do not in fact have intimate relations with sheep and any reference to the same is just a cheap attempt to drum up laughs."

was enough to head of any outrage unless some one is, like a closet republican, protesting to much about sheep innuendo.

... that D Bevan doesn't get out much

My girlfriend is Welsh (when she wants to be!) and she thought it was funny.

Actually, she's from Cardiff, which I gather is not "real Welsh" - apparently the "real Welsh" discriminate against and generally dislike people from Cardiff more so than they do the English; you know the tricks - talking perfectly good English until an Englishman walks in and then suddenly deciding that Welsh is the language of the moment and refusing to speak anything else!

...or is that just my imagination and racial prejudice coming through? :-)

Clearly your angry welshman could not see past the thick redness of anger in his eyes (possibly due to the hint of truth that he may well be a wooly creature comforter) to read the following sentance in said offending article -

The El Reg Ssx uses the classic Cheviot as its sheep of choice, with a wooldrag of 50. Wm is in this case 0, since everyone knows that Welshmen do not in fact have intimate relations with sheep and any reference to the same is just a cheap attempt to drum up laughs.

truth hurts I guess

... makes society more lethargic when acts of REAL incidents of racism occur.

What a plank.

So should all proud owners of airbags and funbags (and their significant halfs who have vested interests in the matter) from another well known small country complain against el Register under both the race relations act and sexual discrimination act?

Having lived there for twenty odd years somehow I would expect not to. For a multitude of reasons like:

A) Their sense of humour has not been amputated at birth.

B) The air/funbags in the original car incident which coined in the phrase belonged to a beginner serbian style "turbo-folk" starlet. There it is a tool of the trade. You can't deliver entertainment primarily oriented to drunk international trucker audience without having the appropriate tools for that.

C) The actual average cup size in the aforementioned air/funbag country is actually 1-2 sizes less than the UK. So besides race relations and sexual discrimnation, defamation is also quite fitting. If your sense of humour has been amputated at birth that is. If it has not - you laugh :-)

...there some of them unhumour welsh git!

Get a life!

with further ignorant jibes has made the Reg writer look the stupid one

Who was "Owen Glyndwr"? Why does he have an Olde Englishe titled beer named after him and what on earth is "Lechyd da" supposed to mean?

I suppose the basis of most predjudice is ignorance.

Cymru am byth.

When dealing with small country members, you should drop the vitriol and go for the most appropriate tone: Pity.

But everyone I've showed it to in Wales found it just as funny as all the English people I've showed it to! Methinks you need to get to know a livelier bunch of people ;-)

'Nuf said

... with comments like Mr Bevans' causing the Welsh to look like a bunch of humourless, whining windbags with nothing better to do than conduct Ned Flanders-esque trolls through the media looking for words like 'sheep'

I'm Welsh and thought the article was great... I didn't even think it discriminated against vacuums

If El Reg succumbs to this type of 'Political Correctness' (an oxymoronic statement) I'm gonna stop reading

Oh by the way it's iechyd da, not lechyd da you racist, barely-coherent bunch of Wales-haters!!! :-)

All that ranting about the article is no more than a pathetic rant of "politically correct wanking".

IMHO, The Vultures are not racists. They seem to hate everyone equally, at least until we die. Then they feast on our rotting equally. No fuss, no muss...No harm, no foul...

Bloody hell D. Bevan. That article had nothing racist in it. Are you sure you aren't just making it up because you are bored? And what gives you the right to demand apoligies eh?

And to the Register, great article, and nice response to this nutcase.

Oh, and I forgot, I am Welsh, and this article was great.

Max

You talk about converting the size of Wales in the opening paragraphs to imperial measurements, maybe she inferred from that you were talking about a French-inspired Metric Wales, and not the classic British Imperial Wales. Maybe thats what set her off, I mean the idea of a non-British wales would set of a lot of people.

How was the article racist ? The whole article was in jest, and the only bit that could be claimed as racist was about men chasing sheep (no mention of sex), which had the sentence

"since everyone knows that Welshmen do not in fact have intimate relations with sheep and any reference to the same is just a cheap attempt to drum up laughs."

