Out of sight, out of mind – part 2

Part 1 of Out of sight, out of mind can be read here.

The fact that many of these Christmas items are produced in conditions that many would call ‘slave labour’ seems to be missed by the many who are totally happy to queue up, socially distanced of course, to buy the latest reindeer, stuffed owls and all the rest, all at bargain prices and are not happy to visit the properties of the National Trust, Government buildings, and museums which the ‘woke’ amongst us are constantly telling us are a national disgrace and should be torn down and erased from the national conscience.

Church congregations continue to fall in many areas and churches, like pubs, are closing.  Church leaders continue their crusade of  ‘wokeness’, continuously telling us that we are now unconsciously biased, which itself is a contentious concept.

Cancelling Christmas due to the virus was mooted in political and media circles at one time, but seems to have been put on the back burner for the moment at least, following negative push back from  the public and business leaders.

I just wonder what they mean by cancelling Christmas, the economic one which is the retail orgy starting ‘black Friday’ now lasting until well into the New Year, or the religious one, the meaning of which seems to have been lost over the centuries since it was actually banned courtesy of the ‘New Parliament’ of Oliver Cromwell.  Interesting that he had a ‘New Parliament’ and we, hundreds of years later, have apparently a ‘New normal’ which all goes to show that there is nothing very much ‘new‘ about anything.

This time of course it’s different; it always is, and it’s our ‘government’ – you know, the democratically elected one that has imposed restrictions, cancelled nearly everything you can think of including elections themselves but may graciously allow Christmas to take place as long as we all behave ourselves, protect the NHS and get the ‘R’ number down.

There is, according to many people, ‘something going on here’.  Something called the ‘Great Re-set’ and it’s hard to disagree as many governments, not only ours, seem to have thrown away any idea of governing by consent and consensus to become some sort of, at the moment at least, dictatorship light with a terrified, brainwashed public following every diktat and the narrative pushed daily by the 24-hour news cycle on TV.

Anyone thinking that the BBC will be defunded by this or any other government needs to consider why that would ever be an option.  The BBC, long the propaganda arm of the left and when it suits both political parties, has been spectacularly successful so far in subduing any criticism or discontent.  The Cabinet must be overjoyed with the polls that consistently show just how happy most of the public are with the collective response to the Covid emergency. Incidentally have you ever been asked for your opinion as none of my family or friends  have.

Surprised?  Not really.  It must be the vast majority still hiding behind net curtains who have had, in many cases, a lovely long paid holiday without a care in the world while basking in the knowledge that their public sector job is ‘safe’ and they can continue to relax now until at least next March, with their mortgage holiday taking the strain from their ever-increasing bank balances.  Or, as one person told me last week: “I’m just taking my daily break while working from home.  Thank goodness this little cafe is still open, I can get my usual cappuccino and croissant while taking the opportunity to walk the dog at the same time.”

“Lucky then,” I replied. “When you are in the office,” I asked innocently, “what do you do?”

“I work for the council,” he replied, “in business development.”

Make no mistake that  is often the view from Audi Avenue here in St Mary on the Wold.  If past events have anything to go by it’s a view shared by the BBC watching, left wing reading, public sector middle-income earners and pensioners living in comfort for whom the start of the second lockdown hasn’t come a moment too soon.

Away from these middle-income people walking the dog in the lanes and parks after Breakfast TV and the Today Programme ends, not Talk Radio of course, as that often features commentators who don’t agree with the cosy narrative and feature the sort of people that read Independence Daily and are aware that there are now growing signs of a quiet rebellion and growing discontent taking hold by, guess who, the people who have had to work all this year often without any financial assistance.

What you will see on a main road near you is exactly what I described way back in late March.   A stream, not of prestige motor cars often driven by white-shirted men and earnest looking women wearing sunglasses (yes even in November),  but a stream of vehicles driven by men and women with names like Dave and Jan.  Vans, not all white these days but proclaiming this electrician, that plumber, this delivery service and heavy vehicles making deliveries to supermarkets, engineering companies, large 4×4 vehicles not to pose in, but used by farmers, electrical power line workers, tankers containing bulk fuel, chemicals, and sewage on its way to environment recycling centres and dozens of usually smaller older cars, not bought for the specific purpose of avoiding congestion charges or public transport which is apparently so Covid dangerous these days, but by the people that actually keep the country working and never ever thought about or thanked by anyone, including our Prime Minister who actually went out of his way in his latest ministerial broadcast to thank teachers for their efforts this year.

Excuse me.  Were they the teachers who remained at home for much of the year, or the ones agitating to go on strike at the moment, or the ones that actually did do their best to insure some sort of continuity of education for their pupils?  Just asking!

But that apart, Boris, revelling still in the newly acquired votes from the ‘red wall’, it might have been nice of you to mention the armies of Daves and Jans who have not faltered from their workplace during this emergency, who have and will continue to deliver, along with self-employed people who, despite all the talk by Dishi Rishi, have not benefited from any help given, unlike illegal immigrants and everyone else represented by vocal vested interests, these people who have ‘kept calm and carried on’ find themselves ignored yet again.

Well done Boris and Rishi.  We shall find just how much we are ‘all in it together’ when the weather changes and  Dave and Jan, who won’t be working from a cosy home heated and lit by their and others efforts, are needed to keep the wheels of  what’s left of the economy turning.

The people who work in all weathers to keep the power lines up, the water pumps turning, the fuel in the tanks, the food in the shops, the couriers delivering, the refuse collectors; in short all the ‘little people’ that when push comes to shove are necessary, whereas the political class with their selective morality, their degrees in politics, philosophy and economics, are found to be wanting.

That there is a reset coming is now obvious.  Maybe it’s a reset when intellectuals and academics in their ivory towers along with the army of supposedly educated political class, come to realise that everyone has something to offer, from the person who opens the building in the morning and turns on the lights or cleans the lavatories, the jobs that apparently are not wanted in your new industrial revolution and green utopia.

Many have had enough of your nicely-spoken experts confidently talking rubbish and making decisions that affect everyone but themselves. Times are changing, it strikes me, by the numbers of people quietly getting on with their business and their lives, and despite the latest lockdown restrictions, getting out and about.  This  government is losing the confidence and goodwill of the people and where once many laughed with Boris, many are now starting to laugh at him, and that is something quite different.

It looks to me as if Dave and Jan have decided that despite government spin and rhetoric the cost has been largely born by them, mostly without any recognition, and have come to the conclusion that enough is certainly enough.