There's Prejudice

Here we are, firmly established in the 21^st Century and the newspapers still carry horoscopes. Despite the fact that half the population will spend the better part of twenty years in formal education, people still avidly read these sanitised nuggets of bullshit and rely on them for the everyday guidance of their lives. Likewise clairvoyancy, crystals, homeopathy and government – all of them disproven and discredited yet looked to for clues as to how we should behave. It’s almost as if education now serves not to inform but to infantilise.

These days it seems that only the mavericks do anything other than what they are told to do and what is repeatedly reassured is the right thing. Thus, the original wording on the Animal Farm barn which stated “All bigotry is bad.” has been altered by a spidery hand to read “Some bigotry is more acceptable than other bigotry.” It ought to add “…and the party will decide which is which.” For this is where we are come; nobody dare say a word for fear of being in contravention of a raft of unknown edicts.

It appears it is racist to even use the word ‘immigrant’ now, especially if the pejorative term ‘illegal’ appears before it, as Guildford police found out recently. Any reference to a person’s origin is now officially racist and legally actionable, unless those persons' origins are white, British and middle class – in which case feel free to wade in. And to refer to somebody’s status as ‘on benefits’ is a judgemental infringement of their human rights, whilst it is perfectly acceptable to denounce a middle class home owner with a job and no criminal record as a Tory Toff and declare that, should they suffer any misfortune, they had it coming.

On Saturday night I dared to venture out to see a show that a mere thirty years ago would have been denounced as pure fantasy. Created by maverick playwright and all-round bloody good human being, David Tristram, Doreen is an exemplar of modern life and inhabits a world familiar to many of you from the Daily Mail and the Daily Express yet vigorously denied by the Guardian, the Independent and the Labour Party. If you haven’t seen Doreen’s Story on YouTube you are missing a comedy treat – you should click on the link and give yourself five minutes to consider the plight of others - and if you haven’t already got tickets for the stage show you are too late because it’s sold out.

But you can still share the dream of making Doreen’s suffering known to a wider audience. David and his brilliant team of unpaid actors have been working their collective bollocks off to bring Doreen’s world to life. And now, in the great British documentary tradition they are making a movie in which we can all play a part. It will be far more important than Cathy Come Home and a good deal funnier. But everything has a price and even though the Flying Ducks troupe does this for the love of their ‘art’, unlike the Doreens of this world some stuff still costs.

Gill Jordan - Doreen - doing her bit.

So, Doreen – The Movie is being crowd sourced and a more worthy way of spending a few quid would be hard to imagine. Just think, you can 'do the right thing' make millions more 'hard working people' of 'one nation Britain' aware of the devastating reality of Lazy Cow Syndrome and one day you will be able to tell your children how you did your bit for Britain in its darkest hour.  Go on, dig deep and chip in. If you don’t contribute you must be a typical Tory toff or just plain mean and heartless. As the lazy cow herself says, “Let’s be honest, there’s prejudice.”