Mark Thomas is funny, he’s clever and he’s one of the few people who can rise above the current miasma of mediocrity that is telly-land to make a show that is engaging, entertaining and thoroughly relevant.
For those in the know Thomas is a comedian-cum-political-agitator. And I mean agitator in the best sense of the word (ie. someone who agitates to stir things up and prove a political point rather than someone who is just annoying and deserves a slap. Step forward Gillian McKeith…).
Previous Thomas stunts have included him delivering water from an impoverished African nation to Yorkshire Water (who at the time were paying their top brass sick salaries and not spending any of their massive profits on reinvigorating the eroding water delivery infrastructure – while charging customers the earth and at the same time telling them to use less water); and, my favourite, investigating blue chip companies who owned priceless works of art without declaring them for tax purposes by pretending the public could come and see them at any time (enter Thomas and a circus troupe asking for access to various company boardrooms to view the artworks…)
His work exposing the Export Credit Guarantee Agency was also a joy. This involved Thomas exposing the workings of a UK government agency that underwrites multi-million pound projects by British companies when they work in potentially ‘unstable’ or ‘unfriendly’ regimes abroad. Basically tax-payers cough up if their schemes go belly up but they don’t get any of the profits if those schemes go well. They go to the shareholders, silly…
Last night saw Thomas return to one of his favourite topics, that of arms dealing, and this time, alongside willing schoolchildren with a keen interest in human rights, he helped set up several arms dealing firms in schools to prove that getting around UK and EU legislation over importing and exporting arms was, quite literally, child’s play.
Thomas, as ever, was thoroughly engaging as a presenter but the kids involved were the ones who really stole the show. They were brilliant and a personal highlight for me was a 16-year-old girl from Oxfordshire trying to procure a tank. Genius. Point totally made. Politicians look on and hang your heads in shame...
Anyway, the full story from Mark Thomas’ point of view can be found on the New Statesman website (www.newstatesman.com) and if the show itself, Dispatches: After School Arms Club, is repeated it’s well worth a look.
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