OF course he didn’t but it wouldn’t matter if he had
would it.
In 1986, that tabloid front page headline relating to a TV comedian - Freddie Starr was just the kind of nonsense we'd come to expect from the gutter press. Nowadays inappropriate behaviour from those at the top of society - real, or imagined to increase newspaper sales - seems to be barely blinked at. Here, as in the US - there is a hard core of people who - if they feel they are getting their own way by supporting a certain individual, however venal - will turn a blind eye to almost anything.
If recent years have taught us nothing else it is
that Britain as the meritocracy former Tory Prime Minister John
Major boasted about, is long gone, if it ever existed. A Britain of fairness,
one where rules apply to all and everyone equally is a lunatic’s fantasy.
What the last few months have laid naked, is that if
you are from an extremely privileged background, there are almost no rules you
need to obey and no amount of ineptitude, no whiff of corruption, no personal
or public scandal or gaff or bigoted behaviour will prevent you rising.
It won’t matter if the police are called to your
mistress’s apartment in the dead of night because it sounds like what most
people associate with the screeching howling dead-of night emittances of the
worst inner city slum. The list of episodes which include lying and dishonesty
to sheer poor judgement that would see any ordinary person turned down for the
job of toilet cleaner (no offence to those who clean toilets) is clearly no bar
if you went to Eton. In fact you can even end up with a widely held reputation
for being a wit and raconteur when in fact you are a bumbling, babbling,
self-serving arse with a personality disorder.
Meanwhile – the list of things that are broken in
the UK gets ever longer as the posh boys play out their extended 6th
form common room squabbles against a complete lack of opposition.
But we need to think about those things because when
we crash out of the EU, with or without a deal, there is no cushion for those at the bottom. So – here is a brief, but by no means exhaustive inventory;
The Railways.
For most of us – whether longer distance social travellers or commuters,
travelling by train has become an expensive game of roulette where if we get
from A to B without a delay or not on an over-crowded train we feel as if we’ve
won something.
Energy Suppliers
- Just ask ANY customer of Scottish Power or Npower
The ombudsman service
which is meant to represent the consumer in our fight to get a decent service from
the energy suppliers is a joke. Just ask anyone [me] who has tried that
recently and you’ll be told that the tale is very definitely wagging the flea
infested fat drooling useless dog.
The student loans service.
Ask those students left penniless by the loans service in England and Wales
NHS. Talk to those on
growing waiting lists or who are being non-too-subtly pushed in the direction
of the private sector or who cannot afford to get basics like asthma medication.
Government infrastructure services.
Major government contractors like Carillion have gone under in recent months
with huge projects such as the new Liverpool hospital left expensive and incomplete and KPG the huge accounting firm who
audited them and other companies that have been shown to be obviously in a
corroded state – continue shamelessly.
Plus formal and informal drugs dependency is through
the roof
National debt through the floor
Personal debt through the ceiling
Homelessness a national disgrace
Damage to the environment (see last week)
And yet, the country remains in paralysis because
one posh boy tried to sort out his party’s factions by holding an ill-conceived
– poorly thought out – badly planned referendum and now the other posh boys are
playing their stupid games while the rabbits-caught-in-the-headlights we call
The Opposition, look on flaccid, pointless and bemused.
But when the shit really hits the fan – and if you
think where we are now is bad – remember we are just in the approach to the car crash – we’ve not
yet experienced the impact, had chance to survey the wreckage or start feeling the pain or the cost of the
clear up – those like Johnson and his ilk, who helped steer the vehicle we call
Britain off the dual carriage way will not be harmed. They will, however, have
mown down a lot of ordinary people in the process.
Of course I did not title this post 'Jeremy Corbyn
ate my hamster' because the idea of that man doing anything remotely remarkable
or decisive is too, too ridiculous.
*
And for the best break from it all – if you happen
to be in Edinburgh next week – do come along to this.
