Morrissey has condemned Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee
celebrations.
The former Smiths singer posted a message online on why he opposes the tribute concert and parades to
mark Queen Elizabeth II's 60th year on the throne.
"This week, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee presents a new
lesson in the force of tyranny, and is an expression of loathing and abhorrence
of the British poor - and all done, quite naturally, at the public's expense!
It is degrading to anyone of intelligence," Morrissey insisted.
His message continued: "While dictatorships throughout
the Middle East are gently condemned by the British government, there is no
examination of the extremism enforced by the British 'royals', who remain the
most overpaid and most utterly useless people on the planet. Having done
nothing to earn our respect, they demand everything by return.
"It is a cunning and extravagant form of benefit fraud.
I should mention that I am frequently asked to appear on BBC television's
Question Time to air my views. But is it possible to engage with the British
media and not be carved up? I doubt it. Meanwhile, somewhere else, far away
from tabloid Britain, the moon retains its friendly silence, and the world is
all before you."
While I am of course not British (and Morrisey is a bit mad), I must say that I feel that he does have a point. I have never understood the purpose of the Royal Family - they do absolutely nothing! I feel the same way about the Icelandic president, but thankfully the tax payers are not expected to foot any massive bills because of him. To me, the only good thing about the Royal Family (or ANY royal family for that matter in the world) was Princess Diana. She actually did a lot for the people in the UK, and she served as an inspiration to a lot of people outside of the United Kingdom. To me, if you are going to have some very expensive royalty in your country, make sure they actually do something!
To be fair, I might feel differently though if I lived in the UK - the royal family is such a massive part of the British culture...
To be fair, I might feel differently though if I lived in the UK - the royal family is such a massive part of the British culture...
That said, the Brits know how to make spectacular shows out of the royal, well, everything. Last year's wedding was stunning (to say the least) and last night saw a massive concert which included some very big names. There was quite a lot of people performing that would have put me to sleep (Elton John, Robbie Williams, Jessie J, Cheryl Cole, Tom Jones, Will.i.am, Paul McCartney etc) BUT: there were a few divas on hand to save the night!
No matter what people may think of the Royal Family, I think it is safe to say that the celebrations yesterday will not be forgotten any time soon.
4 comments:
You imply that a country - any country - should not have a Head of State? If that is the case, then I would rather not live in a world of complete anarchy. Since someone has to rule, I would prefer Her Majesty the Queen to any number of the shiftless political back-stabbers that have ruled as leaders of other countries over the years, and now - would one prefer to live under our Royal Family or Yeltsin, Assad, Mugabe, Lukashenko, Berlusconi, Ahmadinejad, or Kim Jong-un perhaps? Politicians come, and politicians go, but our Monarchy provides a stable base upon which we can rely.
In 60 years HM the Queen has seen off 12 Prime Ministers, six Archbishops of Canterbury, 12 Presidents of the USA and six Popes. She has undertaken 261 official overseas visits, including 78 State Visits, to 116 different countries; she has hosted 102 State Visits from foreign heads of state; attended 35 Royal Variety performances; given over 404,500 honours and awards; dealt with 610 investitures and a half million items of correspondence; launched 21 ships; is patron of over 600 charities and organisations, and is commander of several regiments; each year she hosts more than 50,000 people at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, and she tours this country constantly.
I bet she wishes she "did nothing". [And btw that is just the Queen's own itinerary.] Jx
PS Morrissey is really getting on my nerves lately. I wish the man would go and boil his stupid head.
There is a middle ground - yes, I am obviously sure that the Royal Family is a much better choice then, say, Kim. And of course someone has to rule - I just don't believe it should be people that do so automatically because of their blood.
The queen may entertain at garden parties, write letters, launch ships and show up all over the world. And I am sure she is wonderful at it. But in my eyes, that does not make her a "ruler" or a "leader". However, reading over the blog, I see my writing was a bit more harsh and hard hitting then I had intended it to be.
Like I said: I am not British and I might feel differently if I was. Living in the country is obviously very different from just reading/watching news from another part of the world. But this is my opinion on the matter and I feel that I have the right to have it, wrong as it might be...
I rarely talk about politics and religion to people (or blog about my thoughts on the matter) because things tend to turn ugly very fast. Also, the fact that english is not my first language may not help matters much. I don't intend to ruffle any feathers and I am for sure no more critical on other countries then my own - but I will stand by my opinions. Hopefully that does not mean that I as well should go and boil my own stupid head.
PS: I like what you said about the stable base, while politicians come and go. I think perhaps that is one of the main reason why this system works so well in the UK, and probably most other countries where they have royal families. It must provide a certain sense of security that is lacking in a lot of other countries.
PPS: Morrissey is a bit mad, me thinks - and I certainly don't agree with a lot of his opinions. He does seem to look at a lot of things differently then most of us and I tend to like that though...
I have found a couple of quotes that seem apposite here:
“He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.”
Joseph Conrad
"No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal."
Marilyn Ferguson
Jx
PS Your English is a million times better than my Icelandic will ever be!! :-)
PPS I am sure I don't want to give any further publicity to the views of a once-respected poet such as Mr Morrissey; he seems to be destroying his own credibility quite well by himself. But for a man who lives in Los Angeles, he seems to have far too many opinions about the UK he left many years ago. Perhaps he's terrified that people see him as increasingly irrelevant. And as for his recent opinion that the Norway massacre was less important than animals being used for food - that really was stupid.
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