There comes a time when a blank page becomes a challenge, even for me. Look for the humour but where? I saw a clip on Instagram this morning of a veteran who was emphatic that he would not fight for this country now. No longer Great Britain, he listed his gripes – and I agreed with each and every one of them – but just imagine how it must feel, for him, to have fought for his country, witnessed the most terrible atrocities and lost so many friends and comrades for this. What happened? More images of mindless Just Stop Oil vandals spraying orange paint over private jets having just defaced Stonehenge the other day. Arrested and thrown in a cell? The two at Stansted were, apparently, arrested but one can bet there will be no consequences. Anything goes. Personally, I would keep them in a cell overnight before marching them out to remove the paint, by hand, armed only with a bucket and sponge – and cameras! Should it take them days, so be it. Meanwhile, they should be charged with criminal damage and sentenced to jail, if only for a month. Clearly, imbeciles without direction, that should be a short, sharp deterrent. Send them to Rwanda? Tempting, but why should Rwanda have them? I prefer to think of Rwanda as home to the majestic Mountain Gorilla; he of the brain capacity which would dwarf that of most humans, let alone these morons.
The list of mindless criminal damage in the name of protest is endless. Do we ever hear anything more? Granted the publicity and news footage they crave, that’s it. Why? Why pander to them? Arrest and ignore … What of the mindless, cowardly felling of the Sycamore Gap tree last September? I don’t remember hearing anything more. However, I have just looked it up and two ‘men’ in their thirties are responsible. The case is ongoing, deemed too serious for the Magistrates’ Court, and following a hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on 12 June, a trial has been set for December 3rd. May they be locked up. Interestingly, both attend court disguised up the to the hilt in hoodies, masks and sunglasses. Real men!
Any light in this darkness? It hasn’t rained today. Wimbledon starts in just over a week. Today is the longest day. Moving on, swiftly … Must say, though, after the year so far, I’m actually looking forward to Christmas. The country will have a new Prime Minister by then. That’s a thought. Keir Starmer? Weirdly, I heard some nutty fortune teller insist that he would never be Prime Minister. Well, that either suggests a shock result or Keir should be getting his affairs in order! I cannot stand the man or his sleazy, vacuous approach. No policies, rather just petty back-biting. The politics of envy. I know he is a barrister but, ironically, he has never struck me as being very bright. One of those book worms, I suppose, devoid of natural intelligence. I loved – in the first televised debate between he and Rishi – his ridiculous response to the question put to both as to whether they would pay for private health care if a loved one required urgent medical treatment. At least Rishi Sunak was honest. Not smarmy Starmer, who replied in the negative. A multi-millionaire, no family before politics!
The politics of envy is age-old. Let’s face it, class underpins everything. Thus, Labour’s only policy of note is to add VAT to independent school fees. Predictable. Once again, age-old, and incredibly short-sighted. Price a private education beyond all those hard-working parents who have struggled and made sacrifices, to date, in order to give their children the best start in life and those parents will have no choice but to remove said children and send them to a state school instead. Disruptive for the child and, more importantly, adding to the already bulging class sizes in the state system. Who wins? However, the two words which really matter, here, are ‘no choice’. The politics of the Left. One size fits all. No choice. No thought to improving the state system. Don’t be silly. Their entire focus is to take from the ‘wealthy’ in that race to the bottom – for all! Excellent plan. Forget aspirations and aiming higher. After all, that only requires money. Wrong. First and foremost, it requires a mindset; the will to strive for more. Remove choice and there is nothing to strive for …
I am tired of the constant focus on Rishi Sunak’s wealth. He is an intelligent, well-educated man who just happens to be a multi-millionaire. So, too, is Keir Starmer – well, a multi-millionaire, at least. Should one’s bank balance be scrutinised, then, before one is considered eligible for the post of Prime Minister? Only if one has struggled can one have empathy for those who are? I don’t buy that. Why should Rishi Sunak apologise for his wealth; be made to feel guilty? It should be irrelevant and, in all honesty, I think he has been pretty good-natured about the focus; the constant jibes. Enough. It’s pathetic. Embarrassing. Why does everything have to be about money? Those who have, are pilloried, considered undeserving, while those who have not are victims. Interesting slant. Take away choice, though, and each and every one of us is a victim.
The thing is, money has nothing to do with class. Take a look around. It’s depressing. However, the two are constantly confused. The driver of the new, top of the range, black Range Rover – blacked out windows, the lot – wearing black tracky bottoms and t-shirt, sporting a shaved head with wraparound sunglasses and chewing gum, with the blonde beside him – all fake tan and botox … that’s money, not class. They’re everywhere! Never accused of being posh, though. For ‘posh’ is an insult reserved for those ‘of a certain class’; those who speak ‘properly’ and are deemed to be ‘educated’. The real bugbear of the Left. Envy. Ironically, I wonder if Carole Middleton is ever branded ‘posh’? She, who grew up in a council house but had aspirations of grandeur such that her daughter will, now, one day be Queen while she, herself, is virtually running the Royal Family! One has to admire her tenacity. ‘Posh’? Not an insult which will ever be aimed at her. After all, she thought it appropriate to chew gum at Prince William’s Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst …
I am forever led down this path but it is an attitude which is omnipresent and one I find increasingly irritating. Listening to Radio 2 of a morning, Vernon Kay has a regular slot in which he delves back into the distant past – usually the Seventies! – playing old reels from the BBC vault. Of course, he, then, spends the next five minutes imitating the accents of those heard – well-spoken, clipped English, commonplace in the media in days gone by. ‘Delightfully posh’, he calls them, supposedly a term on endearment. However, while he finds it amusing, I just find it depressing.
Stephen Pound, former Labour Party politician, made a throwaway comment whilst discussing the Euros on GB News recently. In relation to the enforced separation of the crowd at football matches, he questioned why the same is not necessary at Rugby Internationals? ‘Is it just because they’re all toffs?’ was his quip … Nail on the head, I suppose, ignoring the derogatory connotation. For the ‘toffs’, as he chooses to call them, know how to behave in public. ‘Educated’, most possess social skills (largely gleaned from their parents) considerably evolved from the cave man, enabling them to appreciate a sporting event for what it is rather than regarding it, merely, as an opportunity for a brawl!
Curb the envy. Curb the insults. Aim for the top rather than race for the bottom. Choice is everything. Deny that and one has nowhere to go. Freedom of choice. Freedom is choice. Look at the elephant incarcerated in a zoo. Is he happy?
‘Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.’
Benjamin Spock
This is Trish, signing off – stepping down from her soapbox, slightly behind schedule!
