When 40,000 of our people catch the plague every day and official reports tell us that the shabby man in a PM’s suit deliberately let it happen but has now anyway gone on holiday so nobody asks him a single damn question, it is important to remember this is not normal. When there are government ministers rolling stoned around nightclubs, wearing invisible bullet-proof super injunction armour so that nobody can discuss their bulging black pupils, as the BBC reporter hangs off their arm like tinsel from a rancid Christmas tree, it is important to remember this is not normal. When the police are found guilty of covering up murder, the words Institutionally Corrupt oozing like fresh blood from a mown-down inquiry, the police chief behind the wheel, who is then quickly shielded, it is important to remember this is not normal. When the truth has been bludgeoned, bundled dazed into the cellar; when everybody sees it but no-one talks about it, when food and fuel run out but it’s officially denied, so the people have decided that it hasn’t really happened it is important to remember this is not normal. When the poison pen letters leaching from front pages are parrot-screeched by the mob awash like waves on the street, staining the pavement with effluence and hatred it is important to remember this is not normal, until one grey day just like any other steadily, secretly it is. Harry Gallagher
