Have I detected a slightly desperate tone in the sports minister letter today to all MPs?
He has £50 million on offer to persuade MPs to organise beacons on hills and street jollies to celebrate the Jubilee. In the same post comes news of other lavish grants From the National Lottery to stir up the nation's flagging joy. MPs and Peers collected £85,000 to pay for a new stained glass window. However my request for details on how many people contribute remain unanswered. There is a rumour that one person gave £10,000 because the response was poor and was missing its target. I have asked again. I think we deserved to know what proportion of parliamentarians contributed.
Oh for the days of 1945 when street parties were spontaneous with no cash handouts toy promote them. In the VE and VJ celebrations every street had a party and all attended. They appeared to have fallen out of fashion. I doubt is there were more than 20 in my constituency for the Royal Wedding.
That wedding was later one of the excuses the Coalition used to explain the failure to revive the economy. Will the Jubilee celebrations be the new excuse for continuing failure later this year. The excuses are wearing this. On Monday I asked the Defence Secretary to give me the precise date when the coalition will stop blaming Labour, the EU and civil servants for all their problems and on what precise date they will start taking responsibility for their own conduct.
He blamed the Labour Government. Hey ho.
Just pondering here, but maybe people were more inclined to celebrate because it was a holiday for everyone, not just those who don't work in food service or retail. Also, I've heard a lot of resentment, both this year and last, from agency workers who will be having to use their holiday allowance to celebrate a stranger's special event rather than their own family's occasions, but I don't know how different that would have been in 1945, I don't suppose it was a paid holiday then either.
Posted by: DG | February 24, 2012 at 08:11 AM