The Politics of Winnie the Pooh －くまのプーさんの政治－

How well do you know the characters from Winnie the Pooh?  Are you more of a Tigger, or are you more of an Eeyore? 

Tigger is a character based on a child’s stuffed, cuddly tiger toy.  He is full of bouncing energy.  “Bouncing is what Tiggers do best,” he says. 

If you are a Tigger, then you don’t stop to consider a problem.  You just enthusiastically try to fix it, sometimes with positive results, and sometimes making a mess of things through lack of preparation or patience. 

Current UK Health Secretary (the politician in charge of running Britain’s hospitals) is sometimes described as a Tigger.  This can be used both as a criticism and as a compliment.  For instance, here is a description of him from a politics blog: 

“[Matt] Hancock, so often portrayed as Tiggerish…comes across as a decent, likable bloke.  He’s self-deprecating in a very middle class, British sort of way…On NHS matters, you can’t fault his enthusiasm.”

From Salixandco politics blog 

And how about Eeyore?  He is a character based upon a child’s stuffed, cuddly donkey toy.  His speech is slow and gloomy.  He comes across as pessimistic and depressed.  He lives in a place called, “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place.” 

So if you see a problem and say, “That will be difficult to solve,” or, “I don’t like the look of this,” then you are an Eeyore.  The UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer (the politician in charge of deciding how much to tax and how much to spend in the country) was described as an Eeyore.  This was a description of Philip Hammond, who warned that Brexit would cost Britain money, and damage the economy: 

“The tabloid Daily Mail, which previously nicknamed [Philip] Hammond Eeyore – after the glum donkey in Winnie the Pooh – declared the Chancellor was Eeyore no more.”

From political blog, Politico 

Tigger used to be my favourite character from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” books.  But sadly, I grew up to be an Eeyore.

 

Vocabulary:

cuddly – pleasant to hug or cuddle, especially because of being soft and comfortable

a bloke – a guy; a man

self-deprecating – modest; tending to minimize one’s own talents, virtues, etc.

“You can’t fault his enthusiasm.” – He cannot be criticised for his (lack of) enthusiasm

gloomy – dark or poorly lit; appearing sad or depressing

tabloid – of a newspaper, having smaller pages, more pictures, and shorter news reports than a broadsheet

glum – looking or feeling sad or depressed