The Tosser

' TOSSER '
Acrylic on Canvas
40" x 50"

With the War in Afghanistan really bringing the British Forces into the headlines I can only hope that the attitude of the British Public toward the Veterans of this and earlier conflicts becomes a little more real however scenes like this reflect the reality of the public view of our young men.

A couple of years ago the stats for homeless veterans suggested that ' on any given night throughout the year 1000 veterans are homeless ', I dont know how accurate this is for the present time however I would imagine that there is little change other than perhaps a rise in this number.

Each of the people in this painting represent real people that I have known, the 'time served' veteran of many conflicts, now tagged and under a curfew for some misdemeanour despite now being homeless and off the radar of the authorities, he sleeps while the younger, and sicker veteran still sits and begs, keeping watch as it were over his mate.

Passing by, 'the tosser', he sees nothing, knows nothing and is oblivious of the war even let alone the situation of the homeless guys he walks past, his football team has a far more important game, his job is boring him and his life is meaningless, he is 'The Tosser'.

Sport, it seems, has far more importance to our society, The Union Jack flies during the Olympic Games, the world cup final, the boat race, the war is elsewhere and concerns other people in a place he does not even know where it is on the Globe; we are a country at war and our young men are dying each week, where are the half mast flags, where are the anti war protesters of this generation, in a different world from the real one I live in.

Of course this is not the case for all of the residents of this country and I commend those who do support our troops however, When the time comes when we walk around with our poppies on Remembrance Sunday the numbers of people that line the streets or attend church are by far outnumbered by those who just dont care, sad times.

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