Too Careful with the Royals, Mangled English

French Politicians, Royalist and Republican
Flora Macdonald Reid (1860-1945)
Photo Credit: Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service [CC BY-NC]

 David Dimbleby has criticised the BBC for refusing to tackle sensitive topics relating to the royal family and questioned why Buckingham Palace is able to exert such control over the corporation.

Dimbleby, for decades the face of the BBC at state events, said the broadcaster, "would not go near things like the power that the palace has to change taxation legislation" or whether it was right for the Duchy of Cornwall not to pay capital gains tax.

"All those issues are never touched by the BBC because I think they feel their viewers will not like it - a visceral feeling," he told the Henley Literary Festival. "I think it is wrong and these things should be properly examined."

... Dimbleby ... said that he had been surprised to find the "degree of control that Buckingham Palace has over the image of the royal family." He said that during the live broadcast from St George's Chapel in Windsor, emails would arrive "almost simultaneously" from palace officials dictating which clips of footage could not be shown in any subsequent broadcast... "There was this complete list of things that no broadcaster could show because the copyright belongs to Buckingham Palace," he said. "I think that's wrong, just wrong," he added. "It's just interesting how tightly controlled monarchy is."

The 83-year-old, who said that he could only remember one debate on republicanism during his career at the BBC, added: "It is not discourteous to question, it is not rude, it is important, because the way we are governed is important and the way our constitution works is important."

(David Sanderson, The Times, 2022)

What things were not being shown in subsequent broadcasts? Two were: Prince George touching his nose and Beatrice and Eugenie leaving St George's. Thank God Dimbleby is able to make the point, as a critical commentator, that it is not discourteous or rude to question matters relating to the Royal family and the taxes they pay or don't pay. These things should be properly examined.

Mangled English

One of my 1950s grammar schoolteachers, the irascible Dr Kolisch, would produce gems of mangled English such as: "If you want a rubber, use the boy's behind", and "If you want to behave like a pig, then go to the headmaster's office".

(Toy Roberts, Penwortham, Lancashire, The Guardian, 2022)