Everybody

Everybody these days does the same shit really. We're all carbon copies. If you're lucky enough to have Netflix (?) then you binge on The Crown. You can't avoid the reviews and criticism or whatever else is bouncing about. So you sit on the couch, wine/coffee/beer/tea at the ready and absorb this version of the shared experience that being a "subject" is. Whatever your opinions or views on the royals might be, if you're a certain age it all rings true as part the fabric or backdrop to years of your life. The common national memory clinks and snaps into action as fierce as some animal instinct. I think for us all on this scabby island that's really what it's about; the collateral damage done by the relentless pushing of the royal narrative and enforced flag shagging and standing to attention for people that you're actually better than. 

There's little in the way of revelation or novelty in the story line, you've heard it all before, you've just not seen it this way with all the big money production values air brushing across your own feeble memory and recollections. Now it's this version of the truth that prevails until another comes along in 20 years time. Life didn't quite seem this way when you were living through it with all it's painful and often bleak reality buffeting you. The old BBC footage, grainy tabloid photos, interviews and snippets all of which were unavoidable at the time even for the most desperate of republicans have been overwritten and buried by the bright spectacle this provides. God no ... but yes. There's still another six episodes to go.