Friday 22 May 2009

New Labour: a Titanic mess

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks! Pushing past purely partisan posturing I'd place our pompous parliamentary popinjays in a progression from porcine pampering to paragons of probity:
  1. Labour - Hogzilla
  2. Conservatives - Gloucester Old Spot (of Bother)
  3. Lib Dems - Piglets caught snuffling for truffles
  4. ...
  5. ...
  6. ...
  7. ...
  8. ...
  9. ...
  10. SNP - as innocent as Babe
That's my perception of the extent to which reputations have been damaged anyway. What say you, the great blogging public?

The Telegraph has a neat summary of New Labour's twelve years in power: Life under Labour: the worst of worlds. A couple of New Labour's majestic works caught my eye. Apparently it is illegal to:
  • Stage a protest of any sort, even if alone, within 1km of the Palace of Westminster, without the authority of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
  • Enter the hull of the Titanic without permission from the Secretary of State for Transport (Protection of Wrecks (RMS Titanic) Order 2003).
In fairness the first of these now looks like a sensible precaution for our poor beleaguered MPs.

But the second?! What were they thinking? "New Labour: tough on Tomb Raiding, tough on the causes of Tomb Raiding"? And does our jurisdiction really extend to a few kilometres below sea-level in the 1km radius around 410 43’84”N 49057’23”W? Surely they were taking delusions of Britain's glorious imperial power slightly too far with that one.

As the article says:
MPs have simply not being doing their jobs properly. They are there to hold the Government to account but have allowed a torrent of legislation to pour forth. They have spent too much of their time thinking up ever more imaginative ways to claim their generous allowances. They have given up their primary task.
Posted by at 23:17
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2 comments:

clochoderic said...

You are on a roll, Loon (with a bridie of course)

Interesting times - public are split between outrage and utter apathy, politicians and media have turned on each other.

Maybe the game is changing.

23 May 2009 at 01:12
forfar-loon said...

A bridie in a roll - sounds good to me! You're right clochoderic, it seems like most folk will either punish the main parties or give up altogether. But I fear that the politicans and media will kiss and make up before too long - both are endangered species and need each other to survive.

It would be nice if this whole farce prompted real change in the electoral/parliamentary system, but I suspect Joe Public's revolutionary zeal will fade once Big Brother and the Ashes starts. Bread and circuses and all that.

23 May 2009 at 11:41

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