The Guardian weekend magazine features a celebrity Prime Ministers Question Time article where the good and the great get to ask Cameron whatever they damn well please. First up is comedian David Mitchell who asks " Do you wish you were less posh?" It's such a boring question. No child is afforded the luxury of choosing which school their parents send them to, any more than one gets to choose the colour of ones skin. It's beyond ones control. As a kid there may be times you physically don't
want to go to school but you don't mince about like some little dictator telling your parents
where you're going to be educated. It's beyond your control. When you are a minor, parents inevitably hold all the cards. It must be galling to grow up and be forced to endlessly justify and defend a decision you had no control over. How ironic that receiving a good education is now often publicly used as a weapon to tease and humiliate. It's the dunces cap of the 21st Century.
One of the many things Cameron's parents chose to give him was good manners. When asked if he wishes he was less posh, he doesn't reply "Sod off."
You're spot on...but given that he can't say "sod off", he handles the questions pretty damn well. It's an under-rated aspect of DC's political weaponry: he feels, looks and sounds happy in his skin. So, when he discusses his last drink with his Dad - somehow - it doesn't seem forced or sentimental. Enviable skill in political life. Compare and contrast Ed "Big Bird" Miliband....
ReplyDeleteNot only is it a boring question, it is incredibly rude. Can you imagine someone asking "do you wish you were less common?" Yes, Cameron does look and sound happy in his skin, unfortunately this sometimes comes across as just plain smug. Personally I cannot forgive him for not defending the grammar schools, amongst many other betrayals too numerous to mention.
ReplyDelete