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Is what British politicians say a load of 'cock and bull'? That's what this show wants to find out...

Artist Nic Green created the show Cock and Bull before Brexit – but the work, which takes apart the words of politicians, is just as pertinent now.

Theresa May visit to Grimsby

I just think you can say ‘strong and stable government’ as much as you want, but it doesn’t make it true.

Cock and Bull Image 3

TO LISTEN TO a politician make a speech can sometimes be an exercise in trying to find a needle in a haystack. The needle is the point, the haystack is a load of words.

Here in Ireland, we can certainly point to politicians who are fond of a bit of bluster. But there are others, too, whose gift with words (or often, their scriptwriter’s gift) marks them out as people who have a very good point to make.

Over in the UK, a lot of attention has been laser-focused on MPs in the wake of the Brexit vote. British Prime Minister Theresa May in particular has found herself making speeches that are sometimes dreary, often boring – never explosive, unless for the wrong reasons. 

Conservative words

In 2015, the award-winning British artist Nic Green found herself contemplating what politicians say, and how they say it.

Is it just a load of words that mean nothing?

She started recording these words, listening and then distilling them down, and eventually using them to create the theatre piece Cock and Bull. The work will be performed in Dublin as part of Live Collision this Saturday.

Nic Green headshot Nic Green Oliver Rudkin Oliver Rudkin

Cock and Bull was conceived for the eve of the 2015 UK General Election, but four years on it is just as pertinent. 

In the piece, three women convene to perform their own, alternative, party conference.  They use the words of politicians and respond to what’s described as “the meaninglessness and repetition of empty political promise, the privilege of the governmental elite and the deep discontent of an increasingly disproportionate and divided society”.

The work is part protest, part catharsis, and part exorcism, says its creator. 

That it is performed by three women, when politics across the globe is overwhelmingly male, adds another layer to it.

“It started when I was looking into the relationship between power and language,” Green tells TheJournal.ie of its genesis. She had initially started looking at how bankers talk about themselves, but then decided to go straight to the seat of power.

“I started looking at David Cameron and George Osborne and I ended up watching the 2014 Conservative Party Conference, all of the speeches back to back,” she says. “Which I had never done before – because why would anyone do it unless it was your job?”

A few things struck her. “They were all men of a certain age, white, of a certain class – most people coming from Oxbridge, Eton etc. And the other thing that struck me was the repetition between the speeches. These amazing ideas distilled into these slogans that become a shorthand for a policy. But I’m not totally convinced that anybody knows what those policies are.”

The piece came out of a quest to figure out how you can use your voice in the world. “Going, I just feel so bored of voting for things and them not getting through and the things I want to happen never happens,” she says.

Cock and Bull Image 1

“I guess that’s what we call democracy in our country but the margins are so slim and there are so many people who feel desperately unhappy with the situation,” says Green. “What do you do, how do you deal with it? How do you keep on trying to talk about it and find a way to use your voice? When we first started making this piece these were the questions we dealing with.”

She started collecting sentences, hitting on repeatedly used phrases. Green would then disassemble the sentences to see if she could find new meanings. “I just felt like there was really something about taking these words and altering them and repeating them into meaningless or exposing them,” she says.

While playing with repeated words, she’d notice how they’d sometimes sound like different words – if you say ‘people’ over and over it again, sometimes it sounds like ‘peephole’.

Dumbing down

Seeing the simplicity in the words made Green wonder about the ‘dumbing down’ of political speeches. “Maybe we’re really seeing the full effect of that now with Brexit and how that propaganda played out on the lead up to these really simplified ideas that are just not reality,” says Green.

She wonders if people can start to feel disaffected and disengaged from politics because of a dumbing down “into nothing – you can’t have a conversation about nothing”

“There’s nothing to talk about and maybe that’s why a lot of people don’t know who they should vote for or why,” she says. “I guess [the piece is] just trying to react to that in a way. Just expose it a little bit more.”

I just think you can say ‘strong and stable government’ as much as you want but it doesn’t make it true.

Green believes that people are even more averse to political spin than when Cock and Bull was first made.

“I think in a way it maybe feels more relevant,” she says. “[The piece is] not educational in the sense it tells you anything about these parties. Literally what it does is presents the words back again in another space, and re-forms them. It gives this other kind of space for you actually to have a moment to personally respond to that and emotionally respond to that.”

