Jubilee Jubilation?

I haven't been watching much, apart from part of the concert last night & snippets on the news.

There's something very out of kilter about spending vast amounts of money, when we are supposed to be virtually bankrupt, celebrating one of the richest women in the world. How can the money be found for this in the same year that we are all being asked to tolerate varying degrees of austerity?

Historically there is nothing new in such events. They have often been staged, quite cynically, to take people's minds off their own troubles & divert them from political realities. Such diversion can only ever be temporary however. People know when their lives are being drastically affected in a negative way. They experience it daily. So the euphoria will pass. Reality will set in & I hope the public will question the decisions the politicians have made.

I would admire the Queen far more if she had said that she didn't feel the celebration of her Jubilee should be as ostentatious in the current climate. I doubt she or her family or household are feeling the pinch at all. But a little awareness of the thousands of her subjects who are would have been welcome. It feels like the last binge of a party before the Bailiffs come.

What sensible household invites all their mates to a bit of a do when they have lost their job or have had their wages frozen or reduced? If they do, sure all their friends & neighbours will have a whale of a time at their expense. Just as everyone was having a great time at the concert last night. What happens the day after? A big hangover & reality. Our rulers & leaders have lost their sense of what is appropriate. They seem to believe all the PR hype in the bubble of the "media"world.

The Queen has done a job. For a long time. Sometimes she has done it superbly, sometimes not. So have millions of her subjects, in far less luxurious & comfortable circumstances. She has probably paid a personal price for doing that job. So do we all. Lets not get swept up in the current wave of sycophancy.