A few words to Mr. Bevan:

Cau dy geg ac dos i chwarae efo dy nain

As an ex-pat I'm often teased about my Englishness. I've also been teased by Welshmen too.

It really isn't a problem, I think you have to allow room for good natured humour, even if some people are offended. In reality it's a difficult line to draw when this becomes unacceptable but I'd say El Reg are no where near that line now.

If UK law makes jokes like this illegal then I think the UK is in more trouble than I ever imagined.

Incidentally, yes I would joke with a West Indian, or anyone else, about stereotypes etc. It seems the Jamaicans, at least, are happy with this looking at a recent Jamaican advert with the "total gridlock" line. In fact there was also the noodle mining advert that was apparently OK for the Welsh.

It seems to be that it's part of becoming an adult to learn to laugh and put aside childish insecurities. This doesn't grant people the right to abuse one another but it gives space for people to get along.

I read that article and found it very funny. So funny in fact I sent it on to my mother (Who's Welsh), my boss (Also Welsh) and many other people who may, or may not, have also been Welsh or sent it on to others who were.

None of them were offended. At all. Not even slightly. Some didn't find the concept of sheep in vacuums and their velocity funny, but then again they were generally fans of the Mighty Boosh and as such have no sense of humour!

Anyone offended by that article really needs to have a quick reality check and deal with whatever deep-seated insecurities they have .... and there's plenty of merriment and mirth thrown around about all of the Countries that make up the UK.

Any comments posted after the article should not be held against the Reg as they are only allowing us the freedom of speech which is pretty much central to the ideals of Democracy.

Now fuck off back to Valleys you annoying Taffy bastard. (And yes, thats something I do say to my boss quite a bit...and he finds it very funny, stop being so over-sensitive)

They are the same race as the rest of us.... human.

Hey Register, most of the time you guys hit the spot, but this time i think you've got it wrong..

The OP made a point ,you may not like it , but the article did take the micky out of the welsh and that bloke did not find it funny. So sense of humour failure maybe but "FotW"?

If you make a joke at a minoritys expense expect some response from that minority. Be big enough to say "OK we're sorry" not hold the complaint up for the world to ridcule as "FotW"

The "flame" he sent you is hardley worth the title , it seems thought through, lacks grammatical errors (unlike this post) and express's a legitamate concern."Vitriolic" is over the top for what was an attempt at humour , but by giving this FotW status you just draw your attention to what is a very old joke about sheep and welshmen.

<Cough>Anyway , everyone knows its the Kiwi's that are the real sheep botherer's these days.</Cough>

I'd hate to think that the El Reg were singling out Mr D Bevans fellow country men as the ONLY lovers of our fluffy little sexy friends? Have you no respect for the Scots? Aberdonians would like to disagree with you!

I found the manner, tone and contents of your article offensive and I suspect in breach of the Uk race relations act.

"Under the Race Relations Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origin. All racial groups are protected from discrimination."

I fear that Mr D Bevans could be right, not only were the Welsh singled out for being sheep lovers... but they discriminated against the Scots by NOT including them in the article!

Bevans, take your political correct bullsh!t and stick it up your hairy @rse! It's people like you that are ruining this fine country. We'll, you and accountants, not that I'm singling them out or anything... fook it, add lawyers to the list too.

If you cant laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? (well, the English, but thats another story)

no guesses where I'm from :P

Its a laugh. Bet you would have laughed it up if it was about an English bloke or a scot or any other apart from the good proud welsh. I found it funny. Racism is getting used as the word for anything the individual doesn't like, to fight the many with. Soon there will be a race finder general and he will be burning folk at the stake for using the t**fy word or the N***r word. people get a grip we are better than we used to be on accepting other cultures and races. Hell, the benny hill show was so bad but made millions laugh every week but now its practically banned. I demand an apology.... for what been welsh and having no sense of humour????

Owen Glyndwr was a Welsh prince. (The last "real" one? I can't remember.) He's featured in Henry IV.

