THE QUEEN’S SPEECH
In a speech entirely made up of empty phrases and religious claptrap, one stands out, namely that ‘life must go on’. Had she acknowledged one of her dear monarchist compatriots, SIR David Attenborough, she would have had to come to the conclusion that life does not have to go on, for unless we make drastic changes, human life at least may come to a grisly end. Attenborough’s solution to averting the catastrophe by ending the use of fossil fuels, stop deforestation and population growth (the surviving lot on vegan diets) and re-wilding the earth, sounds ever so reasonable were it not for Her Majesty’s court of aristocrats like Richard Drax, and of course her own complicity so well described by Heathcote Williams in his Royal Babylon. Obviously, to entertain even a few of Attenborough’s desperately needed recommendations, we need a revolution, the like of which this world has never seen before. Given the absolute powers invested in the Queen and Her Government, not to speak of the global madness of absolute corporate powers, there seems to be no room to manoeuvre (excuse the pun), as even the most modest proposals to the contrary are shut down, like the proverbial ‘killing of the fly with the sledgehammer’. The Queen’s religious homily of the Good Samaritan as some sort of charitable balm on the wounds of the dispossessed is yet another affront: didn’t JB Shaw say something like:
Most of the money given by rich people in charity is made up of conscience money, ransom, political bribery, and bids for titles ...
Finally, Her Majesty’s appeal to patriotism, via the selfless unknown British warrior who gives his life for the country, is as old as the last call of emperors, presidents, dictators and other such divinely military personage, echoing yet another literate Englishman’s dictum of ‘patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel’. The supposedly republican Guardian’s take is to use HER quote of ‘the nation rising magnificently to the challenges of 2020’ as a headline with not a single word of even the mildest criticism. Well, as Heathcote noted so poetically, the mythological Englishman does not criticize the Queen because she is above politics, innit (an’ de Guardian is a mere political rag, innit)! Anyways, with Brexit done, she can now tell Boris to exercise his powers, unfettered by silly EU regulations designed to steal the eternal limelight from Rule Britannica. With Sir David’s ripe old age reaching that of the Queen by a month or two, one wonders if the two of them will meet again in 2021, in heaven, looking down on mankind while singing the praises of the Lord who gave them an easy life on a scorched earth, one who lit the fires and the other who pretended to try to put them out by making wonderful nature documentaries for auntie Beeb.
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