There’s clearly nothing unusual about prime minister Boris Johnson getting a loan of £800,000, arranged for him by one Richard Sharp who is then appointed chair of the BBC by Johnson. This is a perfectly normal country, a fact which is once more proven by the then chancellor of the exchequer Nadhim Zahawi going to great lengths to avoid paying £3.7 million in tax. Well, we’ve all done it, haven’t we? Who hasn’t needed a loan of £800,000 at short notice and gone to a rich friend to provide it? Move along, nothing to see here, we are told. The state of our country today, eh?
Meanwhile, with millions of people using food banks and millions more struggling desperately to pay utility bills, the ever in-touch King, Charles III is going to have a lavish coronation in May in order to be, well, King. At least Charles did think about other people when he announced that as part of his coronation the country will have ‘THE BIG HELP OUT’. Apparently, this will create a “lasting legacy” of the coronation as we, the great unwashed, spend a day volunteering in our communities.
I’m going to be very blunt and direct here: is that it? Now, I am all in favour of people volunteering for our communities and I see it all the time by way of acts of kindness that you might not always notice in the grand scheme of things. I see people doing shopping for neighbours, picking up rubbish from the streets, visiting elderly people to provide them with company and all manner of volunteering for their communities. In other words, to a large extent it’s going on already. Maybe Charles is having a pointed dig at those he perceives to be not doing enough volunteering? You never know with him, do you? Any anyway, one day of it will hardly leave much of a legacy, never mind a lasting one. No, I’d rather see more practical types of legacy.
How about working to alleviate and ultimately eradicate poverty to ensure that people can afford to heat and eat without the intervention of charities? How about properly funding the NHS, making that an integral part of the coronation? I’m assuming the King – and I still have trouble referring to him in that way – isn’t just in the job to hobnob with the rich and famous, so maybe a little leadership from him might not go amiss? Now I am not against people spending a day picking up litter or dog shit, but in a day or so that litter and dog shit will be back again. Properly funded and staffed hospitals would be life-changing and indeed life-affirming.
Sadly, I suspect the coronation will be the usual tired fare. Bland and meaningless speeches, having to listen to Cliff Richard, the remnants of Queen (the band, not the late monarch) and Ed Fucking Sheeran and lots of waving from assorted royals and other assorted hangers on and read newspaper front pages attacking Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle. Phew, takes deep breath. That sentence was far too long but it sums up how I feel about yet another royal distraction to the mess our country is in.
Anyway, people will only volunteer to do stuff if they really want to and not if Charles tells them to. And I reckon a lot of people do a lot of volunteering already, except that they, unlike me, don’t make such a fuss of it.
Maybe Charles can persuade Brand Rishi Sunak to make this a better, fairer, more equal country, something as I say would create a far more meaningful legacy than the half-arsed nonsense he is proposing? And while he’s at it, have a word with the crooks and spivs who are running and ruining this country. The Big Help Out, indeed.
