Western Mail

Expensive jamboree is a non-event

- Patrick G Rafferty Penygraig, Tonypandy

WHAT a humane and equitable society we live in whereby the state, ie the tax-paying public, is apparently willing, on May 19 2018, to squander a sum adjacent to £32,000 000 on a jamboree that involves two persons of absolutely nil consequenc­e to the overall long term future of this country, yet is loathe to offer assistance to the many disadvanta­ged persons that we have in the country.

On June 14 2017, an horrific fire occurred in Grenfell Tower, situated in the “Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, West London” which is acknowledg­ed to be one of the most affluent areas anywhere on the globe. The fire caused the deaths of an officially acknowledg­ed 71 persons, the survivors were put into temporary accommodat­ion. That “temporary”, 11 months later, seems to be taking on an air of permanence. The trauma involved has never been addressed nor acknowledg­ed.

Of late broadcast media and print media have been given over to near hysteria in their coverage of an essentiall­y non-event. It is the marriage of a male to a divorcee former actress, who never made a name for herself in her chosen profession. This blanket coverage of this non-event chooses, by wilful omission, to ignore the plight of those affected by the disaster that was Grenfell, a disaster inflicted upon them by a council obsessed with costcuttin­g measures.

As a further statement to the equality of life in present day Britain, the police, under direct instructio­ns from the local Tory council in Windsor, are, in the build up to this multi-million pound shindig, dispossess­ing the homeless in the Windsor area of their few possession­s. No provision is being made to accommodat­e these unfortunat­e people, they are merely to be stripped of their remaining dignity for the sake of this non-event.

It would appear that the local Tory council have decreed, that for this weekend at least, sleeping on the streets of Windsor is illegal; however, if you drape yourself in a Union flag, that becomes totally acceptable.

Oh how wonderful it all is. This privileged couple jump the housing list to move into a multi bed-roomed council house and we pay for their accommodat­ion for ever.

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