Thursday, 4th July 2024. Recognised throughout the world as Independence Day, albeit in the United States. It feeds into the irony … We apologise for the inconvenience, ladies and gentlemen, but your plane has been diverted to Beijing. Welcome to ‘China’! Yes, I am aware that China was not your intended destination and you have, in fact, been entirely misled but … here you are – for the next five years, actually – so, one or two things you should know before disembarking: free speech is no more in this country; veer from, or criticize the Government rhetoric and you may find yourself in a cell – one recently vacated by a hardened criminal, I might add. Meanwhile, migrants – illegal or otherwise – are akin to royalty here, their every whim bought and paid for. No pressure to integrate, their culture, their religion and their rights take precedence over all others, full-stop. The elderly are dispensable, no more than a costly nuisance. Granted, they may have worked all their lives, even fought for this country, but they are no longer considered worthy of warmth in the winter! Illness? Not an option. The once fêted National Health Service has been destroyed by blood-sucking bureaucrats. GPs are a thing of the past, ambulances are hours in the coming, there are no beds in hospitals and doctors are routinely on strike. There is no guaranteed care – let alone continuation of. Covid boosters are up to number eleven and counting while anti-depressants are prescribed for everything. Obesity? Ready for this? The Government has struck a deal with Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company as the unemployed are further reduced to lab rats in the rolling out of the drug, tirzepatide (marketed as Mounjaro), under the guise of weight-loss, in a bid to get them back to work. In the words of McEnroe, ‘You cannot be serious!’. Here we go again: experimental jab, beset with side-effects, the long-term of which cannot be known … Check the small print for liability! Mass manipulation, as ever, demonstrating a total disregard for the human being. What’s that? You’d prefer to stay on the plane? Tempting but, sadly, that’s not an option. The words ‘bed’ and ‘lie in it” come to mind. Advice? Check passport expiry date and make cynical your default.
One thing I cannot abide is long, long paragraphs … It’s a list, for goodness sake, all pertaining to the same subject. I mean, depressing, or what, and that’s before the upcoming brutal budget. I also failed to mention’cuddly’ Keir’s plans for inheritance tax – both he and his sidekick, Rachel Reeves, look as though they volunteered for a vampire weekend and nobody liked them! Of course, practising the politics of envy, they plan to ensure that one is penalised for working one’s entire life for the benefit of one’s offspring. No surprise there, then. Nobody – nobody can convince me that this guy has a brain – or, a heart, for that matter. Rather, I’m inclined to believe that he is the second ‘living’ example of an AI robot – the first being Joe Biden, no question. In fact, no blood, no heart, no brain … sounds like a job lot to me! Hark! Is that a knock at the door I hear, perchance?
Anyway, the above is that about which I planned to write … had it not been for the awful news about Liam Payne. Hit me like a ton of bricks! 1993. He was only thirty-one years old; same age as Manny. He was supposed to be living the dream. The dream. More money than he knew what to do with, funding a luxury lifestyle most would envy. No need to ever work again, should he choose. He did it! He made it but nothing comes for free. Fame claimed his life, loneliness the only winner. He wore the mask with aplomb, as so many before him, but this guy was only thirty-one years old! Sixteen, when One Direction became public property. At least, then, he had four ‘brothers’ to share the load; as back-up. Come 2016, no more. He was on his own.
Back-up. Perhaps, the most important concept of all. In the sage words of ‘Marcus‘ in one of my favourite films (starring Hugh Grant, by no small accident) ‘About a Boy’:
‘Suddenly, I realised – two people isn’t enough. You need back-up’.
One hundred percent. It’s never a given, though, in this world of broken families and broken lives. Social media and television would have one believe that everyone else lives on Walton’s Mountain and that each of us has a friend like Carrie who crossed New York late at night, and in the snow, just to bring in the New Year with Miranda who called, on her own and feeling sad. Reality has no script, however, and the loneliest place is in one’s own head; access only one. Oh, the guile of the mask with a permanent smile … We always talk about back-up – or lack of it – now, after About a Boy. Such a lovely film, both thought-provoking and poignant. Of course, it also makes reference to – and fun of – my favourite quote by Jon Bon Jovi (not), ‘No man is an island …’! No man is an island, the knowledge of which is mandatory in the curbing of narcissism and ego; a very modern disease which, in turn, breeds loneliness.
I was gripped by the recent series of Celebrity SAS:Who Dares Wins on Channel Four. Mentally, could I survive that? In truth, I think perhaps I could – were it not for the constant swearing. Physically? Not a chance! Survival does, however, involve the fragile symbiosis of ego and collaboration and that part can be telling. Jeff Brazier – of Jade Goody ‘fame’- took part in the series in 2019. That nicey-nicey image, always the good guy? When it came to the team exercise – they were in pairs, trekking through snow carrying some heavy weight, if I remember correctly – his partner, female, lost her snow shoe and couldn’t get it back on. Determined to win, regardless, he left her behind and carried on. Chivalry is not dead! No nice guy would do that. In the moment, he dropped the mask, though, and revealed his true self. Big mistake. Huge. The SAS guys were not impressed. He didn’t win. In putting himself first, he jeopardised the life of another. He left her without back-up – something everybody needs and deserves that. Liam Payne. Where was yours?
‘As long as somebody somewhere loves you, there’ll always be a place where you’ll be safe.’
‘Olivia Walton’, Thanksgiving Reunion.
It’s the getting there …
This is Trish, signing off.
