There are a few new words and terms that jangle my nerves. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy new newfangled phrases that surprise and feel joyous to use, such as “vibe check" (making sure people are having a good time) and one I have been using for a while now — “bougie" (rich, luxurious, extravagant), which essentially is international slang for our “larney” but not as “basic" (boring, unoriginal, mainstream and uncool).
Awful words such as webinar, silos, leverage, end-user and bandwidth give me the absolute heebie-jeebies. Granted, they are all Dilbertesque workplace jargon, but they’re slowly infiltrating other spaces. A friend told me that a person sitting next to her on a plane remarked, while glancing at her reading a novel, that they just don’t have the bandwidth to read a book. Urgh.
Another I can’t stand is disrupter, but it is useful when trying to explain something or someone who is rupturing the order of things.
Prince Harry is a disrupter. (Apologies to those fatigued by this subject; you don’t have to read further). His book Spare is still selling and continuing to cause all kinds of situations for the royal family, especially now that Charles’s coronation is around the corner (May 6). Instead of the historical event being anticipated due to its spectacle or fabulousness, like the buzz which surrounded Queen Elizabeth’s coronation and jubilee, there are protests whenever Charles and queen consort Camilla are out and about performing their royal duties. Anti-monarchists heckle, waving bright yellow placards with the message, “Not my King”, demanding the British public be given the right to choose whether it wants to be ruled by an unelected head of state. Would this have happened without Spare?
The establishment is fighting back at this disruption with its own spin, using the media, just as Harry disclosed in Spare that it did and still does against him and Meghan. The BRF is flogging books about its glorious heydays. There’s Elizabeth and Philip — The Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy by Tessa Dunlop. Part of the flowery blurb reads: “ ... this deeply touching history explores the ups and downs, the attraction and the tensions that defined an extraordinary relationship. The high stakes involved might have devoured a less committed pair — but not Elizabeth and Philip. They shared a common purpose, one higher even than marriage, with roots much deeper than young love. Happy and Glorious, for better or for worse, they were heavily invested in a God-given mission. Monarchy was the magic word.”
Recently published in the UK is Sally Bedell Smith’s George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy. This is obviously a counter to Spare, as it is about the earlier Windsor spare, Bertie, Duke of York, and how he obediently accepted his duties as king. He was portrayed as a nervously shy stutterer by Colin Firth in The King's Speech.
Maybe these books will help change the current narrative that the BRF is as bougie as f*** and irrelevant. Charles should do a serious vibe check on his forthcoming party. He should also try to not be so basic.
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