”If it is true that the royals were shocked by Kate Middleton’s mother’s use of the word ‘toilet’ rather than ‘loo’, then it's such a pity that members of the Royal Family haven't got more important things to think about. This is banality taken to its very extreme. If members of the Windsor family cannot think about more important matters in a world that is in turmoil, and in a world in which Islam is encroaching upon our freedoms, then maybe it's time they were sent out to work.” - Mark Alexander
THE TELEGRAPH: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him."
So ventured Shaw in Pygmalion, and, if reports are to be believed - and perhaps we should not take them too seriously - Prince William's now ex-girlfriend, Kate Middleton, must have, on occasion, been made to feel rather like Shaw's Covent Garden flower seller ensnared on the thorns of polite society.
For just as Eliza was lampooned for her non-U utterances, so apparently was Miss Middleton - although not for any society gaffes of her own but for those apparently made by her mother, a former air stewardess, who not only, we are told, addressed the Queen with the phrase "Pleased to meet you" rather than the accepted "How do you do?", but was also known to have let slip a word toffs consider quite the ghastliest blasphemy: toilet. Was it 'Toiletgate' that done [it] for Kate?
What does 'Toiletgate' say about Britain's class divide?
Noblesse Oblige
Mark Alexander