The "Sons of Glyndwr" were a Welsh terrorist group who burned holiday cottages to discourage English holiday makers from visiting Wales. (Hence the old joke, "Come home to a real fire, buy a cottage in Wales")

The Sons of Glyndwr have mostly disappeared now, although some of them might have moved to Cornwall...

...as any regular Reg reader will know that Vulture Central is one of the few IT sites to consistently tip its hat to St. David's day.

Mr Bevan, I know quite a few Welsh people and they constantly extract the proverbial from the English; happily the average person, English, Welsh or otherwise, is secure enough in their own nationality to take this kind of humour with the pinch of salt required, whilst carefully edging away from scary nationalist types who tend to foam at the mouth and shout at the TV a lot.

.. is what a friend of mine from Amlwch claimed was the motto of those with over-developed ovine tendencies.

I fail to see any evidence of racism in the article (although I am detecting a serious sense-of-humour failure from the complainant). What worries me, however, is the article seems to support the notion of placing sheep in a vacuum. My Dyson doesn't have a bag, and the hose is quite narrow - I don't think any amount of suction is going to help. Also, does the drag factor differ between a cylinder and an upright? And will it damage the wool? I would imagine that at the very least, it's going to cause a bad fleece day...

"When dealing with small country members, you should drop the vitriol and go for the most appropriate tone: Pity."

I'm a cnut remember.... :-)

(oh wait. I'm only half Welsh)

Is the barstewards they gave us for neighbours.

Welsh exile

If he's from West Wales likely as not he's from Pembrokeshire. Notice how they refused to change the name to a Welsh one.

Anyone with a predominantly ovine agricultural industry is referred to as sheep shaggers. The English tend to shag goats, as in the article a few weeks ago.

I'm Welsh, I approve of this joke. You weasely English cunts.

.. and the right to be offensive

That article was deeply offensive...

to sheep!

As usual, I had to keep myself from laughing outloud in the office with that article.

pretty sure its wanker

Maybe I'm just too naive, but I find it difficult to believe that anyone can really be /that/ touchy.

Bore da!

It is very true that the northerners don't consider those in the south east of Wales as actually Welsh. But you know what the southerners say? The northerners are the piles of Wales. If the come down and go back up again that's fine. But if they come down and stay down they're a pain the arse.

My parents live in Wales and I have Welsh ancestry and I laugh at being called a sheep shagger...

Hwyl fawr

If he's from West Wales he's probably just bitter that the M4 and fast rail service to London ends at Swansea - thus preventing his rapid escape from the Land of His Fathers.

I was one of the lucky Taffys to live near Cardiff and got out more.

It made me titter.

I think Big Tim's point was that there's no such person as Owen Glyndwyr. He was actually Owain Glyndŵr.

http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/owainglyndwr

M

Ok, so it's an entirely pointless and pathetic complaint, but it's a bit tame for a FoTW! Where's the hopeless spelling and grammar? The inappropriate use of capitals? The mindless swearing and threats? And he might have at least questioned the IT relevance of the original article...

Mike

...at yourself. It's a great sign of maturity as a person, being able to see what's funny, even in your own life. Otherwise you take offense at anyone who is different to yourself. And that IS one small step away from being a racist.

(...and I myself being from South Africa, we have to laugh at ourselves all the time!)

You seem to have missed the point.

" *Owain* Glyndŵr" was the person you describe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glyndwr

Still no idea why he'd have a beer named after him in Olde Enlgishe language or what "Lechyd da" is supposed to mean.

I didn't find the original article offensive, D-Bevan was way overracting.

The stupid jibes afterwards were just that and made the Reg look stupid and ignorant (as do many of the comments that have followed e.g. : "gutteral language").

Can't be wanker... there's no K in the Welsh alphabet (probably wancyr :-) )

It's not that important, see?

Max wrote;

"Oh, and I forgot, I am Welsh"

You see boyo? It isn't that important is it like?

an dark, ugly, pugnacious little troll at that. Seems AA Gill was right all along!

it's a giggle, and yes the Welsh I know found it funny.

