I’m really sorry to keep banging on about this because I’ve banged on about it ad nauseum…….but……..I’m still sick and tired of Olympics publicity. The constant TV trails on BBC are as annoying as adverts on commercial channels. And its not just the Olympics. Oh no. This very afternoon there will be two Rugby Union matches. Rugby. You know – it’s a GAME. But its being advertised on the Beeb as a national struggle with racial undertones. Blokes dressed like medieval soldiers, with spears and whatnot charging at each other on a muddy hill. Stirring voiceover and music. Just like the ads for the Olympics. Moody, atmospheric pieces harking back to “we will fight them on the beaches” WW2 declarations. The media, and doubtless the sponsors, love it. Professional sport is money first, the game second. Its stumping off to Argentina because you don’t speak Italian and the Italian you’ve fallen out with is no great linguist either. But you know that your pre-spat earnings are so vast that you can afford to take a couple of months off.

And then there’s the “London will not compete in the Who’s Done the Best Opening Ceremony” contest. Good, I thought. Save a bit of dosh. But no. Dave’s insisted we have one. He’s pushing street parties, hoping against hope there are no Royal demises in the next few months. Mind you, in terms of diversion, that would serve Dave’s purpose just as well. Dave’s government puts huge effort into designing things to divert Joe and Josephine Public’s gaze from him and his buddies dismantling the National Health Service.

Anyway, enough of all that. As you’ll see from the Gag[s] of the Month, it’ll soon be Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival time. It runs from Thursday 19^th of April to Sunday 22^nd of April, involves most of the town in one way or another, centres around the Market Square with huge 8 foot by 6 foot LIVE cartoons, caricaturists, workshops, music and a general sense of Whoopee. AND there are four cartoon exhibitions as well. All participants are professionals, travelling from all over the UK and parts of France to be silly in Shrewsbury.