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Saturday, 25 November 2017

Week of Prayer for Olly Murs

We're all feeling a bit sorry for Olly Murs. The singer only went out yesterday to find some a decent after-shave in Selfridge's.
But either our Olly is a slow shopper or the decent stuff in Selfridge's is well hidden. Because 5 hours later, Olly tweeted to say that he was caught up in Selfridge's and there had been gunshots. NB - other tweets from Olly are available.
In fact, it turns out there were none. Mr Murs seems to have got the wrong end of the stick from rumours of the events at Oxford Circus, where a punch up on the Tube caused mass panic and an impromptu evacuation.

Now I think poor Olly Murs has got an unfairly bad press here. He's a young man with little experience of emergency situations. He was in Central London on one of thr busiest days of the shopping year. The police had reported an incident half a mile up the road and people were flooding out of Oxford Circus and no doubt pouring past Selfridge's shouting "It's a bomb / fire / attack / punch up on the Central Line."

The usual suspects, who would rather have a nice disaster and someone to blame than an explicable misunderstanding, took to their followers. Tommy Robinson, the Right-Wing's shortest man with Short Man Syndrome 2009, said it 'looked like' a jihadist attack. Thus simultaneously triggering his followers and leaving himself the ability to keep his nose clean. Of course, it did look like a jihjadist attack. But then it also looked like an IRA attack, the King's Cross Fire, the reaction to a rumour of free pasties in Gregg's, or someone passing wind having overdone it in that Nando's just off Tottenham Court Road.

Then we have the equally attractive character Katie Hopkins (and I expect Matt Lucas to admit she's actually him under a rubber mask one day, playing the character "Daily Mail Fascist".) She basically said the reaction was the fault of Islamists. Because they have created an environment of fear. Forgetting that she has also created that environment. That in her need to demonize the members of a religion she has become the Islamists' patsy.

 Before you knew it, Social Media was full of the expression " Religion of Peace." The Daily Mail was tweeting old images of an accident that had nothing to do with Black Friday on Oxford Street.

And in the middle of it, poor Olly Murs got the blame. In years to come, he will remembered as the cause of the whole thing. And his only fault was being a scared young man in a strange situation, trying to help others. If you're going to laugh at Olly, laugh at him for his hat. Not for this. Personally I hope he gets the Order of Merit - as then he'll be OM OM - which would be something he can chant, to calm down in panic situations.

So we're holding a Week of Prayer for Olly Murs. Hoping that he comes out of this stronger and more confident in a crisis.

Meanwhile, don't phone him today for quotes or to cheer him up. He's not going to answer the phone, so you'll just have to leave a message. He's going to be recuperating from the excitement. He's just gonna lay in his bed. Today he's not doing anything.


Want a good laugh? Want to laugh at the church? Want to be secretly suspicious that the author has been sitting in your church committee meetings taking notes? Then Writes of the Church: Gripes and grumbles of people in the pews is probably the book for you.

An excellent book for your churchgoing friends, relatives or vicar. And don't forget it's nearly Christmas!
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