In the May 16th edition of National Review (not yet on newsstands but available to NR subscribers here), Dalrymple comments on the royal wedding, noting that the new marriage could still end in divorce and that the British monarchy isn’t what it used to be:
O royal marriage, if wedding comes, can divorce be far behind? For a marriage these days, unlike a diamond, is definitely not forever, and the British royal family, though it remains somewhat different from the average or median British family in many respects, has not been able to insulate itself entirely from the social trends of the age, the instability of relations between the sexes being among them. A large dose of social realism, indeed, has been insinuated into the Saxe-Coburg-Windsor fairy story.
A Dalrymple article on the death of Osama Bin Laden on City Journal:
http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0502td.html
When Wills Met Kate
St Andrew’s University – day after the fashion show.
Will – (dismay) Hi…
Kate – Hi
W -Why didn’t you take part in the show yesterday… why weren’t you there even?
K – Hmm… why indeed…
W – (awkward) Well… you know…
K – Not sure I do
W – if you’ve got… flaunt it!
K – (semi smile) ‘Flaunt’ ‘it’ – Tell me, does Baby Spice ‘flaunt’ ‘it’? I mean, call me a prude, or plain blunt but, ‘flaunt it’ – it’s got something of the prostitute advertising… it, don’t you think?
W – (awkward)
K – Oh please don’t pretend to be naive… I’d have thought someone who’s Grand Mother was the Supreme Governor of the Church of England… the highest power under God in this kingdom and all that, would be familiar enough with traditional Christian values, with virtue…
W – (still awkward) It’s for charity
K – Oh yeah, and what charity might that be… support for girls with eating disorders?
(expression of contempt, thinking aloud)
Downe House!
W – Sorry what was that?
K – I know only too well the depths, the ugly, malicious, deceitful, manipulativeness that girls a prepared to lower themselves to under the influence of… or jealous lack of… well, ‘it’.
[sigh] regrettably it would appear I’ve much too obviously got ‘it’ to be able NOT to flaunt it!
(Will speechless)
What’s wrong? Is my ‘Girl Power’ not congenial to your ‘male’ preconceptions?
W – (deflated)
K – Look! You know, you seem likeable enough… but the sheer scale of the cosmetics industry… internet porn… what does it say about people’s priorities? Eating disorders, self harming… bullying… and I suppose none of which has anything to do with extreme poverty? Blood diamonds? Destruction of rain forests?
W – err…
K – Buttock implants! Vaginoplasty! (disgust) Please! Still, if it means a girl needn’t suffer the indignity of having to settle for a guy so lacking in aesthetic discernment (the perverting effects of love perhaps) then I suppose it’s only right… her inalienable right, that her all too shamefully, nay, criminally ‘private’ parts should be ‘corrected’ in accordance to the dictates of the all pervasive pornographic ideal… God bless the NHS!
(continues)
It’s true I do like nice, indeed beautiful clothes, to look beautiful… perhaps you’ll grant though that my tastes reflect a certain modesty? A good upbringing? (surprise)Yes a good upbringing, how shocking is that? (conspiratorially leaning forward) you know my parents are still together… (aren’t they just?) Perverts!
I was brought up to have self respect, to be a lady.
I’d say ninety… perhaps ninety-five percent of the fashion industry is characterised by a lemming-like narcissistic vanity… ‘flaunting it’ indeed.. That’s not my way, and don’t you ever forget it!