Few things illustrate the change in viewing habits, and indeed our attitude to the monarchy, than the dwindling audience garnered by the Queen’s Christmas Message. Gone are those days in the 1970s when families would ensure Christmas lunch was cleared away before 1500 hours, when the Queen’s thoughts would be shared with the nation, before the afternoon film was screened. Now, around 10% of the population tunes in.
Many are working, yes, even on Christmas Day. Others are away from their homes, visiting relatives and friends. Yet more do not bother tuning in at all. But such is the desperation of our free and fearless press, and the Tory Party which they have in their pockets, that not watching the Queen’s Christmas Message has been turned into some kind of heinous crime - but only if the person not watching is Jeremy Corbyn.
That’s right: the new supposedly devastating attack line from the right is to moan that Jezza might not be watching the Queen on Christmas Day. The Daily Brexit, still sometimes known as the Express, was in the vanguard, sneering “JEREMY CORBYN dodged questions on whether he watches the Queen’s speech on Christmas Day either alone or with his family, saying he ‘usually’ has it on, ‘some of the time’”.
Then came the Murdoch Sun to kick both Jezza and Angela Rayner: “LABOUR's Angela Rayner today claimed Jeremy Corbyn might watch the Queen's Christmas Day speech on catch-up. The shadow education secretary tried to defend the Labour boss, after he was caught out yesterday pretending he watched Her Majesty's annual address to the nation - but said he had it on in the morning”. Yeah, Boo Rotten Unpatriotic Lefties!
And no attack on the Labour leader would be complete without the Mail, which crowed “Jeremy Corbyn allies desperately claim he might have watched Queen's Christmas message 'on catch up' BEFORE it was aired as farce over his TV interview blunder deepens … Angela Rayner has insisted Jeremy Corbyn could have 'watched it on catch up’ … She then claimed he'd actually said he catches up with the speech on Boxing Day … Comes after Mr Corbyn's cringe-worthy exchange with ITV's Julie Etchingham”.
Any more sneering? Ah, but there has to be someone at the increasingly alt-right Spectator to put the boot in, and so it has proved. “It’s a simple question, but one the Labour leader appeared to struggle with during his interview on ITV … ‘You don’t watch it, do you Mr Corbyn?’ Etchingham asked the Labour leader. Oh dear. Another broadcast interview success for Corbyn”. Tee hee hee! Nyaah nyaahdy nyaah nyaah!!
It was left to the Labour-supporting Mirror to relay what Jezza actually does on Christmas Day: “I enjoy the presence of my family and friends around Christmas. Obviously, like everybody else does … And, I also visit the homeless shelter, either on Christmas Day, or the day before, to talk to, and listen to people's lives, about how they could be made better with a government that cared for them”. What most of the press won’t tell you.
Visiting a homeless shelter. Talking to those less fortunate. Maybe including those with mental health problems, victims of broken relationships, those evicted from their homes, and former soldiers with conditions like PTSD. You know, former soldiers - the people the press claims to stick up for. Those they claim Jezza doesn’t care about. Nothing shows the rank hypocrisy of the Tories and their pals to better effect. Another right-wing own goal.
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24 comments:
What a world we live in where someone is castigated for not watching Lizzie Von Windsor's irrelevant yearly message. This, from the same meedja, who are currently wetting themselves over the Prince Andrew scandal
My late father wouldn't have it on at all, and that was in the 50s and 60s. He never stood for the national anthem either. Said she should stand for him as he fought a war in their name
Fackin' Ada!
They really have gone full-on Alf Garnett, haven't they?
Jeremy just like a Jewish dude whose birth we celebrate on the 25th, came for the lost, the sick,the broken, the homeless, mentally ill and those who are alone.
Like Jesus, Jeremy calls out the hypocrisy of the powerful, the politicians who pontificate and willingness to inflict misery on the poor whilst lauding the tax dodging bankers and tech companies.
Jeremy is showing us humanity, by visiting those with nothing and irregardless of next week's election outcome will carry on and do what Jesus did.
Who cares if he watches the Queen's Speech..it's not important,I'm sure Brenda will be more than happy for the Prime Minister to be out there for the poor than watch her speech.
