Posts Tagged ‘britain’
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Well it had to happen eventually during this campaign. To call it a “Joe the plumber” moment is understating the gravity of this great piece of predictable British political drama which happens to a similar extent in other Commonwealth nations: when the walkabout goes wrong.
When out and about in Rochdale in the North of England, British PM Gordon Brown was heckled by an elderly lady Gillian Duffy and usually that would be that. But in this case an aide of Gordon Brown’s came up to Mrs Duffy and asked her if she’d like to speak to the Prime Minister.
Oh cripes..where do I start with this one?
A week or two ago, an event that happens once every 4 or 5 years usually depending on how desperate the incumbent government has become went through the motions. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown took a short journey up the road to Buckingham Palace to request that the Queen dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections. In this elections he faces Conservative David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg.
For those in North America wanting some kind of vaguely familiar Colonial standard to relate this to, this is basically a re-run of Canada’s 2006 Federal Elections with more or less the same parties! Britain has Labour and Canada (kind of) has the Liberals, Britain has Tories and so does Canada whilst the Lib Dems have a foot in both Canada’s Liberals and its newer NDP. There. Martin vs Harper vs Layton. Simple.
Except that it isn’t.
Thursday evening is an eventful one here for myself and possibly a celebration of British values. Something that happens (on varying days of course not everything happens on a thursday) from Lands end in the people’s republic of Cornwall all the way up to the very Scottish Shetland Islands in the far North East.
This is the age old practice of popping to your local pub with your mates, paying a pound, taking a sheet and a pen and spending two or three hours bickering over questions posed by a popular local guy acting as quiz master for the chance to win a sizable cash prize of between £50 – £250. Ladies and Gents welcome to the world of the pub quiz. Something that is rivaled only by Trivial Pursuit (or dispute) for its ability to divide and unite in equal almost simultaneous measure.
