Elitism will always be with us but the 'Posh Boys' are intolerable ....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Cameron wants everyone to be in the elite coz we are all in this together innit

Mr Serota is worried about the arts not being in the EBacc .... no worries the opportunity for the arts etc will still be available at Public Schools [er private really]
George O you should be with us at this hour ....

speakin as an effin pleb who drops gees at the rear not aitches at the front my radical critique is based on my right foot hob nailed boot ...

just how many old whatsits [etonians, harrovians etc and PPE Oxbridge graduates] are there in the country? too many for a few of us so be a Boot, Britain needs Boots ... and kick this elite until it breaks, ... ahem ... to borrow a phrase from kingkennytone ...

[teamsaint]

Cameron wants everyone to be in the elite coz we are all in this together innit

Mr Serota is worried about the arts not being in the EBacc .... no worries the opportunity for the arts etc will still be available at Public Schools [er private really]
George O you should be with us at this hour ....

speakin as an effin pleb who drops gees at the rear not aitches at the front my radical critique is based on my right foot hob nailed boot ...

just how many old whatsits [etonians, harrovians etc and PPE Oxbridge graduates] are there in the country? too many for a few of us so be a Boot, Britain needs Boots ... and kick this elite until it breaks, ... ahem ... to borrow a phrase from kingkennytone ...

If this doesn't win todays "Post of the day" I shall be very disappointed indeed. !!
Great Stuff.

Edit..they don't want people actually thinking, do they? very dangerous.

[VodkaDilc]

...women are being frozen out by the new Toffia [Eton Oxbridge and Chipping Norton] ...
.

As someone who lives near Chipping Norton, can I repeat the point which has often been made? Chipping Norton is a very ordinary, working town; it is not a pretty Cotswold tourist spot like Chipping Campden or Broadway. It is very mixed socially and has a tradition of electing Labour candidates in local elections. It is unfortunate that it is part of the Witney constituency, which, due to the large number of desirable villages, always elects a Tory MP (and has always been used as a safe seat for rising stars - Hurd, Woodward, Cameron).

The leading members of the so-called Chipping Norton set live in Dean, Sarsden, Burford, Woodstock and other nearby villages. The only one who actually lives in the town (or rather a mile or so outside) is Jeremy Clarkson - hardly a key member of the political élite. It is time that this lazy cliché is abandoned.

[Simon]

just how many old whatsits [etonians, harrovians etc and PPE Oxbridge graduates] are there in the country? too many for a few of us so be a Boot, Britain needs Boots ... and kick this elite until it breaks, ... ahem ... to borrow a phrase from kingkennytone

I enjoy most of your posts, Calum, especially this old class warrior sort of stuff like we used to read in SW when we were students! Clearly, something has happened to make you think thus and I wish we could meet for a pint or two - I'd be fascinated to find out what has caused all the class hatred in you.

[scottycelt]

I enjoy most of your posts, Calum, especially this old class warrior sort of stuff like we used to read in SW when we were students! Clearly, something has happened to make you think thus and I wish we could meet for a pint or two - I'd be fascinated to find out what has caused all the class hatred in you.

Today's class warriors might well prefer a glass or two of champagne in a trendy wine-bar, Simon ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

I enjoy most of your posts, Calum, especially this old class warrior sort of stuff like we used to read in SW when we were students! Clearly, something has happened to make you think thus and I wish we could meet for a pint or two - I'd be fascinated to find out what has caused all the class hatred in you.

.. as i have aged so my childhood memories are resurgent in my feelings .... the experience of growing up as a poor street urchin in the middle of Kensington W8 now haunts my thinking ... the toffs were genuine shits, as an adolescent in his early teens i was gratuitously spat at and insulted by an obvious retired army type in a regimental tie, blue striped shirt, tweed coat and mustard cords and trilby ... scum he called me .... the toffs in the forties and fifties were not nice people at all ... my enmity starts there ... the nicer people. apart from kith and kin, were the bohemian sort encountered in that locale ... but later

my parents were socialists and my pa was quite radical in his pacifism and redistributive views, so you could also accuse me of following in the family tradition .... i am quite content to be the fourteenth mr angry ..

alas though i am teetotal, a coffee bar denizen .... would a double espresso suffice?

