A day after celebrating another (un-)happy birthday Morrissey has spoken out on last night’s terrorist attack in Manchester, lashing out at politicians and their inability to protect their people after 22 were killed and 59 wounded during an Ariana Grande concert in the former Smiths’ frontman’s native city.
While many others have given statements about last night’s tragedy, mostly offering thoughts to the victims, Morrissey’s words are far more pointed. “In modern Britain everyone seems petrified to officially say what we all say in private,” he writes.
The statement was posted to his Facebook page, and you can read it in full below.
Morrissey writes:
“Celebrating my birthday in Manchester as news of the Manchester Arena bomb broke. The anger is monumental.
For what reason will this ever stop?
Theresa May says such attacks ‘will not break us’, but her own life is lived in a bullet-proof bubble, and she evidently does not need to identify any young people today in Manchester morgues. Also, ‘will not break us’ means that the tragedy will not break her, or her policies on immigration. The young people of Manchester are already broken – thanks all the same, Theresa. Sadiq Khan says ‘London is united with Manchester’, but he does not condemn Islamic State – who have claimed responsibility for the bomb. The Queen receives absurd praise for her ‘strong words’ against the attack, yet she does not cancel today’s garden party at Buckingham Palace – for which no criticism is allowed in the Britain of free press. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham says the attack is the work of an ‘extremist’. An extreme what? An extreme rabbit?
In modern Britain everyone seems petrified to officially say what we all say in private. Politicians tell us they are unafraid, but they are never the victims. How easy to be unafraid when one is protected from the line of fire. The people have no such protections.
Morrissey
23 May 2017.”