Personally I have not been to the Cinema in about fifteen years….and yes it was a Star Trek movie.

By an odd coincidence two of  my friends living in different places saw Les Miserables on Thursday night. I’m not a big fan of musicals…although my karaoke duet with Mrs FJH “Youre the One That I want” has often stunned people.

So I can’t really see myself going to see Les Miserables. The stage version is of coursroar massive success and all of us who have visited London can’t fail to be impressed by the iconic signage in Shaftsbury Avenue.

I don’t suppose tickets are cheap and I have to say that most audiences are probably well-heeled which begs the question why so many …presumably conservative voters…would sing along with the Parisian mob.

Two things perhaps. We are all familiar with Jean Valjean …it is a classic tale but maybe all  political philosophies identify rightly or wrongly with the revolutionaries. It Ewan’s after all a conflict with the obnoxious aristocracy.

Yet at some point in some lives we might have hearts that beat to the sound of the drum…1969 to 1971 perhaps and we might see an arc of events…1971 to 1972 which causes us to reflect….and we greater to a greater or lesser extent have mixed feelings about the whole sound of the drum thing….and perhaps it takes some longer than others to stop listening to the drum…while retaining a fondness for the memory and the whole revolutionary fervour. It’s odd that people will buy tickets to see Les Miserables and perhaps buy Abba’s Greatest Hits and wistfully sing a along to”Fernando”……not really reflecting about that fateful night we crossed the Rio Grande. Indeed pepeople some of the people ….me for example….who will play “Can You Hear The People Sing” and “Fernando” on YouTube are also likely to play “The Boys of the Old Brigade” because when it comes right down to it,we all prefer to be on the side of the revolutionaries than on the side of the”oppressor”.

Perhaps some would turn up their noses at “My Little Armalite” while happily singing songs from Les Miserables. Of course it helps that Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman are involved.

But I suspect that the Paris mob Moore little resemblance to Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. Indeed they migh have been as boorish and brutish as the Flegs protestors in East Belfast. Of course that is the difference between History…romanticised History andPolitics.

And whether the History of the Victor or thE Balladeer, we tend to accept it.

Yet hard to see that the East Belfast mob will ever be celebrated in a 22nd century musical. There is little cultural about Loyalists. They Have little to offer beyond a kick- the-pope band….and a few plays about the Somme.

BUT MOSTLY THERE IS CULTURAL BANKRUPTCY.