Stephen Howard wrote:

On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:22:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
The day the BBC allowed some of those dreadful common oiks into the
newsrooms was the the day standards went out of the window.
The whole country used to be grateful to have a single standard, where
they could hear their betters speak and aspire for their offspring to
have a decent education and be able to speak like that also.

Its all part of the 'lets pretend that the country can be run and
governed by people who are as stupid as the worst member of the
electorate'

So you actually think an accent reflects intelligence or ability?


No, but it reflects an adherence to standards that is in itself
reasonably laudable. And something intelligent people understand the
need for.

Bang!
Ah, but what standards?
Was a time when starting a sentence with a conjunction would have
marked you down as an illiterate oaf ( the irony here being that my
spellchecker corrected my spelling of illiterate ).
That's the rub really, how d'you define a standard for something so
fluid - and what happens when the standard-bearers are flying the
wrong flag?

As with most discussions about language/grammar it's as well to take
a gun and shoot yourself in the foot before you enter the debate - it
saves time ( see above ).

The current ethos is 'standards make people feel inferior, or superior
and so we shouldn't have any'.

I feel the current ethos seems to be to 'celebrate' the mundane, and
as such that becomes part of the 'public consciousness' - so in that
respect I suppose the statement stands.

On the flip side it works both ways.
I was browsing in a charity shop recently and my attention was caught
by a rather vociferous child who was rooting through a box of toys.
I'd say he was around six or seven years old, and as he pulled out a
certain toy he exclaimed in a painfully cultured accent "Oh, this is
broken - this will never do!".
He wittered on at some length along the same lines, and I couldn't
help but feel that he was old before his time.
The innocence of childhood is such a fragile thing - and whether your
weapon of choice is a baseball bat or a rod of steel makes little
difference in the long run.

I guess there's a natural balance - one we've perhaps lost touch with
in recent years - but then again it's perhaps always been that way.
The Pythons with their philosophising washerwomen spring to mind.

Regards,


A TV reporter has turned up recently with the unbelievably marvellous
(to me!) name of 'Damien Grammaticus'?. First time I heard him report
I instantly knew his educational background, his university, his
parents, his wealth, his 'class'. Quick Google and yep I was correct.
My big problem is that as a working class oik, dragged up within a
strong socialist environment and tutored to regard his class as 'the
enemy', I find I greatly prefer his type of standard diction, as
compared to that of 'estuary english', or nearly unintelligable Irish
accents that are turning up on the telly rather too often.