GERTCHA!

(A cockney exclamation meaning “don’t be ridiculous”)

by Julian Harston, 23 Augustus 2024

When I was growing up my grandmother and my parents frequently used expressions of disbelief which suggested that I, or another member of my family were saying something daft. “Pull the other one, its got bells on” was a favourite, as was , “I wasn’t born yesterday”. School teachers were more succinct with their “don’t be ridiculous”.

My contemporaries were more colourful with their scorn. “Bollocks” was both short and to the point. “Oh really?” or “Seriously?” from the more refined. A couple of Americanisms are more contemporary. “You have to be kidding” and my favourite “I may have been born at night but it sure as hell wasn’t last night!”.

Such expressions of disbelief of course suggest that the interlocutor is saying something which flies in the face of common sense. Common sense is defined as “sound, practical judgement concerning everyday matters, or a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that is shared by (i.e., "common to") nearly all people.”

On a daily basis, in the UK, in parliament, in the press, from state institutions, from charities, and above all from the social media comes a tidal wave of statements and actions which under even the weakest magnifying glass do not pass the ‘common sense test’. Whether it be gender, Gaza, climate, racism, Ukraine, comedy, personal relationships, and many other important issues, the loudest and most belligerent voices prevail and thus dominate the public platform. Scepticism or dissent is drowned out and frequently punished by exclusion from university, stage, and the airwaves.

For years people have spoken about the silent majority. For silent read sensible, sceptical, dare I say, normal. Those who have always comforted themselves by believing ‘it will come right in the end’. And have a clear idea what right means. And at the end of the day the views of the silent majority prevailed even after the most intense discussion around the noisy dinner parties in the gentrified East end of London.

Today this is not the case because these folk have identified ‘their truth’ and with their considerable ability to control the debate through their influence in the media both real and social, have managed to persuade themselves and many of the more pliable that their truth should not even be questioned.

The silent, now silenced, majority are largely good hearted people leading not too complicated lives and balanced and tolerant in their views and behaviour. They are witness to what they see as the ‘craziness’ around them and shrug and say that they have no problem with the three percent of the population that is LBGT...., nor with people of other races. Let them get on with their noise and aggression if that is what they want to spend their time on.

Over the last few years those of us who warned of the devastating threat posed by the takeover of our institutions by ideologues were relentlessly attacked and ridiculed. There is no such thing as “woke”, we were assured by patronising left-wingers, just “kind” people who “care” about others and who believe in “social justice”, fighting “prejudice”, “clarifying” history, embracing sexual “self-realisation”, “saving the planet” and promoting the fundamental “equality” of all human beings.

Well ‘ gertcha’, with not much respect, all that is a smokescreen of self justifying deliberate manipulation. If you are not with us you are against us, is amplified by and you are wrong and must be ridiculed and if possible punished.

In the last few days I have watched an Olympic opening ceremony overwhelmed by truly offensive themes and scenes. Mr Bean and 007 and the Queen seem like a lifetime ago. I have watched women boxers being hurt and humiliated by having to fight another woman with too many male hormones. I have noted that the National Portrait Gallery has found it appropriate to warn visitors that Winston Churchill was a racist and a colonialist. The ‘representatives’ of the good people of Edinburgh plan to ban the RAF from flypasts at the annual Tattoo. For environmental reasons.

It really is time for a grand coalition of sensible people to say “ enough”.

GERTCHA!

Julian Harston

23 August 2024

[This paper is not written nor co-authored by Arno Reuser. It is just published by me. The only author is Julian Harston.]