Category: EDITORIAL

Editorial comment from Matthew Steeples.

Our editor tells it like it is and he rarely minces his words

Pip Pip Hurray!

My response to Terence Blacker’s piece attacking Pippa Middleton

Pippa Middleton is not someone I know. I have seen her in bars and at parties but never spoken with her. I do not especially find her derrière attractive and I do not consider her to be one of the world’s most influential people.

Pippa Middleton

This morning, however, I responded on Twitter to a journalist named Terence Blacker about a comment piece he had written for The Independent. In it, he named Miss Middleton a “national embarrassment” and made a factual error in stating:

“She has not used her fame to any charitable effect, but has availed herself of a £400,000 publishing advance for a book, presumably ghost-written, on party planning. In her smiling, dimpled way she has done more harm to the cause of women than any airhead celebrity or Page 3 girl.”

Mr Blacker is wrong: Along with her brother James, Miss Middleton completed a 56-mile cross-country ski race for the Magic Breakfast charity in Sweden in March. At the time she stated:

“My brother and I are raising money for Magic Breakfast, a small registered charity that fights child hunger through breakfast clubs and delivering free breakfasts (bagels, cereal, juice and porridge) to thousands of state primary school children in the UK particularly our inner cities.”

In total, the pair, hats off to them, to date have raised £12,039 for this worthy cause. They have also previously aided other charities, much to their credit.

I would suggest that Mr Blacker ought to correct his error by donating his fee for this article to Magic Breakfast. He can do so by visiting Miss Middleton’s JustGiving page. Instead, in reply to my Tweet pointing out the inaccuracy, all I got in response was:

“Nope, sorry. I really can’t see Pips as an influential role model.”

In turn others responded and I began to understand how Samantha Brick must feel. I’m a big Twitter fan but the barrage of nonsense I received was just tedious. I only pointed out a factual error. I did not say that Miss Middleton had done anything miraculous. The comments included:

“It has nothing 2do [sic] with jealousy, it’s 2do with a young lady doing zero work each day yet living life reilly [sic]… It’s not as if she spends her time doing good, like the Royal Family, she just likes to party.”

Too many in Britain mock success. Our media builds individuals up only to take huge pleasure in knocking them down. The Middleton family represent a remarkable story and we should all celebrate them. Good for Pippa Middleton for enjoying the world she now inhabits but also good for her for using this fame to do good for others. Yes, Miss Middleton has made mistakes, but honestly hold your hands up and admit it: from time to time, don’t we all?

Read Terence Blacker’s piece at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-cant-the-editors-of-time-magazine-see-pippa-middleton-is-a-national-embarrassment-7661423.html

View Terence Blacker’s website at: http://www.terenceblacker.com. Follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/TerenceBlacker

To donate to Pippa Middleton’s Vasaloppet charitable challenge, go to: https://www.justgiving.com/vasaloppet/new

April 20, 2012
Sinking television

Sinking television

A review of Julian Fellowes’s “Titanic”

Against better advice, I watched all four episodes of Julian Fellowes’s Titanic television drama. Nothing much happened in the first three episodes but unlike many others, I preserved and watched the final episode on the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the White Star passenger liner.

Julian Alexander Fellowes, The Lord Fellowes of West Stafford DL pictured with his “turban-clad” wife Emma Joy Kitchener LVO. The pair, who reside at Stafford House near Dorchester, Dorset, changed their surname from Fellowes to Kitchener-Fellowes on 15th October 1998.

Fellowes is a man who has had remarkable success with both Gosford Park and Downton Abbey. After playing bit part roles in such series as Fantasy Island, Our Friends in the North and Aristocrats, his career took off in 2002 when Gosford Park won an Oscar for the Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Since then he has been ennobled and become a darling of the middle classes.

The RMS Titanic which sank on 15th April 1912 at 41°43'57"N, 49°56'49"W

One of the RMS Titanic's dining rooms

The RMS Titanic's ornate Grand Staircase

Described by John Doyle of The Globe and Mail as “a high-grade nobs-and-slobs story,” viewing figures fell from 9 million to 3.5 million between episodes 1 and 3 with good reason. To me this was a drama that lacked pace and repeatedly rehashed the same tales. It was tediously futile and an utter waste of four hours of anyone’s time.

A scene from Fellowes’s Titanic featuring Toby Jones as John Batley and Maria Doyle-Kennedy as Muriel Batley

Fellowes’s Titanic was truly a damp squib of a drama. May it, like the 1,514 tragic souls lost on 15^th April 1912, rest in peace.

