Response To Criticism Of The Night Shift And The Hull Blokes By Ian Ahmed Newton

Regarding Steven Greendale's criticism of the Hull Blokes which I understand included some comments about one of my books, The Night Shift. I would say to Mr Greendale, that if you live in Hull, we have enough people outside this city who like to take a knock at those who are trying to promote the city. I also believe that we have many in power within this city who have also done little but pull the city back, but that is another issue.

As regards what he has written about the Hull Blokes, although I have never personally seen them play, some of my friends have, and they tell me they are really very good and very funny. I have been meaning to see them, but sometimes it is not always easy to find the time. But I intend to in the near future.

Please Mr Greendale, do not use my name or any of my publications to criticise any working people who are trying against very difficult odds to promote the very unique humour of Hull. I have been fighting this same battle for many, many years against those in TV and film who regard working peoples' humour as something to be looked down upon. I have been around, believe me, and no one can beat Hull humour, and from comments made by some of my friends, the Hull Blokes seem to have hit all the right buttons.

Which is more than can be said for the prevailing banality that is seen regularly on our TV screens, where middle class and Hooray Henry humour seem to dominate and be passed off falsely as something we all like? That is the real crime against humour Mr Greendale, and that is that we ordinary people are being starved of our own cultural humour for PC nonsense imposed on us by those who seek to create a politically correct utopia, where no one laughs but the middle and upper classes. I would be more than pleased to see the Hull Blokes in one of my sketches from The Night Shift.

Ian Ahmed Newton ('Raghead')

Opinions - Response To Arts Council Article - People Rewriting Our History In Their Own Image By Pete Stitt
	I would like to thank the Editor of Hami Kurd magazine for waking me from a sort of self-imposed coma this week. I had walked away from the local asylum situation, completely disillusioned, as loads of middle class white (and ethnic minority) English individuals and organisations came flooding into the 'industry' when it became clear there were funding opportunities. Read more...

Opinions - Praise For Ian Newton's The Night Shift By Andy Brown
	I am formerly from Hull and my daughter still lives there. I keep up with events going on with help of your website. It's great. I saw that stuff about The Night Shift book by Ian Newton. My daughter sent me a copy for Christmas and all I can say is that this book almost gave me a hernia with laughter. I have never read a book so funny and so spot on about working night shifts. Read more...

Opinions - In response to Joe Hakim's Opinion: The King is Dead ... Again. By Kay
	Well, this post reminded me of a railway station at midnight, where the only inhabitants are drunken tramps spitting out a string of semi-coherent invective. I really don't see how you can criticise anyone else Joe, when you come off sounding like an unbalanced style-less dumbfuck. I bet your keyboard took a hammering there as you released your ultimate weapon . . . Read more...

Opinions - Response To Steven Greendale's Article By Mark Pollard
	To Steven Greendale: You're a bright lad, aren't you? Firstly, you accuse Anthony Newlyne of taking a poke at Ian Newton's book The Night Shift, when Newlyne's enjoyment of and respect for Newton's work is made quite clear despite the article being somewhat ironic in parts. How could you not have understood this, Mr Greendale? Can't you read properly? Secondly, you have a Read more...

Opinions - The King Is Dead...Again By Joe Hakim
	Well, I've just read Steve Regan's latest column, and I'm glad to see that the old cigar-chomping fuckwit hasn't let me down. I can still remember seeing his mug leering out from the top of his shitty sub-Gary Bushell column in the Hull Daily Mail, and by the look of it he hasn't managed to land his dream job as a Sun hack, but then again, even people who write for the tabloids need Read more...

Opinions - Hull By Wesy G

	Over the years, my experience of Hull has been limited to 80 minute slots of rugby or trips through to the P & O dock. Until recently. Via my job I have been working in East Hull for several months and have been surprised, disappointed, fulfilled and benefited in equal measure. Yes, the stereotypes of Hullers being cynical, defensive etc often hold true but to be honest Read more...

Opinions - Response To Steven Greendale's Article By Andrew Hampel
	Hull has always been groundbreaking. From Amy Johnson and William Wilberforce to the invention of LCDs and the Venn diagram. Not to forget the first Ferro concrete bridge and public crematorium. I could go on. It is for these reasons I am always saddened that the image of Hull often promoted by those from outside and even worse, inside the city, is Read more...

Opinions - Three Piece Bands By Rob Aarosin

	I thought I would send some feedback about an old article which I stumbled on whilst looking round your site. It relates to Nick Quantrill's Pave - Linnet and Lark 05 February 2004 music/pavenicklinet.html review (yes I know its old but I really thought I should comment on what was said), especially the part where he claimed there were/are not really any Read more...

Opinions - Hull By Maolsheachlann O' Ceallaigh

	Hello Hullizens! I'm a 28-year-old chap from Dublin who has kind of adopted your native city. Never went abroad in my life before last year, then I went to London, Brighton, Doncaster, Sheffield and Hull. And Hull was my favourite! By far. And I prefer it to Dublin, too. Dublin is too big. I like the Yorkshire accent and the people are friendly, the streets are tidy and Read more...

Opinions - Steve Regan 'The King of Hull' Column By Mark Pollard

	I'm just wondering why Steve Regan is being given exposure by thisisull.com. It's something I've been pondering for a while, but his recent piece on the way our brave boys... in Iraq have been so badly treated by the white feather press (i.e. The Guardian), and which included disparaging references to hand-wringing liberals finally confirmed my concerns at Read more...