It's not discrimintaory at all, as where is the discrimination occuring? To read vitriolic hatred into that article is stretching the realms of reality. And your attacking a site that even changes it's masthead to Welsh on St Davids' Day!

MUPPET

When I lived in (rural) England, I was taunted with the sheepshagger jibe because I was Welsh. When I moved to Cardiff I was taunted with the sheepshagger jibe because I was seen as a country boy. But as someone else said above "We shag em, you eat em!"

I thought I should point out to those Welsh speakers amongst you who are whining about the apparently incorrect Welsh at the end of the article and correcting it that he has actually got it right! He used a capital i for the first letter and given the font ElReg uses it merely **looks** like an L.

... or he needs to get laid and soon (not that i'm offering or anything).

It's not funny, it's racist bullying, an English majority picking on a Welsh minority and insulting them and expecting them to just laugh along at how weak they are.

All you Welsh who laugh when told you're a sheep-shagger - where's your self-respect?

I want to hear the English "get a sense of humour" merchants defend Pakistani corner shop jokes, jewish and black jokes. Well?

As a part-Welsh person myself, I would like to point out that Wales isn't, as many here seem to think, a country.

It's a principality.

/pedant

What the hell is wrong with people nowadays? Political correctness has gone way too overboard.

I for one an not english, but I still found this article to be pure comedy gold. It's not as if I meet a welsh person I'll start making fun of them just because of this.

In fact, I'm from Bulgaria. Yes, the country of origin of the 'Bulgarian airbags' joke. Yet, I'm not offended at all by that particular joke - I find it entertaining, maybe a bit overused, but definately not racist.

Seriously, some people just need to get out more!

"I would like to point out that Wales isn't, as many here seem to think, a country.

It's a principality."

Principality? Wouldn't that mean it was ruled by a prince?

From what I've seen of the Welsh Assembly, country is a far more accurate term ;-)

"England or the English or to a man or woman from the West Indies"

Whats that got to do with anything.... you want unfair... any american or chinese, or basically ANY film in the world, if there is a badguy, he will have an english accent.

@Dimitrov

"In fact, I'm from Bulgaria. Yes, the country of origin of the 'Bulgarian airbags' joke."

OOOoooo - tell me more... not heard any of those ones! :)

I'm Welsh and proud of it!

I also have what I presume is a typical sense of humour and I found the article hilarious, containing no offence whatsoever. Ignore all this political correctness crap and continue with the boredom alleviating oratory!

btw Don't knock a bit of sheep shagging til you've tried it.

Well I think D.Bevan must be the President of Boring Humourless Git's Anonymous if everyone he knows didn't even raise a slight smile at it.

Im half-Welsh, (my mother Welsh,) so I've had to endure the "Sheep Shagger" comments from time to time. I just respond with humour.

"Sorry Im half Welsh, so I don't shag sheep.....I just get oral off of them" :)

Shuts the other person up and gets a laugh ;)

Dear Hat Trick Productions,

I find the tone, manner and content of your TV show "Fr Ted" racist. Moreover, it promotes and gives weight to unfair, false and malgnant stereotypes of the Irish people. The people who I have shown it to have grimaced to the point of tears and shook with convulsions of disgust. This is yet another example of paddy-wackery coming out of an English Broadcasting house. This Graham Lenihan fellow is obviously a racist who hates Ireland.

There has, in recent years, been a group formed of conscientious people who object to such treatment of our people. Every year, they gather on Achill Island to show that Irish people on islands are not all buffoons(http://www.friendsofted.org/). We take ourselves 100% seriously and are, in the main, abstinent from alcohol.

Suas Mothoin

PS: My head was just *resting* up my arse.

Well matey, I for one know of several people I work with who routinely take trips to various comedy clubs, gigs, pub stand-ups etc.

The group is diverse in ethnicity, faith, nationality and sexual orientation.

