The ‘Pyrenean Shack’?
Stewart Lee has been worried. He’s been away. On holiday. In the Pyrenees. In a Pyrenean ‘shack’ no less. Anyway, he’s been worried. Worried that without his acid wit raining down on Cameron’s parade, without him mustering the Twitterati against the marauding Middle Class Daily Mail readers, and without him manning the BBC barricades that defend that august and generous institution from the predations of the ‘Vested Interests’, the country will fall apart. Have to say, not so far. No need to hurry back Stew!
Lee, cut off from the world, had two choices, one the Daily Mail, the other a copy of the Guardian. Naturally like all good Lefties he chose the Mail as we know they all do. Well, the Guardian was left ‘abandoned in a campsite lavatory’.…I knew there had to be a use for it…though that old joke comes to mind.
Of course reading the Mail was only in the interest of work, researching the enemy. He found plenty to tickle his fancy and to reinvigorate his bile duct, in particular a Quentin Letts article…he’s very popular in the Guardian at the moment.
Lee informs us that ‘on page 14, the demonstrably inaccurate writer Quentin Letts rubbished institutionalised attempts to encourage social mobility in an incoherent column that included the genuine sentence: “Middle-class parents are middle class because they have learned what it takes to succeed.”
For some reason that sentence just doesn’t get Lee’s approval. Why not? It’s perfectly clear and understandable to any normal person of even passing intelligence. But then again if you’re looking out from the Bubble still pretending to be working class as you send instagram postcards from your Pyrenean gite all the world must be a mystery especially that concept of the hated Middle Class and that other mystery to the Left…getting things on merit. The comrades say no, it doesn’t compute.
Lee explains his concerns…..
‘The sentence, of course, does not bear a moment’s analysis, attempting to assuage readers’ guilt by assuring them their privilege is deserved. But it seemed so bizarre to me that such a sentence could actually be written without shame, only 12 days after I had left the country, only two and half months after the Conservative victory, that I wondered what was really going on at home.’
No, he’s right, no need to spend even a moment having to analyse the sentence, it’s clear as day what it means. Good of Lee to spell out his hackneyed old trot-like antipathy to the Middle Class…but should they really feel guilty at being Middle Class? Why? Of course, I know what it is, they got to be Middle Class achievers coz they’re Masons, the dodgy handshake and Pythonesque leg wiggle…the route to success. That’s right, the cardiac surgeon in the hospital, the lawyer, the dentist, the successful small businessman, the highly qualified nurse, the school teacher….yep none of them deserve to have what they have. They didn’t earn one bit of they’re place in society, it was all handed to them on a plate. Yep, they should really be ashamed of themselves for studying hard for years on end, for focussing on improving their lives, for improving society and providing all those essential services that keep the place running. Yep, yep, yep, don’t need them, bloody parasites, what we really need is more comedians whose sole qualification is a chip on their shoulder, oh and an amenable and generous benefactor like the BBC or the Guardian to keep the pay cheques rolling in. Who needs merit when you hit the goldmine of lefty paydirt.
Lee really has all the right badges – a self-loathing, which in practice translates into a loathing of everybody else, an absurdly inflated self-importance and the political maturity of a twelve year old. A copy book socialist, you might say. No doubt he would like to charge anybody who has made anything at all of their lives and happen to be, horror above horrors, white and middle class of being a class enemy and send them off to a collective farm for re-training.
But seriously, getting back to reality, he might want to look at that phrase “demonstrably inaccurate” again.
Unfortunately most of the middle class do not have the priviledge of highly paid “comedians” at the BBC. And who could be more middle class than them ?
Stewart Lee: typical liberal progressive hypocrite. Nothing this moron has to say need be paid the slightest attention. Like all liberal progressive hypocrites, he wants to have his cake and to eat it.
If that photo really is the ‘shack’ he describes, he should try a spell staying in the literal shack I’m currently residing in Southern Thailand. No hot running water, intermittent power cuts, wifi useless after 7pm every evening (a communal, oversubscribed shared connection), constant ants and bugs, air-con in just one room (outside temp today: 31C), tap water unsafe to drink without boiling first, etc, etc.
Staying here, amongst these people and the sheer drudge of their daily existence, one really appreciates how simple things like fossil fuel electricity can change lives.
If the likes of Lee and his hypocritical, pampered, indulged comrades have their way, these people would be doomed to a life of poverty; thankfully, from what I’ve seen right across Thailand on this visit, especially up north, fossil fuels are alive and well – let’s hope more of it can reach even more people. Everyone should have the right to reliable, cheap electricity and clean, safe water.
Would Mr Lee care to find a joke in that?
At least the ‘shack’ has solar panels, possibly powering the underwater pool cigar humidor, so it’s like offset, totally.
Like the comments, getting into a spat over whether Stew or Frankie are funnier.
Seriously.
Got to say it.
I find Stewart Lee funny, unlike nearly all the lefty hypocrites-and he KNOWS he`s exactly that!
Compare him to, say Julian Clary and his “fisting Norman Lamont” comment on telly in 1993…regarded by the eejit nedia luvvies as a day when the dam burst, and we could all be so brave and happy.
Like Brands(Jo and Russell) he simply is not funny-never could be, never will be.
Lee is-I`m sure of that.
True, I find Cleese, Gervais etc to be balls-achingly PC hypocrites…but they ARE funny, IMHO.
And me being a UKIP Rightist Fascist sees comedy as a vehicle-don`t have to ride it, but can admire it and know they`ve got key bits of the truth therein.
Brian is the BBC…je suis Quagmire!
No doubt Lee will refuse – on principle, being so down with the workin’ class an’ all – the services of all these ‘privileged’ middle class people he shows such utter contempt for.
And his own rise to middle class comfort? Oops, he was already there – ex-Solihull School (the public type).