You can’t go anywhere in London at the moment without seeing bunting, flags and pictures of the queen as this country goes into full on patriotic mode.

Personally, I will not be joining in with the jubilee festivities or raising a glass to Queen Lizzy as I find the whole thing rather inappropriate considering the state of this country right now. While the cost of living soars and the number of people living in poverty goes up, our government seem to be able to find so much money to throw at Queenie related nonsense.

£12 million for a book for schools about the queen and £28 million was set aside in the March 2021 for jubilee celebrations. Yet there’s no money for social care? No money to support people struggling to put food on the table?

I’m sure a lot of people will argue that we need something to celebrate after events of the past two years, but is celebrating someone who was born into a privileged life, has no idea what the reality of life is for the majority of people in this country, and is part of a family that are clearly against racist and against equality, really the kind of celebration we need? And don’t get me started on the number of plastic flags that will no doubt get thrown in the bin when this is all over.

And of course a lot of people will be working as usual to support the fun and festivities, but people rarely seem to think about that. Not everyone gets a long bank holiday weekend – in fact some people will be working harder than usual.

Full disclosure, I am going to an event today that wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t a bank holiday, but that’s solely because Madness are playing and I love Madness. And I get time spend some quality time with my family while supporting my local community rather than big corporates.

I hope people enjoy this extra day that the government have so kindly given us to boost the economy and that if celebrating the queen, everyone doesn’t forget about what her family and this government stands for.