James Blunt

[Jairzinho]

 

 

Dear Chris Bryant MP,

You classist gimp. I happened to go to a boarding school. No one helped me at boarding school to get into the music business. I bought my first guitar with money I saved from holiday jobs (sandwich packing!). I was taught the only four chords I know by a friend. No one at school had ANY knowledge or contacts in the music business, and I was expected to become a soldier or a lawyer or perhaps a stockbroker. So alien was it, that people laughed at the idea of me going into the music business, and certainly no one was of any use.

In the army, again, people thought it was a mad idea. None of them knew anyone in the business either.

And when I left the army, going against everyone’s advice, EVERYONE I met in the British music industry told me there was no way it would work for me because I was too posh. One record company even asked if I could speak in a different accent. (I told them I could try Russian).

Every step of the way, my background has been AGAINST me succeeding in the music business. And when I have managed to break through, I was STILL scoffed at for being too posh for the industry.

And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.

I got signed in America, where they don’t give a stuff about, or even understand what you mean by me and “my ilk”, you prejudiced wazzock, and I worked my arse off. What you teach is the politics of jealousy. Rather than celebrating success and figuring out how we can all exploit it further as the Americans do, you instead talk about how we can hobble that success and “level the playing field”. Perhaps what you’ve failed to realise is that the only head-start my school gave me in the music business, where the VAST majority of people are NOT from boarding school, is to tell me that I should aim high. Perhaps it protected me from your kind of narrow-minded, self-defeating, lead-us-to-a-dead-end, remove-the-‘G’-from-‘GB’ thinking, which is to look at others’ success and say, “it’s not fair.”

Up yours,

James Cucking Funt

 

 

What an absolute fucking helmet.

[Section_31]

Balkans wasn't it?

Nah I think it turned out to be true.

[Chairman Meow]

Nah I think it turned out to be true.

 

Bastard. Beaten to it by 5 minutes. 

[JohnnyH]

Cunt or not, he's bloody hillarious on twitter.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Having a guilded safety net would make me a lot more confident taking career risks and following the heart instead of the head place that alongside the connections that come with being born into priveledge. Just to make a very very sweeping statement but people like him think the only difference between them and us is ambition and work ethic and its fucking bullshit. It's probably why they have no problem dismantling the safety net for everybody else because they genuinely believe we have a meritocracy.

[A Red]

 

 

Dear Chris Bryant MP,

You classist gimp. I happened to go to a boarding school. No one helped me at boarding school to get into the music business. I bought my first guitar with money I saved from holiday jobs (sandwich packing!). I was taught the only four chords I know by a friend. No one at school had ANY knowledge or contacts in the music business, and I was expected to become a soldier or a lawyer or perhaps a stockbroker. So alien was it, that people laughed at the idea of me going into the music business, and certainly no one was of any use.

In the army, again, people thought it was a mad idea. None of them knew anyone in the business either.

And when I left the army, going against everyone’s advice, EVERYONE I met in the British music industry told me there was no way it would work for me because I was too posh. One record company even asked if I could speak in a different accent. (I told them I could try Russian).

Every step of the way, my background has been AGAINST me succeeding in the music business. And when I have managed to break through, I was STILL scoffed at for being too posh for the industry.

And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.

I got signed in America, where they don’t give a stuff about, or even understand what you mean by me and “my ilk”, you prejudiced wazzock, and I worked my arse off. What you teach is the politics of jealousy. Rather than celebrating success and figuring out how we can all exploit it further as the Americans do, you instead talk about how we can hobble that success and “level the playing field”. Perhaps what you’ve failed to realise is that the only head-start my school gave me in the music business, where the VAST majority of people are NOT from boarding school, is to tell me that I should aim high. Perhaps it protected me from your kind of narrow-minded, self-defeating, lead-us-to-a-dead-end, remove-the-‘G’-from-‘GB’ thinking, which is to look at others’ success and say, “it’s not fair.”

Up yours,

James Cucking Funt

 

Shite music but good lad

[Gnasher]

Don't mind him to be honest. And don't really think he's a good example of what this minister means by posh people dominating the arts, from what I've heard he's paid his dues.

But when you look at, for example, the behind the scenes stuff on Game of Thrones, a lot of the actors, especially the child actors, are very much to the manor born.

I think that class of people have a wholly different expectation of what they can achieve in life and, crucially, so do their parents.

From my own experience, working class people who make it into decent media jobs have the Alice in Wonderland hue about them, like they can't really believe it happened, while the middle class ones sometimes act like not only was it expected, but was their right, and have often already got their eye on bigger and better things.

Your average radio station now basically consists of a posh twat DJ interviewing a posh twat singer. Bland, beige, third class degree at the University of Life accentless androids.

This is spot on. I remember a few years ago the BBC gave the job of presenting some shit royal event to Ferne Cotton and some other annoying middle class whopper. She was brain dead awful, asking Chelsea pensioners "where you based guys" and after getting panned all her media mates jumped to her defence, Fern started crying how hard she worked to get where she is without help from anyone, forgetting to mention her uncle was director general of the BBC. Bill Cotton.

[Section_31]

This is spot on. I remember a few years ago the BBC gave the job of presenting some shit royal event to Ferne Cotton and some other annoying middle class whopper. She was brain dead awful, asking Chelsea pensioners "where you based guys" and after getting panned all her media mates jumped to her defence, Fern started crying how hard she worked to get where she is without help from anyone, forgetting to mention her uncle was director general of the BBC. Bill Cotton.

