Looking Back: Aren’t we Brits a polite race, sometimes!

We don’t usually tell people what we think of them to their face but keep it to ourselves. That is why it is so strange that the restaurant where you actually pay to be verbally abused has taken off in such a big way and is actually moving to larger premises in Sheffield. ‘Karens Diner’, originally an Australian concept, promises no homophobic, sexist or sexual abuse but otherwise there are no holds barred! No accounting for taste!! (Pun?)

Put downs and insults have been part of political and other walks of life for long enough.

It is not usually considered defamatory to show dislike of a person and seen as outbursts of emotion with no real substance.. Opinions are not considered defamatory as they don’t usually contain specific facts.

Winston Churchill was at the top of witty put-me-downs with his quick wit and sharp tongue. He had many verbal duels in the Commons with the wealthy Lady Astor.

On one occasion he told her that if he were her husband he’d poison her tea. To which she replied, ‘If you were my husband I’d drink it!’

During one spat she told him that he was drunk. He told her ‘I may be drunk, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly!’

During well documented public back biting from musicians Noel and Liam Gallagher, Noel said ‘Liam only has two problems. Everything he does and everything he says!’ He antagonised Robbie Williams when he called him ‘That fat dancer from Take That!’

The famous Dorothy Parker said of an acquaintance ‘She can speak eighteen languages and can’t say no in any of them!’

Mai West when talking about a popular actress said that her mother should have thrown her away at birth and kept the stork!

Even the peaceable Ghandi could be cutting. On a visit to London he was asked by a reporter what he thought of Western civilization. He said scathingly ‘I think it would be a good idea!!!