“I just got on with it. It’s what one does” – Prince Philip, 1921 -2021

 

The nation’s and the world’s MSM are dedicating pages and pages, hours and hours, to the death of Prince Philip. The ‘good and great’ are all having their say and we, the little people, have been reading and looking. After all – unless one’s one of the over-80s, there wasn’t a time when ‘we’ didn’t know about Prince Philip. He has ‘always’ been there. So it’s only proper to pause and reflect because his life was a constant in our lives.

Prince Philip was of that tough generation, the one born between the two world wars. I am sure we all know one or the other of that generation living in our neighbourhood. Their number is dwindling fast. We must cherish them, not least because there’s so much we still can learn from them.

Given that background I found one of Prince Philip’s quotes hugely significant. I read it in one of the personal observations written by those with instant access to the MSM. It’s an answer Prince Philip gave on different occasions when he was asked about his experiences in his early years – experiences which, according to one writer, would have had social services on the scene immediately today. These early experiences would have made today’s youth workers insist he be taken into care, experiences which, according to today’s attitudes, should have meant perpetual counselling and hiding under the bedclothes behind drawn curtains. 

This is the quote: “I just got on with it. It’s what one does.” 

It’s what he and that great generation did – that generation of which he was a most prominent member. Many of us have also been taught this attitude by parents and grandparents belonging to Prince Philip’s generation – an attitude which seems quaint to those inside the M25, to those on the Islington dinner circuit, to those who are now peacocking about, telling us their ‘personal’ reminiscences about how and when they were fortunate enough to have met Prince Philip. 

I’m sure many of you will have watched and read the outpourings – the ‘official’ ones and the comment posts where they were permitted. I’ll not quote from them nor will I link to them. There’s only one report I’ll have to mention. It’s about the huge online moan by the twitter generation, complaining that the BBC had cancelled all normal output yesterday, only broadcasting programmes about the death of Prince Philip (link) – what outrage!

This is strange because these are the same people who thrive on binge-watching Netflix and other video channels. These are the same people who most certainly never watch wall-to-wall BBC. These are the same people who think that only their opinion matters because they ‘have followers on twitter’. These are the same people for whom no opportunity must be missed to denigrate and belittle all of us and especially ‘the elderly’, one of whom was Prince Philip.

These are the same people who, thanks to their ‘connections’ to the Westminster “elite” in MSM and Whitehall, have been betraying us for decades. This is the same “social media prominence” who has been doing ‘politics by twitter’, who is content with having Zoom Peacocks in Parliament.

It’s this ‘generation’ who has been denigrating Prince Philip’s generation and the one born just after the end of WWII. While we, raised to get on with it because “that’s what one does”, have done so as best we could,  they have infantilised themselves to such an extent that they cannot get on with anything unless they have ‘guidance’ and ‘counselling’ and hashtags on twitter. 

On this day, reflecting on the life of a WWII veteran who happened to become the ‘liege man’ and mainstay of our Queen, we should humbly demand that all those who are now signalling their ‘virtue’, by mentioning that they too had ‘known him’, by  tweeting and peacocking about, now blimmin’ well get on with doing their duty – the duty of protection this our Nation in the way we, their sovereign, have told them to do.

It’s what Prince Philip would’ve told them to do.

 

Photo by ☼☼Jo Zimny☼☼