Just watching Bombshell funnily enough.
Amazing that the UK has decided to go down the FOX News route after seeing how it operates and the damage it's done in the US, but here we are.
Never had you down as a GB News kinda guy mefty
No need to watch GB News, it was on his wikipedia page.
NTS Annual Review 2016-17 states membership 366,000, NTS Annual accounts 2019-20 states membership 371,803 so it has gone up.
Is that membership stat taken after his Starkey/black lives matter tweets?
Just went on Twitter (which I hate) to have a look at this tweets.
Yeah...
Perhaps a history column in the mail.
He only needs to go back to 1950 when Britain was still great, women and foreigners knew their place etc,. so quite an easy gig.
He write a column in the times, it's shit, I was cancelling my subscription and asked why I said he was one of the reasons. Call handler said yes he's a bit of a prat isn't he. Nicely understated I thought.
It’s ‘an’ historian
No it isn't, unless you pronounce it "istorian".
That seems to be one of the disputed ones cougar
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-it-a-or-an
But! There always seems to be a but—what about problematic cases such as historic? Should this be preceded with a or an? Some people, it must be said, do appear to feel very strongly that historic and historical should be preceded by an, rather than a. The reason for this is that in these two words the initial H was, for a long time, unstressed to the point of inaudibility, and so one would typically see “an historic(al”) written (and some people still do not pronounce the initial H of these two words). As many of the people reading this have only waded through this article so far in order to get a definite answer on the use of this indefinite article in this definite sense, here is what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage has to say about historic:
A few words, such as historic and (especially in England) hotel, are in transition, and may be found with either a or an. You choose the article that best suits your own pronunciation.
Sorry. You're entirely right to call that out.
I was looking for a throw away comment to allude to insecurities driving a bullying agenda and ended up completely ham-fisting it.
Cheers.
That seems to be one of the disputed ones cougar
I do not recognise M-W as an authority on English.
In any case, the original 'correction' posted was incorrect.
How about Oxford press then? 😉
Is it ’ a historical document’ or ’ an historical document’? ‘ A hotel’ or ‘ an hotel’? There is still some divergence of opinion over which form of the indefinite article should be used before words that begin with h- and have an unstressed first syllable. In the 18th and 19th centuries people often did not pronounce the initial h for these words, and so an was commonly used. Today the h is pronounced, and so it is logical to use a rather than an. However, the indefinite article an is still encountered before the h in both British and American English, particularly with historical: in the Oxford English Corpus around a quarter of examples of historical are preceded with an rather than a
This debate needs its own thread, it would be an historic stw thread, no wait, a historic ......
Your whole arguement for an appears to hinge on people not speaking correctly.
Why you'd use an if you pronounce it correctly is unclear other than a nod to history which is a nonsense.
No need to watch GB News, it was on his wikipedia page.
as is the fact that, until GB News came along he hasn’t had any presenting gigs since 2018. The great thing about history as a subject for tv is it doesn’t really date - great for repeats - so although Oliver has been on our screens a lot it doesn’t mean he’s had a lot of lot of work. By appearing on GB news he hasn’t really undermined his TV career as it doesn’t seem he’d had one for a while
he’s tainted a back catalogue of work though. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, programmes like Coast were put together in a way that can be recompiled and repackaged so a lot of it can be de-Olivered
Oh; and his book on the Vikings managed to make an interesting topic really dull.
Why does he always wear a buff around his neck? It is annoying, especially as he isn't even using it as a mask.
kayak23
Full Member
called himself an historian despite having no qualifications.It’s ‘an’ historian, like it’s An Hathaway. 😉
I personally pronounce the H, so a historian for me, an historian sounds daft. We use an before vowels no haitches. 😆 Although if you are into an istory or like to go to an otel, crack on, not for me though!
It’s ‘an’ historian
No it isn’t, unless you pronounce it “istorian”.
Alright, alright. No need to get into an huff.
I can only presume STW is now going down some handwringing BBC-esque route to 'balance' by tolerating batshit craziness in the pursuit of said 'balance'.
Oh well, just a few more people to chuckle at and file under 'ignore'.
🤷♂️
I used to think he was quite funny. Then I realised I was mixing him up with Ross Noble.
Sorry Ross.
It is also difficult to overstate how bob-on accurate this piece from George Monbiot is. Now George can be a but of a loon himself sometimes, but this is on the money in explaining how so many folk who likely had a 'lentils and sandals' phase are now pro-Brexit and antivax. If only self-awareness came so easy.
A hotel just sounds wrong and is clumsy to say. An hotel runs off the tongue better
Historian some what is more neutral but on balance an sounds better to me
I think it also depends on how you say the "A" sound - a long A does not go with H, a short A does
A hotel just sounds wrong and is clumsy to say.
Must be an English thing. I was brought up to pronounce Hotel. That's how my folks spoke. No wonder you got picked on.
And I was brought up to pronounce A properly with a long sound not swallow it with a short one. Bet you can't say bath and laugh properly either
Why does he always wear a buff around his neck?
