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The King is Dead, Long Live the King! |
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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08 September 2006 |
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Tales of the death of Kings are always sad. None more so than Tony`s.
The trumpets don`t depart but begin the Last Post. The trappings fall away. Acolytes make their accommodations. A smaller figure stands before us, trying to play noble but emerging as petulant, deflated, blaming and, above all, sad.
Not tearful like Margaret. That may be to come. But instead of standing up to the pressures of the headless chicken brigade and toughing it out to go with dignity, the towel`s been thrown in, Party and people have failed the Leader. They`ll come to regret it. But he`s failed too and particularly failed Lady Macbeth who must be simmering with anger. Everyone`s let them down. Even Tony.
What`s been thrown away won`t come back. People and Party are ceasing to listen. they probably have already. The triumphal tour fades away . Gould ceases to glitter. Now for months of diminuendo, muddle, fading authority and waiting for some triumph to turn up. Which it won`t. Then ahead the memoirs, the speaking tours, the motivational seminars: that time when the once great clutch at the remaining shreds, only to reveal how big, or small, they really are. The time, too, for revenge. best served cold but always felt hotly.
Sad. Sad. Sad. |
