The Golf Club Analogy

Mrs Cragsbury has a tendency to be a bit grumpy. And she has regularly given me a bit of grief over my ‘blame shift’ argument, whereby I believe that politicians should be blamed for the financial crater that is our economy rather than those lovely, cuddly, innocent bankers we all like. Thus, I need to explain my theory to her in detail. I shall do this via – The Golf Club Analogy.

La Famille Cragsbury live in a nice rural Sussex village. The village has a golf club. Obviously. The Cragsbury's are not members. I can think of no better way to spoil a pleasant afternoon than by chasing small white balls around the countryside. But imagine that the golf club’s management committee passed a new bylaw this afternoon:

“Byelaw No 296 - After any round, all members will be positively encouraged to drink as much as they can in the bar – as this is good for the golf club’s profits – and never minding how drunk members are when they leave the building, all members will be issued with blindfolds for them to wear whilst they drive out of the car park.”

There might be a few days when nothing untoward occurs in the car park. My guess is that over the next couple of weeks, a few minor prangs might happen. But I’m sure we’ll all agree that at some point during the month of February there would be a bloody great pile up at the car park exit, probably on a Saturday evening.

Now. Who is at most fault?

• Is it all the dumb assed members who followed Byelaw 296 to the nth degree? For sure they share some of the blame.
• Is it Sir Gred Foodwin the driver of the biggest and flashiest car that accelerated into the rear of the pile up? He gets quite a bit of blame for sure.
• Or is it the golf club’s management committee, who incidentally were all in cars in the pile up too?

And, after the events of this week, who should be banned from the golf club and have their ‘golden putter’ award taken away from them: all the drivers, Sir Gred Foodwin or the chairman and members of the management committee?

Mr Cragsbury rests his case.