The Pub Landlord Al Murray gives us a history of British politics from the turn of the 20th Century until today. Naturally, each one is The Worst Government Ever... Clip from "The Only Way Is Epic" tour from 2012.
I am from Germany and quite interested in history. If you look at the whole picture one key to the success of Britain in history was the fact that they had politicians who may have made mistakes but overall were driven by rational thinking and not by ideological madness. Compare Emperor William II. to Lloyd George/Queen Victoria, Hitler to Churchill, Merkel to Cameron. Easily 3:0 for England.
+Jürgen Thumm One big difference is that if you are ally or enemy of Germany that is what you are, but if you are ally to England.. well you are not, you are just someone who will be "betrayed" sooner or later.
+Kyuu -bbles as much as i agree that cameron was a useless, clueless fuck, i cant see how leaving the EU is a bad thing? Scotland leaving is nothing to do with English politics, it's a Scottish political selling point, works well for the SNP, surely the only nationalist party to not yet be branded racist but let them leave if they want...the EU has deemed them incompetent to deal with the EU as a country and their oil is running dry, the logical scottish voter does not vote for independence from the UK because they have logic before blind pride
I'm surprised more comedians don't use the history angle in their acts. Reading just about any historical text is hilarious if you look at it in the right light.
Wow you can really see the real Al Murray coming through in this. There are times when he really loses the audience in the middle as he really gets into the recessions of history. It's like a lecture at times, but from a lecturer who's had too many Red Bulls. But that's why he's awesome, because he works that very deep understanding into all the Pub Landlord character's over the top polemic.
I think the lesson to take from this is peoples short memory and nostalgic view of the past. Every government has to deal with something. yet no one has any perspective . The issues people are living through are always the greatest ever seen. The people in power are the most evil to ever take power. The greatest age ever because your in it.
This is actually how a lot of people look at politics.I remember once I was walking down some canal in Worcestershire and we ended up in a small pub in a village called Stoke Prior. He is French so that is the language we speak together in, I don't think many foreigner pass through Stoke Prior so all the guys at the bar came to talk to us. They were mostly dairy farmers who produce milk that supermarkets then buy for less than it cost to make, we discussed a variety of topics from sports to holiday destinations but this is what they had to say about politics: "Cameron, he's a wanker!" _murmurs of agreement form the others present_"Blair though, he was a wanker too!""So was Major!"Thatcher proved popular with them but then it went on:"Callaghan was a wanker!"etc.
I would love to see an American version of this. People scream and cry about how this is the worst one ever, simply because memories are short and people forget what came before and how horrible that was. Though I am also interested to see how many Americans would "get" it.
...And he draws a pint. I'm an American and the vast majority of what he goes on about is beyond me as far as the many points of European politics go. But man, he has my attention. Roughly speaking, I think the nearest equivalent in American "comedy with social commentary" would be Dennis Miller as far as an acute understanding of the politics of his home country to the point he can riff on it like nobody's business. Miller and Murray have vastly different styles, but they essentially do the same thing. They distill complex issues, entertain and make one think. Kudos!
Who else is watching in 2018 and thinks all the government's on this list pale in comparison to the current one in terms of how bad they are or how much mess they have to clear up
Well, there have been 3 PMs since this came out. Not to mention you can keep going back, talking about another 35 PMs until you get back to 1721 when King George I made Robert Walpole PM in the first place.
It's pretty odd that British people like him so much He's always pointing out how mediocre they are :P Do they realise? Are they good at laughing at themselves in general?
That's British comedy in a nutshell, sarcasm against any thing and anyone and self deprecating, as a Norwegian am grown up with Black Adder, Fawlty towers and British stand up and I find their type of humour to be hilarious. Search up a video called "top ten self deprecating football chants" and your get a good belly laugh :)
Chicken Plays well yea, obviously the French, that goes without saying. Well the French and the Germans. Us Brits really hate the Brits, the French and the Germans. And the Americans. *Insert rest of Spanish inquisition style skit here*
Pretty much except Lloyd George, who was up there with Disraeli and Churchill as one of our finest Prime Ministers. They dont make them like that anymore.
