Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Wisdom of Kirsty Young

"Public spending is being cut by £81bn (nearly 6% of total national income) within 4 years, pushing up unemployment by half a million in the public sector plus adding nearly a further half million in the private sector whose jobs depend on public expenditure." Michael Meacher yesterday (thank you Vicus for alerting me to the existence of his blog, ooh ages ago now).

The Kirsty Young presented series The British At Work has been a load of union-kicking nonsense. The unions were "on top" till the 80s when employers got "on top", did they Kirsty? If by "on top" you mean protecting jobs and working conditions I suppose they were "on top" but that all went out the window in the 80s.

Kirsty proved she knew fuck all about what was going on in her own generation with her take on the lyrics to the single Wham Rap! and the image of the band Heaven 17 on the cover of their album Penthouse and Pavement.

In Kirsty's world, Wham Rap! was about finding a job you like in Thatcher's land of opportunity. Of course the song is really about the impossibility of anything but a dead-end low-paid soul-destroying job or the possibility of rejecting this and having some self-respect on the dole. Better to be out of work than doing long hours of shit for peanuts.

In Kirsty's world the "message they are giving..." on the cover of Penthouse and Pavement "...is very clear: BUSINESS IS NOW COOL AND SEXY."



Fucking hell, woman. You really don't get irony, do you?
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10 comments:

  1. Tim F3:24 AM

    Well when Cameron picked Eton Rifles on one of his desert island discs she didn't seem to get the joke either. Or at least she didn't kick him in the face.

    A Rangers supporter, apparently. Hm.

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  2. Rog7:30 AM

    Kirsty is lovely and Scottish. I thought her programme was spot on.

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  3. Ms Scarlet9:50 AM

    Kirsty's take on everything left me a little confused as well... especially the Wham rap bit...
    Sx

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  4. Geoff12:45 PM

    Tim - I suppose you can't take things out of context when you're just reading the news.

    Rog - She's easy on the eye, I'll give you that.

    Scarlet - Do you enjoy what you do? If not there's always a way in to the BBC if you're young and pretty.

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  5. Arabella7:39 PM

    I've heard of her. She's a weather girl, right?

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  6. Geoff8:56 PM

    There's a warm front but the outlook is bleak.

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  7. The Mistress12:34 PM

    Are those businessmen sporting ponytails?

    Nice pink telephone.

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  8. Geoff6:28 PM

    Those businessmen are the boys in the band. Sexy, eh?

    I like a pink telephone.

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  9. The Poet Laura-eate10:38 PM

    Yes, I thought she was an odd choice for that series and didn't quite understand what she was doing presenting it, much though I enjoyed certain aspects.

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  10. Geoff8:10 PM

    I'd like to see it re-done from a socialist perspective.

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