Sunday, September 24, 2006
George Walden is a Pub Bore
Former Tory MP George Walden was one of Britain's worst ever High Education Ministers. Since leaving Parliament he has earned a living writing pseudo-intellectual drivel about politics and culture. It's usually unreadable. I attended a discussion evening with him and his wife a couple of years ago, organised by Living Marxism. He was insufferable and spent the whole evening putting down his wife. In the Independent on Sunday diary there is a piece on his book The New Elites in which he slags off David Cameron for "being a posh man pretending to be common". Utter rubbish. But even if it were true, it's better than a pub bore pretending to be an intellectual.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
Definitely true. You should check out this new blog below.
www.disillusionedandbored.blogspot.com
Bang on. I met him once and he was insufferable. I think he considers himself the intellectual equal of Newton, Einstein and Shakespeare. When in reality, he's a hack politician who never quite made it.
You were attending meetings of Living Marxism? My, how you've changed. Care to share your Road to Damascus moment for those of us who are just catching up?
Anonymous, Yes I saw that. Quite an accolade to have someone start a blog with the words I HATE IAIN DALE.
Raincoaster, I was invited to take part in a discussion on culture with George Walden. Don't worry - I didn;t go all Commie...!
Come off the fence, Iain, tell us what you really feel.
has a beautiful daughter though...
George Walden is just a bore...
The LM mob morphed into Spiked, so they are not the swivel-eyed Leninist automatons one might think.
`pseudo-intellectual drivel about politics and culture. It's usually unreadable.`
Yum yum , I like him already , where I obtain more of this Literary nectar ?
George Walden is ex-FCO.........they have an attitude towards the public akin to a man looking at the bottom of a glass through a straw............he may be drunk but he feels you are just waiting to be suckered
Sorry Ian, your friend Dave "Lord Snooty " Macaroon really is quite posh.
When it comes down to it you have to ask the question. Is someone who has never had to balance the domestic books, never had to worry about the family finances, never really had much contact with people beyond his tight little social circle really the man to lead a 21st century nation that is struggling to be meritocratic. That Cameron was advising Lamont on Black Wednesday at such an early age speaks not of intellectual precocity but of the nepotistic threads of the establishment that ran through the Tories of their time. That he proved such a disaster and thousands of people paid with their jobs and homes because of that's treasury teams decisions is a warning that we must not be allowed to go back to that.
Privilege, PR and vacuity. The more people see of Cameron the more that will become apparent, let;s just hope the sake of the country that enough people are not taken in to allow him and his over promoted, highly priveleged, intellectually average friends the chance to play poker with peoples livelihoods.
Whatever happens, Dave and his inherited wealthy friends are immune.
Martyn... well, shock, horror!! Rich, privileged people running the country and trying to tell us poor downtrodden plebs what to do - well who'd have thought of such a idea? Let me guess - next thing is you'll be telling us is how our current Prime Minister and many of his cronies are all from such poor and under privileged backgrounds('scuse me while I choke with derision). Just grow up and get real...most voters aren't and won't be bothered about Cameron's background, or fret over how "posh" he is. What about Tony Benn - he was also 2nd Viscount Stansgate (a fact which he appears to have air-brushed out of his web biography, I noticed), and also came from an extremely posh and privileged background. But that didn't dissuade "working people" from electing him to Parliament in Bristol and later, Chesterfield. And at one point he was even in with a real chance to be leader of his party(and maybe even PM). This sort of talk is all such old hat nowadays. The only people who obsess about class these days are old socialists and look what happened to them....!
I thought Walden's piece was quite interesting and actually hit several nails on their heads. I'm surprised that you didn't try and address his agruments Iain. Going straight to an ad hom attack is quite telling. Politically as emma f points out Cameron will have to somehow 'sidestep his background'. This is unfair, but life and politics aren't fair.
I don't think there is anything wrong with a posh man trying to be common. but it is rather awful enduring a common man trying to be posh.
Dave is Dave, posh, trying to be common and loving trees and the planet. I'm OK with that.
William Hague tring to be Prime Minister, is a step too far though.
That's out of order.
Doom.
So long as Cameron doesn't try to hide his old Eton background there is nothing wrong with that.
George sometimes makes good arguments, but I agree he has made some big mistakes. When he was first in parliament he thought that the comprehensive system was great, then later on in his autobiography he says that grammar schools are actually a good idea, but no government has the guts to put them into practise(which is true). He is against the euro, yet he calls other politicans who are against it nationalists.
Post a Comment