The Critical Commentator

 ...It's so disturbing to learn in Adrian Wooldridge's superb new history of the subject, The Aristocracy of Talent, that we don't really live in one at all. Or if we do it is on that has been corrupted: Wooldridge prefers the term pluto-meritocracy... Wooldridge's principal criticism of the modern West's "uneasy marriage between plutocracy and meritocracy" is that it enables the rich to use their wealth to buy educational privileges for their children, virtually guaranteeing them a place at the top of society and thereby perpetuating an "intellectual aristocracy" that risks becoming every bit as entrenched as the one the 10th Earl of Wemyss belonged to. Merit Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) Photo Credit: Walker Art Gallery [ CC BY-NC] If our society was ever truly meritocratic it was during the postwar years, when grammar schools and university scholarships hauled working-class kids out of their poor backgrounds and deposited them on the doorsteps

  Designer Water Bottles Still Life with Bottles,  Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940)  Photo Credit:Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] The designer water bottle has become the latest smug status symbol among the sun-saluting athleisure-loving set, dethroning the green juice and the underarm yoga mat…being spotted with single-use plastic on your person is a serious blot on your reputation. The reusable water bottle, however, has just the right message. I’m healthy-living, environmentally aware and on trend. For the right bottle, no price tag is too high. Julia Roberts prefers a S’well £55. …Even Evian, king of the disposable water bottle, has cottoned on. Last week it launched its reusable bottle…for £45… The British brand Chilly’s is expected to make £40 million this year from its brightly coloured steel flask bottles. With all this in mind it is not too soon to panic about what you want your new water bottle to say about you. For the whole clean-living, my-body-is-a-temple look, opt for one with a purif

Okimono of a Snail unknown artist Photo Credit: Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery [CC BY-NC]  Smartphone users have become "human snails carrying our homes in our pockets", with a tendency to ignore - and anger - friends and family in favour of their device, according to a landmark study... The smartphone is perhaps the first object to challenge the house itself (and possibly also the workplace) in terms of the amount of time we dwell in it while awake - coining the term "transportal home" to describe the effect. We are always "at home" in our smartphone. We have become human snails carrying our home in our pockets. (Alex Hern, The Guardian, 2021) Vaccine Credit The vaccine campaign has been claimed as an electoral asset for the Conservative party, and clearly there is a widespread mood of optimism that bolstered their support in the Hartlepool by-election and local polls. For those of us working at the coalface of the NHS, this is galling. Who de

  Collective Madness In soft and measured tones, Lady Hale announced the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that Boris Johnson had illegally suspended Parliament, with a kooky rhinestone spider brooch pinned to her left shoulder. A Face Covered with Spider Web ,  Madge Gill (1882-1961) Photo Credit: London Borough of Newham [CC BY] Immediately, people started posting spider emojis on social media, and debating what type of arachnid it might be. Within hours, the west London garment printing shop Balcony Shirts created a “Lady Hale Spider Brooch T-shirt” … In less than 48 hours, more than 6,500 had sold. …  Dr Ameerah Khadaroo, a lecturer on the psychology of fashion at London College of Fashion had this to say: “As human beings, we tend to develop some form of identification with those who we perceive to be like us, or who share the same views as us … In doing so, we can be driven by strong emotions which, in turn, can influence us to search for something tangible that we can identify wi

  Social Media and Public Health The Cheat Detected , Edward Bird (1772-1819) Photo Credit: Sir John Soane's Museum [CC BY-NC-ND] “Highly influential celebrities are letting down the very people who look up to them, by peddling products which are at best ineffective and at worst harmful.” Duncan Stephenson, the director of external affairs at The Royal Society for Public Health, accused celebrities and social media platforms of putting profits before consumers’ health. “There are so many bogus and snake-oil weight-loss products on the market today, which either have dubious evidence to back them up, or are a waste of money. It is shameful that major advertisers, leading celebrities – many of whom are role models for young people – together with advertisers and social media platforms are complicit in exploiting and potentially putting people’s health at risk, simply to further line their pockets.” Kitty Wallace, a trustee of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, said, “The bombar

  Paying for Conversation Lessons Three Peasants Seated Together , Cornelis Pietersz. Bega (1631/2-1664)  Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND] Kate Wills, writing in The Times has a small problem to solve. She can’t remember how to have a conversation.    “It’s not surprising that conversation and debate have become the latest boutique luxuries to be curated and marketed to millennials. A US poll found that 65 per cent of young people don’t feel confident having face to face interactions… At work functions I’m the person hovering by the buffet table mindlessly scrolling Instagram until I spot someone I know. And when a group conversation gets boring, I have to fight the urge to refresh my emails for that Pavlovian ping… It’s no wonder we’ve forgotten how to converse – the average person checks their phone every 12 minutes.” Apparently there are now individuals who teach the art of conversation to organisations. So, in the same article we had: Richard Reid, a psychotherapi

  Letters Sylvia Crookes went for a smear and as the doctor peered up her with his flashlight, he remarked: “I see you are a teacher.” Sylvia was astounded. “How can you tell?” she asked, wondering at the gynaecological effect that her profession was having. “I read it in your notes,” he replied. (Sylvia Crookes,  The Times , 2019) RUGBY Sam Warburton was the captain of the Welsh rugby team and the British Lions. Sam Warburton’s autobiography opens in a hotel room in Wellington, New Zealand, in the early hours where he is in the midst of the 2017 British Lions Tour that will go down in history for a drawn series against the All Blacks. … “It should be the highlight of my career,” he notes. “It feels like anything but.” 'Anxiety', Head of a Girl ,  Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) Photo Credit: Victoria Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND] His body aches all over with the damage of more than 20 significant injuries but it is the pressure piled almost intolerably upon himself to win, to per

  Fashion and Environmental Damage A Girl Sewing , Philippe Mercier (1689-1760)  Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] The Commons environmental audit committee has produced a report that outlines the environmental damage caused by fast fashion. “We need to simply buy less, mend, rent and share more…To support this we recommend that lessons on designing, creating, mending and repairing clothes be included in schools at Key Stage 2 and 3. The creative satisfaction of designing and repairing clothing can offer an antidote to the growing anxiety and mental health issues among teenagers. The skills learnt can also provide a potential pathway towards job opportunities.” Hang on. Isn’t needlework still on the curriculum under the term design and technology? What evidence does the committee show that designing and repairing clothes contributes to the mental health of teenagers? Burberry burnt £28 million of unwanted products last year. The next day: “The most joyless and stressed I have been in a