MORRISSEY: MAN OR ARSEHOLE?

Here is Morrissey, the Pope of Pop, with his view of the Olympics:

I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.

 As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP.

I think it's safe to say that Morrissey has united the British public even more than the Olympics themselves with his jaded, jaundiced, complete misreading of the national mood and of the Olympics itself. So the answer to the question is-

Yes Morrissey, everyone* in the country thinks you are an arsehole.

*(Except those fans of his who, like the Pope of the Catholics, believe the Pope of Pop is infallible.)

Post Script.

Of course if the spirit of 1939 Germany did pervade this country, his records would be being taken out and publicly smashed. Hundred of his effigies would be strung up and burned. Shortly after that, a member of Her Majesty's Secret Service would go pop pop -two in the head.

But it doesn't. Instead we'll do what we British do best. Hold the idiot up for ridicule and laugh at the pompous git.

And then we'd invade Poland.

PPS

Just a later thought: you'd think that someone in the music business like Morrissey would know the difference between jingoism and celebration.