And during many of the long, long, looooong coach trips it's actually been put forward that such jokes about ethnic, national or faith sterotypes could be seen as offensive by the most petulant and pathetic members of those groups the vast amount don't care about the jokes and even LIKE the jokes as they're just parodies of a sterotype that only truly narrow minded fuckwits seem to think are even vaguely true..

All you have to do is look around - many people lampoon their own sexuality, race, religion or nationality for shits and giggles.

Wheres the Welsh self-respect ? I don't think I've met a Welsh person who isn't proud of their heritage and nationality and rightly so, it's bloody lovely place with amazing people and a great history. Still dosn't mean I won't rib Welsh mates for interfering with livestock!

FFS - I'm a white, middle-class, straight English chap of no particular faith. I'm fucking boring. I should WISH to have something interesting about me.

Be proud of your differences but don't get arsey when people have a laugh about them - only the truly dull, unimaginative and repugnant people get so irked as they often get frustrated with their own intellectual impotence and with not being able to respond in a timely and witty fashion.

D Bevan wrote : The posted article contains offensive statement targeted at a small country and countrymen.........

Just to clarify, wales is not a country.

Wales is no more a country than Yorkshire [any or all of the Ridings] and there are lots of parallels : both have their own dialect, both were invaded by the Angles, the Saxons, the Norms, the Romans.... [anyone missing?] both have their government in London with the Pound as the currency, both are green and hilly and NEITHER ARE COUNTRIES.

The welsh do receive large amounts of unnecessary money to keep their dialect alive, have a TV station disproportionately subsidised by the Government and have a very large and totally pointless County [no 'R'] Council, sitting in Cardiff.

Oh, and D Bevans house, one very VERY large soap box and no sense of humour.

MD

Diw Cymraeg ddim yn "dialect" fel ti'n dweud. Neu fydde cachu fel ti'n gallu darllen hwn fel dy Saesneg Sir Caerefrog, tyfe.

Persoanlly, I thought the original article was hilarious and I forwarded it on to all my friends warning them that they too may fall off-their chair as I did!

Mr Bevan is a self-righteous pratt who wouldn't recognise a sense of humour if it put on a sheeps costume and danced around him whilst hitting him repeatedly! He obviously takes himself too seriously and deliberately seems to have sought-out only those comments that were (in his already twisted chip-on-shoulder low-self-esteem mind) anti-Welsh.

If he gets anywhere with his complaint, then we'll find El-Reg apologising to:

highly-talented-chateuse Brittany Spears

Paris Hilton

Foxy Brown

Naomi Cambell (who will probably attack the editors with her collection of mobes)

Everyone involved in Web 2.0

Everyone involved in Wikipedia

... and countless others

What a pratt!

My ignorant friend Mr. Mark Daniels states that Wales is not a country. In fact Wales is one of the four constituent coutries of the United Kingdom - even a schoolboy should know that. However, Wales is not a sovereign state (is that what you mean, Mr. Daniels?) and is more correctly termed a principality.

Go take your ignorant prejudice back to whichever country you come from, Mr. Daniels.

Don't take this to heart, keep up the good work.

Best answer I come up when anybody has a go at me for being Welsh is I point out that I'm the British one as the people in England are actually French since the Norman conquests............... ;-)

Gerald Davison

Born, brought up and living in Mold, N. Wales

"Principality? Wouldn't that mean it was ruled by a prince?"

You mean, like a Prince of Wales?

Just returned from a holiday on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales and although I didn't spot anyone playing inappropriately with our woolly cousins I did notice that a great many signposts were pointing in random directions - I could only imagine it was an attempt to dissuade visitors. It did make me wonder if the culprits intended to spend the rest of their lives in the village they were born in (cos otherwise the word hypocrite might spring to mind)...

Everyone I actualy met was very friendly even though it is an area where Welsh is the primary language.

Anyway I didn't find the article hilarious, too long and obvious for that.

My wife sez: "As somebody who is shagged by a Welshman on a regular basis, I say 'Baah' to Mr Bevan".

Funny thing is, I'm from Huddersfield.

Paid a mallu cachau!

