Scylla and Charybdis

I don't think parents have managed to teach Greek mythology during homeschooling.
How nice that Boris has had such a good education. A chance not available to many children recently.
Don't expect he needed free school meals in the holidays.

Who is Julie Burchill and why should we be in any way impressed by her judgement? Sounds like bitchiness to me...

So does being 'between Scylla an Charybdis' mean you're up sh*t creek minus paddle? If so, he'd be right, wouldn't he?

MaizieD

Who is Julie Burchill and why should we be in any way impressed by her judgement? Sounds like bitchiness to me...

Agree. Whether you like him or not Stephen Fry is undeniably clever, articulate and well read !

But he seems unable to think critically, I have watched him in numerous debates and his contribution is not particularly thought provoking even when I agree with him.

Another one here who can only reference war ships.
Certainly not for the masses.

Julie Birchill could certainly be bitchy but at the same time amusing and insightful.

Funny how people say they have had an excellent education, but have no knowledge of the classics. That’s an education with a very big gap.

Grandma70s

Funny how people say they have had an excellent education, but have no knowledge of the classics. That’s an education with a very big gap.

Funny how people say they have had an excellent education but can't explain quantum mechanics. That's an education with a very big gap.

Anyone with any credible feminist beliefs knows and values JB and her contribution to the feminist cause including trans issues and the material reality of biological sex as a fact.

Myths and Legends are taught as part of Literacy (English) lessons in primary schools and Ancient Greece and its heritage were/ are part of the primary school History curriculum.

Just shows how out of touch he is with the general population; and how lacking in nouse he is.

I do not regard the absence of knowledge about an ancient Greek author's work as evidence of the country being poorly educated. It indicates that the sort of education BJ had is out-dated and irrelevant, as indeed is he.

By the way - I just looked up the spelling of nouse before typing it, and in America it is slang for penis, something that we must assume that BJ does not lack.

You learn something new every day luckygirl

Possibly suziewoozie, but I just love her for her wit, and of course her ability to see beneath the veneer of society.
She's not so hot at self analysis though !

Far be it from the PM to use plain language when a classical allusion will muddy the waters. He could just have said 'between a rock and a hard place' though that's not a literal translation.

Callistemon

I said a disease because I was trying not to lower the tone Oopsminty ?

But I was thinking the same as you

Ha! Great minds think alike

I am rather pleased he said it actually. Just today my 23 year old daughter has been looking it up. I'm sure she's not the only one

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning about not knowing his audience. Implying that we're all rather dense and shouldn't even be introduced to these things

So, I for one am pleased he mentioned it as I've added to my poor education o-0

I think he comes over as an over indulged idiot. I would be much more impressed if he spoke to the ordinary people of our country in an appropriate tone and language.

Knowledge of any sort is a valuable asset and not to be sneered at just because the sneerer doesn't happen to have that particular chunk. I knew what he was talking about - the twin whirlpools that Odysseus had to steer his boat safely between to return to his home island after 10 years at the Trojan War. Does that make me elitist? I hope not! I thought it just meant that I had read Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey, and (shock, horror) actually enjoyed them.

BJ's education was an old-fashioned one, concentrating on what an educated person used to be expected to know. What hasn't happened with BJ is adding more up-to-date stuff to what he learnt at school. He is still in nineteenth century mode, like his pal Rees-Mogg. He is not PM of the country he was a child in, all those years ago.

‘Knowledge of any sort is a valuable asset and not to be sneered at just because the sneerer doesn't happen to have that particular chunk.’
It’s not the knowledge that is being sneered at ie criticised but the context in which it is being used. A good communicator appreciates that clarity is the first rule

How about a reference to the adulterous love affair of Helen of Troy with Paris, prince of Troy? Or to the wooden horse that smuggled in the hidden warriors who opened up the locked gates of Troy in the night to the beseigers? Would more people recognise those?

Callistemon - Oopsminty

But it was totally clear to many people although more may have understood 'between a rock and a hard place' or 'between the devil and the deep blue sea'.

Your second paragraph just repeats what I said, Suziewoozie, and some of the posts above DO sneer at the uselessness of a knowledge of myths from ancient Greece.

Elegran

Your second paragraph just repeats what I said, Suziewoozie, and some of the posts above DO sneer at the uselessness of a knowledge of myths from ancient Greece.

I don’t think it does but it doesn’t matter - he’s not a good communicator with or without unnecessary classical allusions.

We do use many sayings from Ancient Greece and they are perfectly understandable.
Opening Pandora's box - that could describe the situation the world is in right now.
To be a Cassandra
The Midas touch.
Etc

Regarding Pandora's box, she did manage to shut it before Hope escaped.