As if to demonstrate that their claim to any kind of
even-handedness is a sham, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his
obedient rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog have provided another example of their
Tory-supporting credentials on the subject of politicians drinking beer. Or rather they have failed to provide one
when it comes to the Rt Hon Gideon George Oliver Osborne, heir to the
Seventeenth Baronet.
I don't need to know what I'm drinking, cos I'm on telly!
While the Fawkes folks were
laying into Mil The Younger for the heinous crime of visiting the Five
Points craft brewery in east London and sampling Hook Island Red, a red rye
beer brewed to a full 6% ABV and containing a complex mix of aromas and
flavours, they turned a blind eye to
the amateurish attempt by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to portray
himself as a Man Of The People.
Who doesn't like their tipple? Is it Ed Miliband ...
So Miliband got the full abuse treatment, with the odious
flannelled fool Henry Cole sniggering into his lager that the Labour leader “didn’t like it”. Master Cole even
produced a Vine from the footage. How the Tory faithful yelped with laughter!
But those who enjoy new beer styles and flavours were nonplussed by the hooha:
Miliband was just taking a few seconds to appreciate the beer.
What did The Great Guido expect him to do, leer theatrically
for the camera? This may be a difficult one for those who think the acme of
beer drinking consists of nitro-keg Guinness, or drinking Peroni out of the
bottle (my apologies to the staff at a recent bash I attended for making them
go and get me a glass), but stopping to understand the flavours of a craft beer
is not “hate” or “dislike”.
... or George Osborne? ((c) PA)
Worse, when Osborne fetched up at Banks’s Wolverhampton
brewery and forced himself to sip a pint of beer, Cole and his pals didn’t want
to know. This, for right-wingers, is quite understandable: the Chancellor
closed his eyes before sampling – a clear sign that he was not happy at the
thought of drinking the commoners’ tipple – and didn’t even wait for it to settle
before drinking.
That last is a dead giveaway. And on top of that, instead of
showing support for a craft brewery, Osborne sided with the big brewers (Banks’s
was a big player in its West Midlands heartland even before it became part of
the yet larger Marston’s empire). And Banks’s Sunbeam is most certainly not a
beer of significant complexity: it’s a 4.2% blonde beer more suited to session
drinking.
Note also that Osborne does not even appear to be doing any
more than giving the appearance of drinking that pint. And there doesn’t seem
to be any video of the event. Even the Mail
concedes that he was “slightly awkwardly
... sipping the top out of a pint”. So The Great Guido says nothing, and
instead exhorts followers to “look over
there at Ed Miliband, he’s dead weird”.
The Fawkes rabble caught supporting the Tories yet again. Another fine mess.
4 comments:
Maston's became part of the Bank's empires, and then Bank's changed its name to Marstons.
Did he Osborne organise anything whilst he was there?
This is part of why I reckon Osborne is deluded to think he has leadership potential. He fits the Miliband 'out of touch' line so brilliantly that this kind of thing - a failure to understand the very basics of everyday life, like letting a pint settle before drinking - is utterly predictable.
I'd like to know who poured the pint, though. I wonder if a cheeky barman suggested this drop rather than one which didn't have to settle for a while before drinking...
On the subject of beer, can anyone recommend a decent shop/supermarket bought lager/beer?
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