Ha ha! ‘It’s all gone woke’, so says this marvellous character by Merny. The phrase is one used by anybody who doesn’t like or disagrees with those elements of policy/regulation/rules/behaviour that they take issue with on account of it not complying with their own values. The peak example of the phrase was probably the quote from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who used the term ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’ to describe Just Stop Oil protesters in 2022. I wonder how she would describe the pigs who are currently protesting against immigrants in the UK. Spot the tumbleweed.
This is a lovely Merny piece, so ‘of its time’, simple and powerful, like so much of his work. The piece was painted around the time of his excellent exhibition, which I understand from speaking to him since, went better than expected, and he managed to sell quite a few original pieces, which is great to hear. I would have loved to have bought one or two of his originals, but alas they were marginally outside my price range. See some of them below:
Natural adventures 
Sorry Stephen, but I don’t believe I’m a pig just because I don’t agree with mass immigration. I’m going to have to unfollow you.
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I am truly sorry to hear that. The pigs I was referring to are the ones appearing in the news every night at the moment, and definitely not those who have concerns about immigration. I could have worded it better.
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I’m glad that you clarified what you meant. I realise our political views are quite different and I tend to ignore most of your political comments which differ from my own point of view, but I just couldn’t let this one go. I tend to opt for a more impartial approach on my posts as I prefer readers to make up their own minds about controversial subjects, but I certainly respect people to have the freedom to voice their opinions and especially on their own website.
Just for the record, I used to be a strong supporter of many of the issues that concern you, and have enjoyed many a debate about controversial topics, so I’m quite used to listening to other people’s point of view – providing that I’m also listened to as well. As Winston Churchill once said, “it takes courage to stand up and talk but it also takes courage to sit down and listen”, or words to that effect.
I can see that you didn’t wish to offend me personally and under the circumstances, if it’s ok with you, I’m happy to re-follow your website. I may not like every bit of wall art that you show us, but there are some crackers amongst them, and after all, variety is the spice of life as they say.
Malc
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Can you please confirm that you have deleted my reply as it seems to have disappeared.
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Hi. I can confirm that I haven’t removed your reply, it is still there in my view. I’ll take a proper look tomorrow when I am on the PC.
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I still don’t see it. I’m not referring to my first comment, but my reply to your response.
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Hi, I found your comment in my spam folder. In fact, there were three, but I have approved the first. I think that sometimes longer comments get automatically sent to spam, so thank you for asking the question, so I could take a look.
Thank you also for your reply. I must say that I was mortified to have offended you. I expect that I will continue to express my political views from time to time, but I shall certainly be much more mindful about the language I use, and try to be more considered in my arguments.
I enjoy your posts very much, and actually yesterday I found your wonderful post about Looe Island – which is a place of relevance to my work at the moment.
Thank you for the re-follow (is that a thing?) and I hope we can remain virtual friends.
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I’m glad you found it. I could see that the first two didn’t arrive but I saw the third one for some reason.
Many people will just disappear from the list and say nothing, but I wanted you to know why the post didn’t sit well with me, and give you the chance to explain what you meant. As you know, the written word can often offend people when no offence was intended.
The world is made up of people with many different points of view, and although we may not always agree, I think it’s important to agree to disagree sometimes. As I said, a healthy debate is much better than storing up hatred, which gets us nowhere as yesterday’s protests/ riots prove. In amongst the activists and mindless morons were people with real and genuine concerns.
Anyway, unless the black-backed gulls were doing their worst, there wouldn’t have been any trouble on Looe Island yesterday, so thanks for your comment about the post. I’m just going to re-subscribe to your site, of which I’m always happy to guide people to who have the same interest in urban art as you do.
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Thank you. My father and I had a long-standing agreement to agree to disagree on certain issues. Your support is very much appreciated.
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