I'm off to Buckingham Palace to look for Touchstone before he causes trouble.
I was going to stay off this thread but couldn't resist it. The BBC seems to be sinking to new levels of sycophantic reporting regarding the Jubilee. It's totally abdicating its responsibilities as an impartial broadcaster. It's ironic that the Duke of Edinburgh thought that the BBC was a den of Marxists. Actually, it's so far up the Queen's backside it can see Cliff Richard's feet.
This letter in
today's Morning Star sums up my opinion of the Monarchy and this whole Jubilee charade.
The media's coverage of the diamond jubilee reveals how the monarchy is sustained by propaganda and emotion rather than reason.
A cringe worthy deference exaggerates the Queen's "service." We hear of her incredible stamina, remarkable devotion and value to the nation without any evidence.
My grandfather provided a service that was faithfully carried out as he mined coal.
He showed an incredible stamina and remarkable enthusiasm by entering a dangerous, claustrophobic, dust-filled environment, day after day for over 50 years. Even in the bloody aftermath of roof falls he returned to do his duty.
After 50 years his "superiors" symbolised his accomplishments with a carriage clock and the knowledge that his family and friends were the "enemy within."
The Thatcher government proceeded to destroy his hard-earned heritage and tear the soul from the community.
For decades, my grandfather and millions like him have created the wealth and success that supported the monarchy and Establishment.
It would have been more appropriate and cheaper to present the lady with a carriage clock forged from all the symbols of British industry and dedicate the jubilee to the labour done by Britain's unseen workers.
In doing so, we may have been spared cringe-worthy column-writing while gaining some history lessons. Surely of more value in our current crisis than any abstract "feel-good factor."