View ITV1’s official website for Titanic at: http://mip.itvstudios.com/programmes/drama-comedy/618/titanic

For more information on The Titanic Memorial Cruise, go to: http://titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk

April 16, 2012
Jog off

A phrase that should be consigned to history

Now “hijacked by chavs,” the phrase “jog on” first became prominent in The Football Factory film about football hooliganism.

This awful insult got wider use in recent days after a mother from Salford used it in response to someone who criticised her defence of rioters looting stores in a BBC interview. This oik-ish woman and her Kappa clad son are unfortunately not alone in their use of this dreadful way of telling someone to “f*** off.”

The dwarf who "jogs on"

On a trailer for another BBC show this morning I heard a dwarf use utter it when describing how he responds when people look at him. It appears that there aren’t many places that this choice phrase of the underclass is not now used. In this vein, that Sally Bercow, the speaker’s wife, uses it when replying to negative tweets about her husband is not at all surprising.

“Jog on” even gets abbreviated sometimes to “JTFO,” which according to urbandictionary.com “adds an element of gusto and offence, for those times when the simplicity of the original phrase just don’t relay your feelings as fully and emphatically as they could.”

Those using the insult are even given notes actions to accompany it on one site: “The phrase mentioned must be preceded by raising the fore finger and middle finger to create a ‘V’ sign to the recipient. This should be followed by a movement to the side with a clenched fist and thumb extended in the direction of the movement.”

A woman teaches a child some "jogging on" actions

On Facebook there is even a group named “The ‘Jog On’ Appreciation Society.” Fortunately it only has 15 members and thankfully their aim to “get the phrase into the Oxford English” doesn’t seem to have garnered much support.

I very much hope this phrase “jogs off” into oblivion. Sadly, though, I suspect it’ll still be jogging around for some time yet.

“Jog on” as used in the Football Factory – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPxZeiTGXIY

Simon Pegg “jogs on” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoXfiSU_wqE&NR=1

An American in Cornwall “jogs on” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrfGa_n5H2k&feature=related

A horrible middle class brat named Maddie “jogs on” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7PTDfOq4Q0&feature=related

August 15, 2011
Lamer than lame
Zagat’s lamest list

I am a big fan of Zagat. I fill out their surveys religiously every year and always look forward to receiving their guides.

Zagat's logo

Yesterday, though, I read a piece by Kelly Dobkin on their site that frankly was, in my view, totally ridiculous.

In her piece “The 10 Lamest Things You Can Order in a Restaurant” Dobkin displays extreme snobbishness towards customers who order:
1. Iceberg wedge salads
2. Shrimp cocktails
3. Bottled water
4. Plates of fruit
5. Mixed greens
6. Cereal
7. Scrambled eggs
8. Steamed vegetables
9. Olives
10. Baked potatoes
Why not allow a diner a shrimp cocktail if they so wish? Just because some self-appointed expert views them to be naff, why shouldn’t those of us who like the dish continue to enjoy it in fine establishments like Scott’s in Mayfair?

Scrambled eggs also come in for attack by Dobkin who states “Even a broke-ass one-handed wino is capable of creating this dish in less than five minutes.” So what? Oak smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and chives features on the menu of none less than The Ritz Hotel. It’s a dish I often seek out.

How anyone could have an argument with mixed greens and steamed vegetables also escapes me. What does Dobkin propose we eat instead? Birdseye frozen carrots?

With regard to “cereal at a diner” I can’t say it is something I’ve even witnessed. Where on earth does this woman dine? Mind you, I don’t watch Seinfeld so I suppose I learnt something here but why even bother to mention it?

A prawn cocktail

Other readers plainly don’t take too kindly to Dobkin’s patronising ways. “Insulting people for what they like to eat is LAME” says one, adding “Worst top ten list ever.” Another simply sates “Think a little harder next time.” I have to agree.

Thank you for reminding me of one of my favourites though Kelly Dobkin. I’m off for a prawn cocktail at La Brasserie for lunch.

Read the original piece at http://www.zagat.com/buzz/the-10-lamest-things-you-can-order-in-a-restaurant?zagatbuzzid=june11week3&utm_source=buzz&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=buzz20110615

For a fantastic prawn cocktail try:

–       La Brasserie, 272 Brompton Road, London, SW3 – http://www.labrasserielondon.com (Avocado Crevettes, £8.90)

–       Sophie’s Steakhouse, 311-313 Fulham Road, SW10 – http://www.sophiessteakhouse.co.uk (Traditional prawn cocktail, £8.25)

–       Scott’s, 20 Mount Street, W1 – http://www.scotts-restaurant.com (Shellfish cocktail, £17.25)
June 16, 2011