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I burst out laughing at this cartoon, but it’s only funny if you know the story:
British democracy has survived all sorts of things: the unraveling of the British Empire, independence movements in Ireland and Scotland, and …. But never before has it confronted Boaty McBoatface.
The boat, which is really a ship, acquired new significance this week [April, 2016], when a British official suggested he wouldn’t respect the results of an online government poll in which more than 124,000 people voted to christen the country’s new $300-million research vessel “Boaty McBoatface.” The name received three times more votes than the runner-up entry. The people of the Internet had spoken emphatically, and they’d spoken like a five-year-old.
—Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy
The National Environmental Research Coumcil had the competition to try to get people interested in the ship and its research on global warming, rising sea levels, etc. The council had reserved the right to pick the final name, and they chose Sir David Attenborough.
Here is an artist’s depiction of what the ship will look like.
The moral of the story, of course, is be careful when you let people vote. The results might not be what you had hoped for.
now see… I love the name boaty mc boatface! LOL!
but as an admirer always of sir david … I suppose it IS more appropriate.
although … it seems to me as time goes on
we’d maybe be better off if we DID think more like sweet little 5 year olds.
we seem to be making a huge mess of things listening and allowing
SUPPOSEDLY grown up politicians run things!
great cartoon!
I laugh every time I think of the story. It shows some sanity in this crazy world.
I love the cartoon and the story. So British!
Modern British. I thought the traditional ones were stiff upper lip and all that.
Which is exactly why I disagreed with the decision to hold a referendum on EU membership. It’s a complicated issue that should be decided by our parliamentary representatives and not the general public. Now of course the economy is heading for recession and there’s not much chance of reviving it short of staying in the EU after all.
a “mess” or is that a McMessUp
Curious. The vote of 124,000 people in a country of 65 million people is “democracy in action”?
Did I tell you my Brexit jokes already, the ones we heard recently in England? Let me know if I haven’t, or if you want to hear them. Only 2 or 3.