So, as the governance of Britain slides down towards the DTL - er, that's a Deep Trench Latrine in 'Army-speak' - it is important to follow the good advice of Monty Python and his chums in "The Life of Brian" which is, of course, one of the greatest examples of English humour in recent times.
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.
So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
Returning, reluctantly, to the real world I will say that I would rather see our shambolic free parliament fighting over matters of real democratic importance than, say, Chinese troglodytes sitting in rows and doing exactly as they are told by their "glorious leaders!" I am tempted to use the European parliament as another example of a disciplined 'troglodytical' (non)parliament but so long as we have naughty Nigel Farage sitting there we can but hope!
ADDITIONAL: I seem unable to include a link to the YouTube extract from the film but you can find it easily enough.
We can always watch Germany alienate everyone from the Eastern block to the Meds to the French and always Britain. They are doing a fair job of adding the US to that list as well. Germany will run Europe.
Posted by: Whitewall | Tuesday, 02 April 2019 at 13:01
Meet Mr. Jon-Ber-Ko, our first home-grown Chinese troglodyte.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Tuesday, 02 April 2019 at 16:08
Well old boy, it seems your oft-repeated "I fear for America" trope on other blogs has largely been 180 degrees off the mark. There's no irony in Monty Python being your Redeemer. That cynical, sawed-off, opportunistic weasel Nigel Farage is not so much, you will undoubtedly discover.
Posted by: Bob | Tuesday, 02 April 2019 at 16:09
Spot on, Gaffer! I'm with you 100% on that.
Everything else actually keeps working when politics stops working, in fact, even better than when politics is working. Their utter self-distraction gives us "Accidental Liberty".
The Czechs acidly observed this when that plane went down in Poland a few years back, killing all 180 politicians who were on board. "If it were full of engineers, or doctors, or bus drivers, then there'd be a problem", they said. "But it was full of pols, and so there's been absolutely no problem whatsoever".
By God the Czechs are born to Libertarianism. I suppose if you spent one half of the last century with the pencil moustachioed chappie and the other half with Uncle Jo your Libertarian instincts might be somewhat finely tuned.
Sadly I observe that Bolshevik nutjob has got one buttock cheek on the top job seat now, as Theresa May has to "reach out" (hate that phrase) to him to break the log jam.
Don't reach out, Teflon Theresa. Logjam is just fine. Long trip over the oceans of the world with the whole lot of them onboard a 767 MAX with no Boeing software updates is even better. One can but hope.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Tuesday, 02 April 2019 at 18:46
Y'all are stuck with that dopey phrase "reach out" too? Maybe the world has gotten too small.
Posted by: Bob | Tuesday, 02 April 2019 at 23:14