Is it safe to emerge from my ship cabin yet?
Obviously I have supplies for another ten years or so here,
so I’m only asking out of curiosity.
From my luxury cabin I observed Captain Cameron’s
resignation speech. It turned out that all this time he really did love the
country. He said as much. He finally revealed that despite his austerity agenda
and nasty policies he was really rather misunderstood. The truth will out and
all that.
But I don’t know. Sometimes I think there is a discrepancy
between the things people say and the things people do.
I too love this country – and if I love it from my
multi-million pound survival cabin on the good ship Britain, is that so
hypocritical?
Sometimes I think this country is resembling William Goldings
‘Lord of the Flies’. And it is always the wrong people who have the conch shell
which gives them the right to speak. Surrounded, always, by the sea and the
threat of monsters.
It was interesting to see the metaphors David Cameron used
in his recent speech. He talked about being the captain of a ship. It seems we
are now all heading for unchartered waters. Here be dragons. Here be huge sea
monsters with writhing tentacles which are threatening to steal away the
vulnerable and minority groups. To whom I would say – don’t fear the suckers.
I will, no doubt, hear more screams from my luxury cabin,
but it will be a simple thing to stop listening and block up all the portholes.
Sometimes I think listening is such a bad idea – it leads to all kinds of
problems.
Not that I need to care for anyone down here in the belly of
what remains of the good ship Britain. I have everything I need after all. I
don’t so much have needs as preferences. And yet I can’t help wondering if we
are not so much on a ship as on a shipwreck. After all, everyone seems to be
affected one way or the other.
People with the conch shell keep telling me that I should
reconcile elements of this fractured country. That I should somehow set about
working to assuage the vitriol that is filling social media. That I should
promote unity and be positive.
But how can someone who has no inner unity promote unity
outside himself? How can anyone come up with positive solutions when in
survival mode?
So here’s my advice to all you brave people on deck, fighting off the monsters:
Stay alive. Try not to hurt anyone (including yourselves).
And if you are seasick – then wait as best you can for this godawful storm to
blow over.
Think happy thoughts.
