Billy No Mates

[DaisyProudfoot]

This is what my boss called the bloke in the story who smashed the vases at Cambridge Museum

 

(see link)

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambrid...ire/4685130.stm

 

Bosses words to me: "Well, I heard him interviewed and he came across to me as a bit of a Billy No Mates".

 

I heard him interviewed too and he came across to me as having Asperger traits.

 

I know I've heard the phrase before but for some reason it really struck me ...... I wonder how our own kids are viewed?

 

Daisy

[adamsmum]

I feel sorry for him. The poor man. I bet he's verry upset it's not like it was realy his fout and he did have a good point

[littlenemo]

I heard him or Radio 4 several days ago and he seemed a perfectly normal bloke, thought slightly bemused/amused by the media attention a week after the event, and by the fact that the press knew about the letter telling him to stay away before it had been sent to him. Also by being told to stay away after the staff in the museum had been fine about his visits since (more than one visit to a museum in a week? Maybe that's what your boss found weird about him.

As to what other kids think of our kids, my experience is that the boys try to wind him up while the girls seem to quite like him - and Com fails to notice either

[Canopus]

I think Billy no mates is a real phrase. I overheard one of the carers at my residential school say it in a conversation about me on my 2nd or 3rd day there.

[DaisyProudfoot]

<'> Oh Bless Canopus - that's not fair

 

Daisy

[justamom]

I heard someone once say that my AS son K was weird, that upset me so now I just don't care what they say. (try to ingnore them He mine and I love him dearly warts and all..

 

Have you seen BAMBI its my fav saying little thumper said - If you can't say nothing nice don't say nothing at all"

 

justamom

[Richt]

Where I live, "Billy no Mates" is a derogatory phrase for someone who isn't socially acceptable - not because they are too wierd, just because they are different and "don't fit in".

 

Often it is used jokingly by people who recognise some strengths in the person, but don't understand how s/he fits in with the social spectrum that brings them into contact.

 

In some ways it's a positive, they don't hate "billy" they tolerate him, he's "sad", not "one of us" a bit of a joke maybe, but no threat

 

(Maybe the OED will pick up on this definition 100 years in the future lol

 

By the way, our influences are NW England and N Wales from a cultural point of view. I suspect I first heard it from a Mancunian

[ROBANDDEB]

First time i ever heard this Phrase was in a film but cant remember which one.

 

Shortly after everyone including my son was using it as a sort of jest calling themselves a " billy no mates " and laughing . It was never used in an aggressive manner.

[Canopus]

Any idea when the phrase was coined? It was 1990 when I first heard it at my residential school.

[ROBANDDEB]

Meaning

 

Someone with no friends.

 

Origin

 

Coined in the youth culture of the UK in the 1990s. This sort of naming became widely used by the UK's young following the popularity of comedy performers like Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse, et al. Their comedy uses named character types, e.g. Tim Nice but dim, Ted and Ralph

[call me jaded]

The first time I heard this phrase David Beckham used it about himself.