Last week I posted a recurring sketch by Harry Enfield and Chums about a gormless upper class English character called Tim Nice-But-Dim. Yet parodying the upper class in Britain has always been part of British comedy and this next clip is a classic example taken from the comedy group Monty Python. Monty Python is a bit of an acquired taste and I can imagine that some will not enjoy this sketch although I think it gets better as the skit progresses.

I grew up in Australia and when I first moved to the UK just shy of 30 years ago I used to think that the Australian view of the British being in the grips of a class system was over-stated. Sadly however, I have come to realise the sad truth that the British class system, while being completely anachronistic for the 21^st century, is still very much alive and well. The most disturbing modern incarnation of it at present is the current Tory party under Alexander Boris Pfeffel Johnson who single-handedly has brought into sharp focus all that is wrong with a system that allows some of the most intellectually and, more importantly, morally challenged individuals into the heart of government where their actions make the majority of folk poorer and where horrendous policies are enacted to appeal to the darker demons of our nature including xenophobia and racism.

One Youtube comment under this clip which brought a wry smile to my face was the following It's interesting how as time passed, this marvellous sport has developed into something that the entire world gets pure entertainment value from and has been renamed to 'British Government'.

A common joke that does the round at medical school is: "What's the difference between God and a medical student?" Answer: "God doesn't think he is a medical student!". In many ways, this sketch reminds me of this joke although here Harry and Paul are capturing godlike properties of consultants along with their strange educated upper middle class foibles which is only really found inside the English class system.

So last week I shared a comedy video which was a parody of de Feffel's resignation speech. This week we of course now must be subject to the spectacle of those who supported Johnson's car crash vying to replace him. Given that Johnson created a strong evolutionary selection pressure to reward those who were least likely to present any threat to his leadership into cabinet positions, the choice the country has, in relation to the field of possible Tory replacements, is (as the LBC radio presenter James O'Brien stated) a bit like trying to chose a portaloo toilet at the Glastonbury festival.

Thankfully, probably the worst three in Johnson's cabinet of infamy had enough sense not to run and this of course included Nadine Dorries the minister for culture. Sadly over her tenure, Nadine has sadly demonstrated why she would never, in a million years, get a cabinet position under any other Prime Minister who had even a modicum of public duty in his body. Yet for comical effect, the comedian Sooz Kemper imagines what it would be like if Nadine had decided to run to replace Johnson as PM and what her campaign launch speech might have looked and sounded like. Enjoy.

So I'll be frank. The UK is being ruled by the worst government for many generations. With triple digit inflation in the energy sector, which is unique to the UK, a government that is doing nothing to address it but is instead focussed on a right wing beauty pageant between a female clone of Johnson (Liz Truss); who, like Johnson, can't be bothered to do the hard work of her position but unlike Johnson can't wing it in interviews so comes across even more incompetent than he did and her adversary who appears to be a little more grounded in reality although given that both he and Truss must appeal to a tiny minority of ultra right-wing Tory voters, must attempt to outdo Truss in economic insanity.

Until recently Australia also had a very right-wing government who were subject to the Youtube comedy channel Juice media. Juice Media create the concept of "an honest government ad" where they mimic an official government campaign ad but share with the electorate what they their policies are really designed to do to enrich them and their donor mates while impoverishing the average person that votes for them. Being Australian, the ads are full of strong language which for me sort of acts as strong smelling salts designed to shock us out of our political apathy and get us motivated to be more careful about which party we cast our votes for.

In this video, Juice Media turn their attention and ire on the UK Conservative party creating a video with lots of very colourful language. However, they also made a PG version suitable for websites like this one so here is the version with all the swearing bleeped but you will get the idea. If you do not live in the UK and wonder whether our government could really be this bad the simple answer is: "Yes it really is this bad in the UK at the moment".

Another sketch from two of the most naturally funny comedians who dominated the TV networks when I was a child. While some of their comedy has now aged, this sketch still makes me laugh out loud. Eric Morecambe was incredibly naturally funny, I would have loved to have met him.

So as the continuing insanity of this Tory Party continues, the comedians are hard at work satirising the crazy world we seem to now inhabit in Britain as the government continues to appoint ministers who, at best, are clearly out of depth in terms of the skills required for their role and, at worst, express opinions which just 10 years ago were only heard within the ranks of the British National Party (here's looking at you Suella Braverman).

So last week I posted a compilation of sketches by Armstrong and Miller which captured the sometimes strange dynamics that occur in "high powered" workplaces full of alpha male (and sometimes female) middle managers and their underlings all vying for patronage from their boss. The Armstrong and Miller show often ran the same sketch each week developing it little by little each time. If you want to see how the striding man character developed during their comedy series then look at last week's post

The sketch below is the final instalment of the Striding Man and I guess the moral of the story is no matter how successful you are inside your workplace, there is always a chance it could all come crashing down in a moment. I guess this even applies to CEOs who can find themselves fired by their boards. Having said that, I think most CEOs know that even if they get fired they will walk away with a gigantic severance payment and into another CEO role in another large company such is the old boys revolving network that seems to exist at that level.