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.
