A Collection of Writings
Ingrid Pitt Says...
Wonderful to see Prince William enjoying all the perks of being gazetted as a Flying Officer and pilot to boot. The world has become a confined and strictured place where any sign of individuality has been squeezed out of the soul. What pilot, newly elevated, wouldn't want to show off a little? True, not everyone can get his hands on a Chinook but that is just a matter of size. And big is beautiful. Even when I was a trainee pilot I remember flying down to my daughter's school in Wiltshire and buzzing it a few times. Did wonders for her standing at the school. OK, so I paid for it myself. So what? If it was being paid for by someone else it wouldn't have made any difference. Prince William is a privileged young man. The grandson of our Queen. I would prefer to see him burning up the airways rather than have the elected MPs fiddling their expenses and acting like some sort of special elite.
PROUD TO BE BRITISH
To claim to be British we tacitly acknowledge loyalty to the reigning Monarch and her family. I read somewhere they cost us two and a half pence a day. I pay more than that for cat food. For this they are expected to be on show whenever a visiting elected despot arrives on a State visit, make a lugubrious broadcast at Christmas and be a target for every hack with an inferiority complex. The Queen, and by extension her family, provide thousands of pages of copy for the press and hundreds of hours of television. For this they have to make gaffes and generally act like a bunch of idiots. At least that is the role of the minor members of the family. The Queen is sacrosanct and the price for sniping at the rest of her family is due deference to her Majesty. It's not Harry's fault that a load of Blimps in the fetid corridors of power refuse to let him loose in the wars they have created. I'm sure there is nothing he would like to hear more than, "God for Harry, England and St. George" as he leads his troops into battle. Instead he is jerked back home where the alternative for the 'Spare' is , as it has always been, to fritter his life away in useless pursuits. Newspaper editors are usually pretty canny. They know what sells newspapers. And the exploits of the Royal Family come high on their list.
DEBASED DEMOCRACY
Even if the newspapers didn't find the Royals a source of unlimited entertainment, I would still rather have them living high on the hog than the tarnished creeps turning Parliament into the sort sleaze palace which blights every ruling party in the world at the moment. England, with a little help from the Greeks, gave the world Parliamentary Democracy. When King John was coerced into signing the Magna Carta in 1215 he started a trend for democracy which, as debased and distorted and fundamental as it was, developed gradually until the second half of the 20th Century. Then, almost overnight, everybody who couldn't make it on the open market but had a yen for power joined a political party. They soon forgot why they were elected. Their protestation of honesty and their reason for being given the honour of representing their constituents was soon forgotten. Once they have their snout in the trough it is everyone for himself and the Devil take the voter. New laws and taxes are raised on a daily basis depriving us of our freedom in the name of security. In the name of saving the planet Draconian laws are invented which mean that a house holder could go to prison for putting the wrong garbage in his dustbin. And there is still no absolute proof that Global Warming has anything to do with Greenhouse Gases. And what happened to the holes in the Ozone Layer? Once an Englishman's home was his castle. The only authority with the power to step over the threshold without a warrant signed by a magistrate was a Customs Officer. Now there are an alleged 266 jumped up pip-squeaks who can invade your privacy uninvited. From being a country proud of our heritage we have become apologists for our achievements.
So don't let's get all shrivelled up about a handsome young Prince Charming doing what any hot-blooded young male would do given the chance. Let's turn our attention to the cretins who beg us to trust them in power and then make laws that benefit only themselves. If Prince William wants to come calling in his Chinook, any time, day or night, I'll make it easy for him. I'm going to order a big bright light and have my name displayed on my roof in luminous paint. I've not decided on colours yet, but I'll make sure he knows I am at home.