Letts not be silly

I very much enjoy Quentin Letts, in writing, on the radio and, in particular, in person. So I thought that perhaps I should simply let this go. But then I decided that it would be hypocritical to exempt Quentin from criticism just because I like him.

The Media Guardian's Monkey carries a story today about Quentin's coverage of a David Miliband school visit. It includes this quote from his coverage:

Mr Miliband then stomped off, accompanied by a macintoshed gauleiter of a special adviser, name of Schaefer, who was shouting into a mobile telephone. This, England, is the politics of 2007. 

Monkey points out that Sarah Schaefer is Jewish, but that, actually is a secondary matter.

The real issue is that indiscriminately describing Germans as, effectively, Nazis devalues the currency and is monstrously unfair to modern Germany. It was also monstrously unfair to Sarah whom I know personally and professionally and is about as far from a gauleiter as it is possible to get.

And yes Quentin I realise that it was only a joke and only a sketch and I should get over it. But this is only a blog post and I suppose you'll get over that too.

Comments

[Bryan Appleyard]

War among the pol hacks! Bring it on.

[partyrichter]

According to Collins a gauleiter is "a person in a position of petty or loacl authority who behaves in an overbearing authoritarian manner". I think this perfectly encapsulates the arrogant, obnoxious attitude of most special advisors, and the rest of our so called 'political class'.

[kjbkih]

Are there any words for "lethal official whose word may not be questioned" that we can use without doing genealogical research on the person in question?

Is there not a danger that removing any mention of Nazis will condemn us to repeat that history?

[Long Dark Night of the CRD Soul]

Get over it Danny: we laughed at the Nazis during the war for pity's sake. Now that we're no longer being bombed every night, we're hardly likely to find them any less amusing.

[Guido Fawkes]

Miliband reminds me of Herr Flick from 'Ello 'Ello, does that mean...

Look the Brits won the war, they win at football, the only way we can keep our pride is by going on about the war. The fact that it is peurile and drives liberal Germans absolutely mad is a bonus.

[Viviene Ollis]

As I sit here watching the back of my lectures head as he scribbles on the board, the squeak of his dry wipe marker sending shivers down my spine, I am suddenly taken back 15 years to when I was in high school when the good old chalk and blackboard had exactly the same effect, I used to enjoy being board duster monitor and bashing them on the playground wall at break time, mostly in patterns that matched not the most pleasant words in the English dictionary, I guess had a mean streak back then, not now though, or I wouldn’t be here would I? trying to better myself but what am I doing here? Will I get the job I hope for, will I ever fall out of the cycle of education, promotion, more education, another promotion... I am still not where I want to be and yet I have been actually been where I wanted to be on many previous occasions, only, when I get there, I am hungry for more, so I find myself back here, watching the back of another tutors head, I should write my dissertation on the fundamental properties of the rear of tutors heads, I would get a FIRST.. Be top of the class.. But then again judging by the other students in this room I should be top of the class anyway, why oh why! I hear my inner voice say would anyone enrol on a course that they find so god damn uninteresting they continually week after week, fall asleep in the lectures, turn up with nothing more than a biro, come in half an hour late and leave half an hour early whilst popping out on four separate occasions to answer four separate annoying ring tones on their mobile or even decide that they already know the whole lecture of by heart and decide not to bother turning up at all, I mean, after all it is only the basis of their entire future, is it not? so do they enrol because they THINK it will be easier than work, do they enrol because mummy and daddy say they will give a huge walloping allowance if they go to college, I don't have the answer but what I do know is that I, the 32 year old student in the class, the one that is here every week religiously, the one that makes every assignment deadline and probably the only one in the class who sacrifices their Friday and Saturday nights out in favour of study is here to work, I know hard work means good rewards and I certainly do not know more than the lecturer, that is why I am here, watching the back of his head as he scribbles on the board, as he scribbles the information that I intend to commit to knowledge that will build me a better future, that will get me the job I long for until I get it and then find I want more...