AND f inally

HE SAID HE’S HAD ENOUGH OF THIS ROYAL-VS-NON-ROYAL SAGA, BUT ANTHONY MARTIN CONTINUES TO RANT ABOUT THE COMINGS AND GOINGS OF THE TWO SPARES – HOPING THAT THEIR GOINGS TAKE THEM A LONG WAY OFF

IGHT, SAID the editor, “What can we expect from you for the February issue?” “Dunno” said I, “I must find something light-hearted, something that makes me smile, something that isn’t doom and gloom or too serious a matter.”

But unfortunately there is a distinct dearth of anything that isn’t a chapter in the life of that well known shy and retiring/give us our privacy couple, Meg ‘n Harry. But I must try to forget them, for far too much has been written about this pair of hard-done-by emigrants. What we should be doing is giving them what they most desire, their privacy and their right to remain anonymous, as the small screen diva drives around Montecito in a large ostentatious convertible, talking of doing good deeds whilst waving to California’s finest.

Therefore, I said to myself, there will be no more from me on these reluctant royals, these selfeffacing Sussexes, this Mr and Mrs Spare – well not unless something juicy turns up. And I’m pretty sure something will.

For a few days, I did switch off the M&H light. But I can’t get away from them... they are everywhere. Riffling through the papers I see that this terrible twosome is taking up more space than war, murder, sexual peccadillos and the UK’s energy crisis.

I mildly disliked her before – now I can’t stand the sight of her. I’ve finally had enough. I don’t want to hear, read or see anything about either the ginger whinger or his wife, or the undermining of the monarchy. As far as I am concerned, they can go and do their own thing, but whatever that thing is, please do it a long, long way away from civilisation.

I have, however, learnt one thing from this farce. The term ‘unconscious bias’ is being bandied about daily, and we are warned by those who worry about this stuff, that we need to rein this in but, if this is in our subconscious, how do we do that? Except for babies and animals – and I’m not sure about the animals – we all have biases; and understandably so. As we evolve, we form likes and dislikes, feel positivity and negativity, comfort and discomfort. Personally, I cannot abide people whose ego enters the room before they do, or those who believe they are morally superior to others. But then I also hate cabbage, but what can be done about any of this?

Absolutely nothing, it’s part of what we are. But as we are aware of these feelings, they are not ‘unconscious’. One’s mind naturally gravitates to positivity and tries to reject negativity, which it can’t do, because it’s already there. We all know ourselves well enough, and anyone with half a brain cell is aware of those individuals or things that they like or dislike. I therefore believe that the term ‘unconscious bias’, as trotted out by Mr Spare, after realising, when trying to placate his wife, that he has gone too far, is a cop-out.

We all know racism exists, it’s been with us from the beginning of time and will remain with us forever, unless we educate our children, straight from cradle, that we are all created equal. Except of course, we are not. There is a myriad of differences.

Some of us are tall, some are short, some have yellow hair, and some red, some have a limp and others a stutter. We worship different deities, have different traditions and speak different languages, as well as sometimes having a different skin colour.

We are also tribal, wishing to live amongst those who are similar and, being tribal are on permanent lookout for those who denigrate us. But, and here is the point of this piece, sometimes we are so wrapped up in our personal differences, we see these ‘isms’ where they don’t exist, and Mrs Spare is a perfect example of this.

At first feted wherever she went, the public started to tire of her obvious narcissism, the upstaging of her husband and the conflicting stories of her nonappearing father. As soon as criticism was voiced and the realisation dawned that she was not going to be The People’s Princess Mark 2, she went into defence mode, grabbed her husband and played the race card.