Burchill Makes A Numpty Of Herself
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 12:06PM Julie Burchill and George Monbiot had a wee head to head this morning on Radio 4's today programme. You can hear the interview on BBCi player - it starts about 2 hours and 20 mins in. She claimed to be exposing Greens hypocrisy, in that they're apparently overwhelmingly posh and using the environnment as a means of denying the poor things they've always been entitled too.
Frankly, I'm not sure why Burchill still gets 'serious' air time, as it's clear she just loves the controversy. Still, I was concerned that George wouldn't be up to the task, as I vaguely remember Jeremy Clarkson running rings about him on the radio after he drove a range rover to the top of a munro. I think George did pretty well this time around - although he did give too much ground. Julie came over like a classic upper middle class numtpy in denial mode.
I've also criticised the Greens for sounding posh, but this was more an issue of style not substance. Anyone who knows anything about Green politics would know that they're emerging as the only credible home for folk who feel tired of the Business as usual politics of the other parties. Were more Green policies to be implemented, we'd see the poor benefit a great deal, not least because it's those in the most deprived areas of the UK, that must suffer the most environmental injustice.
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Reader Comments (3)
Julie Burchill is living proof that people like to be made angry. With Burchill, it has no consequences when you shout at the radio. And she brings us together: if there is one thing we can all agree on it’s that Julie Burchill is completely without substance or reason.
On the other hand we might spend forever asking why. After all, is it really possible that the desire for attention can so totally overwhelm one’s sense of dignity?
Apparently so.
Although I do once remember a stream of letters to the Guardian complaining that they agreed with Julie Birchill, and this was not on.
Julie Burchill is a working class Bristolian. George Monbiot is an upper middle class, privately educated, Oxbridge home counties snob. His science is impeccable, no one can deny the truth about climate change, but equally no one can deny that the sooner Monbiot and his ilk shut up the sooner working class Bristolians and people like them might feel that dealing with climate change is for them, and not something that posh types are telling them to do.