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The week after Osama Bin Laden was killed , I arrived at Runcorn train station, Cheshire , and walked the short distance to Brindley Arts Centre to perform my Edinburgh Festival show, which is a living. As I crossed the car park I came within the orbit of a youth. He was sitting on a low wall, waiting for events to befall him – business was slow in this regard and my arrival would have to do.
He took in my appearance, gait and aura and decided that Cheshire blood did not run through my veins – my face was bearded, reasonably alert and not made of distractedly kneaded dough. An ancestral impulse rose within his breast – he must defend his people against the exotic interloper.
His brow furrowed and we both knew he was going to say something – something devastating to my aloof presumptions. But what would it be? Would he attack London? Would he call my good coat gay?
You Can't Ask Me That!Show all 67 1 /67You Can't Ask Me That! You Can't Ask Me That! Do you want to live forever? The French, it seems, are particularly good at living a long time. A baby born in France today has a one in two chance of hitting a century. Time to put cabernet sauvignon in the sippy cup? Alas, non.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you want to live forever? But when it comes down to it, surprisingly few people would take the immortality option anyway. In Ireland, AA’s life insurance team found that less than 20 per cent of the people they surveyed would choose eternal life if offered the opportunity.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are you single? Or is it just small talk again?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Is it your time of the month? When it comes to questions you should never ask if you value your life, then “Is it that time of the month?” directed at any woman of your acquaintance has to be right at the top
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Is it your time of the month? Particularly if you’re in the middle of a disagreement with said woman and you’re asking the question on the basis of that terrible old stereotype that a woman on her period is not entirely in control of her emotions thanks to her “hormones”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Going anywhere nice? “Going anywhere nice this year?” was always the second question a hairdresser asked. Right after the classic “who did this cut then?”, delivered while examining your grown-out layers with a look of thinly veiled disgust. “Well, actually, Andrea, it was you...”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Going anywhere nice? Let’s get back to holidays. Quick. Much safer ground. It’s the sort of question you can ask anyone without causing a fight. Who doesn’t like talking about holidays? Holidays they’ve been on. Holidays they’re going on. Holidays they would like to go on if their lottery numbers came up. You can get at least three perms’ worth of conversation out of this single simple topic. At least you used to be able to. Holidays are no longer the guilt-free pleasure they used to be, you know.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Fancy a drink? Forget Dry January, October is now officially the month of abstinence. It started with Stoptober, which was aimed at helping people wanting to give up smoking. Then Stoptober’s backers, Macmillan Cancer Support, introduced Sober October, wherein participants commit to a month of not drinking to raise funds for the charity’s work.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Fancy a drink? I’m aware that there’s a world of difference between giving up alcohol for a month for reasons of vanity and trying to give up for good to save your life. If you’re regularly reaching for the bottle first thing in the morning, then you don’t need Sober October, you need to speak to your GP. There will be people reading this who think that giving up for a month is just posturing, virtue-signalling perhaps. More about looking good than being good. Ultimately pointless?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Who's getting the house? Getting shot of old rubbish is always a good idea, but simplifying your life should go way beyond throwing out CDs and making sure the kids never find Grandma’s bondage kit. Writing a will is the ultimate act of tidying up. However, it seems we’re more likely to spend time working out how to make our pants balance vertically in a drawer than thinking about how our joy-sparking stuff will be split when we’re gone. As of last year, it’s estimated that 60 per cent of British adults do not have a will, which means more than 30 million Brits are in danger of dying intestate. It’s fair to say it won’t matter much to them. But for the people left behind, it can be a serious headache
You Can't Ask Me That! Who's getting the house? Under the rules of intestacy in the UK, only spouses, civil partners and other close relatives can inherit, which means if you’re cohabiting without a will, you’re in danger of seeing (or not seeing, since you’ll be dead) all your worldly goods go to some distant cousin instead of the one you love. The most common reason people give for not having written a will is that they’re planning to do it later. But the fact that one in four people over the age of 55 doesn’t have one suggests that not all of those people waiting for the right time are going to get round to it. A further 20 per cent of those questioned by Prudential didn’t think they had enough assets to make writing a will worthhile. Some thought getting a will drawn up would be too expensive. It’s not. October is Free Wills Month, with charities such as Age UK, Diabetes UK and Guide Dogs offering supporters a chance to have a will written or revised completely free of charge
