Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Wrong Time to Laugh

The last few days in Welsh politics have been so chaotic that mockery and laughter is fully justified. And there's plenty of it. But I've stopped laughing because it is damaging my nation.

I read an article in yesterday's Telegraph about inappropriate laughter. It seems that in Sheffield, toilet roll holders are springing open and hitting innocent lavatory users on the head, inflicting injuries. The Department of Education has issued a memo assuring users that these faulty holders are going 'to be replaced at the earliest convenience'! The memo also insists that this is not a laughing matter. This set me thinking about when laughter really must be suppressed.

And I recall an incident many years ago when I was out on my farm picking mushrooms. A clearly distraught neighbour came up to me to tell me that her husband had 'sat on his b*lls'. It was deeply serious because she was so upset, and had called for an ambulance. This somewhat unusual feat had been achieved following on from major surgery in the general area. I remember being torn between concern for my friend and an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh.

And as typing, another painful memory returns. Please suspend your imagination for a few moments. I was a newly married young man and for some unaccountable reason decided to enter the marital bedroom after my late night shower with a sort of Nureyev/Geronimo leap - cracking my head on the solid oak door frame. To this day, I don't know whether my new wife laughed as I lay naked, bleeding and unconscious on the bedroom floor. But I do recall that as I was coming to my senses she was laughing like a drain.

Perhaps it is this last recollection that causes me not to laugh at the utterly ridiculous behaviour of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

7 comments:

Christopher Glamorgan said...

Glyn, only you can mention your bedroom antics and the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the same post and get away with it.

As you have mentioned your children in previous posts, you have obviously gone on to achieve some success - whatever happened to the Welsh Liberal Democrats??? (couldn't resist that one! :-D)

Anonymous said...

9 Liberal Democrats deserve ridicule for starting the whole sorry mess. The rest have since acted with courage and foresight

Anonymous said...

Humour is often our defence Glyn.
If we laugh at ourselves first, we steal the advantage off others and diffuse the stupidity.
Maybe also, if we didn’t find the humour in all this bloody mess we would be crying in our Penderyn.
Paraphrased for fun and a laugh
A time just for just laughin',
A time just for just cryin’.
A time to be forming
A Wales of our own.
'Tis so good to be wise now,
to be close to the earth,
And to stand by your party
As a coalition is birthed

Blamerbell said...

"And I recall an incident many years ago when I was out on my farm picking mushrooms."

same old tories, always trippin...

Welsh Spin said...

Not to forget that time the Police stopped you for not wearing any strides ...

Teilo said...

Glyn, speaking of laughter. There's a lot of talk of how the Conservative Party has changed; that it's no longer the party of Margaret Thatcher. In a future blog would you mind letting us know exactly how its basic philosophy has altered?

Glyn Davies said...

Blamerbell - they were not magic mushrooms - and I wasn't wearing a Laura Ashley dress as collecting them.

Welsh spin - please let me forget it.

teilo - a challenge that I will accept during the next few days - and see if I can match bard in bed's poetry