20.06.08
Bloody miserable
It seems there’s a bit of a “storm” “over” some minister’s comments on his blog.
Daily Fail getting steamed up particularly. Their headline this morning “Stop being so miserable”. They missed the word “bloody” out of the actual quote. Presumably this is to spare their delicate readers the trauma of a minor swear word.
The point of his piece was that people in the UK should “stop being so bloody miserable”. And this seems to have riled people.
There is a queue of people waiting to stick the boot in about 50% increase in fuel costs, food inflation, global warming, draconian law and order laws, ID cards, immigrants, speed cameras and any one of a dozen or 2 other issues. “How dare he!?!?!?”
The minister in question was on Radio 5 last night defending his comments.
Seems people think he said that people shouldn’t be miserable. Not actually what he said at all of course but then you’d not expect the mail to report anything accurately. I tend to side with Stephen Fry when he says if he’s unsure of what to think he’ll consult the Mail and then he knows the correct opinion is the exact opposite of their view. Works for me.
In fact the minister told the nation that he’d had a phonecall from the editors basically telling him they were going to “stitch him up” in today’s paper.
What he means, as is surely obvious to anyone who actually can read, is that he was saying that we’re materially richer, we have more freedom of movement, more holidays, nicer cars, nicer stuff generally, better health, longer lives in better health, access to a wider range of entertainments and freedoms that previous generations couldn’t have dreamt of.
He’s right of course. Completely and utterly correct.
I’m no fan of the government and am looking forward to seeing them kicked out. Sadly I’d not greatly prefer the tories and it’ll be them doing the kicking out. Still that should mean no more stupid ID card scheme – although I’ll not count those chickens before I’ve seen them hatch.
But not liking someone doesn’t mean that they can’t be right.
Yes stuff has got more expensive and the world political situation is a bit shit, some people are struggling and pointless wars are being fought. But we do have nicer things and that.
Yet again I disagree with the Mail. As all sensible folk should.
And don’t forget that misery is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you expect to be miserable then you will be.
So why don’t you all “stop being so bloody miserable”?
Have fun.