Subdivisions

One thing that most people in this country would agree on is we've never been so divided as a nation. I'd rather not spend time trying to separate all the different Tribes of Britain, but we have a new kind of politics in this country, one that embraces certain elements of Conservatism but also has a many Labour ideals, such as social justice and equity - these people aren't Liberals; let's get that straight from the word go - a liberal isn't what a lot of citizens of England have become. 

I know people who you would call Conservative through and through calling for more support for the poor and disenfranchised, while there are people who call themselves Labour supporters who display all the traits of racists and intolerant bigots towards selective audiences. I know socialists who had meltdowns when one of their children came out of the closet, while I know a Conservative who thinks voting for Brexit was a stupid thing and he wishes we could have a referendum again. Politics isn't simply red and blue with a dash of yellow thrown in; politics is multi-coloured and people are allowed to be socialists and not like European people.

Oddly enough I've never met a single person who thinks food banks are good and I've met no one who thought Gary Lineker was out of order for being a decent human being, but that might be down to the fact that in real life you rarely meet anyone with the specific views you often see on social media and where I live you rarely see anyone doing something like protest, not because we're following the example set by hypercritical newspapers, but because in the stick protests are few and far between; in fact the most contentious thing to happen to me in my quiet rural corner of Scotland has been the upcoming Coronation of Chaz the Third.

You see I think people have learned over the last few years that sometimes keeping what you think to yourself is probably the best thing to do. I saw this happen on Twitter when the Queen died; the people most likely to be disrespectful to a family about their deceased mother took a few days off, let the world do its thing; they ruffled no feathers. It was a wise decision. So as my very loyal Royalist 'town' is gearing up for the kind of public participation event we haven't seen since the Queen's silver jubilee in 1977, it's interesting to see what the anti-Royal and the ambivalent will do or say. Probably nothing because a lot of people in rural communities live and let live; there's plenty of other things to do. Obviously the same can't be said the closer you get to London and as you get closer to ground zero the veins in people's necks begin to pulse and twitch; more people froth at the mouth and talk about respect like it isn't a two-way street, because in 2023 respect isn't; it's a weapon used by whoever wants to take the moral high ground in a divisive issue.

Nothing is proving more divisive at the moment than the Royal family and the crowning of a man with quite a lot of money that's being paid for by his subjects, who currently are struggling to rub two halfpennies together. If this was 11th century Britain you'd understand it, but in 2023? 

British politics is also at a crossroads; the Tories are now slightly right wing of UKIP, while the Labour Party in a desperate attempt to please as many people as possible have morphed into a kind of Cameron-lite Tory Party, leaving the Libdems to feel a bit left wing and the Greens hoping they'll pick up votes from disgruntled left wing Labour voters who would rather remove a testicle or ovary with a rusty spoon than vote for Obi Wan Keir. 

Monarchists however are a curious subdivision; it crosses the political divide and becomes more of an us and them issue with people who do not have the same fawning worship of a bunch of ancestral Germans who gained the thrown through probable unfair shenanigans back around the turn of the 19th century. Where I live there are a number of devout Monarchists who put Pope worshippers to shame and I'm ambivalent towards them as I am towards it all. However, I don't think Monarchists feel the same way; there's a fealty between them that is almost as strong as the one they hold for the crown and they will fight for them; they will stand with hand on heart and recite the pledge of allegiance on Sunday and they will expect every other person in the country to be doing the same or they will be classed as traitors or worse, not British.

You can now be tarred with a brush for not wanting to be involved. I didn't realise that life was a case of choosing sides and if you opt out it's an offence?