Hom Paribag FRSA
These days one sees Boris Johnson and Sir Kier Starmer flying like butterflies.
These days, I feel that if there are any alive or functioning human beings, that they are these two politicians.
Poor cameramen follow the PM Boris Johnson to capture his movements as his acutely overlooked hair flies here and there from his head.
Then, occasionally, his counterpart, leader of the opposition Sir Kier Starmer appears. His jaw revealing smiles are unforgettable. He tries his best to counter the PM on the gloom costume of the Houses of Parliament.
Other than these two gentlemen, people see hardly anything on their television screens that moves and shakes things. Parliament used to be a vibrant place where heavy and lightweight brains came and sat together to discuss the things that mattered most to the people, the country and the world.
Sadly Coronavirus has taken down the pants of Parliamentary debates and movements.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Parliamentarians have been sent back to their places of residence. As a result the occasional and sparse gatherings of MPs that we are left with give no joy to the population who still think that politics is important.
Watching television in this country doesn’t bring fun or joy any more.
When Jeremy Paxman conducted Newsnight, it was worth watching. Even though he ran a political programme, which was effectively a show orchestrated by various editors, directors and attendees at once, he used to give life to the screens. Sadly, he left to retire early. Kirsty Wark, too, has almost disappeared from the schedules at the BBC.
Sir David Attenborough, experienced by his years of work, used to make us all feel as if we were on the field or inside the jungle while watching his programmes. Sadly he too has almost retired now. So have all the giant names- David Dimbleby, Jonathan Dimbleby and Andrew Neil to name a few. They used to light up our television screens like a gathering in our own living rooms, but now they have all gone. Andrew Marr and Huw Edwards are there, but even they are so few to appear on such a colossal and expensive channel like the BBC. They are like drops In the ocean of people’s expectations. These days hardly any features or programmes make the BBC worthy of excitement. It has become boring, artificial and unsubstantial.
Soon after the pandemic landed here, Downing Street created a march past show of ministers and even they became so boring that without the presence of the scientists like Professor Chris Whitty, Professor Van Tam and occasionally military and other departmental heads, the press briefing began to become too unsentimental and boring. Rishi Sunak had to appear occasionally to offer tips to the anxious population.
These days, as the pandemic has subsided, thank God, the Downing Street press briefing has become so boring that even PM Johnson cannot revive the excitement of it. Matt Hancock is so in command of the NHS that one could feel that he was able to bring the adoring scientists to salute him.
As a leader, PM Boris Johnson wasn’t bad, but his overtly aristocratic appearance and nature simply didn’t match the expectations of households of people across the country.
Now as we look back over nearly 18 months, the joy in politics, social affairs and arts and creativity simply look to have been downgraded. Other than to boast about how vaccines were mastered by PM Boris, it seems there’s nothing more politics can offer. As a result Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour lost heavily in the local elections. People have begun to forget that Sir Ed Davey’s Lib Dems still exist. Caroline Lucas’s Green Party too has been lost.
There are good reasons why politics and politicians have been forgotten by people. The simple reason is that politicians have forgotten people. All that gives us some hope for life after the pandemic is the private sector. If the hardworking scientists didn’t work day and night, if doctors and nurses didn’t risk their own lives to save others, life in this land would have gone off a long time ago. The police and military did try to appear before people, but they weren’t so active as to leave an imprint on people’s minds.
Indeed, people remembered the sad passing away of the Duke of Edinburgh. For what he was, how he was born and brought up to become the Queen’s Consort and what he had done for the best of the natural world in the past made him special.
So with all these anecdotes, the time has come that politicians’ roles and responsibilities have to be changed. There’s no reason that people should wait to see how they cough and walk. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. It’s time they become active and functional, so that how they’re functioning, not how India performed or how the EU showmen and women did, becomes the real joy of our lives. For nations and societies come alive and become joyous when all come together with a sense of equality and responsibility in unity. Private sector, public sector and all the arts and creativities, charity sector and kindness, they all have to come together. For only the veteran Professors cannot make universities come alive or keep them going unless there are students who are young, willing and able to learn and desperate for success to come into their lives.
