"That’s what I mean by genius."

[Beef Oven!]

Yes, I don't think it does Peter Shaffer justice as a playwright to dismiss Amadeus as a mere dramatisation of the life of a historical celebrity. Having said that I have to admit to never (yet) having seen either the play or the film, but I think Equus is a very considerable piece of work.

Whatever the ins and outs of how the article under discussion found its way into the Torygraph, it's still rubbish.

I have stayed away from this discussion, but I will say that it lacks a ‘proper’ definition of ‘genius’. So here’s my tuppence worth http/gramsci/althusser/poulantzas.com

[Dave2002]

I'd've had qualms letting her in! A* GCSE / Grade B "A/S"-level at best (and with a lot of red pen markings).

Nah - you're just jealous ....

She was briefly a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014. In April 2012 her net worth was estimated at £11 million.[1]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Suddenly very, very jealous!

[pastoralguy]

Suddenly very, very jealous!

Bearing in mind that Mozart didn't make such large sums of cash, does that make Ms. Klass more of a genius than Mozart?

[ahinton]

She was briefly a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014. In April 2012 her net worth was estimated at £11 million.

So - pocket change for b*gg*r all, then - and a loose woman to boot; all great qualifications for the writing of such an article, I don't think - and no prizes to DT for publishing it...

[ahinton]

Bearing in mind that Mozart didn't make such large sums of cash, does that make Ms. Klass more of a genius than Mozart?

Of course, albeit a "genius" (for what that term might be worth in any context) only for persuading people to pay her ludicrous sums for doing next to nothing of any value...

[jean]

Just looked up this dimly-remembered incident:

...As the conversation turned to the mansion tax, the Labour leader found himself under fire from the former pop singer to his right, showing a passion for the subject that he had not anticipated.

“The people who are the super-super rich, buying their houses for £140m,” said a heated Klass, “this is not necessarily going to affect them because they’ve got their tax rebates and amazing accountants.” It would, instead, be “the little grannies that have lived in those houses for years and years” who would be hit.

Miliband tried to interrupt – “The values of my government will be different to the values of this government” – but Klass was having none of it. “The name is so disturbing: a mansion tax. Immediately you conjure up an image of these Barbie-esque houses, but in London, which is where 80% of the people who will be paying this tax actually live, have you seen what that amount of money can get you? It’s like a garage!” She even, at one point, managed to introduce the concept of “fiscal drag”, which is almost certainly a first for a former contestant on a primetime pop contest...

[Serial_Apologist]

Time to get my fiscal drag act together.

[ahinton]

Just looked up this dimly-remembered incident:

...As the conversation turned to the mansion tax, the Labour leader found himself under fire from the former pop singer to his right, showing a passion for the subject that he had not anticipated.

“The people who are the super-super rich, buying their houses for £140m,” said a heated Klass, “this is not necessarily going to affect them because they’ve got their tax rebates and amazing accountants.” It would, instead, be “the little grannies that have lived in those houses for years and years” who would be hit.

Miliband tried to interrupt – “The values of my government will be different to the values of this government” – but Klass was having none of it. “The name is so disturbing: a mansion tax. Immediately you conjure up an image of these Barbie-esque houses, but in London, which is where 80% of the people who will be paying this tax actually live, have you seen what that amount of money can get you? It’s like a garage!” She even, at one point, managed to introduce the concept of “fiscal drag”, which is almost certainly a first for a former contestant on a primetime pop contest...

Quite!

I wasn't aware of that, but any remotely pertinent and intelligent comments that she may have made on that occasion (whether off her own bat or having been primed by someone else) offer no excuse for the codswallop in the DT piece.

The disproportionately high prices of property in general and homes in particular afflict many capital cities, not just London and how most people can afford to live in them is beyond me. I have no wish to comment here in general terms on the "mansion tax" that proved to be a non-starter, even to the extent of speculating on why it might have turned out to be one (and MK mentioned garages; try buying a lock-up one of those even in Bath and the same in Merthyr Tydfil and see the massive difference in the dent in the wallet - and neither of those places is even a capital city!), except to say that, had it been introduced and people (including but not limited to those who'd be unable to afford to pay it) reacted by selling up, property prices would have fallen (especially in London), which would have been bad for HMT's anticipated additional tax revenues but good for everyone else (including those in rental accommodation whose rents would eventually have fallen as a consequence).

Anyway, that's all history and, in the meantime, what might be said of someone who supposedly describes herself as "a muso, host and mumpreneur" is at the very least open to question (especially if the last of those terms is intended to imply someone who steals mothers)...

[ahinton]

Time to get my fiscal drag act together.

!!! Do keep 'em coming, S_A; do, please!

But if you do indeed get your fiscal drag act together, please try to ensure that it isn't a Klass act...

[Serial_Apologist]

!!! Do keep 'em coming, S_A; do, please!

But if you do indeed get your fiscal drag act together, please try to ensure that it isn't a Klass act...

As a good socialist, it would have to be a working Klass act!

[jean]

Just make sure you let us see the pictures!

[ahinton]

As a good socialist, it would have to be a working Klass act!

Mais bien sur! I should have seen that one coming! - although, my, lean times might just be round the corner...

Do you suppose, though, that, had Busoni been even more premonitory than was the case, he might have thought twice about coining der Jungen Klassizität?

It's enough to give Klassikool musik a bad name...

[Lat-Literal]

Today would have been the 217th birthday of the genius Ludwig Ritter von Köchel.

[subcontrabass]

Today would have been the 217th birthday of the genius Ludwig Ritter von Köchel.

K217: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6B_E8uED5A