Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

26 April 2012

THE PRICE OF MILK

The British Tory Prime Minister David Cameron must be used by now to being taunted by his opponents as an upper-class toff whose wealth and background cut him off from the everyday concerns of the ordinary citizens whose lives he regulates.

But this week, together with his treasury secretary (chancellor of the exchequer) George Osborne, Cameron was the butt of a full-frontal attack by a member of his own back bench, Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who said:

“Unfortunately, I think that not only are Cameron and Osborne two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk, but they are two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others – and that is their real crime.”

David Cameron (46), son of a stockbroker, is a direct descendant of King William IV, who reigned from 1830 to 1837. After Eton College, the most prestigious public (ie private) school in Britain, he completed his education at Brasenose College at Oxford University, where he belonged to the upper-crust Bullingdon Club ( the “Buller”) whose members hold lavish banquets tricked out in swanky formal attire and then traditionally trash the establishment in which they are eating.

George Osborne (40) is the son of Sir Peter Osborne, who co-founded the fabric and wallpaper firm of Osborne & Little.  George attended St Paul’s public (ie private) school at Barnes in London and then went up to Magdalen College at Oxford University, where he too belonged to the Bullingdon Club.

Footnote: Nadine Dorries launched her attack on David  Cameron and George Osborne on Monday 23 April (St George’s Day, as it happened). By Tuesday she had disappeared.  Dorries was supposed to be attending Treasury Question Time in the House of Commons on that day to hear Osborne answer a question from her on interest rates. She failed to show up. According to Guardian parliamentary sketch writer Simon Hoggart, “Nadine had become a non-person”.

——————

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——————-