Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has never done a day's real work in her life. She is s serial hard-drug abuser, to such an extent that she recently had to have most of her nose replaced. If she was from Croxteth or Balsall Heath or Byker or Peckham, she'd have the police raiding her house all the time and David Cameron would be planning to take away her benefits. But she's not from any of those hardscrabble places; she's from West London, and so she was able to take her place at the Royal Wedding yesterday, in the company of the aforementioned Prime Minister.
I think that's what drives a lot of us to contemplate abolishing the monarchy and the peerage and turning the UK into a republic. It's not so much the inherited wealth -- dukes are just as good at pissing that away as the rest of us. It's the inherited privilege that rankles, because it means that a complete waste of space like Tara P-T not only avoids repeated harassment by the constabulary, but is able to score an invitation to Westminster Abbey along with the genuinely great and good (and Elton John).
That said, however, the redoubtable Chris Dillow this week produced a timely warning:
If we had an elected presidency, what sort of preening, self-loving narcissistic egomaniac would think they were capable of representing and symbolizing the nation? (Tony Blair, you all answer.)
Erkk! Time for second thoughts perhaps. So two cheers for the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge -- but please guys, try to be more careful with the invitations* in future, will you?
* They omitted both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from the Westminster Abbey guest list, which looks like a deliberate snub. A good start.
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