Bin him, soak him and tyre him

Political comment eastern european style

A few years ago, frustrated by the lack of action by their local Bobby, Russian villagers sorted out their local school gates drug dealers. They stuck them in a rusty metal cage and tractored them up and down, while the locals had their say by throwing whatever they liked at them.

Now, in Kiev, where protesters apparently would not tolerate kettling and similar dirty tactics, they've got angry with an MP.

He was thrown in a bin.

In a Ukrainian version of the ice bucket challenge, they doused him with water, but them chucked his briefcase at him. Presumably that didn't do enough damage, so they followed it up with a tyre.

Obviously, they're less inclined to tug the forelock over there, and accept whatever they get from the Moat Cleaners' and Expenses Tappers Social Club.

Myths exploded

Do we need someone with a degree in history running the armed forces? Someone else with a degree in history running the NHS? Who shall we have running education? The environment? Everything generally? I know, career politicians with degrees in history, they're the only ones qualified to run things properly.

Or...

Maybe not...

Iceland has only 325,000 people and more than half of those live in greater Reykjavik.

Reykjavik has had a major in post through a bad economic and extremely challenging time. He hasn't got a degree in history, and he isn't a career politician.

He's a comedian.

A stand up.

He stood for election as a satirical gesture. The Best Party deliberately used awful photos, a hideous typeface (no, BLISS, they didn't stoop to the depths of Comic Sans), crap slogans, the whole nine yards.

They were still more popular than any other party with the voters.

Four years on, Reykjavik, which was on the verge of a Detroit-like bankruptcy and evacuation, is doing okay.

Maybe you don't need those history degree experts in everything othjer than history.

Maybe any Joker will do just as well.

After Scotland...

...Wales must be next. Then Cornwall. Then, I very much want it to be Essex or Kent. Lewis has had its own currency before. The boring economics drone, or the Rebel Yell?