The satirical ridicule of our of our political classes started with Plato in Greece and Seneca in Rome, Gillray, Rowlandson, and Cruickshank caught the cartoon spirit of the 18th Century and the pages of Punch and Private Eye brought it all up to date. Even the vinyl lacerations of those puppets of Spitting Image who refusing to pull their punches reminded all those who served, that that was their job...to serve. So, when did the politicians themselves decide to turn the tables?
House of talent
Let's face it Labour's Glenda Jackson never left them, so exiting the back benches and going back to the boards was never a great surprise.
Ann Widdecombe since leaving the commons has either spent most of her time playing Pantomime Dames or popping up on cooking programs.The same could be said for Edwina Currie, ex-Junior Health Minister, she of the Salmonella gaff and the torrid affair with that bastion of,'Conservative Family Vales,' John Major, who has become that most wonderful of phrases, a media personality; and of course the less said about Neil Hamilton the better. Even the then PM Tony Blair's appearance for Comic Relief was somewhat suspect. We do not need our head of government to read a script and make us laugh; they do that on a daily basis without much prompting anyway.
If that is not bad enough, we have a man, one Ed Balls, who until the last election was in line to oversee the UK's purse strings, absurdly dad-dancing on prime-time Saturday night TV.
But his then boss, now the ex-labour leader, Ed Milliband compounds the matter altogether, as the 'Ed Milli-Band,' lip-synching to his version of, Take on Me, by Morten Harket and his chums in A-ha, on Channel 4's the last leg on Friday. It ended with him swearing about his own mid-life crisis. I am sure that those who saw it were left aghast, for is this what we have come to expect from our politicians!
A cheap joke? But at whose expense?
Are the UK's politicians just like us?
Politics is no longer a noble calling - if it ever was - both houses filled with those of dubious character and sullied reputation, but where do we dredge up such a shallow lot in the first place; these guardians of our morals who appear to have none of their own.
Once in office should we not at least expect a degree of diligence, probity and above all serious pronouncements, by serious people, on serious matters. And when de-selected, lose their seat or resign, that they go on to treat the people who voted for them with the respect they deserve, and not that their time in office was some sort of jolly wheeze.
Although never mind that, there is a virtual-reality president in the White-House, engaged in a Mexican-Standoff in Syria, and Gunboats off the coast of North Korea; maybe that's what we need...something to make us laugh!
And who better than our politicians to provide it?
