Afternoon:
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BBC PRESENTERS come and go but none with quite such scrutiny and debate as the Today programme's Ed Stourton, sacked - or rather moved on to other projects - in favour of North America correspondent Justin Webb. Everyone (including him, I'm sure) has the sneaking suspicion that it was the p-word that did for him. Educated at Ampleforth and Cambridge, related to titled Stourtons (no matter how distantly), with a son who was a schoolfriend of Prince William, he was just too posh.
Of course, the BBC will never admit this but anyone who listens day in, day out to the Scottish burrs and assorted regional deviations knows that when it comes to accent discrimination, the BBC is your best bet. This, of course, is irritating. Perhaps Boris - our successful toff pin-up - could support the beleaguered posh in much the same way as other minority groups who style themselves victims of prejudice.
Caring about Stourton's provenance or accent seems a retro step but we live in muddled and fractious times. Remember how dated Labour looked back in May when they stuck a couple of little prats in top hats at the Crewe by-election, a nasty move which so joyously backfired? And how some of the popularity of David Cameron stemmed from the knowledge that he was reassuringly well-educated and therefore, as he said in his conference speech last year, knew "what a great education" meant.
Class was dead - we were beyond all that; Britain was to be chippy no more! Then in bounced the credit crunch, and class once again seems to have fallen onto the table like a dead pheasant. Cameron was said to be concerned last week that his front bench looked too well-fed to win over the populus, the "last night I saw off a fine bottle of claret at White's" complexion-and-tum combo having fallen out of favour. Those with money have been sensing a latent fury surfacing (some business people believe David Ross of Carphone Warehouse is just the victim of some kind of untimely jealousy) and class gets lobbed into the fray somehow.
Never mind that Stourton is not rich, nor Ross grand. Anyone who could be perceived as either had better duck for a bit and start talking like Guy Ritchie and dressing like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins until the mood has changed.
* Catherine Ostler is editor of ES Magazine.
Reader views (8)
It angers me so much that the BBC, in an effort to enforce it's own cockeyed version of political correctness, forces on the nation, accents that are, quite frankly horrible. Gone are the days of being guaranteed a lovely, easy to listen to educated accent. Now, we have to put up with the roughest Birmingham and Newcastle accents and of course, the ever stupid mockney with all those enforced missing "t"s - a la Jamie Oliver.
Sick, sick, sick. Lowest common denominater and all that!!
- D Payne, London, 17/12/2008 23:43
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Catherine Ostler is one of my favourite columnists - and one of the funniest and perceptive. Yet again I completely agree with everything she writes. Stourton's downfall was his upper class good manners - perceived by some perhaps as lacking in passion. Justin Webb presents a neutral, class free persona. With the Scottish mafia in charge at Westminster, they would never dare sack Naughtie. I will miss Stourton.
- Graham Souness, London, UK, 17/12/2008 15:30
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Outraged about Stourton. Thoroughly approve of Ostler's intelligent take on these things.
- Roger Bruton, London, 17/12/2008 15:22
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Ampleforth is a Catholic public school Mark Wright of Milan. Obviously you don't have to worry about having a public school accent yourself. And I love public school accents. Those men who were educated at our wonderful public schools sound educated, courteous, literate and rich. Very sexy!
- Sophronia, London UK, 17/12/2008 14:43
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When the BBC news is read by someone with a Brummie accent, then I'll believe there is no discrimination.
- Nora, London, 17/12/2008 13:46
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idiotic. stourton's replacement justin webb is also an expensively-educated toff with an accent to match.
today's other recent appointment, evan davis, isn't exactly a northern oik either.
you sound like you have a chip on your shoulder, just like your imaginary "class warrior" ghouls.
- This Is Balls, Hackney, London, UK, 17/12/2008 11:59
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So he was educated at Ampleforth and Cambridge was he? I've heard of Cambridge, but I've never heard of Ampleforth.
- Mark Wright, Milan, Italy, 17/12/2008 10:29
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Surely the problem with Stourton wan't his class or his accent but that he was just so much better than the bullying, hectoring Humphries or the wind-bag Naughtie. Stourton was polite but insistent and was thus able to get better answers to his questions from recalcitrant politicians but that is not nearly show-bizzy enough to satisfy a BBC that values style over substance.
- Warren Alexander, London, UK, 17/12/2008 10:24
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