None of us really know how much stuff affects us, how much we’re influenced or swayed. I think it’s good to purge it a bit.

Though it’s one show in a sea of work, Green hopes that Cock and Bull is in its own way making a difference:

“In a really tiny way it’s just a little theatre show, but for us when you feel like you are not represented in the power that governs your land, it’s a tiny way to take some power back, or to access your own agency when you just feel like you can’t in a bigger picture.”

Cock and Bull will be performed on Saturday 27 April as part of the Live Collision art festival, which runs from 24-27 April at Project Arts Centre in Dublin. 7pm and tickets are €16, suitable for ages 16+. Tickets for all events can be bought from the Project Arts or Collision websites.

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:53 PM

    Cudda wudda shudda Philly…another pathetic mess.

    107
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    Mute Peter Carroll
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:08 PM

    Statement of the BLEDDING OBVIOUS ….. Incompetent …. ” sure they’ll know they’ve no wTer when they turn on the tap “”"” FOOLS COUKDNT ORGANISE A PISS UP IN GUINNESS

    64
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    Mute Mark Campbell
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:24 PM

    Pathetic is right,highest paid public sector workers in Europe and this is what we get for it.

    59
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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Oct 31st 2013, 8:12 PM

    Agreed, Mark. Instead of highly paid public sector workers, like teachers on jobbridge, we should have low paid private sector workers like Quinn, Fingleton, Drumm, etc. Because they’re honest, decent, incorruptible, hard working people with the interests of the people at their hearts.

    32
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    Mute Mark Campbell
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    Oct 31st 2013, 11:30 PM

    Yeah and was it the public sector banking regulator that allowed it all to happen. Then rode off into the sunset with a fat lump sum and pension?

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 31st 2013, 11:33 PM

    @Mark

    PWNED!

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    Mute RP McMurphy
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:08 PM

    Good man Phil….couldn’t be bothered communicating it correctly he’s so used to just telling whoever what to do! The most ignorant, self-obsessed man I have ever had the misfortune to have worked with. Only the threat of business’ refusing to pay water rates is in the offing, we would not have heard from him! He is THE original Irish ‘let them eat cake’ sort of man-een bully.

    104
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    Mute Ben Reilly
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:45 PM

    The pictures of him off boozing with his “Personal assistant” whilst the household charge was being introduced says it all really!

    66
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    Mute 'Bull' Mick Daly
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:33 PM

    People asleep on the job,they blamed recent wet weather!!!! Are they for real!!

    86
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    Mute Rory O'Brien
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:20 PM

    HOLD ON! He reckons that the communication was handled badly! This from the biggest PR UNFRIENDY AND INEPPT buffoon in Leinster house !

    73
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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:34 PM

    All the special advisors these ministers have and he Hogan comes out with that crap.

    44
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    Mute AICS (Steve Tracey)
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:59 PM

    They cock it up, don’t plan and then send Phil “clueless” Hogan out to apologise and make things better, what a brilliant choice. Keep going boys you’re making things worse every minute.

    55
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    Mute JayTee
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:51 PM

    The government was warned years ago….hypocrites

    47
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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:30 PM

    “It’s their fault, they created the mess and we have to make difficult decisions”.. So there !!!!

    47
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    Mute legoman❗
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    Oct 31st 2013, 9:13 PM

    If it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down.

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:46 PM

    What IS the problem?

    42
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    Mute Little Jim
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    Oct 31st 2013, 6:51 PM

    We have to wait for a grown-up to have a look.

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    Mute mcgoo
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    Nov 1st 2013, 12:28 AM

    Ultimately it’s a network that loses 40-50% of what it produces. The problem is silt apparently.

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    Mute Barry Ryan
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:19 PM

    They say that about everything! Well… everything could have been handled better. Selfish, me fein, corruprt, deluded, out of touch with the people and scary idiot’s running the Country!

    38
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    Mute TheIrishBrain
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:14 PM

    The water is too wet in Ireland

    33
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    Mute Robert Hayes
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:22 PM

    It’s the wrong type of water…….
    Pathetic shower of over -paid ,under -worked shower of wasters.
    Take them all out and dump them in the sewage treatment plant in Ringsend.
    Maybe that is out of service also.

