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SO where do you stand in the class war?
That uniquely British obsession with one’s position in society.
Well it’s certainly all kicked off again this week. Uber posh boy Jacob ReesMogg and his kids were ambushed by a ranting left-wing loon and BBC radio presenter Cerys Matthews “banned” public school bands from her show.
This’ll be the same weirdo Welsh bird who went to a fee-paying school. But hey, it’s cool to be common now while fine to give the upper class, affluent mob a good kicking. Often literally.
To his eternal credit Tory boy Mogg handled being doorstepped by anarchist Ian Bone with immaculate manners.
Even as Bone Head spat abuse and informed the Mogg sprogs that their dad was hated, Jacob smiled politely and ushered his bewildered brood out of harm’s way.
But this is a man who was disciplined as a child by a wooden spoon-wielding nanny. Kinky toff stuff obviously.
Meanwhile, just days later, the Radio 6 Music presenter (no, me neither) grandly declared that she’d rather not give airtime to those who had had a “leg-up in life”.
And while I totally agree that privately educated acts like James Blunt and Coldplay might not be to everyone’s taste surely you can’t ban them because of the school they went to?
Posh pop also applies to Lily Allen but I’d totally support anyone banning her no matter what the reason. w
The irony of Cerys being employed by the BBC – an institution stuffed with over-privileged, Guardian-reading staff – is obviously lost on her.
Pretty sure the last working class person the Beeb gave a job to was Alf Garnett. And that was only to look down on the common little folk and their quaint racist attitudes.
Cerys tried to defend herself by saying she hadn’t actually banned anyone, but did admit to considering social backgrounds. Oh just play some music you silly moo, as our Alf would say.
Weirdly even though the class boundaries have been blurred it seems to be more important than ever.
Is it where you were born and how you are brought up that defines your class? Or where you live now and how much money you earn?
Working class lads can become millionaire MOGGED: Ian Bone ranting at family footballers with all the trappings of Roller-driving, mansion-owning landed gentry, but does that make Wayne Rooney upper class. Does it heck.
Back in the day the working classes wanted to better themselves because, let’s face it, being poor really isn’t fun.
Now it’s cool to be down with the disadvantaged. Kids born with silver spoons in their gobs spit them out as soon as they can and hang around “edgy” inner city estates slagging off their prosperous backgrounds.
And yes they’ll all vote Jeremy Corbyn no matter what he says and does as they would rather die than vote Tory.
Anguish
But that’s OK because they can scurry home to mummy and daddy’s country estate when it all gets a little too “real”.
You can argue about class all day but the debate moves on again next week when Maddie McCann’s dad Gerry gives his first interview on his three-year-old daughter’s disappearance 11 years ago.
The point of the chat is to raise awareness of male mental health issues, a subject that has been ignored for far too long. And the anguish the McCanns have been through must be unbearable.
But I can’t be the only one who still feels uncomfortable about the fact these intelligent, middle-class doctors chose to leave three small children alone in a room while they went out wining and dining.
And I cannot help but wonder how different this case would have been treated if the parents had been working class, sink estate dwellers out on the beer.