Saturday, 8 September 2018

South Somerset's well-known Liberal Democrat listed among Quentin Letts' "Patronising Bastards".


My wife and I were in the centre of Taunton last Friday and, as is usually the case, we could not pass Waterstones without dropping in to view what was on offer on the bookshelves.  Quite a few books caught our eye.  In particular I was drawn to the following: Big Week by James Holland which tells how the fighters and bombers of the USAAF’s Eighth Air Force won air superiority over Germany in early 1944; Breakout at Stalingrad, an autobiographical novel by Heinrich Gerlach who himself was wounded and captured at Stalingrad; Patronising Bastards – How The Elites Betrayed Britain by Quentin Letts who describes himself as a “scurvy parliamentary sketchwriter, and Marches blunderbuss”.  Unable to resist leaving the premises empty handed, I bought Quentin Letts’ “peppery polemic”.      

Back at home I opened Patronising Bastards at page 7 where The Rt.Hon. Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBH CH, the most well-known Liberal Democrat in South Somerset, is the target of Quentin Letts’ wit.  He quotes Lord Ashdown, before the EU Referendum results started coming, as stating: ‘ I will forgive no one who does not respect the sovereign voice of the British people once it has spoken, whether it is a majority of 1 per cent or 20 per cent.  Either you believe in democracy or you don’t.’  However, Mr Letts writes: ‘Once remain lost, he rapidly tried to contest the result.’ Such an attitude reinforces my belief that the great majority of those in the British Political Establishment only believe in democracy when it suits them.  In my view the Liberal Democrats are not bad at local level as their councillors do seem to make an effort to sort out problems that impact on their constituents, but nationally they are much too politically correct for me.

Be that as it may, Lord Ashdown comes in fifth on Quentin Letts’ list of the Top 100 Patronising Bastards, but another former Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, comes even higher in second place!

I look forward to reading more of Mr Letts’ humorous takedowns.    

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