Over the last few weeks and months, I have watched with wonder at the way that the ordinary people have been treated as inconsequential compared with the bourgeoisie. Were it to be an isolated case one could assume the occasional ‘bad apple’. But this is happening in so many walks of life that it cannot be regarded as an aberration.
We have seen it in government where a party with a leader is elected and then his team decided that collective responsibility counts for little. As the government becomes less popular and their jobs begin to look at risk they look to change their leader. This is not dissimilar to what happens in football teams where fear of relegation produces the guillotine.
What is different, is that in the football analogy I have yet to see a football club seek to replace the manager with one from hockey or athletics. They at least assume that there is someone in their existing sphere that can do the job. And yet the UK have bet heavily on someone not originally elected to their team despite not knowing what tactics he will employ or who is coaching staff will be if they make him leader.
But football itself is no better at considering the needs of the masses. Managers are appointed and then discarded within weeks. Time to create something is a luxury that clubs will often not allow to a new manager regardless of their starting position. Witness the manager of the Tunisian team at the world cup. One loss and immediately sacked, only for his replacement to lose the next match!
Talking of the World Cup, here is another example of the people coming last again. Prices of tickets are bad enough for the ardent supporter who cannot afford the price of a medium-priced car to see one match. But for towns to then quadruple the price of trains to get people to the match beggars belief.
Still, I suppose that someone must pay for people like the head of FIFA who uses his private jet twice a day to make sure he always gets to two matches. Never mind that he produces more carbon emissions than most of us can produce in a year.
But the World Cup is just the tip of the iceberg. Throughout the year there are F1 races, Ascot, Epsom, Aintree, Wimbledon, fashion weeks, various concerts, film premiers, new theatre shows, all sorts of openings from art exhibitions to the opening of an envelope and so on.
Where once you could imagine a reasonable chance of attending some of these, they have become first choice for the celebrities. I use the term celebrity slightly loosely, as there are so many such events that the celebrities for the more modest events are often soap actors or reality TV participants. Even newsreaders and weather presenters have been added to the list of those ahead of us ordinary folk.
If anyone has watched Bridgerton on TV it is impossible not to compare today with the summer season on that drama. For the A-list it must be hell to have to go from one soiree to another, while making sure the free outfit is outstanding enough to catch the pressman’s camera; to get home with your goodie bag in time for a few hours rest before being off again, often to another town or country.
For those not on the A list, there is still the same summer circus, although with less prestigious events and smaller goody bags. These people still feel the need to put themselves through the punishing schedule in the hope that it will keep them relevant.
But what of us peasants who search for the crumbs left from this merry-go-round? Gone are the days when the prices and the accessibility would allow us to share in the summer fun. Now we are subjected to lotteries for the few tickets that the so-called celebrities leave free.
Not for us an invite, even by email, no free tickets for us, no free outfits for us even though I would willingly name Tesco or Primark on my Facebook page. And if you did win the lottery for one of those back rows, partially obscured tickets, you wouldn’t even get a free programme. You would just be left with a collection of QR codes.
All we can look forward to now is for the so-called celebrities being replaced by AI robots and we can watch the obsolete celebrities sitting crestfallen wondering what to do with all their spare time. Perhaps we might let them join the lottery for the tickets not taken by the robots.
