I was going to start this piece with the headline I COULD SMILE ABOUT IT NOW, BUT AT THE TIME IT WAS TERRIBLE taken from The Smiths’ Shakespeare Sister.
It has been said many times that Morrissey is an enigma. Over the past few years he has left me rather confused and with feelings of revulsion.
In an interview with Hot Press in 2011 with regard to the Queen’s impending visit to Dublin, he was quoted as saying that the Queen should hand the 6 counties back to Ireland and how repulsed he was at the lack of feelings towards the family of hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Fast forward 5 years and on social media he is now giving his support to Marine Le Pen while celebrating Brexit (Morrissey is a tax-exile who does not reside in the UK) and singing the praises of Nigel Farage!
In the last few weeks Morrissey has hit a new low by voicing his support for Stephen Christopher Yaxley (Tommy Robinson) – the very person who now despises the IRA and supports the Royal Family, whom in a previous life he wanted murdered.
This is where the confusion lies for me! As someone who worshiped at the altar of the Salford Bard and followed him all over the world whilst spending vast amounts of money, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on several things, such as the Union Jack incident at Madstock – the flag was just a symbol of art in the same way The Who and The Jam used it – and more recently calling the Chinese people a sub-species – I thought (wrongly) he was referring to their treatment of animals.
My withdrawal from someone I loved so much started with his accepting the keys to Tel-Aviv and stating in a Trumpian manner that the critics of Israel are just ‘jealous’. I found very disturbing his comments with regard to UKIP leadership being ‘rigged’ to ensure an anti-Islam activist did not win. And like for a lot of my Morrissey Brethren, the last straw was his support to the Free Tommy Robinson campaign!
For a person who considers himself a supporter of the underclass and Palestine, and also the treatment of ‘immigrants’ in this country (which Morrissey’s mother and father, who came to the UK from Ireland, could also be classified as!), this was indeed the final straw.
I feel this is not the end and Morrissey will stoop even lower – even as far as making a complete U-turn and singing the praises of Trump and his evil treatment of immigrants!
So sadly, this is not a time for me to smile about it now, but at the time it was terrible. This ‘time’ is NOW, and with Morrissey’s missives playing into the far-right media, where do we go from here?
My route is to the Morrissey section of my CD rack with a hammer.
Joseph McEwan
