4 December 2010
Message from Morrissey.
I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron. To those who have expressed concern over Johnny’s words in view of the fact that David Cameron has pledged immense allegiance to the music of the Smiths, I would like to try to explain why I think Johnny is right not to be flattered.
It is true that music is a universal language – the ONLY universal language, and belongs to all, one way or another. However, with fitting grimness I must report that David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either “Meat is Murder” or “The Queen is Dead” were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence.
I recall some years ago a party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Party where David Cameron spoke directly to camera as an LP copy of “The Queen is Dead” proudly displayed itself on the wall behind his right shoulder. It is, of course, a fantastic thrill when the music you make is acknowledged by virtually anyone at all. But David Cameron is not just anyone. Some months ago, as the long-beaked amongst you might recall, I was due to appear on the Andrew Marr Show alongside David Cameron, and however much I worship the words of Andrew Marr, I could not go through with the invitation.
This was because I knew, then, that David wanted to repeal the Hunting Act, which would mean the brutal killing of foxes, hares, deer, badgers, otters – just about anything that moves.
Often the excuse of ‘culling’ is tagged on to the argument of legalized killing of beings, yet as we all know, motorized vehicles manage the business of ‘culling’ foxes and badgers quite well without messengers of death on horseback. Wildlife (that is, freelife) has its own methods of balancing nature – foxes and owls and birds of prey tending to help themselves to whatever crosses their path.
The countryside, quite remarkably, does not need the Hunting Act to be repealed. You would need to be mindless to believe that it does. People who hunt are under delusions of possession and property and divine right, and their debasement of human standards is always evident in their outrage at ever being questioned about their activities. Meanwhile, the Hunt Saboteurs (who are always termed ‘extremists’ by the Daily Bra – as if opposing brutal killing is an extreme emotion) are themselves symbols of freedom. Hunt Saboteurs do not kill. High Court judges on horseback, dressed in blood-red outfits, are the ones who kill.
As we all know, law in England is applied with partiality: the police are quick to nab the hunt saboteurs, but slow to catch up with the very visible Cheltenham Hunt. The hunt saboteurs are jailed for up to 12 years (for what? attempting to prevent mindless violence?), whereas the unmanly reflex of fox hunting receives a rap on the knuckles (Odious Ferry.)
I beg you to notice the unbearable dimension of sorrow that David Cameron is attempting to inflict upon British wildlife/freelife (an animal is not ‘wild’ simply because it is uncaged.) If you can find the time, would you please write to the MP of your choice – if you can think of one that you half-trust – at The House of Commons, St Margaret’s Street, London SW1P, urging them to vote against the repeal. It is not the hunt saboteurs who menace social order, but the Hunters themselves, and the moral climate of 2010 seeping into 2011 surely tells all intelligent people that the key to the extent of any person’s humanity is in their relationship to – and protection of – animals. Politicians only care about the public as electorate, and once the victory vote has been seized there is no place for debate between The Prime Minister and the people who elected him. (I cannot use the him/her term in relation to a Prime Minister because, as we all know, Margaret Thatcher has ensured that a female Prime Minister would never again be risked.) However, please do not feel powerless against the views of politicians or, for that matter, so-called royalty, because it is they who are powerless against the collective spirit of the British people. I mention so-called royalty because Prince William – who has never made the faintest imprint on the English soul, is also a hunter of deer, as is his fiasco (fiancée) Kate Middleton. Although William and Kate are so dull as people that it is actually impossible to discuss them, it is worth recalling Prince Harry’s thumbs-up as he sat beside a giant water buffalo, cowardly shot from a safe distance by the ignoble Prince some years back. Intellectually, it is true that the so-called Royal Family are not worth very much when it comes to moral standards. The Queen annually signs-off on the terrorizing slaughter of adult Canadian brown bears in order that her Guards are supplied with fancy hats. The babies of the adult bears who witness their own mothers’ slaughter, are left to die slowly, and alone. The sober and bitter truth is that the Queen of England is indifferent to this barbarism, for she has never once expressed concern by it (although, let us speak quite plainly, there is not one person in the whole of England who can remember or repeat a single word ever spoken by the Queen, such is her command of communication.)
I apologize very deeply for my support over the years for the group Roxy Music. I had no idea until very recently that their singer Bryan Ferret is also an avid hunter, and is now managed by his Lord of the Hunt son, Odious Ferry.
Some are brutally indifferent to the feelings of animals. Many are not. Politically, I long for the day when it is finally acknowledged in the House of Lords that the indigestible business of the meat industry corrupts and destroys the planet more than any other profit organization. We continually hear of disappearing rainforests but the cause is never explained, for this would then force concerned world leaders to ‘cull’ meat production, and rather the world sizzle than it be admitted that the meat industry is the root of climate change. It was Sir Paul McCartney who said: “Save the planet – stop eating animals.” It is the genius of Stella McCartney who has produced footwear made entirely of non-animal materials. As a glowing owner of such shoes, I can confirm to anyone interested that they appear – even on detailed examination – to be no different to shoes made from animals.
Refusing to eat animals remains a political gesture. The world apparently loves the simple, whether it be professional killers such as Jamie Horrible, or the dim-witted and good-natured David Peckham, both as certain of knighthoods as their mediocrity is bona-fide. David Peckham is so dull that he is yet to master his first words.
However, people like me exist, also, and by close of this piece I return to the opening issue of David Cameron and I remind him that the world loves a man who loves to listen. But we can’t believe what you say when we know what you do.
MORRISSEY.