A Comedy Manifesto

Campaigning comedian Mark Thomas came to Reading this weekend when he made a stop on his 'Manifesto' tour and several local bloggers were there to give a review.

Green Party campaigners Adrian Windisch and Rob White turned out in public to show solidarity (Mark Thomas endorses the Green platform), while Bracknell Blog's Dazmando was also in attendance.

The theme of the show is to give members of the audience a chance to suggest policies in direct democracy fashion, which will then be published and the 50 most popular of which Thomas has committed to campaign to enact - whatever they may be...

Adrian picks out a wide range of aspirations:
- introduction of a national maximum wage
- getting the government to give everyone the day off on their birthday
- legalising homosexual marriage and getting the church to shut up about it
- a three-day weekend
- land instead of the dole
- an IRA honour guard for Thatcher's funeral
- no new blasphemy legislation
- all politicians should be forced to wear the names and logos of the companies which sponsor them
- anyone who supports ID cards should be banned from having curtains
- All models should be picked at random from the electoral register
- introduction of a law making it illegal for MPs to knowingly lie. It shall be known as Archer’s Law

the last of which he is clearly so proud of he mentioned it twice!

While Rob picks out these from the South Street show:
- a Michelin star for Sweeney Todd's
- more capacity in women's' toilets
- everyone should carry around two salt sachets in case of more snow

as well as some other 'gems' from around the country:
- disguising leopards as foxes as a sort of equaliser on foxhunts
- invading Jersey with the aim of closing it down as a corporate tax dodgers paradise
- supporters of nuclear power should be responsible for storing the radioactive waste in their gardens

but he notes the Reading audience ended up voting for the 'lacking-in-comedy-value' renationalisation of the railways.

On the other hand Dazmando makes a clearer distinction between the comedy elements and the serious side, highlighting Greenpeace's petition to stop the building of Project Pegasus at AWE Aldermaston and the campaign to force Bracknell MP Andrew MacKay to repay the £170,000 expenses he claimed fraudulently.


Oranjepan says:
provocative it certainly was, but you wonder who the final joke is on.

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Related Reading: AWE Aldermastion; Bracknell MP Andrew MacKay To Stand Down