    34
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    Mute Frank Mc Carney
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    Oct 31st 2013, 8:19 PM

    Doubt if it could handle that much s**t

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    Mute Roddie Cleere
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:59 PM

    Resign

    26
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    Mute Mark Campbell
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:28 PM

    Oh if only we had accountability in this country,nobody ever resigns and they will just let the latest storm blow over. Probably give themselves an increment for dealing with the stress of it all.

    23
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    Mute AICS (Steve Tracey)
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:34 PM

    Mark, this comment is needless, of course they will it goes without saying

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    Mute Frank Mc Carney
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    Oct 31st 2013, 8:15 PM

    Yes DCC certainly made a cock up BUT
    Hogan master communicator criticising them —— well that sure is the pot calling the kettle black. Who is responsible for cock up over 2014 property tax payments??? Oh yes Hogan you indeed are the master communicator or perhaps bullshitter might be more apt.

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    Mute susanna smyth
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    Oct 31st 2013, 8:42 PM

    This is the kind of third world service that scares companies thinking of setting up to do business in Ireland and his thick rhetoric on air today shows we ‘re not progressing but going backwards

    17
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    Mute Sharon Obrien
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:34 PM

    We are drinking this shit and there could be anything wrong with it,if they dont know what the problem is how do they know its safe for us to use.

    21
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    Mute Leslie Alan Rock
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:20 PM

    And if me aunty had b**** she’d be me uncle

    16
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    Mute Mary Griffin
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:34 PM

    Phil Hogan says it was handled badly. He must have gone to Communications Clinic lately so as I would have thought he would not have any expertise in this area. If he has he has hidden it well.

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Oct 31st 2013, 9:26 PM

    I’m actually surprised the pile of ignorant sh1t hasn’t ordered revenue to look after it.
    Christ, he’s one buffon . Small wonder he can’t show his face in Carlow.

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Oct 31st 2013, 8:11 PM

    Well Phil a good place to start handling things properly is by telling the truth and stop hiding it. You want the people who pay you’re wages to be less up set with you well give the true facts we’re growing ups for the most part.

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    Mute John Ryan
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    Oct 31st 2013, 7:32 PM

    Government entered a tug of war competition and got disqualified for pushing

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    Mute John
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    Oct 31st 2013, 10:04 PM

    There is only one way to settle this political circus and that is for FG/L to resign tomorrow at 9am.

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    Mute Dhakina's Sword
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    Nov 1st 2013, 12:34 AM

    I’d be delighted with that, even if we had to allow them a concession of having a lie in till’ ten, or eleven.

    5
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    Mute Toby Parker
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    Oct 31st 2013, 9:46 PM

    Everything this eejit does could have been done better.

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    Mute Cardboard Cut Out
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    Oct 31st 2013, 10:50 PM

    Am I being too synical in thinking that the timing of this is priceless…. two months before charges come in. Frighten the sheeples into paying their water charges. We had the hottest, summer in a million years n not a whisper about a water shortage

    11
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    Mute DeclanFlynn
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    Oct 31st 2013, 9:04 PM

    How long til Phil decides the best way to solve this water problem is to introduce a new fee of some kind? Maybe a tax on taps or a levy on loos?

    A flush counter could be installed on every toilet in the state. They would wirelessly report your flush usage back to Phil and the Dept of Finance can then deduct it straight from your wages.

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    Mute John Ward
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    Nov 1st 2013, 12:43 AM

    That bastard Hogan will tax our piss if he can get away with it!

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    Mute Niamh Okelly Odoherty
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    Nov 1st 2013, 8:02 AM

    Just wondering next year when the water charges come into effect and these goons decide to cut off the water supply can we take them to court for failing to supply a service that we have paid for (probably in advance mind you ) lol

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    Mute Aidan Mulligan Mull
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    Nov 1st 2013, 3:34 AM

    Just get Garyhinch reservoir on the way i know it’s years away but it would end the problem stop the stalling

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    Mute John Fitzgerald
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 12:24 PM

    Like you did with LPT Phil

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    Mute Martin Gorry
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    Nov 1st 2013, 12:51 PM

    This man is unfit for public office. He is appears to struggle with the simplest task.

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    Mute Robert Squires
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    Oct 31st 2013, 11:36 PM

    You will never run dry when you have a RainShed Harvesting water supply .

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