I know that the subject matter of today's ramble is a week overdue but my return to work dictated that blogging became a secondary activity...sigh...
However....last Sunday evening I pre booked the sofa, the remote control, and very nearly donned my Spanish Inquisition robes (oops did I really confess to that?) and settled down with I have to say some trepidation to watch the final live performance of Monty Pythons Flying Circus.
The trepidation was there due to the fact that the 5 remaining comic genius es or is that genii? are now in their 70s and I was dreading that their magical sketches would look ridiculous, dated and dim the light of greatness that has quite rightly shone on them for almost 45years. I had this nightmare image of anti python people turning around saying "told you they were no good"!
I had no cause to be concerned, for as The Beatles of comedy wove their magic the less my brain hurt. Until.
Around fifteen minutes into the show something happened that I did not expect and it wasn't the inquisition...I thought my cable box had developed a fault as there was suddenly a odd shrieking noise for around one second...then another...then another and then it dawned on me...told you I should have been a lumberjack...it dawned on me that in July 2014, 45 years after they first broadcast on mainstream television, Monty Python were being censored!!! I almost choked on my Albatross wing...
Worse was to come....a whole routine was omitted and replaced with a pre recorded sketch of MIchael Palin as a modern day Mary Whitehouse figure, the reason? The routine was a little rude....
I did try so hard for this crass political correctness not to ruin the evening but it very nearly did, not because I missed a routine but because the need was felt to dictate what we can and cannot watch or hear in our own living rooms because it was before 9pm.
Ah yes, the famous watershed, that magic time that ends at 9 pm because that's when everyone under 18 goes to bed and switch off their phones, tablets, and snuggle down dreaming of lollipops and kittens ....
These same little people have just sat through, news bulletins showing how people can obliterate each other, the aftermath of bombs and gun fire, they have sat through soap operas that show how drugs, violence, depression, cause depression and chaos, they have sat through advertisements promoting gambling and various other useful pastimes...but can hear Monty Python say f**k ? Or heaven forbid let them witness some laughter and joy...no,they can't!! Oops I just censored myself!! It's catching...
My brother used to sneak me downstairs to watch python in the early 70s much to mums fury but the point is did I then go to school next morning saying fuck bugger shit all the time? No...because the same mum dad and brother taught me that it was wrong...the same kind of parental responsibilities that seems to be lacking now...
There is though a more serious and much more dangerous aspect to this, in that, nameless faceless people are deciding more and more what is good for us and what they think is bad for us and this is something we have to wake up to or free speech and an open mind may become a thing of the past.
As a footnote, the stupidity of the above did not ruin it for me, and the viewing of history was as glorious as I hoped it would be...
Saturday 26 July 2014
Sunday 6 July 2014
An Englishman abroad?
After being struck down by shingles shortly after my last blog the timing of my holiday couldn't have been better.
And I couldn't have chosen a better place to hopefully fully recharge the batteries than Scotland.
We chose to travel by rail so I wouldn't have to drive, and clean, efficient trains got us to Inverness in around 6 and a half hours of travel...marvellous.
It was during the first leg of this journey from Warrington to Glasgow it occurred to me that it could be one of the last times that I could make this trip in this way, as it is possible that, the next time I come up I may need my passport, as Scotland may be a foreign nation.
Some of the things I heard and saw on this journey convinces me more that this would be a great tragedy.
The train was populated by a cosmopolitan group including Asian, Japanese, European, and British.
Notice I used the word British there and I do so because that is how it came across to me, the English were travelling to either visit friends or family or, as ourselves, holidaying.
The scots who joined us at Carlisle were heading home after working for their company, in, England.
These were a typical group of workmates, filling the carriage with noise and banter between themselves but at no time did they give three cheers and sing Flower Of Scotland as they crossed the border just north of Carlisle, nor did they disparage the country they had just left, nor was there any digs at fellow passengers who were clearly from south of Carlisle.
The reason? Cynical people might say " they didn't want to get thrown off the train" or they are against independence anyway" I think it's more the fact that whether we like it or not we are far too similar to be different.
The four peoples that make up the United Kingdom certainly have their own traits and traditions and all have differing views on a wide range of issues, just like any family, in fact all four disagree amongst in each other. However when you look at things more closely there are far more similarities than differences, all of what combines the individual ingredients of Britain were present in that carriage, let's hope that if all of us in that carriage have to repeat the journey again in a year or two we will still be starting and ending in the same country.
And I couldn't have chosen a better place to hopefully fully recharge the batteries than Scotland.
We chose to travel by rail so I wouldn't have to drive, and clean, efficient trains got us to Inverness in around 6 and a half hours of travel...marvellous.
It was during the first leg of this journey from Warrington to Glasgow it occurred to me that it could be one of the last times that I could make this trip in this way, as it is possible that, the next time I come up I may need my passport, as Scotland may be a foreign nation.
Some of the things I heard and saw on this journey convinces me more that this would be a great tragedy.
The train was populated by a cosmopolitan group including Asian, Japanese, European, and British.
Notice I used the word British there and I do so because that is how it came across to me, the English were travelling to either visit friends or family or, as ourselves, holidaying.
The scots who joined us at Carlisle were heading home after working for their company, in, England.
These were a typical group of workmates, filling the carriage with noise and banter between themselves but at no time did they give three cheers and sing Flower Of Scotland as they crossed the border just north of Carlisle, nor did they disparage the country they had just left, nor was there any digs at fellow passengers who were clearly from south of Carlisle.
The reason? Cynical people might say " they didn't want to get thrown off the train" or they are against independence anyway" I think it's more the fact that whether we like it or not we are far too similar to be different.
The four peoples that make up the United Kingdom certainly have their own traits and traditions and all have differing views on a wide range of issues, just like any family, in fact all four disagree amongst in each other. However when you look at things more closely there are far more similarities than differences, all of what combines the individual ingredients of Britain were present in that carriage, let's hope that if all of us in that carriage have to repeat the journey again in a year or two we will still be starting and ending in the same country.
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