While in
London over the Christmas holiday season I saw a
poster with the phrase
"Never mind the Euro, it's the Hospitals" in a few places. The poster was
day-glo yellow, pink, and black, in direct
imitation of the famous cover of
the Sex Pistols album "
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". My assumption was that some
clever modern band had an album out, or was performing nearby (or had performed), and was making a very
sly publicity bid that was both
trendy and
retro. The January 2002 switch to the
Euro by most of the
EU was only a week or so away, and The Sex Pistols'
paradigm shifting album was released in
1977.
I began telling my
father-in-law about the poster, and that I wanted to be sure to get a photo of one (never did). I had only related the text of the poster and he, with absolutely no knowledge of the Sex Pistols, declared it must be a
political message put forth by Britain's
conservative Tory party. He then explained that one of the main points of
contention of late had been that
PM Tony Blair, of the (somewhat)
left-leaning Labour party was concentrating too much on
international issues, like the EU and the Euro, and not enough on critical
domestic issues, like the
ailing and
delay-
plagued health care system.
The idea that the conservatives would promote their
agenda by referencing
the seminal punk rock band is
proof beyond doubt that
politics makes strange bedfellows.
26 May 02 - mat catastrophe sends this link to an image:
http://www.no-euro.com/mediacentre/campaign/hospitals.gif
Thanks, mat.