There was much indignity in various of today's papers about Kate Middleton's Mum chewing gum at the Sovereign's parade - and that this was the reason Wills dumped her.
I doubt it was only that, but it does rather point to a lack of manners on the part of Mrs. Middleton.
The older I get the more clear it is to me that class is by no means dead in this country - or anywhere else come to that. Even Switzerland, that most egalitarian of countries, has it's high society. You wouldn't know it of course, they are much too discreet.
Strangely, people think of Polo and champagne as being "Class". It may be, but it is certainly not top class. That requires discretion and manners, politeness and deference, rectitude and loyalty. Much better to be Mr. Smith who has farmed his 500 acres for 20 generations than Lord Bootle of BumTrinket the first - and Mr. Smith would naturally defer politely, no matter how badly behaved Bootle was. What is quite clear is that the drunks on a Friday night in town centres have no class.
David Cameron's latest Party Political Broadcast has all the marks of class. He is engaging, polite, listens attentively, doesn't interupt, makes the person he is talking to at ease, and is never condescending. That's what you get with a good ( expensive) education.
So maybe class is real education. That wouldn't be mothers and fathers teaching their children how to behave by any mischance, would it? No no, that's far too simplistic in our sophisticated world.
Many years ago I was told that there was only one way to tell a true Gentleman. Find out if he used a butter knife even when alone.
And he almost certainly didn't chew gum even in private.
3 comments:
There's only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.
That said, I was most impressed by the younger Middleton girl's response to a journalist: "I'm sorry, we don't talk to the press."
After the Iran sailors fiasco (which was the final confirmation that Britain is no longer the country I left 11 years ago) it was somewhat refreshing to hear that there are still some small pockets of resistance out there.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go out and repair the dry stone walls on the family fields. It's not the original 500 acres (most of them were stolen in a compulsory purchase order to build a reservoir). Still, if I can ever get planning permission to build lakeside property on the rest, this generation intends to get the money back and go all 'new money' (Mock Tudor? That'll do nicely....). Doffs cap, tugs forlock, etc....
inactual - I agree, she was most decorous. Hope the planning comes through, but there's no need to fawn!
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