...as an American! What's with all you Brits thinking that you can get away with your so-called "metric system" any longer? You really think that you can escape?

In all seriousness though, this guy needs to lighten up.

By my count, el Reg has insulted Bulgarians, Sheep, Vacuums (of the Space, not the Cleaner variety), Grapefruit, Welshmen, Practicing Bestiality Fetishers, "Funbags", Walnuts, the Known Universe, Chickens, Harley Davidson's, and probably some guy here in America for not translating the metric system often enough (we Americans really are retarded when it comes to your metric system, I'm serious).

Oh, and as an American who likes walnuts and grapefruit, rides a Harley, has a wife with quite spectacular funbags, and who's lineage is almost entirely Welsh... you'll be hearing from my lawyer shortly!

From the OED :

country

n noun (plural countries)

1 a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory.

principality

n noun (plural principalities) a state ruled by a prince. (the Principality) British Wales.

So, Andrew. Wales is not a country.

Have a look at the history of wales. At no point ever, EVER, has it been a country. Wales is more like Durham than Yorkshire, Andy. Ruled by a Prince, [the Prince Bishops] hence the name, principality.

Cheerio and have a good weekend.

MD

If we can't make fun of Wales and the Welsh then what are they for?

This bloke is obviously a Dai-d in the wool Welsh Nationalist (groan)

I remember a story about an American who shows up in a pub in Scotland with the immortal greeting "Hello sheepshaggers!" One of the company stands up at the back and yells "That's Wales!"

"Wow!" says the American. "You guys must be really strong swimmers."

Anyway, the English are much more suspect in the sheep-bothering stakes. Where else do you find people with surnames like "Ramsbottom" and "Woolcock"?

Bad guys in American movies have bad German accents too.

The Welsh haven't been denied a job, or entrance to a theater or anything of the sort. They're not being discriminated against here -- they're being made fun of.

Yes, you bloody sheep-shagger, there is a difference.

"The welsh do receive large amounts of unnecessary money to keep their dialect alive, have a TV station disproportionately subsidised by the Government and have a very large and totally pointless County [no 'R'] Council, sitting in Cardiff."

Sounds a lot like Quebec here in Canada. And from Mr Bevan's comments, they sound about as uptight about themselves and their language too.

As several Reg readers have pointed out, Wales is a principality. Its 'ruler' is therefore the current Prince of Wales. As any fule kno, the Prince of Wales currently does it with a woman who looks like an equine, not an ovine. Ergo, the Welsh cannot be sheep-shaggers.

Stick THAT in your pipe, D Bevan, you humourless horse-humper.

All that said (and in a weak bid for topicality) I've always thought Camilla is twice as wank-worthy as the sexless Diana (when she was alive, obviously). I wonder if Cammy uses IRC... ?

I am Welsh and I suspect that far more damage has been done to the reputation of my homeland by the attempts of D Bevan to portray us as completely lacking a sense of humour than by any number of jokes about sheep. I have been reading the Reg for some time, certainly long enough to know that that it treats anyone and everyone with an equal lack of respect, and to feel in no way targeted by an article which I actually enjoyed.

My advice to D Bevan is that he will achieve far more by responding to any future comments regarding sheep with a witty comeback rather than seomewhat feeble allegations of racism. It really does achieve so much more...

Welsh for Wanker is "Englishman"

We use velcro gloves when shagging sheep, to gain better traction.

Fortunately most Welsh people have a sense of humour.

but last I checked Wales was part of the United Kingdom. An Englishman making fun of a Welshman is like me making fun of someone from another state. Not only is it not legal grounds for a law suit, most people would laugh it off.

Being of Scottish and Irish heritage (and probably some Welsh since there is a castle with my family name on it there), my race is Caucasian... i.e. I am a white boy. Welsh has less to do with race than locality and culture. Simply being born in a particular area does not make the people of that area a separate race, any more than a white boy from the US is racially different than a white boy born in London, Cardiff, Paris, Johannesburg, Berlin, etc. White is White. No better or worse than anything else. And race is all a matter of genetics anyways and therefore meaningless in terms of sexual preference. Although if you could prove there was a genetic pre-disposition of Welshmen toward wool critter sexual preferences, you could make a race argument since that would be unique to the area....

