I rather wish I hadn’t done a semi-humorous blog last week in which I gently took the piss out of the royal family’s health travails. Whether it’s King Brian’s swollen prostate or Kate Middleton’s abdominal surgery, they’re not, I now accept, subjects for humour at all, particularly if it turns out that either or both conditions are serious. Now we learn that Sarah Ferguson, the ex wife of Prince Andrew, is suffering from skin cancer, having previously undergone surgery for breast cancer. Of course, the royals live in a bizarre, cosseted world, a million miles from the humdrum lives of the not rich nor famous, but seeing they were born into it, it’s not their fault. And when they get ill, I guess we should wish them well and a full recovery, as we would wish to everyone else. It’s been the reaction on social media that I have found utterly depressing.
I should be clear that I had to go looking for the unpleasant hateful comments, because my own social media is more of an echo chamber than it ever was and what I found was simply vile. For that reason, I will not share or link any of it for my loyal reader, but needless to say there was a lot of stuff you would not file under the heading of ‘BE KIND’.
My views on the royals have rather shifted over the years. Up until recently, I was of the view that as most folk seemed to be in favour of them, there was no point in raging about the institution. The 14 long years of Tory party austerity has caused me to change my mind, particularly with the explosion of people having to rely on food banks, the decline of the massively underfunded NHS, children being educated in cold, damp schools and the general collapse of vital public services. When I hear about friends struggling to get NHS treatment, waiting months, sometimes years for urgent treatment and then I hear about royals jumping queues at our expense to get preferential private care, my blood boils. But not at the individuals concerned. Brian, Kate and, presumably Sarah Ferguson are just doing what royals do. And would I really expect them to use NHS services? Too right I would. But should I be having a pop, taking the piss or even being downright unpleasant? No, I shouldn’t, and neither should you.
I suppose I got caught up in the general twittersphere, which sometimes can be fun but other times can be a poisonous place. Some of the comments and ‘jokes’ about Brian in particular were just horrible and much of the stuff about Kate misogynistic, sexist and frankly abusive. I haven’t dived back in to see what the haters are saying about Ms Ferguson but given the kind of things that have been said in the past, I can only imagine.
By all means, let’s have a debate about slimming the royal family down, if not scrapping it altogether (my preference) but can we not reduce it to sheer abuse and hatred? Or in modern Britain, is that just too much to ask?
