Singer Morrissey lashes out at Britain’s ‘blustering jingoism’

LONDON -- Morrissey, the former frontman for the Smiths, is a little cross these days.

What else is new?

Veteran observers of the often-controversial singer are well accustomed to his rants on politics and various music-industry feuds, including one truly bizarre riff on Elton John.

Come to think it, he might be well-positioned as a talk-show host, well equipped at repackaging rage.

Right now, Morrissey is a man with a serious thorn in his side: the Olympics.

The Guardian newspaper managed to to get a copy of a recent angry letter from the singer, addressed to his fan club:

“I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The ‘dazzling royals’ have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press.

“It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the ‘dazzling royals’, laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.”

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