In a change from my usual musings, the last couple of weeks of General Election campaigning and terrorism mean I have more political blogs floating around my brain than ACL ones. So, in the spirit of Theresa May talking about trashing human rights laws in an attempt to distract voters from the impact of budget cuts on the police and security forces’ ability to stop known Daesh sympathisers targeting weekend revellers in London, I’m going to change the subject too.

Earlier this week, Twitter trending flagged up John Oliver’s latest video gem following on from the London terror attacks. As usual, his take is perfect: dripping in sarcasm, tackling the big issues and getting his point across. For those of you who missed it, you can catch up here:

And for those of you who missed #thingsthatleavebritainreeling, here are a few of my favourites:

Now, I didn’t find the youtube video straight away as I couldn’t for the life of me remember John Oliver’s name. So I googled ‘London reeling’ instead and there it was, number one in the search results (anyone who doubts YouTube's influence on Google search results, there's your evidence).

Number three on the results list took me to this, which is possibly even better:

Yes! If music, dancing and general revelry are so offensive to the terrorists, add campness and men in skirts to the equation and we can piss them off even more. So I suggest we do it more. Let’s make ‘reeling’ part of the fightback with a series of ‘F You’ reels up and down the country. I could even call it ACL physio, at a push, re-training multi-directional function, hopping etc.

While not altogether serious about the 'fear factor' such revelry would strike into the hearts of wannabe terrorists, it has been known to work before. How? Just take a look at the Red Petticoat clog dancers from Ilfracombe:

It all looks pretty tame, right? Well, having spent every summer in that North Devon town while growing up (my cousin was vicar there so we’d stay with them for a fortnight’s sea air during the summer months), I can tell you there’s slightly more to it than that:

The name ‘Ilfracombe Red Petticoats’ came from a story of courage and daring, dating back to the Napoleonic Wars. The story tells the tale of Betsy Gammon who saved the town (and the Country) from invasion by the French. The men-folk of Ilfracombe were away at war when two French frigates sailed up the Bristol Channel and moored off the coast of Ilfracombe. Betsy saw them and, fearing they would land, summoned all the women by the banging of a drum, to line up on the hills right on the seafront. The women, at that time, wore red flannel petticoats and, on Betsy’s signal, draped their petticoats over their shoulders. From their positions out at sea, the French thought there was a garrison of redcoats in the town and so weighed anchor and sailed to Wales where they did land but were soon rounded up and imprisoned. That was the last time that the United Kingdom was invaded. The name ‘Betsy Gammon’ has gone down in Ilfracombe folklore s the woman who saved the town’

So, maybe it’s not so daft after all. Perhaps a series of ‘F You’ reels up and down the country would be a good way to stick two fingers up to the terrorists and get outside and have a laugh too. I can see it now in town and city centres across the country, although I suspect that, alas, in most English towns the results may be something more like this:

Either way, it's better to be reeling that way than the way the US media would have you believe we are.

For now though, I’m off for a gin & tonic. Cheers!

#ACL #Physio #Reel #JohnOliver #VengaBoys #Ilfracombe #Reeling