Allez Jim! Go Doug!

In the week that Somerset achieved its latest accolade: a well-deserved mention in the “Rotten Boroughs” section of Private Eye (“vindictive campaign backfires”); and Dog & Duck regulars achieved previously unimagined depths of despair; a bit of good news came in from – of all places – You Tube!

The latest “SCC – politico-administrative disaster area” video was, potentially, yet another wrench to the already pummelled gut of Joe Public. We saw it just before closing time on Friday evening. It had been up less than twelve hours, but had already been viewed more than 100 times!

At first even the battle-hardened regulars were shocked at just how rude and disrespectful Simon (£4 million) Clifford was to Mr. Buchanan.

‘Well, b*gger it Duck,’ said Pat, ‘just exactly who is supposed to be smearing who?’

‘Hang on, hang on,’ said Daff, ‘wind back a minute … that looked like our Jim!’

‘You’re dead right, Daff!’ said I, ‘and the other one’s Doug!’

Well, how about that for a turn up? At least one, maybe two representatives from Dog & Duck country apparently showing public support for Paul van Buitenen! (sorry, meant to say “Buchanan” – Freudian slip).

So it’s not just Sir Chris Clarke making a stand then. And the landlord was totally made up (Jim’s a mate of his) - so much so that he allowed us to write this post, which almost strays into the forbidden realms of “Politics”.

See the complete video here.

Maybe they’re not all a bunch of lily-livered lemmings! Maybe we will bother to vote after all!

And anyway - we're a County, not a "Borough".

Excellent Complaints Management

One thing that has long taxed the (limited) intellectual resources of the Dog n' Duck is how the Forces of Excellence are able to claim that they get so few complaints. However over the weekend a CHUM agent was so incensed by the censorship issue that they leaked us a copy of this spreadsheet. It is self explanatory, and just reinforces what we suspected all along!

Videos – Don't Panic!

Whoever drew up the Human Rights Act obviously had no regard for the needs of people who have spent the whole week in County Hall, reading extraordinary emails then going around in circles and banging their heads against the wall in despair.

Otherwise there would be an additional “right”, namely to a bit of light relief at the weekends, watching the latest video about their tormentors on YouTube.

This weekend, when Les Miserables click on their favourites to have another look at Ian Liddell Grainger’s famous video about their plight, they will see the words … "This video has been (censored)"

The same applies to all the others as well. Even the most innocuous ones (the ones that we liked best, incidentally).

Luckily the legendary County Hall Underground Movement (CHUM) was tipped off in advance. Hey! Maybe by Simon? That would be in keeping with the Matt Finnegan / Tony Parrish tradition.

Anyway, as a result someone was able to download most of the videos before C-day, and re-post them on another site (presumably offshore) called vimeo.com.

Here is our selection.

First, there is everyone’s favourite – the firing squad in a quarry (subtitled: “why no-one waved a red flag about the issue ").

Then there is the one about chaotic innovation … which includes the infamous words that inspired the folks down the Dog n’ Duck to start taking an interest.

We also like Bugs Bunny & the Jackass.

Some of the others can be found there as well, but as you know, we don’t do Sex or Politics down at the Dog n’ Duck. We are “strictly business”.

So … your weekend has been saved!

CENSORED!

Down at the Dog n' Duck we are all hoping that Jonesy has gone to the same place as those disappearing videos on YouTube.

(NB - don't despair! A few days ago we noticed that someone had made a little collection of some of the videos and has posted them on another site - we are checking our browser's "history" to find out where, and will post the link when we find it. At the time Daffer Jones said something must be up. His voyages have taken him to many places where there is censorship, so he picked up on the vibe before the rest of us.)

Let us be clear: we did NOT approve of the videos. At least, not all of them.

But some were very topical. Especially the one with the firing squad in the quarry. I remember when Jonesy ordered that execution - we were all delighted. She was a real bitch.

However, one does have to wonder how much of our money the Council is spending on censorship. Presumably they will see it as money well spent, since without censorship there would be no Excellence.

Would there?