[David Anthony]

The word is that Carol Ann Duffy has been informally offered, and will accept, the Brit Poet Laureateship, succeeding Andrew Motion.
One commentator described the job as a "double-edged chalice".
Duffy was the favourite last time round, but it seems that Tony Blair vetoed her appointment because of her sexual orientation.

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Could you post a link, David? I read somewhere that this will be three firsts: first woman, first Scot, and wasn't the third one first non-heterosexual?

She's a brave woman, that's for sure! Changing the system from within?

Duncan

[John Whitworth]

I've met Carol Anne. She's about as Scots as my bottom. Less, come to that since my mother was Scots and therefore... Oh well, with Kate Winslet claiming to be working class...

As for the last, didn't you know that Tennyson was a cross-dresser? And Masefield's love of sailors is well-documented.

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Well, John, I was just quoting the article from memory. There were three firsts, I recall.

But FYI Carol Ann Duffy’s parents are both Glaswegian, and she lived in Glasgow till she was six. She may not openly reveal her Scottish roots, but they're certainly there.

Duncan

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Pre-empting you, David, perhaps.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...t-1674745.html

I see "openly gay" is what is one of the two firsts. The article doesn't say she'll be the first Scottish Poet Laureate. I must have dreamt that up. Has there ever been a Scottish Poet Laureate?

Duncan

[Shaun J. Russell]

Originally Posted by Duncan Gillies MacLaurin

Pre-empting you, David, perhaps.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...t-1674745.html

I see "openly gay" is what is one of the two firsts. The article doesn't say she'll be the first Scottish Poet Laureate. I must have dreamt that up. Has there ever been a Scottish Poet Laureate?

Duncan

There has never been a Scottish Poet Laureate, no...but Walter Scott was offered the post upon Henry James Pye's death and turned it down.

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Duffy's elegy for U.A. Fanthorpe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...arol-ann-duffy

There's also an article by her:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...-poet-laureate

Duncan

[Clive]

Rory - the decision to change the PL's terms and conditions was made for the appointment of Motion, not to pave the way for Duffy.

David and Peter - I second and third your respective emotions.

Duncan - lovely poem from Duffy.

[peter richards]

Rory, I make-a de little joke, you see.

'Never mind the bollocks' is a common vernacular phrase that can hardly have passed you by. It's also part of the title of an album by the Sex Pistols. It effectively 'means', or references, ignoring the irrelevant and/or idle chit-chat (or pallid imitations, in the case of the Sex Pistols). Your category 4 falls neatly or messily into all that. The sexual connotation, while absent from the common usage of the phrase, makes for a pun in this case of an appointment from the distaff ranks, see?

So much more fun when jokes are explained, innit.

[Maryann Corbett]

Today's New York Times has an article:

After 341 years....