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Is the glass half empty or half full? In these turbulent times, when the news is nearly always bad, it can seem as though to be optimistic is to be unrealistic. Better to look on the distinctly dark side and be prepared for all eventualities, right? Stockpile for Brexit and patch the holes in Grandma’s Anderson shelter. But that’s no way to live, is it? Always looking out for the next disaster, while missing the magic going on right under your nose?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Is the glass half empty or half full? In these turbulent times, when the news is nearly always bad, it can seem as though to be optimistic is to be unrealistic. Better to look on the distinctly dark side and be prepared for all eventualities, right? Stockpile for Brexit and patch the holes in Grandma’s Anderson shelter. But that’s no way to live, is it? Always looking out for the next disaster, while missing the magic going on right under your nose?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How are you? “How do you do?” How do you answer that one? Let’s assume you just met someone for the first time and they’ve offered you that question with a handshake. Quick. What should you say in return?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How are you? The correct answer to “How do you do?’ is, in fact, to say “How do you do?” right back. Confused? I know I was. But as Kate Fox writes in Watching The English, “’How do you do?’ is not a real question about health or wellbeing.”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are you single? Every week Christine Manby tackles socially unacceptable questions, accompanied by Tom Ford illustrations
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are you single? Do they want to know if you’re unattached so they can ask you out on a date?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? At its peak, in 1999, the UK version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' was watched by more than 19m people a week. The show’s format with its “lifelines”, “ask the audience” and “phone a friend” encouraged maximum audience participation and sparked lively debate. Who would be your friend on the end of the phone? Divorce rates trebled and families fell apart as people revealed that they thought all their loved ones were too thick to be trusted with the job
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Long before Millionaire hit our screens, the best way to get rich quick was with the Football Pools. In 1962 Keith Nicholson won £152,000 (the equivalent of more than £3m in today’s money) and his wife Viv promptly announced their plan to “spend, spend, spend”. The Nicholsons did exactly that but soon became an object lesson in how money can’t buy you happiness. After Keith was killed in an accident four years after the win, Viv was declared bankrupt. Her attempts to regain her wealth included recording a single called “Spend, spend, spend” and appearing in a Manchester strip club singing “Hey Big Spender”. She was fired when she refused to take her underwear off. She subsequently joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses and graced the cover of The Smiths’ single “Heaven knows I’m miserable now.”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you have children? When it comes to talking about parenthood it seems there are several distinct categories of egregious question that are all too often asked. There are the intrusive questions you get before you have children. Then there are the intrusive questions you get while you’re pregnant. There are the intrusive questions you get after the baby is born. And finally the truly painful questions you get if, for whatever reason, you don’t end up having children at all
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you have children? Almost every human being on earth of reproductive age has been subject to the first category. “Do you have children?” is a classic ice-breaker. If there’s one thing people love to talk about it’s their kids, right? And most people have them, don’t they?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you have children? It takes more than having lucky sperm to be a dad and it takes more than giving birth to become a mother. If you’re not sure you’ve got what it takes, isn’t it better not to risk it? For everybody’s sake?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What are you afraid of? Around 45 per cent of Brits the idea of sharing kitchen space with an arachnid is the stuff of nightmares. Fear of spiders is Britain’s number one phobia, with a third of people who suffer saying it affects their day to day life. It affects travel plans – better forget Australia. It causes anxiety and sleeplessness. It even causes embarrassment.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What are you afraid of? How do you get over a life limiting phobia? Do you just have to spend the rest of your life wearing T shirts or should you go to Marks and Spencer with a trusted friend to spend a controlled hour stroking button-down shirts? Should you take the train or force yourself to fly? Should you avoid clown movies or star in one?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Have you had any work done? As long as there are Instagram celebrities such as Cara de la Hoyde and Emily Ratajkowski pushing such insane markers of beauty as the Toblerone Tunnel (aka the space at the top of your legs), there will be people whose harmony is perturbed by thoughts about their own comparative lack of perfection
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Have you had any work done? Even if we all know the truth about Instagram filters and Photoshop, it can be difficult not to feel as if we should be doing something drastic to close (or rather open) that thigh gap
