No, no, not the 'Memsahib's hand - behave! Actually, there are no prizes for guessing because, as y'all know well, I am an unrepentant 'book-a-holic'. There were two given to me yesterday by the 'Memsahib' and I just know I am going to enjoy them both. The first is by one of my favourite newspaper commentators, Quentin Letts, and is titled, accurately if not elegantly, as "Patronising Bastards". The sub-title is "How the elites betrayed Britain". No-one does this sort of evisceration better than Mr. Letts. This from a review of his book:
These people who know best, these snooterati with their faux-liberal ways, are the 'Patronising Bastards'. Their downfall is largely of their own making - their Sybaritic excesses, an obsession with political correctness, the prolonged rape of reason and rite. You'll find these self-indulgent show-ponys not just in politics and the cloistered old institutions but also in high fashion, football, among the clean-eating foodies and at the Baftas and Oscars, where celebritydom hires PR smoothies to massage reputations and mislead, distort, twist. [...]
Richard Branson, Emma Thompson, Shami Chakrabarti, Jean-Claude Juncker and any head waiter who calls you 'young man' - this one's for you!
I could another name to that list - Paddy Ashdown (pause to hawk and spit), the former leader of the 'il-Lib-non-Dem' party (pause to hawk and spit again) who in his youth served with the Royal Marines* (pause to hawk and spit yet again) who has written a history book detailing some of the machinations that took place in occupied France during the war between the British secret service, the Nazis and the French resistance. It is titled: Game of Spies: The Secret Agent, the Traitor, the Nazi. Sounds like a good one to me.
*My instant re-action to all mentions of the Royal Marines is simply a result of my training in the Parachute Regiment. I believe they undergo a similar indoctrination apropos Paras. All very silly, but that's men for you!
I almost forgot to add that although I waited patiently for the special delivery lorry (a van would not be big enough) to supply all the books I asked for from 'SoD', it never arrived. However, bless the lad, there was a handsome Amazon voucher from him so that should keep me busy until my birthday!!!
Well, David, my first reaction to your question was 'a leg'? But I see where you are headed.
That pull quote from Mr. Letts' book has struck gold! Or rather truth. The very same can be written about our elitist crapweasels over here. Come to think about it, the same can be written about elites everywhere in the modern West.
Posted by: Whitewall | Tuesday, 26 December 2017 at 12:15
Quentin's book is great, David. There's a real sense of outrage, well justified. Incidentally, Ashdown gets a mention - a rather superb quote that came back and bit him in the wotsits.
Posted by: mike fowle | Tuesday, 26 December 2017 at 15:24
A follow on to Quentin Letts' article:
https://theodoredalrymple.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/english-intellectuals-and-their-loathing-of-england/
Posted by: Whitewall | Tuesday, 26 December 2017 at 20:25
Ah yes, 'the good doctor', I've followed him for years.
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 26 December 2017 at 20:49