I have just been watching some of those old Spitting Image You Tube videos. Splendid stuff as the British political and ruling class were lampooned mercilessly. Norman Tebbit portrayed as menacing boot boy whose job was to keep everyone in line, John Major eating his peas, and Margaret Thatcher made out to be a man. Maybe we need a good dose of this on telly again, especially in this politically correct age.
I am reminded of the comment of a Kazakh when observing our esteemed Gordon Brown telling parliament a year or two ago about how the Labour party had ‘saved the world…’ what he meant was they had saved the world’s banking system. But such a faux pas caused the House of Commons to collapse in laughter. The young Kazakh girl asked in astonishment, ‘Is that your leader?’ not believing that people could laugh so directly and obviously at the leader of a country.
You see this country is mandated to be a paid up, eternal member of the awkward squad. If you question this, just study a little of this country’s past. Our very own Duke of Edinburgh reminded us of what sort of spirit should characterise this nation (although he did admittedly have Greek roots) when at school in Nazi Germany before the war, he refused bare faced to participate in the Hitler salute unlike his fellow classmates. All credit to him.
Yes, the UK is mandated if necessary to be bloody minded, cantankerous, rebellious, questioning, sceptical, stubborn against any over-bearing pomposity, empire building, petty officialdom, and in the end tyranny or dictatorship. Yes it may have lost some of that spirit but it needs to find it again for the battles ahead. The increasing scepticism with the EU is a symptom of the vastly different ways the British see the world compared with the continent. The EU and UN are two particular organisations that the British need to tell to get lost in no uncertain terms if they try to push upon us what I would term ‘institutionalised foolishness.’
You have the European Court telling us that we must give the vote to prisoners against all tradition, history and what has been seen as good sense. Thankfully David Cameron and Parliament have made a stand against this and hopefully will follow through with action. As people see the light the pressure to scrap the Human Rights Act will also continue.