2012, so far.
- Greece teeters on the brink of real financial meltdown.
- Syria’s government is trying its darndest to ensure its own peoples’ extinction.
- The US is scared into silence by the notion that someone even scarier than GWB is aiming for the role of President.
- Worldwide climatic catastrophe inches closer by the day.
- The future of the our wonderful NHS is turned inside out by government ‘reform’.
- Parts of Britain are already drought-ridden and expect a long, hot and dry summer of standpipes.
- The bloody Olympics.
- The bloody Diamond Jubilee.
And yet..
..yet..
Cornish Pasties. Occasionally nice but usually stodgy flakey pockets of lard containing mystery meat and grey vegetables. If you buy them hot, you pay VAT. If, as George Osborne suggests, you eat them cold – then you pay less. Ok. Sounds like a typical rip-off. Next topic though. It’s just greasy snackfood, not life or death.
NO.
“Let’s keep poking at this pasty issue. Look, we don’t know anything about all this serious stuff determining other peoples’ very day-to-day existences, or our own health and well-being for that matter. Whatevs. Anyway, what’s the bloody Euro ever done for me? And I don’t even know where Syria is. Isn’t it somewhere north of Ipswich? As for the NHS, I’m sure it will still be there when I need it. If I need it. Hey – I just had a coffee and feel great. It’s not important. What’s really important is that THOSE BASTARDS ARE TAXING OUR HOT SNACK FOODS! AND I DON’T WANT TO RUN OUT OF FUEL! THE MEDIA SAID WE HAVE TO PANIC! I’M PANICKING!
Fuck it, I’m off down the fuel station to fill my unsafe jerry cans full of petrol and pick up a crate of Ginsters..”
This is the level of discourse we’ve reached. This is the stuff that people seem to worry about. Newspapers and TV news feed into it. As it builds, you can hear the collective IQs of those around the country. The noise is like an old tape player with failing batteries. What really Should Matter doesn’t, and what really SHOULDN’T matter is at the top of everyone’s minds.
Without wanting to generalise, I want to say it’s down to the Great British Public distracting themselves from the cruel and obvious realities of the year. But no, they just care more about pasties and filling their tanks than everything else.























