Wednesday 2 March 2011

Clegg is Harmonised: Klegg ist verist verkackt

 You've been Clegged!


You know when you've been Clegged!


I occasionally listen to Today in Parliament, broadcast 11:30 pm on BBC Radio 4.  There are often interesting pieces of debate and Harriet Harmon definitely gets 10/10 with a set piece which John Mann (who can be a bit of a bore) helped.  Clegg sounded totally out of it.  The use of clegg as a verb (see reference above) got me looking at how this might be explained to some German friends and I thought of verklagen, and then I remembered that scene in Blazing Saddles and you know how it happens, I had to find the original dialogue.  On the way, I came across some other bits of the cowboy leitmotiv and have cobbled this piece together which seemed a good idea.   

In Parliament March 1, 2011, Harriet Harmon got her man and savaged Nick Clegg. Clegg had been absent during the Tyranny of Tack or tanks played in the desert. Cameron was doing the arms sales trip and with Clegg on the ski slopes, career downhill. Clarity was absent. Luckily our boys rescued some oil taxpaying workers from the desert - echoes of Rommel and Monty.

There was a lot of leitmotiv here but this was no Tristan und Isolde. This was more Blazing Saddles with Clegg playing the Hedley Lamarr role and Harriet Madeleine Kahn’s role of Lili von Shtupp.  Lili is dreaming about her experience of Labours John Prescott and she attacks Clegg:  He’s a better Deputy Prime Minister than you. ‘You're finished. Verklegged!  Fertig! Verfallen! Verlumpt! Verblunget! Verkackt!’


At Prime Minister’s questions today, the mood was rather dull and overshadowed by some casualties in Afghanistan and the worsening situation in Libya.  Cameron was doing his best to be statesmanlike, and though it appears that Ed Milliband missed a penalty with a set piece ditching and dumping (he probably had Gove in mind) along with the Hoors of the Forest, defence plan, health plans and other likely u-turns.  Ed Milliband didn’t go for it, but Cameron couldn’t resist the likely punch line and went for “… you dumped on your brother” routine, which shows at heart the Bullingdon rules, OK.  PMQs was more Carry on Cowboy and Blazing Saddles, though they were interesting comments made in the chamber concerning Peter Mandelson and Adam Ingram (former defence minister). 


British foreign policy seems to be caught between Carry on Cowboy and Blazing Saddles.  There’s a lot of obreption in both.  I’m trying to work out which film Dave Cameron should star in.  Should he do the Sid James part or the Harvey Korman part? 


** Late sport result **

Celtic beats Rangers in Glasgow.  Ireland beats England at cricket! 

Obreption.

3 comments:

  1. LSE director Sir Howard Davies resigns over Libya links

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12642636

    While Blair continues merrily on ….


    And is the turn around of Clegg the Klutz?
    Nick Clegg takes on Cameron over multiculturalism
    Nick Clegg has moved to highlight his disagreements with David Cameron over multiculturalism … He has just given a speech … Aides to Mr Clegg said there were policy disagreements over the review of the Government’s Prevent strategy to counter Islamic extremism. Mr Clegg is also unhappy about Mr Cameron’s pledge not to give public money to groups if they fail to endorse women’s rights or promote integration.

    http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/03/03/nick-clegg-takes-on-cameron-over-multiculturalism/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wir haben eine neue kludgie, namens Klegg.

    St Mungo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did you know that according to Herr Langenscheidt, Klage = complaint? Can you find any examples of speeches, so that we can warn the FDP in Germany?

    ReplyDelete