| 23rd December 2006 06:03 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Snobbery, sycophancy...and Sir Dog Biscuit KBE
By PETER HITCHENS
23rd December 2006
Daily Mail
So Mr Dog Biscuit, the man who is so famous and wonderful that he doesn't have to have a real name, is now to become Sir Dog Biscuit KBE.
What an episode of snobbery and sycophancy this is.
A whole generation, which likes to tell itself that it is devoted to equality and rejects the hierarchies of the past, falls to its knees and licks the shoes of the new aristocracy of fame and cool.
Is there any real distinction between the old bowing and simpering to landed gentry, and the new deference paid to the nobles of rock?
The interesting thing is, who is supposed to benefit from this parody of honour? Who is sucking up to whom?
It is hard to see why Mr Paul Hewson, a right-on citizen of a Republic that rejected the British Crown and stormed out of the British Empire, should even want to belong to the Order of the British Empire, let alone be a Knight Commander of it.
But it is easy to see why that increasingly pitiful and comic figure, Anthony Blair, should want to be a Knight Commander of the Order of Rock Music.
His slurping, toadying message to the new knight ("I am a huge fan"), the matey press release from Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy in Dublin, are all signs of a man utterly devoted to stealing the fame and popularity of other people, having squandered or besmirched his own with stupid warmongering and fishy fundraising.
The honours system has been profaned before. Nicolae Ceausescu (for example) long disgraced the Order of the Bath, but that was nasty realpolitik, not cringing personal adulation.
In general, aren't you supposed to sacrifice something you can't really spare, to be honoured?
To at least give up time or pleasure in the service of others, or even to risk your life?
Good heavens, if being a famous singer with fashionable views nets a KBE, then dozens of British servicemen surely qualify for hereditary Dukedoms.
Yet for all his advice to others on how generous they need to be, Mr Biscuit shows every sign of knowing how to look after Number One.
While hectoring everyone else about how they must look after Africa, he has relocated business interests to Amsterdam, apparently because even Ireland's kindly tax regime for "artists" isn't generous enough for him (so money for Ireland's aid to Africa will have to come from the pockets of those unable to relocate).
He even went, expensively, to court to get a pair of old trousers back from a former employee.
They were, we are told, iconic trousers, but surely he could have managed without them, even so.
It wouldn't have been much more ludicrous if the trousers had been given the KBE and, come to think of it, perhaps Mr Biscuit's surgically-attached sunglasses should qualify for a knighthood of their own, since they've played such a large part in his rise to the ranks of chivalry.
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| 23rd December 2006 06:10 PM |
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| Gazza |
Peter Hitchens is a rock music-hating and bigoted asshole. As he hates Blair too with a passion (which in some cases is understandable), there's nothing surprising in that diatribe as he seems to blame him for EVERYTHING that's wrong with Britian in the 21st Century
..and Bono cant use the 'Sir' title, anyway...
[Edited by Gazza] |
| 23rd December 2006 06:13 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Do you want I should delete it? 
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| 23rd December 2006 06:17 PM |
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| Gazza |
No...LOL....I'm only amazed you didnt post an article on this story earlier. You must have been doin' some last minute Christmas shopping! |
| 23rd December 2006 06:22 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
No...LOL....I'm only amazed you didnt post an article on this story earlier.
Well I read that he had recieved this earlier, but didn't realize that it had caused such a fuss. I really didn't think it was all that important.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 23rd December 2006 07:02 PM |
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| BONOISLOVE |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
..and Bono cant use the 'Sir' title, anyway...
I just spilled my Barry's Gold Blend cup of tea through my nostrils!!!!
The little little people agree and ask WHY????----------->
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| 23rd December 2006 11:35 PM |
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| SteveMiller |
quote:
BONOISLOVE wrote:
I just spilled my Barry's Gold Blend cup of tea through my nostrils!!!!
The little little people agree and ask WHY????----------->
Me and you and Barry to get together and do a wonderful, beautiful album |
| 24th December 2006 01:07 PM |
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| BONOISLOVE |
quote:
SteveMiller wrote:
Me and you and Barry to get together and do a wonderful, beautiful album
I'm so excited, I'm typing this with Pavarotti. |
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