If I didn't already intend to vote for Jeremy Corbyn I would now - purely on the basis of MAYBE he won't listen to the steaming pile of shite that is the Lizzy von Windsor annual diatribe.
Plus, of course, that it'd piss off the forehead-knuckling Murdoch/Rothermere hypocritical bullshitters...the very same people currently sticking a boot into Andrew "Sweatless" von Windsor.
I say good for Jeremy and roll out the tumbrils for the von Windsors. We did it once in 1649 and we can do it again, preferably with the OzYank and the "Viscount" as additional entertainment. Christ, anything's better than East Enders and Strictly.
Shocking news!
Cue assorted deselected or suspended sexually harassing Labour MPs, groups of pisshead B-list thesps, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Joanna Lumley and the odd rabbi to announce on Twitter, Facebook and letters to the Guardian that they can no longer bring themselves to vote for the party they love and that we should all vote for Johnson as a patriotic act.
Can the UK press get any more infantile?
And who have forgotten Charlie's dodgy friends, and Saville
Anonymous appears to be the sort that has no fun on Christmas. Apparently gets up, has a little whine about the 'M25 ghetto,' sits at a blank television in silence, barks at people to leave the remote on the table, grumbles that the neighborhood
children got more than just a pair of red socks, and generally has no fun.
What a sneering picture he paints of the rest of the country. By the way Anonymous, Jeremy Corbyn has asserted in public his love for EastEnders several times. Going to sneer at him?
You need to edit your post to remove the phrase "at Christmas". I don't think he has any concept of 'fun' at all at any time.
Dear Zelo ,
What an absurd spectacle , a man is castigated by self-appointed cult guardians as being insufficiently enthusiastic about a Christmas address by the Head of State , thus showing his ‘untrustworthiness’ (surely shades of North Korea and Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ here) . Otherwise a renegade currently leading the cult has a unanimous verdict of revocation and reversal of it’s jurisdiction by the 11 most senior judges of the UK Supreme Court for lying to that same Head of State about the reason for proroguing Parliament . No-one mentions that proven ‘untrustworthiness’ , truly Goebbels like ,
Derek
I'm sure that Jezza can watch the Queen's message on catch-up TV? He's too busy visiting the victims of the Tories' evil policies.
Fuck the Queen.
Those who have commented referring to the queen as "von Windsor' are displaying a nasty anti-German prejudice. As a Remainer I support freedom of movement, for the Royal Family just like anyone else.
Stephen, given that I am one of those who referred to her as 'Von Windsor' let me explain; it's not anti-German prejudice at all. It's a name used to describe the Queen which has a long and rich comedic tradition, much like Private Eye's use of 'Brenda'. If it shows any prejudice at all, then it's an anti-Nazi one, and, given how so many of her Anglo-German family sympathised with Hitler, I am unapologetic about that.
Incidentally, which is less patriotic here? Watching the Queen's Speech on catch-up because you've spent Christmas afternoon in a homeless shelter, or deliberately lying to the Queen to get your own way over the country for you and your Bullingdon elite chums?
Sorry, Mark, that won't wash. I am unaware of a "long and rich comic tradition" of referring to "von Windsor". If there is one, it clearly has anti-German implications. It is not at all like the Eye calling the queen "Brenda". They don't call her "Gretchen". "Von" only identifies someone as German, not as a Nazi, unless you are suggesting that all Germans were (are?) Nazis. How many, precisely, of "her Anglo-German family sympathised with Hitler"? We all know about Edward VIII, but can you name any others? On the other hand, there were a great many rich, powerful and influential Nazi sympathisers in England in the 1930s without a drop of Teutonic blood. The queen and her parents demonstrated by their actions during WW2 that they were not Nazi sympathisers. Are you condemning the queen for the sins of her uncle? Ironically, I an no royalist. There are many things the royal family can be criticised for, but "von Windsor" is just a smear. You should apologise, actually.
How about Philip's family, or the time Lizzie and Maggie gave the nazi salute with their mum? Apologise to a bunch of sponges? Pft, that will be the day. Like someone else on here said, they should respect us, not the other way round. You haven't heard anyone jokingly refer to their Germanic Nazi background before? Well I can't be blamed for your ignorance or lack of gsoh.
