"Book more right-wing guests"

[Plumdaff]

Doesn't most political comedy take the piss out of the Tories still? TBF, are there that many genuinely left wing politicians to take the piss out of?

It's entirely possible to take the piss out of the government in a way that often reinforces the establishment and existing power structures. Watch HIGNFY or Mock the Week any given week to get examples.

 

[8ball]

He was never a head banger iirc. A tory, yes but a tory wet. He wouldn't last five minutes in the current tory party

“Warm beer and cricket on the village green” brigade...

 

[yield]

It's entirely possible to take the piss out of the government in a way that often reinforces the establishment and existing power structures. Watch HIGNFY or Mock the Week any given week to get examples.

Spitting Image / YMMV - TV Tropes

The sketch that had Margaret Thatcher wandering an empty House of Commons is regarded as a very moving piece of writing and probably the only time when they showed her any sympathy. It was seen by two Tory MPs, friends of Ian Hislop, who were so touched by it that they voted to keep her as party leader in the ballot when they previously planned on abstaining. Although this wasn't enough to save her from the axe, their votes proved to be the decider in tipping the scale towards a second round of ballots. So in over a decade, the writers actually did more to keep Maggie in power than they ever did to get rid of her.

Link to "Things Can Only Get Better" By John O'Farrell

 

[chilango]

Back in '92 during the Gneral Election, me and a couple of mates rocked up to Brandreth's office and tried to blag a bunch of his campaign materials for our nefarious, though juvenile, purposes. They sussed us immediately and sent us on our way.

There's no purpose to recounting this anecdote, but it's still funnier than right-wing comedy.

 

[rubbershoes]

“Warm beer and cricket on the village green” brigade...

Still a tory though

 

[Orang Utan]

Have to confess I have a soft spot for Brandreth. He was my favourite childhood writer and he fuelled my interest in trivial facts and words and language. I enjoy his podcast on lexicographers - he makes a great prescriptivist counterpoint to his co-host Susie Dent.

 

[Artaxerxes]

That's actually a good one.

What was the "village" church hall / community centre here was sold off to a speculating developer, to be converted into flats. No social housing or community offset, as far as I am aware. Some initial work, and at least two re-sales to other developers, but no further progress. Rumour has it that the latest purchaser is going to convert the flats into a self-catering annex to the larger hotel.

It really should be refurbished as a secular community centre, with a local history / wildlife / environment museum and a live-in caretaker / manager ...

The local arm's length / social housing closed their office in the high street which upset some people. What sort of changed their minds was that the building was converted into flats (four of them, I think, and the two ground floor flats are "accessible" by design).

I've passed a number of rather lovely old buildings over the years tootling around the country, all labelled things like "the old alms houses" or "the old school house" all worth easily half a million and frequently in quite nice rural or semi rural villages.

Nary a social housing area nearby.

 

[StoneRoad]

I've passed a number of rather lovely old buildings over the years tootling around the country, all labelled things like "the old alms houses" or "the old school house" all worth easily half a million and frequently in quite nice rural or semi rural villages.

Nary a social housing area nearby.

The buildings I was describing (the old Church Hall and the ex-housing office) are only a couple of hundred yards apart on Main Street. There are several nearby areas of social and private housing. There isn't a major large employer locally, although there are several minor ones, mostly retail, service or tourism / hospitality based.

 

[stavros]

Geoff Norcott is on R4 comedy programs more these days.

He was also on The Mash Report a lot, and I believe is a writer for Romesh Ranganathan's current show. The Mash Report has just been cancelled, and was previous described by no lesser authority than The Sun as "preachy, self-righteous [and] left-wing".

Lest we forget that our current PM owes a large part of his public persona to appearances on a particular panel show.

The most obvious target of domestic satire is the governing party, so it's hardly surprising if the Tories are lampooned more frequently now and in the previous eleven years than Labour. Blair and his cabal attracted more jokes than the shadow cabinets of Hague, IDS and Howard.