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Democracy came about when people realised that using violence to decide who gets to rule is a kinda silly way to run things; but Tim Farron’s polling station witnessed a triumphant return of politics-by-fisticuffs.
When the leader of the Liberal Democrats entered his polling station in Cumbria to cast his vote, a small disagreement between a photographer and camera soon spilled over in the media scrum area.
Now, there are two types of fights in this world. There are short, to the point fights between people who know how to throw a punch and understand that fighting is no laughing matter. And long, messy, crap fights between people who only throw punches at that punchbag machine game you find in nightclubs on holiday. You know the kind, where everyone is a bit arms and pushing and maybe someone gets a headlock, but most of the time everyone ends up knackered, embarrassed and with hot ears?
This fight is most definitely the latter.
It’s even soundtracked by the trademark of all crap fights: people describing how silly the fight is. Listen closely you can hear one onlooker shout “A man just nearly tripped up", before piping up with “He’s done it again. What’s going on?" and finishing with “They’re having a proper scrap!”
A fight so rubbish that it took three attempts for people to register that it was actually a fight.
Don’t fight people. Democracy is important, but coming to literal blows over it is a bit far.
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(Image: BBC News)
Carl Anka is a London-born journalist, former Shortlist contributor, and broadcaster who believes that everything deep down is a wrestling storyline. You Are A Champion, co-written with England International footballer and child food poverty campaigner, Marcus Rashford, is Carl’s debut novel (published by Macmillan Children’s Books, 2021). A follow up, You Can Do It, was released in July 2022. He has written for BBC, the Guardian, VICE, NME, GQ and BuzzFeed among other publications online and in print and specialises in writing about pop culture, video games, films and football. He is currently a reporter for sports media group The Athletic and resides in Manchester.