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Have you had any work done? Dr Pitanguy, king of the butt lift, who died in 2016, understood that cosmetic surgery is never just about vanity. Perhaps Pitanguy said it best. “The most important thing is to have a good ego and then you don’t need an operation.” If only self-esteem came in syringes
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you prefer cats or dogs? Everyone has an opinion on it and there are those who will defend their opinion with violence. Or at least with a campaign of social media shaming that puts anyone who disagrees with them on a par with serial killers
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats versus dogs is an emotional battle that divides people like no other
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you prefer cats or dogs? There’s no doubt that each animal has its place both in history and in modern society. The cat’s self-sufficiency makes it the perfect pet for someone who works long hours. Meanwhile dogs encourage us to improve our sedentary lifestyles. Both provide valuable companionship in an unfriendly world
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you really love me? Can true love can be found in an artificial environment?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Do you really love me? Does she really love him?’ Or does he really love her? How can we tell? And does it really matter?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you believe in? We’re not talking fairies, vampires and UFOs here. We’re talking religion. We’re talking politics. We’re talking all those things you should never bring up at the dinner table for fear of causing terrible offence
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you believe in? In 2018, a woman’s right to control her own body continues to be eroded by the Trump presidency and it’s not just American women who are affected. One of Trump’s first acts as president was to sign off on a policy that withholds US global health funding for international organisations that “counsel, refer or provide safe and legal abortion services using other, non-US funding” (plannedparenthoodaction.org). The result? US-funded health providers in developing nations, can no longer afford to provide contraception, forcing women to endure unwanted pregnancies and dangerous abortions
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Did you get my text? Is technology good or bad for us?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! When’s it due? It’s a tricky question if you know for sure that your interlocutor is pregnant. If you don’t, it’s potentially disastrous
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! When’s it due? The number one most hated question reported by the pregnant women of my acquaintance is: can I touch your bump?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! When’s it due? “I knew through the grapevine that a colleague I saw only occasionally was having a baby, so when I found myself standing next to her in the coffee queue at the ATM and we’d exhausted all the usual talk about holidays, I risked it. ‘When’s the baby due?’ I asked. She told me she’d had it a month before.” My friend did the only thing he could. He left the company and moved to the Philippines
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Did you get my text? Is social media addiction fracturing any real sense of community?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Did you get my text? Will the robots that are already stealing our jobs take over altogether and turn us into meat-based slaves?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How do I look? Whatever you do, if you hesitate to respond, all is lost. Everyone knows that hesitation in answering this particular question really means, “You look like you just escaped naked from a serial killer’s cellar and grabbed a random selection of his clothes on your way out.”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How do I look? Yet if you’re not open about what you think when someone asks you how they look, aren’t you doing the other person a disservice? You may be wary of hurting their feelings but if you know they’re not looking their best, or are actively looking like a hot mess, aren’t you setting them up to be even more hurt by not saying so before someone else does?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How do I look? Don’t we ask questions in the hope of receiving an honest answer? Well, of course we’d all like to think we do. In reality, what we’re usually after is the real-life equivalent of an Instagram “like” for our banana yellow flares
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Did you sleep well? It’s what we ask overnight guests at the breakfast table. It’s a morning variation on “how are you?” and as is the case with that tricky question, you’re only ever supposed to answer in the positive. “Yes, I did sleep well, thanks. Very comfy bed.” And yet for more and more of us, the opposite is true. We didn’t sleep well at all. We certainly didn’t sleep for long enough
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Did you sleep well? There’s no doubt that modern life can make getting a good night’s rest difficult and for many of us it’s unlikely we’ll be able to change the way we live and work to accommodate significantly better sleeping habits anytime soon. But it’s definitely worth trying. From better powers of concentration to better sex, from increasing our chances of staving off disease, getting enough sleep changes everything
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Will you marry me? It’s the question every woman on earth is waiting to hear. Apparently
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Will you marry me? Is there anything worse than upstaging a bride with an impromptu engagement? I suppose there is something worse. Having the putative fiancee/fiance answer “no”. Fortunately for the asker, the chances are that he or she won’t. At least not right away
