The SJWs are back

I read a rather troubling piece on the BBC website today which suggested that TV presenter Ben Fogle had got into a bit of trouble for suggesting that we could all open our windows at 9am on the Queen’s 94th birthday this coming Tuesday to sing happy birthday to her.

Cue the entrance of the Social Justice Warriors, whose pissy scripts have changed very little since the Coronavirus crisis began:

"Next Tuesday will have been many people's birthdays. Some of them may be dead due to Coronavirus” 

"The Queen is a very wealthy woman who could be donating £millions to NHS and opening up one of her palaces for use as a hospital.”

"Let's save the clapping/singing for the frontline heroes shall we?”

And then the obligatory pompous dig: “Really misread the room with this one Ben."

Patently Ben Fogle is not a bad man for suggesting that the country unite to sing to the Queen. She is beloved to many and frankly, I rather like all initiatives which enable people to come together in these lonely and difficult times. Plainly Ben Fogle wasn’t suggesting that anyone should be forced to do something they didn’t want to do. He was just mooting an idea, which, it turns out, had come from his 8-year old daughter. 

The idea that ANY of the Queen’s Palaces would be appropriate for use as a hospital is laughable. This is not the First World War. You can just see the decision makers can’t you; “right, we’ve been offered EXCEL in the heart of London where the virus is rife with its huge, concrete-floored rooms where thousands can be treated… but, wait, the Queen has offered the dusty ballroom and drawing rooms at Sandringham in Norfolk. She says she’s got a special deal with the Big Yellow Storage Company and can get the Whistler paintings whisked away in an appropriately socially-distanced way.  We reckon we have space for at least 17 beds...” 

Accusing someone of not being behind NHS Workers has the same ring to it as the empty cries of racism which blighted the internet last year. Only the most horrible people would try to argue that the NHS isn’t vital and wonderful, but it seems it’s incredibly easy for a twisted mind to warp someone else’s words to make it look like they’re arguing just that! It’s a form of thought-control. It’s gas-lighting. It’s mean-spirited, pathetic virtue-signalling. 

There is space in the world for those who want to sing Happy Birthday to the Queen as WELL as those of us who want to applaud the NHS. Doing one absolutely does not preclude doing the other. Neither is regulatory. 

We’re all doing our bit - or trying to at least. We all get it wrong from time to time, or snap under the pressure. There isn’t a hierarchy of pain during this crisis. There’s only love. And I’m still not sure this message is quite getting through. If you can't be kind, use your spare time learning a foreign language or a musical instrument. It's better for your soul.