Friday fun: a drug-free Parliament by 2020

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, October 15th, 2010 - 19 comments
Categories: humour, International, local body elections - Tags: , ,

I’ve had this sitting draft for months 🙂

Last year, Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr set up the Best Party to parody the parties that brought Iceland to ruin. The party contested the Reykjavik local elections with Gnarr promising a drug-free Parliament by 2020, a polar bear for Reykjavik zoo, a Disneyland, an end to debt, and to break all his promises.

The Best Party won over a third of the vote. Gnarr is now mayor of Reykjavik, and probably somewhat bewildered.

Anyway, here’s the campaign song:

Remarkably, Gnarr’s mayoralty seems to be a success. The establishment hates him and the papers ride him all the time but he is unencumbered by the scars of old fights and unafraid to make decisions for the best. As he says:

“I wouldn’t have run if there had not been a crisis. But I was just so fed up with how things had evolved here and I wanted to interfere in some way. For me, it was a kind of civil duty. There’s been so much anger, suspicion and paranoia in our society for the last two years. I wanted to help bring about an alternative”

Inspiration for us all. Change is possible.

Gnarr’s next project? “To make Reykjavik a twin city of Mummin valley“

19 comments on “Friday fun: a drug-free Parliament by 2020 ”

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  1. Bright Red 1
    15 October 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Gnarr’s right. His predecessors’s policy of a santa in every home was wasteful.

  2. prism 2
    15 October 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Old saying – Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it (warts and all). What a great example. Iceland has chutzpah that we could do with. They don’t have a similar colonial past to revert to nostalgically. We started off with a real estate rort and the sort of promises and PR that Fair Go would reveal scornfully.

    There was an amusing USA film where a guy got people disenchanted with their pollies to vote for a listing None of the Above and he won. The story followed reality to some extent as he courted the elderly vote which was a powerful bloc. What satirical books and drama provide an antidote to the reality of political posturing and policy invention? There is Yes Minister, John Mortimer’s trilogy of Leslie Titmuss that I can think of straight away. There must be humour – it seems to me its essential to keep a bit of objectivity and to step away briefly from grappling with the human condition which seems to be naturally fractious.

  3. Policy Parrot 3
    15 October 2010 at 3:53 pm

    “Gnarr promising a drug-free Parliament by 2020, a polar bear for Reykjavik zoo, a Disneyland, an end to debt, and to break all his promises.”

    Seems he has the political act down to an artform – even having irreconcilable policies. He promises to break all of his promises, yet if he does keep this promise, he will not be breaking all of his promises; and if he doesn’t break all of his other promises to in order to break the “promise” promise, then he wont be keeping his promise either.

    • ianmac 3.1
      15 October 2010 at 4:58 pm

      Ha ha Policy Parrot.
      Spent 9 days in Iceland in August and what a beautiful clean green country filled with charming courteous people. One local said “Greenland is white. Iceland is green,” and it is. There are so many places to visit and most are free. Ice-floes bobbing waiting to go seawards, walk on the glaciers, or wonder at the huge ex-glacier waterfalls, and watch the sunset at 11pm. Great place. Much cleaner and greener than NZ.

      • Vicky32 3.1.1
        15 October 2010 at 8:47 pm

        Envy! I would so love to go to the country of Kimi Raikkonnen…
        Deb

        • Luxated 3.1.1.1
          15 October 2010 at 9:37 pm

          Kimi is Finnish.

          What a great example. Iceland has chutzpah that we could do with. They don’t have a similar colonial past to revert to nostalgically.

          Except for various periods of colonisation by Norway and Denmark only gaining its latest stretch of independence during WWII?

          • Vicky32 3.1.1.1.1
            15 October 2010 at 10:00 pm

            “Kimi is Finnish.”
            Oops, you’re right.. My son would be so cross with me for that… OK, Bjork then!
            Deb

          • prism 3.1.1.1.2
            16 October 2010 at 9:39 am

            You don’t understand my point Luxated. I am talking about being the colonising force not the colonised. There is a difference which if you read about our NZ colonial history you may realise.

  4. Armchair Critic 4
    15 October 2010 at 9:42 pm

    Sustainable transparency
    Brilliant. Just what we need.

  5. RedLogix 5
    16 October 2010 at 9:24 am

    The dreamer in me absolutely loves this. My partner and I both wept tears of laughter and delight.

    Actually Iceland has a very interesting history grappling with a very difficult and fragile existence in a difficult terrain. Liek the Finnish, they are an interesting people.

    But yes… this is inspiration. The fundamental point of great leadership is to inspire people to believe in their better natures…. and to make it ok and safe to act on it.

  6. prism 6
    16 October 2010 at 9:41 am

    I still am wondering what favourites are recommended for political satire, with humour preferably.

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