Hallo Readers,
Old Etonian and Oxonian Jacob Rees-Mogg, a character P G Wodehouse would have rejected as too outlandish for his Jeeves and Wooster books, is a multi-millionaire (some inherited, some acquired through marriage, and the rest made himself through financial trading). Thought to be worth some £100m, he owns a Jacobean manor house in leafy Somerset and a £5m townhouse in London, is a devout Catholic, and has six children who are looked after by his old Nanny. He used to take Nanny canvassing with him. He has probably never set foot in a residential tower block in his life. For him, multi-culturalism is allowing the under-gardener’s children to play in the scullery. One also suspects that there are very few black and brown faces in Rees-Mogg’s constituency of North East Somerset, other than the few who run the local Indian and Chinese restaurants in the picturesque villages dotted around the place. So it was all the more offensive to hear him denigrate the residents of Grenfell Tower for obeying the advice given to them by the Fire Brigade and staying in their flats, rather than abandoning them and running down the smoke-filled staircases. Rees-Mogg told interviewer Nick Ferrari on LBC, ‘I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the Fire Brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn’t happen.’ In other words, he and Ferrari were blessed with common sense, whereas the riff-raff were not. He later claimed, implausibly, that he had meant that with hindsight he would have left the building. Bridgen, the man who thought all Brits were entitled to an Irish passport after Brexit until he learned live on air that they were not, then weighed in on his friend’s Rees-Mogg’s behalf, (Friend? Really? WTF doubts whether Bridgen would be let into the back parlour, let alone the front drawing room). He said that Moggy was cleverer than other people, and wasn’t that a good thing, as we wanted clever people to run the country? (Yes we do Andrew, so just piss off, and take Jacob with you). Whereupon the degree of outrage intensified and Bridgen then had to apologise as well. Party Chair James not-at-all Cleverley then had to apologise for the apologies. If the Tory Party had any sense, which it does not, it would ship Rees-Mogg and Bridgen abroad for the duration, like a couple of the remittence men from centuries past. However, given that they both have to defend their Parliamentary seats, they will doubtless pop up again between now and December 12, the better to disgust us with their stupidity.
Of course, had the building been clad with the appropriate fire-retardant materials, and not the cheaper stuff intended for blocks of no more than eight stories, there would have been no need for anyone to leave the building. There would have been no need for anyone to die. But, as we know, the building was not clad with the appropriate fire-resistant materials. Someone, somewhere, made good with second best. The Tory Council also decided that sprinklers were too expensive, and that it would be a really good idea to build something right in front of the entrance so that the fire engines could not get to the front door. It also ignored the protests from the residents about these matters. Do you suppose that Rees-Mogg ever gave a second’s thought to the living conditions of the poorer residents of Kensington and Chelsea? Of course he didn’t, just as he voted against a bill proposing to compel private landlords (like him) to make their properties fit for human habitation. Because people like Rees-Mogg, wallowing in wealth and privilege, may talk about defeating the Metropolitan Elites and the Remoaners and bringing Power Back to the People and the rights of the 52%. But the power he is most interested in is that of the 1%. Including him.
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We start our survey of the week’s clothing catastrophes in California with singer Nick Jonas ,wearing Ermenegildo Zegna.
Nick has been getting on WTF’s nerves for quite a while, especially when he compounded being irritating by marrying someone even more irritating, actress and UNICEF spokesperson Priyanka Chopra. And now he has ramped up the irritation factor yet higher by parading about in this ridiculously shiny suit, looking like an advertisement for the Northern Lights.
As for those trousers, they can best be described as ‘snug’.
To the Los Angeles County Museum of Art bash hosted by Gucci, where the great and good were wearing the design house’s wares. Here is singer Billie Eilish.
Billie’s hair is a bit Northern Lights as well. Is it Northern Lights Week? But worse are these couture jim-jams, seemingly designed for a big, tall, fat, person rather than Billie, who is five feet two and not big or fat. And clock the logo-ed hiking boots. You never saw Sherpa Tenzing in a pair of those…..
Say hallo to Rapper Tyler, the Creator .
He looks like an overgrown schoolboy skiving off to go fishing. And for reasons which WTF simply cannot explain, not even at all, he is wearing Startrite shoes, the one all British kiddies wear, including Prince George.
We now travel to Seville for one of WTF’s favourite fashion events of the year, the MTV European Music Awards, where bad taste was all around. Like singer Mabel, wearing Jean Paul Gauthier.
Not only is the bottom half very ridiculous and very mingey, the bodice appears to have been inspired by Mickey Mouse.
Our next fashion victim is Spanish singer Rosalia, wearing Balmain. A lot of Balmain.
You know that big, fat, tall, person who should have been wearing Billie’s jim-jams?Here is his or hers day outfit. Rosalia’s sister Pilar is her stylist. That’s her off the Christmas Card List….. the whole of Rosalia’s family, and a couple of neighbours, could fit into that ludicrous jacket.
Finally, here is Argentine singer J Mena (née Jimena Barón), wearing not enough.
If Cleopatra went to a fancy dress party as a rhinestone cowgirl, this is what she would look like. And she only had one asp.
This week’s It’s Got To Go comes from WTF aficionado Alice from Bristol, and, indirectly, from actress and Trump-hater Alyssa Milano, who tweeted about this ghastly woman, who is paid OUT OF UNITED STATES TAXES to act as, wait for it, Trump’s faith adviser. Meet Paula White.
This hideous, plastic-faced, horror-show is the embodiment of everything that is bad about American Christian fundamentalism. When she was only 18, ‘the Lord gave me a vision that every time I opened my mouth and declared the Word of the Lord, there was a manifestation of His Spirit where people were either healed, delivered, or saved. When I shut my mouth, they fell off into utter darkness and God spoke to me and said ‘I called you to preach the gospel’. White apparently converted Trump to Christianity in 2002 and has been his spiritual adviser ever since. Seeing what a mean, nasty, dishonest, hate-filled, son of a bitch he is, if he has been saved from utter darkness, one shudders to think what someone unsaved must be like. It simply does not bear thinking about. White is apparently a proponent of ‘prosperity theology’ – in essence, believe in God and He will see you right financially – except that He will only see you right financially if you donate financially to the Ministry leading you to Him. Like White’s own Church organisations. She and Trump are a match made in Heaven. As far as both of them are concerned, They’ve Got To Go.
OK Readers, that’s your lot for this week. Keep sending in your comments, which put a spring into WTF’s wearied step, and please don’t forget your scintillating suggestions for It’s Got To Go. Let us meet again next Friday. Be good. x
A friend of mine who knows inside the RM household says they keep a total of 15 staff.