It's an affectation. He's like one of those blokes who always wear an army style cap and a shemagh scarf like they're deployed behind the Taliban lines but they're just going to Lidl. It makes them mysterious and alluring and impossible for the opposite sex not to swoon at their feet.
Why does he always wear a buff around his neck?
So you can't see where the scales end.
@gardentiger - yep he's spot on there.
FWIW I never minded Neil Oliver's presenting but always suspected he was a bit of a dick in real life. Not as much as it turned out though!
His mainstream career is probably over though.
Seems like a natural replacement for Andrew Marr.
Oliver's presenting was always like he was auditioning for the village am-dram production of MacBeth. All 'Burnham Wood is come to Dunsinane*' and that. Or the panto.
*May not be the actual words - can't remember.
In any case, and in answer to the original question...
He should be finished, yes. But so long as a sizeable group of attention-seeking 'adults' provide an audience for his dribblings, he'll go on coining it. If that audience grows some self-respect and stops using loonydom as a means of being noticed, then he'll just be another David Icke. But then again, his profile got a boost as a result of all the antivax frothing, so there's obviously a market to tap into.
Why does he always wear a buff around his neck?
It’s an affectation. He’s like one of those blokes who always wear an army style cap and a shemagh scarf like they’re deployed behind the Taliban lines but they’re just going to Lidl. It makes them mysterious and alluring and impossible for the opposite sex not to swoon at their feet.
Considering that Buffs pretty much started out being worn by mountain bikers, there’s an element of irony in that statement.
I’ve been wearing buffs, or similar knock-offs for many years, for the original purpose - to stop the back of my neck getting sunburned, and as a wind barrier in colder weather. And the same for shemagh scarves, I’ve had a couple of those for many years as well, I wear them mostly in the winter and I prefer them to regular scarves because they’re cotton and soft, and don’t irritate and itch like some other materials do.
Just waiting for the same accusation being made against Simon Reeve, who’s also worn them for about as long as he’s been making telly series, and likely for exactly the same reason.
As Oliver was presenting programmes that are pretty much all outdoors, he’s been using them for precisely the purpose they were intended for. Hardly an ‘affectation’.
His decent into the anti-vaxx rabbit-hole, along with the likes of Clapton and Morrison, however, does deserve the sort of criticism he’s getting, and rightly so. I used to quite like him on ‘Coast’, and on his original battlefield archeology programmes, but I wouldn’t bother watching anything he’s done now.
Yeah ditto, I don't mind what he wears, just that he's gone down a path that is just completely alien to me.
I'm being diplomatic.
A hotel just sounds wrong and is clumsy to say. An hotel runs off the tongue better
There is simply no way that someone can say 'an hotel' and it sound anything but insane.
Unless you drop the H, which also sounds ridiculous.
Try it. Try saying 'an hotel' in any sentence, it is just wrong.
replacment for Andrew Marr
I'm definitely on the wrong side of history
I often wear a buff when cycling... a buff? An buff? Who knows?
Being common as muck I’ve never pronounced the h in hotel in my life , therefore an ‘otel sounds proper.
I'm so common when I try to say hotel it comes out as hostel.
I've actually stayed in hostels far more than I have hotels though.
Only once ever in a hotel actually, come to think of it.
I'm a cheapskate.
Oliver just a few hrs ago implicity called for anarchy and insurrection without explicitly calling for anarchy and insurrection. Widening that divide. Maybe his star is in the ascendant and Britain needs Arthur ‘Fawkes’ Pendragon again, in time of need?
Such is what his fans and disciples seem to be getting from his sermons/calls to arms/doom-speeches? Read the comments (I’ll screenshot and save you the bother of giving GBeebies free traffic):
I get what he’s saying if the gulag scenario happens. But as of now I’m getting a lot more of a sense of pmantomime grifting and outrage-peddling? More: 
Wonder how he would feel if the anarchy enveloped his house/street.
I'm guessing that would be "a bad thing".
Amazed he still lives in Scotland. He's gone full English, plastic patriot.
What a shameless fool.
Imagine a Trump style insurrection on parliament led by Neil Oliver.
Neil would be "with them" just like Trump was with his supporters the day of the attempted insurrection.
...A bloody good distance away.
I think he’s just still sore that Coogan bewt him to his own dream sequence:
(from 58 secs in)
I’m still not convinced that ‘Neil’ isn’t actually Coogan/Partridge performing deep and murky satire as an artform
*
beat him to his own dream-sequence.
Article 2: Using an overlay the faces align so perfectly that it doesn’t seem to matter if Alan’s topface has Neil’s bottomface, or vice versa. Here:
That’s actually blown my mind. No trickery or stretching the image - they actually have the same face (as well as the same delivery). Albeit with different accents and haircuts. Aha!
@CountZero - there's no need to wear a buff or shemagh from the warmth of a TV studio. It's an affectation in order to portray an intrepid image in those circumstances. Maybe the image is one of covering your goitre, or the neck warts?
Who knows? Who cares? Oliver is a strange chap sadly given the oxygen of publicity. He deserves to be ridiculed
