Earlier this week there was a Royal Banquet at Buckingham Palace for the Emir of Qatar. It was the last such Banquet there for a couple of years as the building is being refurbished at public expense.
Present aside from the Emir were David and Victoria Beckham, Kemi Badenoch, Keir Starmer and others wearing appropriate dinner dress.
The BBC has revealed what was on the menu which suggests that there werent too many vegetarians and vegans and nobody at all that uses a food bank. A very upper class sort of occasion?
On the menu was a tartlet of Cornish lobster and quails eggs for a starter; with pheasant wrapped in Savoy cabbage, roasted celeriac puree and potato gratin with cheese from Suffolk, truffle sauce and winter vegetables as a main course; followed by an iced bombe with organic Samoan vanilla ice cream and a Balmoral plum sorbet.
Each guest had a setting of five different glasses – and for those wanting an alcoholic drink, the wine list included Chapel Down Grand Reserve 2018, Puligny-Montrachet Les Nosroyes, Domaine Genot-Boulanger 2019, Chateau Lynch-Bages, Pauillac 2000 and a Chateau La Tour Blanche.
For those who have not been keeping up(!) the debate on who the middle class are (in this case) was created by ex-Masterchef time keeper Gregg Wallace who posted a video claiming that his critics were ‘middle class women of a certain age’. He later apologised.
In the meantime some of the critics answered back that they were content to be middle class and to some extent proud of it. This provoked a further point (Times Letters 4th Decembers) that some of them were actually rather wealthy and perhaps upper class. Alternatively could it be that the middle class has subsumed the upper class.
A brief glance at the Buckingham Palace banquet for the leaders of Qatar in early December suggests that the ruling class is still very much with us.
The Times letters page (5th November) ponders if there might be an upper middle class, a sort of waiting room for the upper class.
Marx noted that social being determines consciousness and as E P Thompson noted in the Preface to the 1963 edition of the Making of the English Working Class, class is not a fixed category but a changing relationship between two groups in society
Gregg Wallace btw claims he is working class despite the fact that he is a millionaire business owner, as he came from humble origins and supports Millwall.
Wallace’s reported and alleged comments and actions do like those of a millionaire rather than the millions however.
The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that right-wing writer and activist Tim Montgomerie has been excluded from consideration for the final version of the 2024 Beard of the Year longlist
The Beard of the Year 2024 will be announced on 28th December following a series of on-line votes
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the reason for his exclusion is straightforward. By joining Reform UK Ltd he has brought the hirsute into disrepute
Guardian Fletters started in the mid-1980s and continue to be despatched. They are an ephemeral but still noted part of the paper’s history.
None will be written over the next two days though in support of a National Union of Journalists strike over a planned but barely consulted on sale of the Observer.
Never cross a picket line physical or virtual even with a Fletter
Farage has been in Scotland at a Reform UK Ltd meeting. It looked well attended until its realised that the meeting room trick was in play. It was a smallish room so it looked crowded.
Farage stayed of course in a good hotel but when it came to finding some milk for his coffee there was a choice of oat, almond and semi-skimmed. No full fat available. Farage posted a brief video whine about it.
Potential milk shake throwers take note. Farage only accepts full fat milk
Journalists set to strike over the future of the Observer. Don’t cross the digital picket line
The future status of The Observer remains to be determined. A recent meeting of the Scott Trust that runs the Guardian and Observer did not make a decision. The Guardian wants to sell The Observer to Tortoise. It’s a relatively small media company run by former Times Editor & BBC News Editor James Harding. The political fit looks decent but might be better with Dale Vince the climate campaigner who has said he will bid if Tortoise does not proceed.
However Guardian and Observer journalists- NUJ members- have hardly been engaged in the process and plan days of strike action on 4th and 5th December, which I will certainly fully support. Quite how the Observer’s operations can be disentangled from the Guardian is unclear. If journalists are TUPEd to Tortoise it’s interesting to note that Harding has told the Sunday Times (24th November) that he plans new sports and business departments. So redundancies seem likely and redundancies- Tortoise has had three rounds- do seem to be something its good at.
As a trade union officer I sometimes grapple with the business plans of very large companies. The plan is for the company, my interest is in the jobs of union members and trying to make sure they are protected.
Harding tells the Sunday Times that Tortoise will stop the Observer from disappearing. Indeed in recent times left of centre Sunday papers, from the News on Sunday to the Sunday Correspondent (yes the one that shut after publishing a picture of me in the bath) and the Independent on Sunday have gone.
However according to Observer supporters its print sale is 106,000 and it is turning a decent profit. The reason for the Guardian’s urge to get rid is not transparent. However the Guardian is really running a global website- with huge reach- with a UK print edition tacked on. The Observer perhaps rather gets in the way of fully promoting the brand. Liberal readers in the huge US market have heard of the Guardian, but the Observer?
Here too lies a so far unarticulated issue with the Tortoise business model. The Observer print edition will continue and there will be a new Observer website behind a paywall. Who will be paying to read it? Does Harding imagine the Guardian will just do nothing on a Sunday, with its free access site? I’m sure it won’t produce a Sunday print edition. I strongly suspect a Sunday web edition will appear, whereas now that is (sort of ) Observer focused.
The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree 2024 version has arrived. Its been a yearly gift from the people of Oslo since 1947.
The usual criticisms have started with claims that some branches are dead , countered by the reality that after a 10 day journey it will take time for the tree to come fully to life.
The big question for 2024 is surely whether or not the tree is Woke? The phrase is ill defined but I expect an ‘expert’ on GBNews will enlighten us.
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers has raised concerns over a rise in seasonal Marmalade sales.
The Times (2nd December) reports that the release of the film Paddington 3 on November 8th has seen a surge in Marmalade sales. Mark and Spencer’s blood orange and orange liqueur has seen, for example, a 43% increase in sales.
In Michael Bond’s original book from 1958 Paddington Bear is discovered with nothing but an empty jar of Marmalade
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Marmalade is of course a tasty preserve. However there is a problem. It is one of the most un-beard friendly things out there. Getting marmalade in the beard will result in a follicular disaster.. A snood can help
