Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried
on May 03 in General by Dan- Winston Churchill
The beginning of last week I was walking down our lane soaking up the spring sun, listening to the birdsong, and contemplating the three days off work that lay ahead of me. In short, all was good with the world.
As I was nearing my house I saw a man walking towards me, and as I was full of joie de vivre I gave him a cheery hello in greeting. Instead of the anticipated hello back however, the man just avoided eye contact and scuttled down an alleyway. All was explained when I got home to find a couple of BNP leaflets on the doormat.
Yes it’s local election time again, and the BNP (British national party) are out in force. No doubt the canvassers for the far right party are pretty used to being told just where to stick their leaflets. Certainly if I had known who he was I’d have given him one of my most withering hard stares, and that would have taught him a lesson or two I can tell you.
One of the big issues for all the parties this year appears to be local councils switching rubbish collection from once a week to fortnightly. I think the rational is to reduce costs and also encourage householders to produce less waste. I doubt it will make much difference to us anyway as our binmen seem to turn up about that often anyway.
In the pub quiz last night one of the questions was:
What is the euphemism that has been picked up by the press to describe fortnightly rubbish bin collections?
We had no idea, but made a few good guesses – from Over Bin Laden to the rather catchy G.Y.B.E.A.E.T.W.E.P.H (Get your bins emptied approximately every two weeks, excluding public holidays). Very disappointingly the answer was actually: Alternate weekly collections which, as euphemisms go, is pretty damn crappy. Can anyone out their think of anything better? A freshly burned copy of the Now That’s what I Call Dan Imposing His Musical Taste On Other People: The Spring Collection CD to any one that tickles my fancy.
Going back to the elections, I was very tempted not to bother to voting this morning. I was running late for work and to be honest none of the parties inspire me very much these days. In the end however and I decided that in the interests of defending freedom and democracy I would carry out my civic duty. As a result I was about ten minutes late for work.
My boss did try to challenge me about my tardiness but I just screamed out “Help! Help! Democracy is being suppressed!†at the top of my lungs and he backed away pretty sharpish. You have to be firm with these oppressors.
Related posts:
« « Pros and cons| Laughing baby » »
I love the quote. Way to stick it to the opressor(s)!
Over Bin Laden *LMAO*
I will have to give the euphemism a little more thought. Hubby is much funnier than I am. I’d love to get the music – from your “about” page it seems you and I have very similar music tastes although I haven’t purchased an album probably since Jagged Little Pill :( Love me some BNL :) They are excellent in concert!
We didn’t get any leaflets from the BNP so it was a nasty surprise when I went to spoil* my ballot paper this morning to see they had a candidate standing in our area. They would have been given similarly short shrift if they visited our house.
* I spoil my ballot paper by putting a big cross through them all and writing ‘none of them’ on it. I used to vote Labour but then they became New Labour-lite, sold out completely and lost all credibilty.
Where we used to live in Batley the BNP used to regularly come second in the polls, beating the conservatives and the liberals.
It’s one of the main reasons we moved.
This round of the local elections we get to sit out and spectate. I’m dreading the next six years – I’m pretty sure Cameron is actually one of those rat-eating aliens and that Tony Blair is in fact his hive mother. Or it could be the Laphroigh speaking. Mumbling.
What the hell is “fortnightly”?
Really? I didn’t realize that was an UK specific word. (but I do realize that I am spelling realize in the US English as opposed to realise, but I have learnt to live in peace with my computer’s American spellchecker)
Fortnightly means every two weeks, used in the same sort of contexts as weekly or monthly.
Yeah, Jeff – every two weeks! Sheesh!
What’s a binmen?
:)
If those beard shaving pictures a few posts back were any indication, you do have a withering stare indeed. Way to stick it to The Man.
We call that bi-weekly
Yes, we call it bi-weekly but that’s wrong. Bi-weekly means twice each week. What we mean when it’s every two weeks is bi-monthly.
No one follows these rules right except me, darn it.
They could put a spin on it to make it sound like an improved service: Hauling Away Twice As Much In Half The Time!!