To compound my misery I have taken to watching the Parliament Channel on TV. It's free and it should be.
Remember your school debating society? Parliament is like that raised to the power of n, with bits of comical history thrown in. Newcomers will be astonished to see that when there's a full attendance there isn't enough space for everyone (ie, about 630 MPs) to sit down. A few dozen stand crushed together at the exits; others squat uncomfortably in the stepped aisles. Also, when there's a vote, everyone troops out of the chamber to be counted. No push-buttons here.
The Speaker, Stephen Bercow, who is - confusingly - an MP who does not vote, utters strange commands during the voting: "Division!", "Lock the doors!", and "Unlock!"
When the MPs are speaking in the formal debates they refer to each other as The Honourable Member for Slumberland and Tittipoo (ie, their constituency). Frequently the two halves of the chamber bellow in support of speeches they favour, or go "Who-hoo." at those they don't.
When the background noise becomes unbearable the Speaker intervenes using language that sounds like a fifties radio comic.
And it is these ritualised fools who are intent on cutting my links with the countries who gave the world Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Proust, Goethe, Voltaire, Molière, Sartre and Flaubert to name but a few. Who are in effect insisting that the river Rhine and Paris's Ile de la Cité are more foreign than I've been accustomed to. Bah to these puffball wretches.
We struggle to comprehend, my German and my Irish family.
ReplyDeleteAs Fintan O'Toole (Irish journalist) wrote, it looks like a "choice between shooting oneself in the head or in the foot".
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/18/europe-brexit-britain-state-politics-fit-for-purpose
And an interesting half hour of listening (with nice accents):
https://youtu.be/lOSj6WYCiEU
I only subject myself to the brief political slot on the 10.00 news. To watch a channel specializing in it strikes me as masochism. They all need their faces slapped, heads knocked together and a kick up their arses. They behave like a lot of chickens with a fox in their coop. Absolutely incompetent. A potent, masterful PM is needed and Teresa May ain't it!
ReplyDeleteSabine: Since I read The Guardian each day - with great attention - I felt I didn't need to tackle your first link. However after a few minutes of your second link (on my upstairs desktop) I switched off and re-started downstairs on the smart TV - so that VR could share it with me. Fintan was especially good (the last gasp of imperialism with the hard right bleating we were the ones who had been oppressed; also the concept of self-pity) although Antony Barnett's observations about the invisible opposition were also very sharp. The questions were both concise and pertinent, yet the audience was predominantly English. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for your relations to stop struggling to comprehend. Imagine instead that following the June 2016 referendum the majority had insisted all Brits should now walk on water. Something like that.
Avus: The most recent "potent, masterful PM" was Tony Blair. And the electorate seemed to agree - three general elections on the trot. Also solved the Northern Ireland problem. All he'd need would be scads of money.
Forget your regularly alluded-to favourite. Fine for war but not for peace. Although you may argue that his greatest aschievement - after encouraging others to join in on our side during WW2 - was to lose the post-war election. By the time he got in again the damage had been done and we had both a welfare state and the NHS.
Yes, I agree that WSC was the man for the WW2 moment, to "stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood". But not a good peace time PM. Attlee had the difficult peace time reconstruction to deal with and worked hard to bring in the welfare state successfully.
ReplyDeleteTony Blair? I think he now shows his real colours (probably that of money)