Thursday, March 29, 2012

piegate


I absolutely love that I live in a country that takes pies fucking seriously.

God bless Britain, for the media swirl around 'pastygate.'

After the budget speech, the socialists went mental when it was announced by the chancellor that there'd be an added VAT to all 'hot pies.'
"Don't Tax My Pasty, bitch."
(Cold pies are still VAT free; hot ones not. This alone I find hilarious.)

Well Britain went beserk. Here's a country that not only invented pies, but bought pies into the political boardroom. No other country would ever bother.

Cornwall is up in arms, but it doesn't end there. So is Leeds. After David Cameron said "I once had an amazing pasty at the Leeds train station," and it turns out there is no such pasty shop there at all.

Hilare.

Look, I love pies. I have a shirt that literally says, "I heart pies." (I bought it off the Internet FYI, in case you happen to be one of the protestors socialists that needs a shirt.)
I'm not allowed to eat them, but I love pies. Bury me six feet deep in pie, and I'll be the happiest dead person there ever was.

But today I had the "I am in an episode of Fawlty Towers again," feeling. Which I get frequently since living here - and one of the reasons why I love this funny little country.
I happened to be at a venue today where the chancellor was present. One of the biggest background concerns was not so much the topic at hand - ie the reason he was giving a speech at this place - but whether he had been followed by a whole bunch of pasty protestors.

There are groups of pasty protestors everywhere apparently, picketing in Westminster about pies. If you're a journalist on the pie beat, you really must be having a whale of a time.

Back where I come from, our politics usually involve, but not limited to, embezzling and then bankrupting a province's coffers to buy a house in Forest Town, taxi strikes, president's taking showers, you know, real politics.

I love that today, one of Britain's biggest talking points is warm confectionery. And I say that with an absolute straight face. Pies are so important here, it's actually political.

PS: I'm not protesting. For one, I'm not a socialist, and for two, I love pies so much that I am happy to pay the extra VAT to keep them warm.

5 comments:

Nicole B said...

I wish our most serious political issue was the price of pies. :S

Peas on Toast said...

I know could you imagine? Not another Malema is racist headline, but rather 'Malema uproar over BP pie.'

James said...

I have to admit I have had a good laugh at the whole thing... but it's also struck me as very weird. The UK economy shrunk 0.3% last quarter, the OECD reckons the UK is among the more fucked of the world's larger economies...and Cameron has a game of badminton in Number 10's garden and gets involved in an argument over pies. Just bizarre, really.

catherine said...

Actually at the moment in SA there is a biiiig debate over hot cross buns... :P

Peas on Toast said...

James - here here! Badminton and a pasty from Greggs dear sir! This economy stuff is such poppycock!

It's all completely bizarre. And I absolutely love it.

Catherine - yes what's this about hot cross buns? Is SA jumping onto the political confectionery bandwagon? I've seen murmurings on various social networks. Shall investigate!