Things that make you laugh...

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Why Why Why

You know things have gone off the rails when there’s a position called “Welsh Conservative shadow sport minister”.

 

[bilby]

Why Why Why

You know things have gone off the rails when there’s a position called “Welsh Conservative shadow sport minister”.

"Welsh" is a modifier to indicate that the position is in the Welsh legislature, and not the English or Scottish legislature. "Conservative" is a modifier to indicate the political party of which the office holder is a member.

The position is "shadow sport minister". It's a characteristic of the Westminster system that the structure of the current government's ministries is duplicated by the opposition party, so that in the event of a change of government, there's an easy transition. This is called a shadow ministry (or shadow cabinet), and shadow ministers have no actual authority or power, but are often briefed by the civil servants in the department whose minister they are shadowing, so that they are aware of the activities of the department in the even that a snap election suddenly places them into the hot seat.

Typically the real job of a shadow minister is to slag off the actual minister, and generally speak to the press about how bad a job the incumbent minister is doing, and how the shadow minister would, of course, be doing far better (which is easy from a comfortable position of not having to actually implement anything).

So there's a sport minister. In this case, the relevant sport minister is the Welsh sport minister. She's Dawn Bowden, and her full title is "Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport". She's an elected member of the Welsh Senedd, and is a member of the Labour Party, so she's the Welsh Labour sport minister.

Her opposite number in the Welsh Conservative party is Tom Giffard, whose job is to deride the Labour Party's sport (and arts) initiatives as being far worse than what he would do if he wasn't a losing loser from the losing party who
lost the election. He's the Welsh Conservative shadow sport minister.

In Wales, there's also a Plaid Cymru (Welsh nationalist) shadow cabinet. Their relevant shadow minister is the minister for Children and Young people, Welsh Language, Culture, Sport and International Affairs (There aren't many Plaid Cymru members in the Senedd, so they all have to do a lot of different jobs). Her name is Heledd Fychan, and she's the Welsh Plaid Cymru shadow sport minister. Her job is to deride the Labour party's sport initiatives as being far worse than what she would do, as a consequence of the Labour and Conservative parties being dominated by English invader bastards who should go back where they came from and let the Welsh run everything in Wales. She doesn't let the fact that the Welsh people put her party in third place at the last election stop her from claiming to speak for the entire Welsh population.

Basically, there's a bunch of powerless politicians from losing parties who have nothing better to do all day than tell the press what a shit job the actual government are doing. The actual government can't really hit back, partly because the shadow cabinets aren't doing a shit job, by dint of not doing the job at all; And partly because they don't want to talk to the press, because when you're the current winner, the only way is down.

 

[Elixir]

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I understand the shadow government structure, as well as the separate Welsh branching. It’s the idea that a sports minister exists, and must be shadowed, that was amusing.

 

[bilby]

I understand the shadow government structure, as well as the separate Welsh branching. It’s the idea that a sports minister exists, and must be shadowed, that was amusing.

Sport is a huge business. It's not only a significant financial activity, but also an area in which there's massive international competition for the money that it brings to a nation, region, or city. Sports development is a major area of government investment, and the government has a direct interest in trying to balance the social, health, and economic benefits of sport with the cash investment in it.

Why would you expect that the government would not want a minister to oversee this? Noting of course that the minister is responsible not only for sport, but also arts, and (in the case of Plaid Cymru) youth, language, culture, and international affairs too.

The US is one of the very few nations in the world to not have a national Department of Sport; However it does have the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We have a business around here named "Pinkbox". The name can be read from a lot farther away than you can identify the product. Why is my first thought always sex toys rather than doughnuts? (I don't see them often enough to immediately remember what the product is.)

 

[Thomas II]

 

[spikepipsqueak]

My friend's Buddy has a rotary tail. They nearly called him "Chopper".

 

[WAB]

Something for y’all.
View attachment 42040

Wrong thread: "Jeannie? Jeannie! Something went wrong!"

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I understand the shadow government structure, as well as the separate Welsh branching. It’s the idea that a sports minister exists, and must be shadowed, that was amusing.

Sport is a huge business.

Exactly. It's a business. And there are departments in government that deal with businesses of all kinds. Certain aspects of sports are also handled by other entities (e.g. Title 9 by the Department of Education, the monopolistic practices of some sports by the Congress). I don't see where the lack of a "sports minister" has hurt the USA. We're even managing to keep up in "esports" without ministerial oversight.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

My friend's Buddy has a rotary tail. They nearly called him "Chopper".

Ours does the rotary action when he's really excited.

 

[Elixir]

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[Thomas II]

 

[Thomas II]

 

[SLD]

He obviously heard that from his father to his mother. Dad probably thought the kid wouldn’t understand and he didn’t but he knew it meant something nice because Mommy smiled and blushed. He thought he was being sweet to the teacher. My first grade teacher was old and frumpy, but I still have the hots for my kindergarten teacher.

 

[SLD]

I worked in Texas one summer in college and it was legal to drink and drive. I would hitchhike a lot, and one guy pulled into a convenience store and bought two beers, giving me one. We drank it while driving down a rural highway and he suddenly he pulls off the highway in the middle of nowhere with a loud, ”Ohhhhh! I gotta peeeeee.” I thought for sure I was dead. You gotta love Texas.

 

[bilby]

He obviously heard that from his father to his mother. Dad probably thought the kid wouldn’t understand and he didn’t but he knew it meant something nice because Mommy smiled and blushed. He thought he was being sweet to the teacher. My first grade teacher was old and frumpy, but I still have the hots for my kindergarten teacher.

Southend News Network is fiction intended as humour. It's not something that really happened.

 

[SLD]

He obviously heard that from his father to his mother. Dad probably thought the kid wouldn’t understand and he didn’t but he knew it meant something nice because Mommy smiled and blushed. He thought he was being sweet to the teacher. My first grade teacher was old and frumpy, but I still have the hots for my kindergarten teacher.

Southend News Network is fiction intended as humour. It's not something that really happened.

It’s not particularly funny unless it’s true.

 

[bilby]

He obviously heard that from his father to his mother. Dad probably thought the kid wouldn’t understand and he didn’t but he knew it meant something nice because Mommy smiled and blushed. He thought he was being sweet to the teacher. My first grade teacher was old and frumpy, but I still have the hots for my kindergarten teacher.

Southend News Network is fiction intended as humour. It's not something that really happened.

It’s not particularly funny unless it’s true.

I agree.