The outpouring of news, comment, opinion and shocking revelation relating to News International , The News of the World, Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks and the rest has filled our air waves and newspapers for the past fortnight. In fact ever since I wrote my little play 'Eton Mess' and put it on the blog site, the phone, so to speak, has never stopped ringing! Perhaps I’m being 'hacked'! I can’t really believe that my little dramatic farce and my blog can really be totally responsible for the tumbling of the mighty Murdoch empire – but in the end, perhaps it was really, Inspector Morse behind the scenes quietly doing his job and exposing the wrong doings of the Oxford Set and all who mix with them! Whatever, from a few days after my blog appeared the exposures have been coming thick and fast! It has made me think where do we go next? Should I write another scent to my play and see if that illicits more exposure!
But the events of the last couple of weeks has also made me muse a little more on one or two of the other blogs that I have posed in recent weeks.
Some weeks ago – just after the royal wedding - I commented on the 'Mrs Malaprops of Fashion'. I commented on the dress code of the 'movers and shakers' of society, the royal family, celebrities and the like at the wedding and at social events like Royal Ascot. A couple of things have come along since then! Firstly, my daughter and family had a day out at the races – a work’s staff treat. Towards the end of the day I had a text from her. They had greatly enjoyed the event, won a few pounds with one or two bets and the grandchildren had enjoyed seeing the horses. A good day out. But, my daughter explained, she now knew that my blog had been correct when she had seen the fashion sense of the 'in crowd'. In fact, she put it far better than I – she knew now, she said, why the horses wear blinkers – 'it would be too frightening for the poor animals to see the made up trollops in the fashionable enclosures'!
And continuing this line of thought, I noticed, a week or two ago that Princess Beatrice, that priestess of high fashion and good breeding (she of the famous royal wedding 'hat') has been awarded her degree - a 2:i from Goldsmiths in London. The Princess has studied history and the history of ideas. Beatrice said: "I have had the most amazing university experience. Goldsmiths College is a wonderful place to study. I am so lucky to have had the support of the incredible tutors and staff. I am so excited about my results. I wish everyone graduating this year congratulations as well. It is amazing"
Well, no shortage of hyperbole there! As I read this erudite review of university life and success I was minded of Tony Judt’s famous comment: 'in the western tradition, how well you expressed a position corresponded closely to the credibility of your argument. Rhetorical styles might vary .... but it was never a matter of indifference: poor expression belied poor thought. Confused words suggested, at best, confused ideas........There is now a glib "popular" articulacy based upon shoddy prose and quality of argument and when words lose their integrity so do the ideas they express.' I may be wrong, but I would have hoped that someone who has studied the history of ideas - presumably this includes areas such as philosophy and the like - to degree level, would be able to go beyond 'popular articulacy' - especially if one is a princess of the realm!
I know I might be accused of being a grumpy old man, a curmudgeon, but I find it rather sad and worrying that in this day and age a young woman who is at the pinnacle of our ‘system’, has had the best private education that money can buy, is a member of a family that notionally, at least, govern us and whose every move and utterance is the subject of interest and debate in the media – both at home and in the wider world – cannot express herself rather more eloquently than this. Why was it ‘amazing’ and ’wonderful’. What characteristics did these ‘incredible’ tutors display? This is the expression and hyperbole of the of the street and the night club - facile, superficial and trivial. We should expect more.
Mind you, having said that I read this morning that Beatrice’s sister, Eugenie is in even more trouble! Newspapers today report that: ‘Party loving Princess Eugenie needs to take a leaf out of her sensible sister’s book after disappointing results in her English Literature, History of Art and Politics end-of-year exams at Newcastle University. “They were a fairly mixed bag,” said a friend. “Some grades were quite low and she’ll really have to cut the all-night partying if she wants to get a 2:1 like Beatrice.”
If the top royals lack a certain erudition and see partying as the way forward then I suppose there is small chance for us lesser mortals.
I thought of Beatrice and Eugenie when I watched a fly on the wall TV documentary last week about work in an A & E department. As well as the usual stories of critically injured people and the like there was a depressing piece showing four very silly and immature university students - four girls. As I watched I felt Beatrice and Eugenie would have fitted in well. I also thought of the blog that I wrote in June about a ' Coming to a street near you - a shrieking orgy of fake tan, false eye lashes, fights and booze'. The girls turned up at the department late at night having been to a fancy dress party – dressed as red Indians. Two of them had fallen off a bar on which they had been dancing (as you do!). They were clearly under the influence of drink, although not drunk. None were seriously injured. For the next few hours they proceeded to cause chaos in the department – dressing up in hospital items, complaining, being generally unhelpful, giggling, being rude to staff. How on earth the staff contained their composure was completely beyond me. But they did – through gritted teeth they did what they had to do and ensured that the girls were medically sound. That, of course, was right and proper – but for me I wanted to ask will a very large bill be sent to their parents? Will their university take action? I wondered if, when the girls saw the film, they would cringe with embarrassment? I suspect not, but not to do so belies, I believe, a weakness in our current system – not only of providing health care but of also how we bring up our children and what we expect of them.
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