Morrissey slams the nation's reaction to the Olympics - but does anyone really care?

I have always found it particularly irritating when pop singers take it upon themselves to start preaching  politics.

One minute they are being ferried to and from five-star, £3,000-a night hotels, eating organic meals prepared by their personal chefs and climbing aboard private jets, and the next they are spouting their sickeningly pious demands that we all give more to the starving, and ditch our cars to save the environment.

This irritating habit of the super-famous bubbled to the surface again today when former The Smiths frontman Morrissey starting whingeing about the Olympics.

Apparently “England”’s support of our athletes is “foul with patriotism”.

Morrissey has likened the Olympic spirit of the nation to  the mindset held by Nazi Germany, and crtiticised our royal family for showing their support of Team GB.

He said: “‘I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism?

“The ‘dazzling royals’ have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press.

“The England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters.”

My first gripe with this odious hasbeen is this - he may fancy  himself a prominent voice in the world of politics, but clearly his geography isn’t up to much.

For your information, Morrissey, it is Great Britain taking part in the Olympics, not England, you have ignored Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Not such a good start to your all-inclusive, politically-inspired rant.

And “cutbacks”?? Are you telling me you struggle to spread your millions thinly enough to cover the monthly gas and electricity bills? thought not.

He went on: “Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the ‘dazzling royals’, laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. 

"In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.”

Although I was bored after his first couple of words, I struggled to read through the ludicrous diatribe so I was able to make a fair assessment.

And I have - Bollox.

I am fed up to the back teeth with second-rate singers who assume it is part of their job description to take the moral high ground and preach to the rest of us.

Whether it is Bob Geldof demanding, through a drawl of four-letter expletives, “give us you effing money”, or Sting moaning about the Amazon rainforests, I really wish they would just shut up.

And don’t get me started on Bono.

Stick to what you are good at – taking private jets, driving posh cars,  living in oversized million-pound mansions, wearing designer clothes, and charging the earth for tickets to lavish, energy-guzzling pop concerts.

What the clearly reality-detached Morrissey probably doesn’t realise is that for many of us mere mortals, who work five days a week to pay our mortgages and put food on the table, the Olympics have actually brought a little bit of joy into our lives.

The event has triggered a really positive buzz in London, and I have never seen so many happy excited people on the trains, at work or on the streets than I have over the past two weeks.

Not to mention the wonderful moments of achievement for the people who have trained their backsides off for the past four years before taking part.

The Olympics have been a real treat for most people, and for your information Morrissey, I love the fact our royal family are getting involved, and I am behind Team GB 100 per cent.

I get just as excited as the rest of the nation when we pick up another Gold.

I  suppose you have forgotten what it is like to make the most of these little pleasures in life, let me remind you.

Most of us mere mortals do not have the luxury of working when we choose to, looking at our bank accounts  only to count how many millions are in there, or deciding whether to wear Gucci or Armai to pick up knighhoods for services to something or other.

Most of us had forgotten who you are, and judging by the reaction to your comments, fewer even care.

Is suggest you stick to what you know, waving a gladioli about on stage to music.