When comedy isn't funny

I think that you have to be clever to be a comedian. You need to understand what you are talking about to such a depth that you can make a joke about it. I think this is why Shappi Khorsandi was on the Question Time panel this week. I wrote about her yesterday but thanks to the comment from John, I feel I should spend a little longer on this subject. John called her comments outrageous and I agree.

She commented that Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would have led us into war just like Tony Blair did. I think her comment was based on the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The trouble with Shappi's thinking is that the opposition have not had chance to be corrupted by power. The deeper question is how do you stop power corrupting. I think she is clever enough to work this out herself. You have checks and balances in place. You have a meaningful democracy where every vote counts. You have decision makers at all levels of society. You don't have a prime minister who is presidential. You don't allow one man (or woman) to take us to war. You allow information to be passed on to as many as possible. I know there are some reasons for privacy but there is no doubt that if I am asked my opinion then you need to allow me enough information to make it, especially if it means sending soldiers to war.

So you see Shappi, there is a huge difference between the Liberal Democrats who marched and voted against the war and those who voted for the war. The greatest outrage for me is that Shappi tried to keep her allegiance secret. How dare she get on Question Time under the title of a comedian and turn out to be another Labour voice? How dare she complain about secrecy and the information received by our MPs about going to war (she didn't complain but she should have done). She wasn't there on the Question Time panel as a comedian who has political insight but she was there to promulgate Labour dogma. No wonder she was embarrased.

Change the world