Friday, October 13, 2006

Satire is dead

When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the distinguished musical satirist Tom Lehrer declared "It was at that moment that satire died".

When Sion Simon does a video* 'satirising' WebCameron then satire hasn't just died but been dug up again, had stakes driven through its mutilated corpse and then been reburied in concrete.

The Birmingham Erdington MP has said that "Nobody in the Labour party has said anything to me other than, 'Well done, good effort, very funny.'" Hmmm. Really? If that's the case then our party might be in more trouble than we thought.

Should an MP be going to the effort of making such a video? It hardly brings dignity to the office of MP does it?

But if he is going to do it then at least make it good. And it really isn't. The Sky News interview adds to the crowning shiteness of it all with Simon coming across like a stroppy adolescent. When he tries to make out the video is a searing indictment of Cameron's egregious politics and shallow media engagement he sounds like the teenager making out that stealing that CD from HMV was to strike a blow against the capitalist system.

We're having a difficult time landing a glove on Cameron at the moment. He's vacuous and cynical, its true, but having an irritating little prick make a half-arsed attempt at satire - and one that dies on its arse - doesn't seem the best way to highlight the egregious ways of the Tories.

Novel ways to attack Cameron and the Tories might be necessary but let's make sure these tactics are effective...and don't involve Sion Simon.

*The video now seems to have been removed....

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