Bung a Bob for a Big Ben Bong
Phantom_Flan_Flinger
Shipmate
in Hell
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Is there nothing that will put a stop to this deranged mophead's 'wheezes'?
Where's that welcoming Ditch when you need it?
Bell meet Bell-end?
If the country is divided roughly 50-50, that would seem to imply a factor of 2 in the total you might potentially raise (assuming each side had the same ability and willingness to donate). I would think that the uncertainty surrounding whether people will pay to hear Big Ben sound on a particular special occasion is rather larger than a factor of 2.
IOW, I don't think the dividedness of the country is relevant to the answer.
I skimmed the article. A lot of construction and repair work would have to be done, some of it temporary--which, I'm guessing, might create potential safety problems.
What kind of signal would it send if workers were hurt in the process, or there's damage to the tower, or to the bell? It might be interpreted as a signal of impending disaster...
Well, the bell was bonged for New Year two weeks ago. And again for Remembrance Day commemorations in November, so I don't know if there are any worse health or safety issues now, as must've existed then. Though by the time Brexit comes round, maybe the advanced state of the repair work on the clock tower would make it more difficult?
But according to Johnson it seems to be a case of who's going to pay for the extra work caused. It would be interesting to know how much the New Year's and Remembrance bongs cost, and who covered the cost of setting up the 'temporary mechanism' and flooring required, presumably, on those two separate recent occasions.
However, let's see how popular Johnson's spiffing idea is with the country. No doubt a few of his compeers are more than able to subscribe to a handful of bongs, from the amount of unpaid HMRC taxes they save by basing their funds and businesses in various global tax havens. Small beer to them, surely. And of course they will want to lead the way by putting their money where their mouth is. Won't they?
They're using an external electric motor to power the chiming hammer for the 'bongs' during the duration of the works, and they need somewhere to put it and set it up safely, as it's going to be fairly substantial given the size of Big Ben. (Contrary to what Boris thinks, clock bells like that don't have internal clappers, but have a big hammer on a spring to strike them at the right time.) Access to put the temporary floor up and take it down will also be hard, and that will add £££ to the costs. The biggest bit though is that Boris/ERG's wheeze guarantees a project over-run, and they are notorious for costing a fortune, especially on a project like this where specialists are required and people will have been booked (and therefore planned their workload) around doing certain things on certain dates.
When I saw "bong"* in the name of this thread, I thought perhaps Brexit had driven you all to sit around Big Ben and smoke pot.
*Water pipe for smoking various substances.
Yeah, on this specific instance I don't think Boris is being completely unreasonable, as the impetus seems to have come from Walter Mitty Mark Francois.
Field Marshal General Lieutenant Admiral Francois: The people want it.
Johnson: Well, the people can pay for it then.
If it were ringable, I would probably sabotage it, anyway...aided and abetted by the fair proportion of our people who do NOT want Brexshit...
Same here (when it's working), though we have used it for the Angelus as well, after Sunday Mass, and on other special occasions.
We do NOT use it to 'celebrate' an unwanted occurrence that will hurt the poor and needy...
How about a campaign to Donate A Dandiprat* To Dig The Demented Dickhead a Ditch?
*An old English (and therefore Proper) silver coin, worth about twopence.
“What do we want?”
<bong>
“To be Europeans again!”
<bong>
“When do we want it?”
<bong>
“Now!”
I actually quite want to start crowdfunding for same, suggestions welcome for what we’d do with the money…
No reason why protests shouldn't take place elsewhere - I'm sure they will.
NOT inside places of worship, of course.
LOL. Thx for the link. Sort of a British version of "the Onion". Hmmm..."Onion Brit", "Brinion"...
My hope is that that means Boris will be less dangerous.
Love it!
If the Mad Mophead, OTOH, had another brain cell, he might qualify as a pot plant.
It's amazing that the papers and MPs care more about whether Big Ben will ring on Brexit than they do about the lack of published costings about the impact of Boris' Brexit plan on the country by The Treasury.
Having read the church bells article in the Guardian, I'm grateful that Baptists tend not to have churches with bells. Although it does mean that I won't be treated to the sight of Rev T responding to any request by a church member that we ring out the bells for Brexit.
An instructive story about young Boris: at Eton in the 80s, Boris landed the lead role in the school play, Shakespeare’s Richard II. He then proceeded not to bother to learn his lines, and tried to wing it in a sort of comedy act with paper notes and adlibbing. The other boys (who had made the effort to learn their lines) weren’t impressed.
It’s the same schtick of playing the buffoon to get away with not doing any actual work that he’s been up to ever since.
The Express is the actual blood clots on the befouled haemorrhoid etc. etc.