Jamraptor Lloyd George also screwed the Poles, Russians and basically anyone else in Eastern Europe when he stopped supporting the White Armies and opted for trade with the Bolsheviks... Who then invaded Poland in 1920, which got no Allied aid because Lloyd George didnt want his trade project to fail. Sooo... one bloody war later, the Poles won and guess who took the credit? Lloyd George. Yes, such a great PM, truely on par with Winston Churchill... /sarcasm
Jamraptor I'm very glad you managed to save yourself with the word 'sarcasm,' LG literally decimated the Liberal party to the point where it was never truly unified again. And why exactly is Churchill celebrated as the greatest ever? Yes, we won the war while he sat on our Parlimentary throne, but outside of wartime he was hopeless. Gold standard fuckery springs to mind. Besides, Churchill's biggest success was just being able to boss the US about. I'll respect him as a great man, but I won't embelish him
Telling the truth though aha. Churchills greatest achievement was his ability to rally and unite the allies and keep all people optimistic through the darkest of times. He was also the maybe most militarily acute leader during the war thanks to his background. He laid a patriotic backbone that we can all aspire to in this country.
I'm definitely not going to argue with you when it comes to patriotism, he could certainly rally people. But several soldiers lost their lives due to his rash decisions. While LG was in power, Churchill led the attack on Turkey that led to British humiliation and needless loss of life. He'd frequently ignore his military advisors because he thought he knew better, to me that's just not cricket. There are strengths and weaknesses with every leader, I just hate it when people ignore the terrible in place of the brilliant just as much as the reverse.
I particularly like how the crowd is so vociferous in agreeing at the start, and slowly as their own views on the world and political leanings get exposed...they slowly agree less, laugh less...increase their laugh when something they agree with is said and then go silent again...perfect example of how we the public have very short memories.
There was a time when i thought that Gordon Brown was the worst Prime Minister in the history of the UK. Then the next one was worse. Then the next one was worse. Then the next one was worse. Then the next one was worse. ...
Unless your Welsh where he sent the army to a coal-mine demonstration, Indian where he opposed independence, or ANZAC soldiers where he organised the Gallilopi campaign during the first world war that led to his removal as first Lord of the Admiralty!
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He was right to an extent, though the Thatcher government really was great. MacMillian wasn't terrible, Eden was in a dodgy position, Major just kept things rather still, 2010 coalition stabilised the markets, Atlee did do some good; but the rest, WORST GOVERNMENTS EVER!
Thatcher was great? Really? The only things she did right, IMHO, was not putting VAT on domestic fuel (a policy that the "rather still" John Major allowed to be overturned).
Thatcher's reign was great overall, but she had no hesitation when it came to putting down a dying dog. Arguably it was for the greater good, but she was harsh about it.
Trade unions out of control? That's the lie she tried to spread to justify her nasty behaviour. Businesses in the UK are by and large very badly managed. The trade unions wanted no more than a fair share of the spoils of their labour. But rather than put in place steps to correct this she chops the balls off the unions and gave absolute power to the useless managers who have done their best to make working the UK and miserable and unproductive exercise. She was the worst PM in our history. All today's problems can be linked back to decisions this useless and stupid cow made. We will be suffering from her rule for generations.
Actually, ideally only those smart *and* educated enough to make an informed and intelligent decision ought to vote. Unfortunately, democracy says that one man's ignorance is just as worthy of making this decision as another man's knowledge. Think about that.
EmpiricalPragmatist just how educated do people have to be? do they have to have graduated school or university? what's the proof that someone is 'educated enough'?
***** Graduation from a given educational institution is not what I'd be looking for, but rather the person's _knowledge_ of the various political parties' policies on key issues facing the country, and _understanding_ of the economic/sociopolitical ramifications of each of those policies' enforcement. Take my country for example. One contending party wants to nationalize our _entire_ mining industry in the name of wealth redistribution, but anyone who knows how nationalized industries perform in general (or who tracks the performance of our current parastatals in particular), will know that this will basically destroy the second biggest primary industry in our country, and effectively throw our economy into the dark ages. We run a very real risk of voting this party into power soon because the majority of the population is unaware of this fact. _That_ is the problem with democracy. As for the question of proving whether an individual is educated enough to vote, you will notice that I prefaced my original comment with the word "ideally", because this is indeed _an ideal_. I am well aware that this would be the real challenge of the whole system, and I have no simple solution to postulate. However, the first step towards that ideal would be for people to understand the principle I've outlined above.
EmpiricalPragmatist okay that makes sense, it's a shame we can't implement that kind of a system. it'd be good if we could place more of an emphasis on politics and sociology within schools, that may prepare kids for being more able to vote more thoughtfully when they're older. whether kids would care about politics though who knows :P
charlieb85 He's definitely not a UKIP supporter. He's actually running against Nigel Farage in the constituency of South Thanet as a candidate for the FUKP. I highly doubt that wearing a tie with a £ sign on it means he supports UKIP.