I'm Irish and give you full permission to slag us all off. We can take it, even from a Limey. Seriously, if you don't have a sense of humour about this stuff, when it was obviously written with tongue firmly in cheek (I mean, is the speed of a sheep really quantifiable?) then go read another site. I certainly wouldn't want anyone leaping to my defense when someone is just being humourous. And it was a funny article too.

very few of us are shagging anything were geeks I am

part welsh and I don't feel the slightest offense mostly

because I know El Reg and thats the sort of humor that

they like and well so do I . I am also part Irish and I love to

drink so maybe not all stereotypes are wrong or funny.

Now if only that dwarf were welsh.

"How many Welsh men and women laughed at your "humour" umm?"

*raises hand* (albeit sheepishly...)

Gareth

I was once openly denied a job in Wales because I was English. The argument was that the locals would make trouble if they imported someone into a high-unemployment area so they had to struggle to find someone local with close to the required (very specific) skillset rather than risk employing an Englishman.

If you think about it, this probably worsened the unemployment in the area since the company was less profitable and therefore less able to employ more people.

Because it's not worth shitting on.

What offends me is that the Reg does not have all of it's articles in Welsh (being the international business language of the future)

Reluctantly I have to agree with D. Bevin. If you make certain jokes or comments about certain groups, you will be taken away in a dark van. The law in this area is so tight that I could break it simply by telling a racist joke here as an example. However the media treats groups differently. It seems okay to ridicule and promote hatred of groups A, B and C but not group D. I think the law should apply universally to all groups. Unfortunately D. Bevin you are in group D. Hard bun.

There was only good humour behind the Reg article and no hatred at all.

That as may be, but did you ever go to school? Or do you sheep-shaggers not bother ;)

"What offends me is that the Reg does not have all of it's articles in Welsh (being the international business language of the future)"

Er... that'll be "its" not "it's". Perhaps you'd better brush up on your English (I am assuming that you speak the international business language of the future: Mandarin Chinese). Xie xie/diolch.

As a Scotsman, I am deeply offended that the article contained no references to Scottish people as drunk ginger tight wads.

It might have been funny.

But I suspect, much in the way that Jeremy Clarkson can take a dig at many races and then himself rant on top gear about how racist celebrity Big Brother was, El reg's ability to "hate everyone equally" or "joke at everyone equally" won't really be equal.

So yeah, it's not as big a deal as the Welsh guy said, but have some balls and if you're going to make the jokes about one race, make them about all races and then shout about political correctness gone mad when you see you don't just get a bunch of "My wife/friend/self is black/welsh/lying so I can call you n***er/sheep shagger/whatever I like and she/I laughs proving it isn't racist!" 'bamboozled defences'

[Similar to way that few publications that will waffle at length about political correctness when they have a joke/dig at Christianity - which, after all, might get you refused a slice of cake, but they don't have the balls to have a joke/dig at the ones that fight back despite there "have a go at everyone" claims]

And some welsh people show no racism towards the english?

I lived in wales for a number of years working on building sites. If I didn't want to be the butt of racist jokes (in english and welsh language) then I just made out I was born in wales to welsh parents who left wales when I was a baby. I was then accepted as one of them, no more offensive jokes or violence.

I remember seeing an ad for the six nations rugby that featured an englishman as the butt of a racist joke on S4C. Had the ad been turned around to feature a welshman as the butt of the joke and shown in england there would have been understandable outrage at the ad and heads would have rolled.

Although I was offended by the ad it was actually quite funny!

And the Ad?

Can't remember it exactly now, but there are 4 people on a train: 2 ladies, one welshman and one englishman.

The train goes through a tunnel and the welshman slaps the englishman. As the train leaves the tunnel, the englishman is rubbing his face wondering if he had done anything to offend the girls.

