How would you define a snob? And come to that — since we are all too obviously discussing David Cameron — what qualifies as a ‘raging snob’?
The great Victorian novelist William Thackeray had a lot of fun with this a couple of centuries ago. Among his memorable creations was James Plush, a footman. When fortune smiled on him he styled himself ‘Jeames de la Pluche’ before ill fortune brought him back to earth.
Cameron has reopened the class war by surrounding himself with ever more Old Etonians. For heaven’s sake, they cannot be the only repository of skill and brainpower!
Snobbery is, in fact, unusual in a politician because the demands of power oblige him or her to make pals with supporters, whatever their background. Whether an individual wholeheartedly believes in Conservative or Socialist values is more important than his social graces.
Cameron is a puzzle because he was so committed at one time to eradicating of this sort of thing from the Tory Party. The special ‘A list’ of candidates was supposed to get rid of the idea that one needed to have gone to Eton to do well in looking for a winnable seat.
He said he was ‘broadening’ his party. Now he surrounds himself with OEs to an extent once thought unimaginable. Six of them operate in his Downing Street entourage (at the last count).
What does it tell us about him? First, it suggests considerable insecurity. He has some cause to be unhappy with the advisers he recruited when he got to No 10 because their advice often landed him in difficulties.
It can be, often is, wrong to select advisers because you like them or feel comfortable with them. They will all too often tell you what you want to hear, not what you should know.
More... It's been a good day, Cameron insists after Thatcher's Chancellor Nigel Lawson called for Britain to quit the EU Britain to back £50million pot for Somalia as Cameron warns of security threat to the UK You cannot tell me who I can meet, Cameron warns China as his talks with the Dalai Lama threaten to cost Britain billionsOf course, one can see the supposed advantages of being with people you knew as far back as your school days. You know — or think you know — how their minds work.But this is to ignore how we all change with age. Looking back on what one thought, said and did in adolescence, especially late adolescence, can be embarrassing if we are honest about it.
There is nothing surprising about the saying that if a man at 18 is not a socialist he has no heart, and if he is still a socialist aged 30, he has no head. From communist at university to solid bourgeois conservative in real life is a political journey that many have made.
Much snobbery derives in any case from the peculiar thought that it must be socially impressive to be descended from some robber baron who bought his title centuries ago through actions which would lead to a long prison sentence today.
Cameron surrounding himself with OEs suggests considerable insecurity. He has some cause to be unhappy with the advisers he recruited when he got to No 10 because their advice often landed him in difficultiesBut there it is. The human mind seems to work that way. And man, though we are reluctant to admit it, is a hierarchical animal. He likes some sort of order, with those to look up to, his equals and his inferiors.
There is a widespread belief that this is a particularly British vice. It is no such thing. You meet the idea of social hierarchy everywhere around the world. India is probably the worst with its numerous castes. Remember that, when an Indian lectures us on social mobility.
The British vice is to be obsessed by ‘class’ as a concept, even though we have long been a very open society. In the days when we were supposed to be dominated by snobbery, around the time of World War I, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff was a former footman.
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The problem for Cameron is that he has incurred the charge of snob, even raging snob, which it is impossible to shake off. The British conception (or misconception) about class will see to that.
He has been badly advised, probably by an OE.
Don't be too quick to say sorryThe apologies are what really irritate. Niall Ferguson, author, economist and teacher — you should read his history of money — observed that Lord Keynes, being homosexual, may not have had a proper understanding of the long term.
He had no children, least of all grandchildren.
Outrage! An apology was demanded and, alas, provided. But why? Ferguson has raised an interesting philosophical issue about whether lack of descendants blights a bachelor’s view of the future.
He may be right and his comment deserves discussion, not obloquy. Ferguson should have fought back.
Then we had Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, regretting that one did not hear British voices at hotel reception desks. So he, too, came under fire for his racist attitude and had to backpedal.
Which is ironic since it was legislation by his own party that has encouraged every and any remark about nationality to be scoured for offence.
There is not the slightest sign of the current Government bringing about any return to common sense.
