Royal Standards
There have been a few gaffs in recent years from Conservative politicians struggling to maintain the spirit of being all in this together. There was the whole expenses scandal of course, but even in the wake of that there have been telling highlights of ministers simply not getting it. From George Osborne’s belief that he was entitled to remain in a First Class carriage on a standard fare ticket through to David Cameron’s protestations that he doesn’t know the price of bread because he has a bread-maker.
These moments always hint that those in the upper echelons of society are increasingly detached from us everyday folk, but then they are hardly surprising. At least in those examples Osborne and Cameron were not trying to pretend they are what we are, because that is when we can really cringe. Nothing separates the haves from the have-nots more than haves pretending they are have-nots.
You can rely on the Evening Standard to throw examples of this latter phenomenon on a regular basis. “Woh is me, I’m down to my last footman”, “we’ve had to sell our second home” and so forth. Yesterday they delivered a cracker through an interview with Princess Michael of Kent titled ‘I Live in Austere Times’. The Princess is slumming it you see; “We never go out to restaurants. That’s too extravagant… We invite people here. I cook. Well, if I’m giving a dinner party I get help in.”
That wasn’t the highlight either by the way, that came when Princess Michael was asked if she used public transport, to which she replied; “Well, I love easyJet. It’s the only direct route to Biarritz. We always fly tourist-class anyway in Europe. For long haul we go club.”
Typical, you wait ages for a non-stop flight to Biarritz and the three turn up at once. This, you see, is the difference between them and us. They think that a flight to mainland Europe can be considered as public transport.