The commentary exposes the welshman's thoughts and he is surmising what each of the other characters is thinking. Then finally turning to his own thoughts he 'says':

...and as for me, I can't wait till the next tunnel.

(so violence towards englishmen is both acceptable and funny!)

And finally...

Where's the best place to shag a sheep?

On the edge of a cliff as they push back harder.

Have a look where all the trash got dumped out of the UK many years ago... Aussies much worse than wales ;)

of Lord McDonald "I am Loving It"....

A lil bit more if this chocolate fest will make this week brighter..

Can we have some more please ?

Oh yes, I am a Grammar Nazi. We don't do spell check :)

Carry on Vulture Central

Jesus Christ, I'm Welsh and thought it was funny. Why do people come to a site renowned for taking an accurate yet tongue-in-cheek attitude to the world, and expect anything different.

I once tried to steal a sheep from a field and fell into a stream, destroying my Sony CyberShot digital camera. I wasn’t intending to bum the sheep... but Ebay crossed my mind.

Anyway, my digital camera still came on when I dried it out, but it could no longer take photos of anything other than blurs. Luckily I took it to a pawn shop and they didn’t test it out properly.

I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll leave you all now! Oh the joys of alcohol.

...we thought it was fucking hilarious.

I dont know what his problem is, as far as we are concerned you are all bloody poms anyway; whats the difference? :)

Disclaimer : Gross generalisations are fun, but not suitable for children under the age of 4; may be harmful if swallowed.

err!

D.

PS: the earlier posters were accurate, its the kiwis that are the sheep botherers.

For all the people calling themselves "half welsh"... if the sheep was from Wales, you are still a full blooded welshman/woman, albeit of mixed parentage.

Its only if the sheep was foreign that you qualify as a halfbreed

... is watching John Redwood as Welsh Sec. during the Welsh anthem ... a cringe worthy of The Office.

I am deeply offended by the implication that I can't please a sheep.

We are very fond of out woolly partners and backhanded insults like that are very hurtful.

As for you kiwi upstarts, don't come the old soldier, we taught you everything you know.

Its something we are taught in school, that the early british ( I cant remember if it was Capt Cook, or the First Fleet, which actually bestowed the name, and cba to look it up - hooray for education ) named the new colony New South Wales because supposedly it reminded them of Wales.

I never realised how much they must have hated the place.

"PS: the earlier posters were accurate, its the kiwis that are the sheep botherers."

That's only because you bloody "West Islanders" are too busy shagging kangaroos and dingoes to bother with the sheep. :P

Hmmmm, I recall we export a lot of mutton overseas...

"We shag 'em, you eat 'em"

To sceptical bastard: the Welsh term I use for 'wanker' is 'hunan rwbiwr'. Not official, maybe, but works, just as 'mam-fonciwr' is a good Welsh version of motherfucker !

Anyway, as others have posted, I am Welsh and found the whole article to be bloody hilarious. This reminds me of some idiot who insisted the police investigate comments made by Anne Robinson in some interview years ago. Don't they remember that Max Boyce (crap) made a lifelong career out of songs and comments that England were shit at rugby ? Having been involved in very nationalistic behaviour over the years, as I may have done, does not preclude common sense.

For fuck sake, if people who read the register can't understand humour--(I don't fucking BELIEVE that a spell checker has marked that up as incorrect, on an UK website, who the hell has put the yanks in charge of spelling ???)-- then possibly they should stick to Hello magazine's website or something. These are the same wankers (hunan-rwbwyr ?, that would be the plural) that incessantly complain to Private Eye about things that offend them, in a satirical publication.

OK, back to the comment box, is there any reason WHY non american spelled words are highlighted as if they were spelt incorrectly ? This IS an UK based site ? That is the main reason I read it as it has less US bias than most other sites. Not racist, just like to comment in my own (second) language in my own country without being told I can't spell.

why he was so drawn to read the article in the first place.

Dear Mr. Bevan

You are an arse.

Please familiarise yourself with the concept of "light humour" and "taking a joke".

Life's too short to take yourself seriously.

Kind Regards

Oliver