[Simon]

I see Calum. Thanks. pace scotty's post, I've always viwed you as sincere and definitely not a champagne socialist! Your teetotalism only underlines that.

I suppose if I'd had similar experiences to yours, I'd feel differently. But then, that applies to us all. In my case, the people I've met and found unpleasant haven't come from one class - I've found them in several walks of life.

bws S-S!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er ditto Simon , people i trust and respect come from all walks of life, but the tribal aspect of politics still rules, and our financial, political etc elites do form a tribe of detestable character in my view .. they are at heart gangsters ... a coalition of power interest and violence no one can readily defeat ... try taxing the B***********s

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

To return to the original topic (& away from the love-in between Am & Scotty, which, quite frankly, leaves me feeling slightly nauseous) Cameron wants everyone to be elite.


Something wrong there, surely?

It's a bit like the tabloid newspaper that slammed teachers because 30% of pupils were achieving "below average marks". What a surprise!

[handsomefortune]

Cameron wants everyone to be in the elite coz we are all in this together innit

Mr Serota is worried about the arts not being in the EBacc .... no worries the opportunity for the arts etc will still be available at Public Schools [er private really]
George O you should be with us at this hour ....

and another, on the same topic http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...-ebacc-schools

just how many old whatsits [etonians, harrovians etc and PPE Oxbridge graduates] does it take to change a light bulb?

none! probably all too tight to stump up for one, but wouldn't know that it's the bulb needs replacing in the first place! after all, jeeves takes care of such things, what ho!

[MrGongGong]

I'm not sure that JLW should be described as a "leader" though ?
Why do the media always go for him ?

[Simon]

er ditto Simon , people i trust and respect come from all walks of life, but the tribal aspect of politics still rules, and our financial, political etc elites do form a tribe of detestable character in my view .. they are at heart gangsters ... a coalition of power interest and violence no one can readily defeat ... try taxing the B***********s

Yep. In some ways for sure.

I may have mentioned this before, but little while ago I asked a very elderly lady of my acquaintance, whose intellectual track record is excellent and whose wisdom in many things is evident, the following question:

"Do you think that power always corrupts?"

She considered it for quite a while, as she so often does, clearly thinking back over her life and the people she had known.

Then she nodded. "Almost always, yes."

I think I was hoping for a slightly more optimistic answer, but there we go...

S-S!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

simpatico

Also useless to the economy, and thus excluded from the Gove Ebacc curriculum are subjects such as music, art, design, drama and dance, a decision which the composer Thomas Adès has described as "suicidal, if we want to have any arts at all in Britain in 30 years". Which is a bit of an exaggeration – won't there still be private schools? Antony Gormley, the sculptor, proposed locking Mr Gove in a gallery where he night "get a more imaginative approach to what human consciousness is all about". Except, as anyone who knows anything about Mr Gove will appreciate, he is the most civilised of men and recently enjoyed a trip to Covent Garden, along with the chancellor and libraries minister, to see Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The government's approach to the arts might be less contemptible if its members really were culturally inert, like the generations they propose to create. But there can be no doubt that, as Maria Miller insists, many Conservative ministers do cherish the arts in their own lives. They are not materialistic brutes so much as selective philistines, content for Newcastle, having pitted art against survival, to embark on its own version of the Dark Ages, while Downing Street's connoisseurs blag £888 Wagner tickets or hanker for a Tracey Emin; a neon piece reading More Passion was the result.

any one hear that distinctly unposh boy on Private Passions this morning talking about setting up the lottery to fund the arts culture sport heritage since they would always have a weak claim in any budget dealing with everything else .... warm beer cricket and operetta might be better than i thought as a civilising influence ..