Nov 18
Here's American Gladiators. Watch this; shut up; go back to bed, America.
Someone observed recently that there is precious little politics discussed in the Ministry these days.
They were right.
It wasn't a conscious editorial decision; it's probably not a permanent editorial decision. That's just the way it is (cue piano) for now.
Atypically (given my allergy to Melvyn Bragg's ego), I watched last weekend's South Bank Show on Elbow. While discussing his deployment of politics on the band's Leaders Of The Free World album, Guy Garvey said something that resonated with me:
I've often thought that outrage doesn't seem to work anymore. Public outrage and protest doesn't seem to work in this country. So I was trying something new - ridicule, subtle ridicule.
Maybe the apathy and resignation that pervades this country's every movement has finally ground me down.
Maybe it's the onset of a mid-life crisis. Certainly, having recently turned 38, I am increasingly dispirited by the fact that George Harrison was yet to reach his 27th birthday when The Beatles broke up.
Maybe I'm just mildly depressed. The problem with holidays is that they give you too much time to think.
When I find something political sufficiently obnoxious, I'm sure I'll still want to poke it with a stick. But there somehow seems less point in playing the role of the angry young man now we ain't that young anymore.
Besides, we've got The X Factor to talk about so why would we care about the state of the nation?
