Satire changes nothing as politicians surge on

WITH the Hay Festival and its celebration of literature and associated “sellebrities” in full swing, a comment heard during a newspaper review on Radio Wales on Sunday morning suggested, quite reasonably, that both Brexit and Trumpety Trump would be two topics of discourse.

I was reminded of Peter Cook, who said that his famous comedy nightclub, The Establishment, was loosely based on the Berlin cabaret clubs of the 1920s and 1930s – which, as he put it, “did so much to prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler”.

Similarly, in the couple of years leading up to Brexit and President Trump, Ian Hislop and his Have I Got News For You team never missed an opportunity to lampoon – or satirise if you’re Establishment – Ukip, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. Actually, Farage had the courage to appear on the show to be endlessly rubbished to his face.

And oh, how the audience applauded and laughed uproariously! Indeed, I chuckled along myself. And look what happened. You can laugh all you like, but satire and literary observation changes nothing.

In the post-mortems since 2016 it has been suggested that the extravagant endorsements by celebrities of both the David Cameron and Hilary Clinton camps actually put people off. Certainly it is probably safe to say that the liberal elite’s obsession with celebrity leaves half the population unimpressed.

Standing on the touchline, as I do, watching the girls and the world go by, I can’t help but notice that humanity has a momentum all of its own. True, a high-profile celebrity like Bob Geldof can generate a fleeting spike in that impetus – sadly though, there are still millions of people starving and dying needlessly in Africa. Again, nothing really changes.

Similarly, Trump, Putin and

that Wrong-un fellow from North Korea can cause temporary chaos, even disaster – Harold Macmillan’s famous “events, dear boy, events” springs to mind – but humanity continues uninterrupted along its merry way towards that huge sign at the cliff’s edge which says “Welcome to The End Of The World – please drive carefully”. Huw Beynon Llandeilo