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Will you marry me? Public proposals are an exhibitionist’s Insta dream but a nightmare to most sensible people, even if they don’t happen at somebody else’s wedding
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are we ever truly sorry? Does apologising comes naturally to Brits, or do we actually mean something else?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are we ever truly sorry? When it comes to three little words that are difficult to say, “I love you” really doesn’t come close to being the most difficult phrase in the English language. One of the things we actually find hardest to say is “I’m sorry”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Are we ever truly sorry? Mark Zuckerberg took out full page ads in a number of British newspapers, to make his Cambridge Analytica scandal apology public, as well as, delivering an apology in person to Congress. There was an expression of regret: “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.” But was Zuckerberg’s apology all that it seemed? Commentators on social media called it “hollow”. Annabelle Lukin, Associate professor of linguistics at Sydney’s Macquarie University, went further, and parsed those apologetic statements
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Guilty or not guilty? Should it be up to a general public jury to decide a defendants’ fate?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Guilty or not guilty? The system of trial by a group of your peers may have come to the UK with the Vikings, who installed 12 hereditary “law men” in each of the British towns under their control
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Guilty or not guilty? “Guilty or not guilty” is still a question we take seriously. And if we should ever be stuck in the dock, most of us would still want our peers to consider it on our behalf
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How old are you? Discussing age with the under-10s is always appropriate. In fact, if you don’t ask, they will. When every passing year means a party where you get presents you actually want, rather than a scented candle from the White Company, birthdays hold no fear. There’s a real sense of achievement in “reaching double figures” at 10, in turning “sweet 16”, in getting your driving license at 17, in gaining the right to “forget” to vote a year later. And how about turning 21? “Key to the door”, as they used to say when a 21-year-old could actually buy a house. After that, it starts to get murky
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! How old are you? Once you’re out of early childhood, you’re told it’s rude to ask. Perhaps it’s because by the time you’ve left formal education, age is no longer just a number. Suddenly, it becomes a measure of how far you’ve come. Or not
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you do? Why don’t people like being asked what they do?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you do? I have in the past told people I’m an unemployed stunt rider to circumvent those awkward conversations, so I do understand why “what do you do” can be a loaded question
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you do? It’s not easy to make small talk with a stranger
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What's your type? What’s your type? I mean of course what kind of person would you like to go to bed with? Now we’re no longer in the 1970s, it’s a question guaranteed to cause embarrassment if not outright offence because it implies the reduction of people to categories: age, race, size, gender, occupation, income bracket, looks good in wellies...
You Can't Ask Me That! What's your type? Thus most people, when asked if they have a type, would probably deny that they do. And yet most of us know someone who absolutely does have a type, don’t we?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you want for Chritmas? What do you want for Christmas? That’s a lovely question to be asked, isn’t it? Well, sometimes. If the person asking is a dashing billionaire who is so into the season of goodwill that they’ve got a special present wrapping room hidden somewhere on their yacht, it’s great. Especially if you fancy them like crazy and you don’t mind being beholden to them in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. Then it’s “Pass me the Cartier catalogue, baby. I’ll underline all the things I like.”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What do you want for Chritmas? What do you want for Christmas? That’s a lovely question to be asked, isn’t it? Well, sometimes. If the person asking is a dashing billionaire who is so into the season of goodwill that they’ve got a special present wrapping room hidden somewhere on their yacht, it’s great. Especially if you fancy them like crazy and you don’t mind being beholden to them in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. Then it’s “Pass me the Cartier catalogue, baby. I’ll underline all the things I like.”
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Can I kiss you? There’s so much to dislike about Christmas: the expense, the enforced jollity, the dubious traditions. Mistletoe, I’m looking at you. Which of us hasn’t experienced that sinking feeling upon realising that all that lies between us and our escape from a terrible party is a doorway festooned with the stuff, beneath which stands someone we’d usually cross the road to avoid?
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! Can I kiss you? It’s been suggested that kissing under the mistletoe began with the Romans, who included the plant in their Saturnalian rituals, but like post-mortem photography and jewellery made from dead people’s hair, the tradition really took off under the Victorians.
Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What's your name? Becoming a parent involves a few basic responsibilities like feeding and clothing the child in your care and keeping their tiny fingers from the dog’s mouth or the gas fire. However, it seems to me there is one more parental responsibility that ought to be much higher on the list – giving your child a name they can live with. A name that they won’t spend the whole of their life having to spell out letter by letter, excuse or explain.
Illustrations by Tom Ford
You Can't Ask Me That! What's your name? Luckily governments all over the world agree. There are strict rules about what you can and can’t name a child in countries such as Sweden where “First names shall not be approved if they can cause offence or can be supposed to cause discomfort for the one using it, or names which for some obvious reason are not suitable as a first name”. Or Denmark, where parents have to choose a name from a pre-approved list of 7,000 monikers.
Tom Ford
“We killed your leader!”
He was very pleased with himself and I was quite tickled. I could have explained that I was born near Tel Aviv and of the two of us was the less eligible for recruitment by al-Qaeda , but as I already had a tough sell programmed into my day I discreetly conserved my energies and smiled at his exuberance.
“Good one!” I rejoined merrily. I left him basking in rhetorical triumph, got to the Arts Centre and diligently googled Runcorn – it’s 96.3% white British. Wow that’s white British. I wondered what reference that kid would have had for my appearance had not a dodgy foreign type been in the news. If he could conflate my sort with Bin Laden for taunting purposes, perhaps also Jafar from Aladdin – “You will never hold Agrabah!” or Idris Elba – “You are too tall for Bond!”
A big part of Other-ing is actually Same-ing. When we’re not shoving people out of our group, we’re creating spurious new groups and dragging unconnected people into them – all the better to Other the lot of them
A big part of Other-ing is actually Same-ing. When we’re not shoving people out of our group (to conserve resources real or imagined), we’re creating spurious new groups and dragging unconnected people into them – all the better to Other the lot of them: “Here is an economic migrant, there is a political refugee – but I’m too busy for fine distinctions so I’ll scoop them into a bag, whip out my sharpie and label it ‘They’re After Me’ Lucky Charms’!”
And how instinctively we gerrymander our worlds. A couple of years ago I was driving down the eastbound lane of a narrow street in south London. There was oncoming traffic and I pulled left into a parking gap and let two cars pass – because when I am not running late and a danger to all, my driving manners are most genteel.
My westbound brothers acknowledged my noblesse with nodding and flashing and I resumed my progress, flushed with the spiritual benefits of paying goodwill into the traffic ecosystem. A third westbound driver approached and we both slowed.
He had a serviceable gap to his left, although bafflingly he did not seem to be pulling into it. It was almost as if he didn’t understand the karmic debt his westbound predecessors had bequeathed him. I began to find his lack of haste to give ground unseemly. “After all I’ve done for you lot!” I thought bitterly.
Of course, I knew that these people’s westboundness was a temporary trait, that on reaching the western end of this shortish road some would turn north and some south, but for me – now passionately enraged – they had a collective responsibility which this ingrate sought to shirk.
Even after the first two drivers had laid aside their technical westboundness they must surely retain its essence like a homeopathic memory and communicate it to their essential cohort like quantum particles! Why would this cad not do his duty? Well I was damned if I was going to cede – altruism is a fine thing but you have to draw the line somewhere or life will take you for a doormat. As I say, I was not in a rush and could afford obstinacy.
He made way, though it was grudgingly and my bonhomie was compromised – making me work for my simple due! I neither nodded nor flashed any thanks but drove on, sullenly muttering to myself.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events “Westbound car, ruining it for everyone… I mean the first two were okay but this one, well let’s just say he is doing a terrible PR job for Westies everywhere – oh why be naive they were the exceptions and this one is the rule. Look at him – typical Westie – immigrants to a man by the way, best locked up if you ask me, or deported anyway. Vote Leave. I’m so angry. Vote Leave.”
Enraged beyond reason I spun my car around, chased that driver, slew him and held his head aloft for all Westies to see. “We killed your leader!” I crowed.
For a year after the Referendum I walked around thinking of Brexiteers, Tories and Racists as a group. It was incurious of me to same them – they were just sharing that westbound lane and many have since turned north or south. But for that brief moment they added up to 52 per cent and the consequences of that intersection in their journeys will far outlast their time together.
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