WHEN the BBC via Last Night at the Proms is prepared to put Black Lives Matter and BAME considerations ahead of the right-wing Westminster Tory government by de-wording renditions such as Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory, you know it’s sticky wicket time.
PM Johnson and his splutterings on Tuesday about the BBC’s decision haven’t had the desired U-turn effect, but who knows, London-generated U-turns are on the up, again (Boris Johnson calls for end to ‘wetness’ as BBC chief backs Proms decision).
That there has never been irony by association with lines including “never shall be slaves”, having enslaved millions, nor having English rugby supporters sing and swing along to a slave song is astonishing. So whisper it, was it known that Rule Britannia was originally a poem written by a Scot, James Thomson, way back in the 1700s?
But the state of the Union is now even more imperilled by those majority, independence-demanding voters here. You know the ones PM Johnson had identified earlier in his distinguished media career. As editor of The Spectator he sanctioned the publication regarding “tartan dwarves” who were “polluting our stock”, and in 2001 when his Telegraph column criticised us for our Personal Care Policy being too expensive. So when we came to “Uncle Sugar” (aka the rUK Parliament) pleading for bailout money, he’d advocate instructing us “to hop it”.
But most of all, 2005 and his considered opining of Gordon Brown as “a Scot, and government by a Scot is just not conceivable”. I’m no defender of Brown, but it is quite obvious the servile status he believes we should occupy. Sadly though for Uncle Sugar, more Mother Hubbard like, his cupboard is quite bare and becoming even more so.
That Covid-19 has triggered an economic downturn world wide is obvious. Strange then that our neighbours in their EU club are potentially weathering it better than we are. Add in that rUK’s fiscal standing before the actual impact of Brexit isn’t strong and stable. Acknowledge that the outcome of the US presidential elections won’t get us any favours. Biden will need to secure better deals: foreign policy, trade: with bigger fish than the rUK’s floundering PM. And if it’s Trump, he’ll demand every pound of flesh in an attempt to establish to kick-start his second term.
And who does PM Boris need to save his preciousssss Union?
You know that Union, the one with an unelected chamber of lords, ladies, toadies hopping over us, pocketing a daily stipend that many can only imagine as a “wage”, a government (another one) we didn’t elect to govern us, a Union that is manipulated by a myopic man so in need of eye tests he drove hundreds of miles. Poor soul, he obviously couldn’t read a map or afford a sat nav to get him home. That Union, the one that fiddled death fatalities so that, just in time, we fell behind India in Covid death related figures.
The saviours? Why, us of course. With our resources, on land, offshore, the black stuff, the alternatives: our technologies, our initiatives, our food and drinks industry – flap a jack on everything! Our people, rebrand the passports, reintroduce, repeat the phrase “North Britain” and talk of independence will hush, and like a torrent rush, Rebellious Scots’ be crushed.
With the PM leading from inside the fridge, or the bell tent, what could possibly go wrong? But just in case those “nationalists” do depart, he’s set up his fall guys, Gove, Galloway, Baron McConnell and Alexander. You have to agree that as a group, they’re better together, and we’re better off without them.
So please, let’s not save their precious Union.
Selma Rahman
Edinburgh
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