The Telegraph article written by Jacob Rees-Mogg I think is worth looking at in relation to the power of the elite to present a view of Britain that reflects its own life experience and values:
"The great British nanny is supposedly going the way of the dodo. For, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have decided to appoint a Spanish child minder for our future king, what can lesser mortals do?"
[This assumes that non-royals are in fact "lesser mortals", which I think is a value-loaded judgment that not everybody will agree with.]
"Alas, for the British nanny is one of our nation’s finest traditions, iconic like a London taxi or a red bus ...... important to the country’s wellbeing." [Who decides that the British nanny is "iconic"? I suspect the vast majority of people in Britain have no thoughts either way about nannies and do not see them as integral to or representative of British life].
Rees-Mogg continues to wax lyrical about the importance of nannies and goes on to say:
".... a proper nanny views her life’s choice as a vocation, not a mere job" [He even goes on to say that being a "proper" nanny is akin to adopting a child].
"..... nannies always used to be referred to by the surname of their employer. When I was little [these nannikes] were all part of the families for which they worked and with which they stayed, essentially, until retirement."
[To me, this demonstrates how far removed the lives of people like Rees-Mogg are from those of most people and how seemingly oblivious they are to this fact]
"In this may lie part of the problem. Proper British nannies put the child ahead of everything. They do not like to see children used as accessories, carried around in slings for the convenience of the parents’ social life."
[If, as Rees-Mogg seems to demonstrate, nannies in all major respects care for and nurture their charges to such a degree that they are as, if not more, important than their parents in teaching and caring for the children, surely these parents are indeed treating them as "accessories"?]
"But if the parents only show confidence in the nanny there are no limits to what she will do..... Veronica [his nanny] was always the chief finder of lost items for my father and never refused to do something for him because he was not her charge. Indeed, when my mother was a Westminster councillor and often out in the evenings, she would happily make him supper – as she still does for me."
[So basically then, a general dogsbody who should feel honoured that "confidence" had been shown in her ability to undertake any manner of unrelated tasks at all times of the day and night]
And then he refers to Mary Poppins! What a load of romanticised and deluded nonsense.
trish