And no Stephen, of course I don't think all Germans are Nazis but do you know what, not all Germans are Vons either. It's the nobility and the aristos I have a problem with and Lizzie is at the top of the totem in that respect. Before you call me out for being classist, 'Brenda' from the Eye is the same thing in reverse. 'How funny, the Queen is like a working class soap opera character ho ho ho' Or are we only supposed to make fun of the working class?
(1) As I suspected, Mark, you would fail to come up with substantive evidence of he royal family's Nazi connections. Prince Philip's family is, well, his family, the dodgy in-laws, not actually the royal family. I doubt Philip himself could be accused of Nazi sympathies since he served with distinction in the Royal Navy. And that film clip shows two small children, and their mother, larking around with their Uncle Edward giving Nazi salutes. Edward's fascist inclinations are well known but I doubt two wee girls understood the significance. I do have a sense of humour but it stops short of finding prejudice or racism funny. Time was when it was acceptable for comedians to make jokes about "Pakis" and "nignogs". "Can't you take a joke?", they would have said. Not any more! By all means criticise the royal family, call them "spongers" if you wish. But criticising them for being German or inaccurate accusations of being Nazis is not valid. If one of the legendary Polish plumbers was to come to fix your tap and flooded the kitchen instead, I hope you would criticise him for being incompetent not for being Polish.
And just as I suspected Stephen your argument is full of holes. You doubt two wee girls understood the significance, what then of their mother? Funny how you seem to have no room for doubt in your sentence that precedes this wilfully blinkered response, larking about eh? And how would you know that for sure? Isn't far more plausible that royalty and aristocracy around this time we're sympathetic of fascism, so who is to say what ideas and idealogies were floated around Buck House. You draw the line at racism but then proceed to write racist slurs, couldn't you find the * on your keyboard? Stephen you are clearly the epitome of the self satisfied idiot who makes far too many presumptions of those who don't share your opinion online. I am if Polish heritage, so no, I wouldn't criticise someone for being Polish. I am also in a relationship with an Asian girl, so believe me when I say that what you so casually wrote there without self censorship is as despicable to see uss when it was written on my front door after the Brexit vote. I note that you fail to have any argument regarding the class issue I raised and so conveniently ignored them. It may offend you that I have no respect for a bunch of German aristos but that's your problem, not mine. Frankly there are far bigger things to get angry about given the current political situation.
(2) I am relieved for your reassurance, Mark, that you "don't think all Germans are Nazis" although your reference in your previous comment to the royal family's "Germanic Nazi background" suggests you do conflate the two. You are right that "von" is an exclusively aristocratic German name, in fact I was going to point that out in my first comment, as it undermines your contention that what you are accusing the royal family of is not being German but being Nazi. While the ruling German aristocracy, such as von Hindenburg, thought they could manipulate the Nazis for their own purposes, a delusion, as they quickly learned, they despised Hitler as the "little corporal" and acquiesced rather than joining the Nazi party. As far as I know the only senior member of the Nazi hierarchy who was a "von" was von Ribbentrop who was a Nazi by expediency rather than conviction and who was ridiculed by his colleagues for not having been born a "von". The most famous plot to assassinate Hitler was carried out by a "von", von Stauffenberg, but there were five earlier attempts, all by "vons". "Von Windsor" would definitely not imply Nazi sympathies. It does, however, say German. As for Private Eye, I think you misinterpret. What they are implying, surely, is that the royal family is ultra-conventionally middle class, not a working class soap family, hence the choice of "Brenda", "Brian" and "Keith". The Eye's nomenclature long predates the popularity of the working class soaps. Making fun of the middle class, is that "classist"?
Back again Stephen? The Eye doesn't predate the working class soap opera. Do your research. The names were coined after the royals disastrous PR attempt to appear normal with a BBC documentary in the late 60s. Coronation Street had been going for the best part of a decade then, and there were working class soaps on the BBC too, like The Newcomers. Tell you what, in future I'll just call Lizzie by her real name eh? Crown Saxe Gotha isn't it?
Stephen, if it walks like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi, then guess what..
"Queen Elizabeth II is often referred to as "Brenda", and the Prince of Wales as "Brian". This is a result of the 1969 BBC documentary Royal Family, after which the magazine gave each member of the Royal Family working class nicknames, as though they were characters in a soap opera."
Can't be any clearer.
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