[NetBehaviour] Jubilee Texts

[Edward Picot]

Dear all,

Something non-celebratory for the celebratory weekend.


1.

A 70-word poem for Queen Elizabeth, on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee


Dear Queen Elizabeth,

you’re such a familiar figure -

the same age as my Mum -

it’s difficult not to like you.

Especially now you’re starting to look

suddenly frail.


Or to admire

your lifelong dedication

to your role.


But people are saying

you symbolise the nation.


What you actually symbolise

is something more problematic:

tradition, continuity,

public service,

conservatism,

remnants of Empire,

inherited wealth,

inherited privilege,

the class system.


2.

Hiding underneath the Azot chemical factory, more than 3000 beacons in 
the key eastern Ukrainian city mark the start of the Queen's jubilee 
celebrations. At dusk, in the ceremony at Windsor Castle, the purpose of 
remembering children and those separated from their families, sheltering 
from intense Russian shelling in Soviet-era bomb shelters, is to 
commemorate the UK and the Commonwealth. Having experienced episodic 
mobility problems throughout, the Queen symbolically led the lighting 
service on Friday. 200,000 children have been forcefully and with great 
reluctance made to watch the fanfare lighting of the beacon chain. 
Around 800 people will be attending the national service of thanksgiving 
at St Paul’s Cathedral. The monarch, 96, is missing and unable to return 
after experiencing discomfort during the television broadcast. It was 
announced that local residents have sought shelter in a pool of toxic 
chemicals in Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 
speaking in Buckingham Palace, said all the aid the Queen was able to 
offer was the trooping of the colour. Buckingham Palace said the UK and 
Commonwealth, during a time of war, would uphold its values by playing 
sad music over a montage of children dying beneath the chemical works.


3.

The same people at the top. The same people to run everything. They know 
the system and the idea of it. The system requires a level of show, a 
show of equality, a show of flexibility. The layers of it, the 
ossification of it, the churning and stasis of it, that moment in the 
1980s, those children of the 1980s, the debating societies at Oxford and 
Cambridge, those people who now run everything. It's the same people, 
the same system, with inflection points every few years. History is very 
complex, but ossified. There is something ossified about a system that 
keeps private schools going, the Civil Service, the Diplomatic Service, 
Oxford and Cambridge, the City, the Bank of England, the same people at 
the top. The same people. It's the system, it's a system of control.


4.

Putin confirms the bombings and the attacks have stopped. Reports to the 
contrary are lies and scaremongering. His authority is God. The latest 
to be abducted in an attack overnight is the Orthodox world’s spiritual 
leader, Bartholomew I. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been kidnapped 
by Russian forces, according to a delegate, and is wounded and in 
hospital. In any further assault it is key to prevent any significant 
future. In Britain, anti-war protests could be in the tens.  While 
praising the Ukraine's people, President Putin confirmed that Russians 
could use chemical weapons on food and water for more than 14,000 people 
in 112 cities, and it would not constitute a war crime. Nine thousand 
people were killed in airstrikes. Gove has called for a “game-changer” 
in the conflict. The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed that 
history is stuck. Kyiv has fled into the country. Ukraine’s human rights 
ombudsman has claimed Russia used banned phosphorus in the southern 
Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The embattled city is confirmed as a 
legitimate target. A Russian airstrike has killed and massacred the 
entire Black Sea coast. A Polish statement issued alongside a video said 
talks had come to nothing less than 10 miles from suffering people, 
their suffering could be heard, in Popasna in eastern Ukraine. Let the 
cry of the military base in Yavoriv come unto thee, O Lord. At least 35 
people killed and 134 wounded. The Kremlin confirmed that they would 
stop the massacre by killing all civilians. 30 miles west of Lviv, with 
the government believing it was in its final hours, 3,000 visas were 
granted to Ukrainian refugees, away from the city, and a 400,000 
two-week supply of food in a supply convoy was abducted by Russian 
forces. The Chinese government has granted licenses for new investments 
in Russia. The port of Odesa has been evaporated. In the the town of 
Irpin, outside Kyiv, an independent human rights body has disappeared. 
Putin said the war was at an end. God has been abducted by Russian 
forces. Pope Francis said Putin was the final name of God.


Edward Picot

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