Pledging Allegiance Means Nothing While People Go Hungry and Drown in Debt
As a debt adviser, I’ve been so busy recently talking to people who have had the so-called safety net of the welfare state ripped out from under them that I haven’t had two minutes to consider how I feel about the forthcoming coronation of the next monarch.
I don’t suppose the people neck-deep in debt, struggling to put food on the table or pay the crippling bills have either.
They might think – if they thought about it – that it was a colossal waste of money at a time when that money could actually help out many thousands of people in the most vulnerable of situations.
Never mind the budget quiches – here’s the reality: some of us can’t manage financially any more and that doesn’t just take a toll on the physical self but on our mental health, our finite and dwindling NHS resources, and an army of advice staff who just cannot meet demand. It feels like a collective failure, but it’s not our failure – it’s the choice of the state, who spend our money as they see fit. (Estimates are between £50–100 million for this celebration of the rich and privileged).
Week after week of not being able to stretch the unbelievably stingy payment of Universal Credit or any other means-tested benefit to cover the most basic expenses in order to continue existence is exhausting, undignified and soul-destroying.
Check your benefits! Oh you have? And found you have no further entitlement? Apply to a trust fund then – but don’t expect a quick response that will put tea on the table by tomorrow night. Apply to the Council for support funds? Beg for £40 to buy some food and provide your bank statements for the last 2 months to prove your need.
It’s exhausting.
We’re exhausted too. Those of us seeing the real deprivation being experienced day in and day out. The king-makers don’t get close enough to let the reality affect them. It’s not their reality after all. They may claim to understand what’s going on but they don’t. They may empathise with an idea of what they think poverty looks like but they haven’t got a clue.
So back to the coronation…
I’ve heard people saying they will swear allegiance in their living rooms, in front of the telly – have we got any Penguins left, Barb? – and I get the wanting to be part of something, the curiosity and the storing of a memory to share one day. History is being made today like it or not, and even the anti-monarchists will be part of the crowd, joining in, in their own way. It’s all part of the tradition, as is listening to a fawning TV presenter describing with tangible reverence every detail of the pomp.
I don’t believe the masses swearing allegiance are ready to die for their king. I think some might die waiting for an ambulance unfortunately, and some might die in their armchairs next winter, watching the same telly, still having no money and petrified of putting the heating on.
If there was a decent bone in this country’s body we would make sure that those of us struggling to find work, struggling to manage debilitating health conditions and disabilities or just struggling full stop, had enough to at least get by with some degree of comfort. But we don’t.
And if there was money left over after we take care of our vulnerable people, sure, let’s have a party and be truly inclusive if that’s your thing. Paper crowns are cheap enough. Televise the crowning if you must, say some words. But how do you really justify spending billions on this spectacle while people are sleeping in doorways and in mouldy flats? While another foodbank voucher gets handed out and another application for a top-up for the electricity meter is submitted.
We can’t all be rich and powerful, but those that are sitting in seats of power, monarchy and government should, in my opinion, being doing much, much more for those that are living below a level is acceptable. Otherwise, what are they for? To look pretty in their robes and crowns?
I will not pledge allegiance because it means nothing to me I’m afraid. There is nothing noble about the people who would choose to squander so much wealth at a time when so many will continue to go without.
