Reply With QuoteI know someone that was at Oxford with Boris and Rachel. Not the most altruistic of people allegedly.
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Good article this - the forelock tugging attitude of too many in this country towards their so called "betters" has always baffled and frustrated me.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...chools-britain
I remember reading an article in one of the Sunday papers about thirty years ago about how the toffs were gradually regaining control of the Conservative party and featured prominently among the young men driving this change was definitely David Cameron and I think George Osborne was mentioned as well. Just look at the reputation of those two men now - Cameron's arrogance and poor judgement led to Brexit and Osborne enforced the austerity policies which have seen public services routinely reduced with the NHS being the worst example of this.
The sort of people John Harris writes about tend to believe that they're better than the rest of us, but, in reality, they're out of touch and delusional - if you had to explain to a child what the word "entitled" meant, you could do a lot worse than just point to a picture of Johnson, Cameron, Osborne, Rees-Mogg, Sunak et al and say them.
I know someone that was at Oxford with Boris and Rachel. Not the most altruistic of people allegedly.
Can't wait for the proferred definition of "ding-dang".
"The cast is completed by Richard Sharp, the former banker and Tory donor who is now the chair of the BBC, and Simon Case, Britain’s most senior civil servant. Questions now swirl around Sharp’s alleged dealings with the other three, in the weeks and months before he was appointed to his role at the BBC. Last Monday, Johnson said that Sharp “knows absolutely nothing about my personal finances – I can tell you that for ding-dang sure”. Over the weekend, the Sunday Times published a leaked letter reportedly handed to Johnson by Case: “Given the imminent announcement of Richard Sharp as the new BBC chair,” it said, “it is important that you no longer ask his advice about your personal financial matters.” We now await enlightenment about how both these things could possibly be true."
It does make me laugh when the guardian accuses others of this kind of elitism. Talk about a lack of self awareness. Nonetheless some interesting points here and he is far from my least favourite guardian journo. He is often even handed for example.
I despise snobbery more than any other trait and whilst he is not specifically talking about that, he is right to highlight these networks (we have them here too of course). I do think there's a few tropes here though, esp about Brexit, which the guardian can't help but mention. An alternative narrative is that this is something the people voted for against almost every elite institution there is. Poorer people voted for it far more strongly than wealthy people who generally backed remain. And yet this newspaper did what it could to overturn that result. So a little gazing in the mirror from them wouldnt go amiss, but then of course it wouldn't get published..
Why do you think Poorer people voted for Brexit? Just to make it clear, i dislike the EU in spades, but voted to stay in. It was the choice between a shit layered sandwich, or a double layered shit sandwich.Originally Posted by JamesWales
Several reasons I'd say but off the top of my head:
The EU damaged British industry, or it is perceived to have. The single market generally means countries focused more on specialisms and we could compete less.
High immigration, whilst having positives and negatives generally these arent shared out equally. The negatives tend to be skewed towards poore to areas.
Working class people very generally are more patriotic and - again rightly or wrongly - Leave probably tapped into this better. Great generalisation etc but generally perhaps less likely to have friends from different countries etc.
Poorer people less exposed to the benefits such as travel and ownership of homes abroad etc. This isn't a reason to vote out, but it's generally wealthier people who benefit from things like that.
Poorer people perhaps have less to lose. The desire for change is often more important than the nature of the change.
Obviously lots of the reasons to vote either way are irrespective of income, but the above stand out for me.
What do you base your opinons on regarding the comment I highlighted in bold? I'm not saying you are wrong but I would be interested in knowing the answer to that question. In respect of my own narrow experience and working with senior members of the armed forces as well as civilans and ratings, I have found that the officer class is more invested in patriotism and much that is associated with it e.g. deference to royalty, the honours system and the perspective of the country historically.
Just my general opinion based on experience. Crude generalisations by definition can be picked apart but I do think there is a relationship. I'm not sure why. I wouldn't really associate patriotism with royalty, the honours system either really. I guess if you are poorer by definition you are more rooted to your community or country, by definition of not just being able to pack up and leave so easily? Sport probably helps too. I dunno.
Theres bound to be some data on all this somewhere.
Think Boris has always been a loner , as a child and adult, freakish in nature ,hugely intellectual intelligent to the point where folk veered away from him . Can't imagine how one could study the classics in Latin ,he won a King’s scholarship at Eton, they dont come easy .
He then studied ‘Greats’ at Oxford where he took a 2:1,
Intresting quote :
""I get why people love an opportunity to dogpile on him, but intellectually he is almost certainly (statistically speaking) a 1 per center.""
You have to have something about you to :
attend Eton .
studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
Get elected president of the Oxford Union
Become the Brussels correspondent & political columnist for the Telegraph,.
Then editor of The Spectator.
Oh and PM.
Quite a CV .. fir an alleged buffon ..
What this has to do with what bigjoe had to say is anyone's guess.
Perhaps you struggle with the word, altruistic.
Perhaps adjectives and phrases like, venal, self-serving, mendacious, duplicitous and morally bankrupt might better help you understand the point he was making. That the institutions you mention nurtured the character we have seen over the last few years should be a source of shame rather than pride for them!
Where's the quote from?
The one that comes to mind for me is that Johnson is a dumb person's idea of a smart one. Think that was John Oliver.
It was part of an article written by a contributor on Quora. It's an interesting pastime sourcing LoM's contribitions that are constructed in proper sentences.
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