HW: In Tory Party scandal

[M Holmes]

K Henderson writes:

> For those of us on this side of the pond, what exactly is a "Shadow
> Secretary of State for Culture."  Is that something like Frank Zappa's
> position in the Czech gov't?

The Secretary of State for Culture and The Arts is the guy in the
Cabinet responsible for overseeing all the taxpayer money that's wasted
on stuff like the Millenium Dome, opera, museums and stuff like that, or
if you prefer, for ensuring that those who frequent these places don't
pay the full whack for tickets in the way that ordinary Hawkwind fans
do.

The Shadow Secretary of State for Culture and The Arts is the guy in the
other party whose job it is to keep an eye on what the Proper Secretary
does; criticise him as much as possible; say "Boo hiss!" at the
appropriate Parliamentary moments and pretend that if only his party
were elected and he became the Proper Minister, that the Dome would run
at a profit; that football fans would start attending ballet theatre and
would become famed for their diplomatic skills abroad; that censorship
could be safely abolished and that there'd still be no swearing or
nudity in films and that the renaissance in Gamelan in Britain would
become a national export to rival the pop industry. This is always
implied in tones like those reassuring us that the problems of porcine
damage to jetliner engines would soon be a thing of the past.

In fact you can tell when an opposition party is about to be elected
because they begun denying that they promised any such thing and
especially that if they had said any such thing that they definitely
wouldn't have said that they'd spend any taxpayers money in order to
bring it about.

Hope this helps.

> Grakkl (FAA)

FoFP