Opinions - Hull's Music Scene Gets Screwed By The Arts Council ... Again By Anonymous

I opened a local newspaper today to be greeted by an article congratulating Duffy- Howard Productions on receiving an Arts Council grant for £34,006. This is purely for the Grassroots festival, a 2-day event taking place in August. The Arts Council had given grants to only three Hull organisations, and Grassroots got the lion's share, the others being granted only £1,020 and £4,493 each. The newspaper says that the aim of Read more...

Opinions - Is the Hull Music Scene Dying? By Anonymous

	My argument is about how bad the indie scene in hull is getting. First of all, Indie? Where did the term indie come from? As you can remember Indie is short for Independent, which means a band on an independent label. But since Oasis, Blur and The Verve became big then every band eventually had that Brit pop sound which is decribed as Indie. Obviously it has Read more...

Opinions - Intolerance By Lee Cassanell

	Something is rotten in the state of Denmark according to a twisted branch of the Muslim tree, and whereas the rest of the sane world is astounded and disgusted by the ludicrous invention that is Microwavable Bacon, the Muslims have a bee in their burkas about a few pictures of the Prophet Mohammed that were innocently printed in a Danish newspaper. So incensed Read more...

Opinions - Political Correctness Can Be a Good Thing By David Sloan
	The idea of using political correctness to improve society is a very good one. Everyone has the right to be treated equally, regardless of their sex, colour or religion. Unfortunately, as with most good ideas, it has been corrupted and distorted by small-minded people who use it to their own ends. Every day now someone seems to be knocking political correctness. Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Nathan Walker

	What a shame you had a very biased person reviewing the Polar Bear Battle Of The Bands final. A little bit of research will have shown that Jimmy Hates Willy earned their place in the final by virtue of being in the top two bands to play at each of their heats (I have a feeling they were one of the only two in each of their heats, but you know!). As for The Cyclones Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Loz Cyclone, The Cyclones

	I had to take umbrage with Michelle Dee's totally cattish and twisted so-called review of Band Wars. Admittedly, she* did provide the highlight of the evening by remonstrating with one of the judges about the unfairness of the decision to give Conscience the grand in cash. The watching Cyclones laughed at the hystericalness of it all. Now to a few facts. The Cyclones, who Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Sue Watson

	I have just read Michelle Dee's review of the Band Wars final at the Polar Bear and I am outraged and horrified that you have allowed her to write what she did. Not only has she slandered the landlady of the Polar Bear, but also myself, as I was one of the judges that night and can assure you, I know enough about music to warrant my place as a judge. Not only have I been Read more...

Opinions - Response To Anthony Newlyne's Article By Steven Greendale
	Commenting on the article by Anthony Newlyne taking a poke at Ian Newton for his new book The Night Shift, and saying because it is six episodes of a sitcom, 'it is cheating to publish it.' : What a load of rubbish. Ian Newton is one of the best local writers Hull has produced for years, and a real character. We must all remember his antics some time ago now when he Read more...

Opinions - Hull Writer Ian Newton is Cheating By Anthony Newlyne
	Ian Newton the writer had just produced his third book. The book is six episodes of a sitcom and called The Night Shift. THIS IS CHEATING!! Obviously Ian Newton cannot get his sitcom on telly so someone has published it for him. I bought a copy of the book, and all I can say if that is the standard of comedy writing turned down by TV companies, then I have no chance, Read more...

Opinions - Rise of the Madmen By Lee Cassanell

	I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me: go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it. Read more...

Opinions - Mark Pollard's Response to a Couple of Hull's Blinkered Critics

	Well, Channel 4's rubbish programme the other week (I can't even be arsed to mention it's name any more) certainly resulted in the odd fucknut blowing the cobwebs from their PC keyboard and jumping onto that bitter little bandwagon, didn't it? You want to know what's the worst thing about Hull? It's that, like any other city, it has it's fair share of these types - the sort of Read more...

Opinions - MP Diana Johnson Uninspired by Hull By David Sloan

Hull MP Diana Johnson thinks prisoners should be allowed to vote. If she went on the streets of Hull and asked the people what they thought I'm sure she would get a very different answer. She was inspired, she says by a former inmate John Hirst, who served a life sentence for manslaughter. He mounted a legal challenge saying depriving him of his vote was against his human rights. He is now free, Read more...

Opinions - Christmas Shopping Opportunity By Mr. A.N. Gry
	Well Christmas will soon be upon us and everyone is busy getting their Christmas shopping lists ready of what to get their kids or even themselves, but unfortunately at some other poor bugger's expense! Yes, the Christmas bookings for stereos and PCs and play stations etc., etc, etc. are being taken and the opportunists are a knocking at our backdoors and windows (good job we have 3 monsters Read more...

Opinions - Amused or not, a muse on Yo-Yo By Michelle Dee
	Whilst all you scenesters were at Leeds watching the likes of The Killers, The Pixies and The Paddingtons... life continued back home. Welly on Saturday was a little emptier than previous weeks, but that just meant there was more room to move and it wasn't quite so hot. DJ Priya had a difficult job tonight due to the lack of so many regulars Read more...

Opinions - Did Hitler See the Good in Hull ? by David Sloan

	Hull has been voted Worst City in the UK to live, on a recent Channel 4 TV programme. This of course was not always the case. Before the war Hull was a prosperous important sea port. Unfortunately the last politician to recognise this was Adolf Hitler. The Germans saw Hull as a major port and manufacturing centre. That's why Hull was the second Read more...