british took all we had still taking

NOT EGREGIOUS, BY EXAMPLE

Pie throwing at British MPs is a fairly common pastime and so are the routines that have to do with rotten tomatoes for instance. There was the well known case of one gentleman who punched a custard pie thrower and was never contrite but did not get any reprimand, as the man (the thrower not the target) was deemed to have got his just desserts.

The recent egg throwing incident in the proximity of the Mattala airport does sound a little bit overblown in the above context.

Collective, or even mass frustration causes the custard pie throwing incidents in the UK, and have now been taken to be part of the political culture, almost, in that country, which is why there has been no major arrests that concern pie throwing or rotten tomato hurling in those parts of Europe...

Particularly in Britain this sort of thing has been treated as par for the course in voicing opposition towards elected representatives, and at the most, it could be said, such things are treated as occupational hazards.

A little bit of egg on the face of UNP MPs therefore does not seem to do any harm that cannot be remedied on the long run with a good dry clean job, and some men’s deodorant.

However, the recent incident is being now portrayed as some kind of an armed attack which it was not, and the context of the entire fracas is being forgotten in the melee.

Apparently the MPs who were determined to live up to their once upon a time campaign promise of making a museum of the Mattala airport and a swimming pool of the Hambanthota harbour, went about asking questions at the Mattala airport that gave the officials there the impression that these people are gathering information of the sort that meshes in with the party position that the Mattala airport will one day be converted into a public gallery if and when the UNP is in power.

Word of course had soon got around that the visiting MPs were speaking in a manner that was disparaging of those who were committed professionals serving at Mattala airport in various capacities, and some people in the area who had a stake in the entire issue with theirs kith and kin working in the facility, decided in their frustration at this affront, to take rotten eggs into their hands.

No doubt the situation may have spiraled somewhat out of control subsequent to the initial egg splatter, and various personalities may have shown up showing their political stripes as a consequence.

That matter is under investigation, but in the circumstances that nobody sustained injuries, the entire issue is bound to go down as a custard pie or rotten tomato sort of affair that the British counterparts of our opposition politicians may be able to edify them about, over a breakfast of scrambled egg and toast.

It is well known for instance that the party leader who all of these local MPs unfailingly look up to, has a special place in his heart reserved for British politicians whom he sometimes brings as his special guests to his school big match as well.

In this context it will not be difficult for these MPs to realize that getting some egg on the face, literally, or some custard pie even, once in a while -- is considered an indulgence one makes towards democratic practice in a polity that swears by the electorate.

Rotten eggs are not guns and bombs to be sure, and despite the noxious fumes these quite organic missiles are known to emanate, they are relatively so harmless compared to the grenades and the other incendiary devices that UNP supporters were used to wielding during incidents of post election violence aimed at the SLFP in the past.

Incidentally, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for instance had shoes thrown at her at a recent public lecture, but she did not blame a ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ for it but said instead that she did not think solid waste disposal did not arouse such intense emotions in people -- as that is the subject she was holding forth on before she was targeted.

In politics a thick skin is a prerequisite, and very often when you can expect the entire kitchen sink to be thrown at you, a few eggs or custard pies can almost be counted as facing a full toss if one were to put all of this in the easy to comprehend cricketing context!