(Saturday) Apparently Marshall McSomeoneorother once said "The medium is the message" and thanks to one my lecturers at the pillar of academic excellence that was Huddersfield Polytechnic Mr Mc became someone who was much quoted in all sorts of unlikely circumstances. Soon, as lively minded students are want to do, Mr Mc had all sorts of new phrases attributed to him with added suffix, "As Marshall Mc would say."
I never really had much of an idea of what the great man meant by his over quoted maxim at the time but I think that I might have stumbled on an image that could be worth examining. Nigel Farage pictured drinking a pint of Greene King IPA. I like Greene King beers, particularly IPA, as much as I dislike the policies espoused by UKIP and Mr Farage. I know that there is something very British about warm beer and the jovial man in the pub but if you scratch below the surface of that idea the accepted surface truth is very far from reality. The man in the pub spends money on a luxury good that can quickly become a crutch and then maybe a need while those who are connected with that man are left behind. As that man gets more involved with being the man in the pub he connects with other men in the pub and the spiral into drunken, sloppy and ill-thought out policy gathers pace. In short do we want political leaders and opinion setters to be these men?
I am looking forward to enjoying a pint of warm real ale on holiday this summer, but I would not then expect to contribute much to the development of policy after a couple of pints. When I was active in party political campaigning I worked out very quickly that elections can not be won from the pub nor should campaigns be fueled by clouded, beery thinking. For British voters to think that it can shows that there is a real disconnect between voters and policy makers. Any conversation with the man in the pub, the image of the sort of man Mr Farage tries to convey, held after a couple of pints, can soon turn into a right wing, hang-and-em-and-flog-em, send-em-back-where-they-came-from, close-our-borders and ignore all the facts tirade. Quite possibly this is the sort of world that UKIP wants to create but policies that seek to separate and isolate, fueled by actual and images of warm beer, don't inspire me with confidence.
In non-political, more domestic matters I have just enjoyed a very pleasant cup of coffee at Muesli Cafe, with Edwin, while waiting for the start of his next Latin dance lesson. Muesli Cafe sold cakes, fruit juices, coffees, lunches but seemingly did not sell muesli. I wonder how it got its name. It opens out the intriguing possibility of other businesses following its lead, naming themselves after products that they do not sell. Should Toys R Us stop selling play-things and move into gardening equipment?