If you’re not with us

 

If you’re not with us

As expected, the pile on to Celtic fans materialised after the banner displayed by some of their supporters at the match with St Mirren went around social media. Everyone from Piers Morgan to the usual suspects in the trashy tabloid media weighed in with their faux outrage. In the past ten days, the UK has resembled North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-Il. We are served endless hours of sycophantic, uncritical blanket coverage of every step the royal family takes following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Dissention has been shouted down and alternative opinions of the monarchy branded almost traitorous. No mention is ever made by commentators that there are actually many on these islands who have no interest in the royals.

The right-wing dominated media here has influenced people for years into thinking that the only things keeping the UK from greatness are moaning lefties, the EU, Scottish and Irish nationalists and any who dissent from the narrative of English exceptionalism. This, we are told, is the greatest country on earth, the mother of parliaments, the spreader of culture and democracy, the land of Shakespeare and Keats, the home of fair play and decency. Strangely, it does not appear that way to the various peoples colonised, enslaved and robbed by the UK. From India to Ireland, from Kenya to Australia there are those who know the other version of history, the one our schools don’t teach. The passing of the Queen may allow some perspective on the role of monarchy in the past crimes of Empire which the British seem to have forgotten or deliberately written out of history.

Certainly, the actions of football fans during various moments of silence or applause hasn’t been universally deferential to the house of Windsor. Some followers of Hibernian, Cardiff City, Celtic, Dundee United, Liverpool and others have sang or jeered through the enforced conformity demanded of us all in post-Brexit Britain. We live in a land where basic freedoms are being eroded and as radical as the actions of some football supporters have been in the eyes of others, they are exercising a basic right to protest. We also live in a land where our NHS is dealing with children showing signs of malnutrition. A land where adults are really struggling to feed their families and pay their bills. What is more obscene: the huge gulf between the wealthy and poor in this land or a few banners at a football match? You’d be forgiven for thinking it was the latter given our media’s unwavering criticism of any who question their narrative. What once was called 'journalism' is now in many cases little more than propaganda. One is reminded of the old adage...

'You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God, the British journalist

But seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to.'

Of course, the ubiquitous use of camera phones has images of such protests at football games zipping through cyber-space almost as soon as they have happened and the cycle of recrimination begins. Surely the mark of any healthy democracy is the ability to allow various opinions to be heard? The old adage, often attributed to Voltaire; ‘I detest what you say but defend to the death your right to say it,’ has been forgotten. We live in an age where political polarisation has allowed the mindset of, ‘if you’re not with us-you’re against us,’ to flourish. Everything is a test of loyalty, everything scrutinised for offence.

Comedian Kevin Bridges joked at a recent concert, ‘she won’t be the only 96 year-old to die this year.’ His inference was that the recent huge rises in fuel and food prices would take its toll on the elderly and he was right. The uber offended were on his case immediately and he joked that Twitter was like VAR, scrutinising every joke before trying to cancel him if offence was judged to have been found.

Like many others, I have little interest in ‘royalty’ and in fact don’t feel any human being should be a ‘subject’ of another. That being said, I don’t wish harm on anyone but I do feel the cult of celebrity and the unthinking fawning over people who live in a bubble of privilege and luxury is fairly pathetic. What do they really know of the struggles or ordinary people? What do they really care? They sit at the pinnacle of a class system which perpetuates much of what is wrong with this country. As the funeral of the Queen took place, people queued at a foodbank in Dundee for food parcels. In other cities the foodbanks closed their doors for the day and some went without.

But yeh, let’s castigate football fans not those who oversee a rich country where children go hungry and fuel prices keep their homes cold. Those same football fans have raised thousands to help those less fortunate, organised food collections at stadiums and yes, they can push the boundaries with their antics at times, but at least they give a damn which is more than can be said for some who run this country.