Is it only me that gets fed up with the sycophantic back-patting that goes on each year with the Oscar ceremonies and BAFTA awards? Each year an unknown electorate (I’ve never really worked out who they are) determine who we think are the top actors for the year and which are the best films we should see.
Well I have several gripes about this. Firstly, as someone on a relatively low income I can’t afford to go to the cinema very often – the last time was to see Harry Potter. So I must admit, I don’t really care who wins. It’ll be a couple of years before the DVD reaches one of my local charity shops. When it does, I’ll be able to buy a copy and make my own judgement. Right now, I couldn’t give a fig about the fact that ‘the industry’ thinks Colin Firth is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Secondly, am I really that interested in the antics of an overpaid, bourgeois aristocrat? From what I understand, the King’s Speech covers an aspect of the life of King George Vl. Over the years, the media has made great play on his ‘courage’ during the Second World War because he refused to leave London during the Blitz.
Ummmm … so did a couple of million other Londoners, so what makes him so different?
And the fact he had a stammer? Well, I am sure that must have been very distressing for him, particularly as public reaction in that era was less than favourable. But I am sure a comfortable lifestyle with plenty of fine food, the expensive clothes and the beautiful paintings more than adequately compensated...
Forgive my digression, but I can never understand why, as a nation, we continue to doff our caps to royals, whose only right to laud over us comes from our unwillingness to remove them.
Back to the point in hand and my third gripe. Colin Firth has been hailed as being the best actor of the year and received dozens of accolades in the process. Next week (or whenever it is), he’ll probably win an Oscar too. Before we get too excited, let’s not forget he will earn a packet as a result of picking up all these awards = and his income from future films will of course go up substantially.
I understand they anticipate the film will make £300m in box office sales and less cynical folk advise me the British Film industry will gain from his success. How? Will the shareholders in the King’s Speech give back some of their profit to support struggling unemployed actors? Will the writers redistribute 10% of their earnings to unpublished writers? Of course not.
Whilst a few hundred people last night enjoyed a grand beano in some fine hotel, millions of us poor oiks can look forward to a bleak year ahead. According to a recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, redundancies are set to rise sharply in the next few months as public sector cuts bite. Depressing perhaps, but no great surprise - four out of ten organisations planned redundancies in the first quarter of this year, the survey discovered. These included one-third of NHS employers, half of central government and three-quarters in local government.
Meanwhile, as we recover from the shock that Colin Firth will now earn millions, a new opinion poll by ComRes has suggested 63% of people believe the impact of the spending cuts will be felt more by poorer households than the better off - up from 57% in December. The poll suggested almost as many, 57%, thought the government was cutting too far and too fast in its efforts to tackle the deficit.
So who should we be concentrating on this morning? Colin Firth and all the other ‘sweeties’ who picked up meaningless gongs last night - or the millions of people this morning who are scared stiff they will not be able to cope financially if all the cuts take place?
Don’t get me wrong, I congratulate Firth on his success, but I fail to see what the excitement is about. And I cannot understand the justice in a system that will now allow him to become very wealthy, whilst thousands this winter will ‘sign on’ and face penury.
Has the world gone crazy this morning? You bet!
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