I've ranted about it before but the way the beeb is run is unreal.

 

Salford Quays is run on the back of temps and interns. Permanent contracts are like rocking horse shit, you have to work for them on an ad hoc basis, paid or unpaid, then get the attention of someone who'll give you a break. The vast majority of their jobs are only advertised internally too. You can only get those jobs if you're in a position to work like that for the forseable future, which means you're either young, or wealthy, or probably both.

[dickie mint]

He's just another stuck up cunt,fuck him.

[Major Tom]

I've ranted about it before but the way the beeb is run is unreal.

 

Salford Quays is run on the back of temps and interns. Permanent contracts are like rocking horse shit, you have to work for them on an ad hoc basis, paid or unpaid, then get the attention of someone who'll give you a break. The vast majority of their jobs are only advertised internally too. You can only get those jobs if you're in a position to work like that for the forseable future, which means you're either young, or wealthy, or probably both.

 

As you said earlier, it's the same with a lot of industries. The BBC isn't the problem, it's just emblematic of it.

[Newport]

I always think people who put single words in capital letters to make a point like that are a bit mental.

[stringvest]

Do you think James Blunt is RedShadow?

[Major Tom]

Privileged person in being ignorant of being privileged shock.

 

Fuck Blunt. Fuck his ilk.

[Jairzinho]

The BBC editorial team -

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/30876658

[Lee909]

Cunt or not, he's bloody hillarious on twitter.

Just about to post the same thing.

He has a decent sense of humour,I don't mind him. His music crap though

[Chairman Meow]

Just about to post the same thing.

He has a decent sense of humour,I don't mind him. His music crap though

 

That's largely how I see him, seems a decent enough chap and doesn't take himself too seriously. Probably just as well as his music is fucking dreadful. 

[rubble-rouser]

What a total lack of self-awareness. The horrible, patronising piece of shot. His opening line basically says 'get back in your box, little man' and proves the point that Bryant was making.  

[Major Tom]

What a total lack of self-awareness. The horrible, patronising piece of shot. His opening line basically says 'get back in your box, little man' and proves the point that Bryant was making.  

 

In my experience, people like Blunt genuinely believe they get where they are through sheer hard work. I do not doubt for a minute they work hard but they simply have no awareness of how privileged they are and what a difference that makes.

[VladimirIlyich]

While Blunt may have got where he is through,ahem,talent,the first thing he says is to mention his boarding school and this pretty much makes the rest of his argument a bit moot. Its a bit like him saying,'I'm not a racist,I used to have a black Butler when growing up.'

Surprising that every time somebody mentions the lack of opportunities and balance in a particular type of industry then one of the privileged pop up and display a staggering lack of self awareness on the whole subject.

Maybe the people in the music business telling him he wouldnt make it were acting on behalf of public interest?

[Section_31]

I honestly don't think Blunt has got where he is through privilege. He seems like he's just gigged and caught a break. He probably became an officer in the army through privilege - I bet you can count the number of working class scouse officers in the army on one hand, yet the ones we know of from rich backgrounds - Ian Duncan Smith, Prince Harry, that bloke who cheated at Who Wants to be A Millionaire, Major James Hewitt, all seem a few Ferrero Rochet short of an Ambassador's reception platter. 

 

I think where privilege helps you get into stuff like the music industry though is through the fact middle class and working class people have wholly different expectations of their lives. A middle class lad who wants to be  an actor will probably get more support from their parents, both practically and emotionally, whereas working class lads will be expected to get a 'proper job'. 

 

In the past that'd be less of an issue, as bands were signed straight from their garage where they gigged in their spare time, I think a lot of times now though they've come from performing arts schools, and most working class people won't go near them. 

 

Spastics like Lilly Allen and Peaches Geldoff are a good example. Well connected, well financed, the latter especially was quite clearly a retard yet has 'journalist, author, broadcaster and model' on her epitaph. 

[Major Tom]

I honestly don't think Blunt has got where he is through privilege.

 

I'm not sure about that. How many people can afford to chuck in their career and move to America on the off chance of being signed by a music label? Privilege may have not landed him the label but it sure afforded him the chance to have a crack in the first place. However hard he worked for it.

 

It's that sort of thing that I think people (like Blunt) are ignorant to.

 

Edit: And I just read this on his wiki page: While in Los Angeles, he lodged with actress Carrie Fisher, whom he had met through the family of a former girlfriend.

 

The whole thing wreaks of privilege to me.

[Section_31]

I'm not sure about that. How many people can afford to chuck in their career and move to America on the off chance of being signed by a music label? Privilege may have not landed him the label but it sure afforded him the chance to have a crack in the first place. However hard he worked for it.

 

It's that sort of thing that I think people (like Blunt) are ignorant to.

 

Maybe, I don't know much about his career to be honest.

 

I think the same when I hear IDS going on about people on benefits too. Claiming when he was out of work 'nobody gave him a god damn thing', ignoring the fact that jobs, money, savings, etc are easier to come by when you have a privieged background.

 

A lad who goes to an inner city school probably spends much of his week trying to avoid getting his head kicked in, let alone worrying about exams. The local jobs market is a buyers' market too, these things are often ignored by people like him and success is put down purely to 'hard work'.

 

One wonders how many ex cons get top management posts days after being released from jail like Chris Hulne did, or were given their first job by their mother in law like Cameron was.

[Chairman Meow]

I honestly don't think Blunt has got where he is through privilege. He seems like he's just gigged and caught a break. He probably became an officer in the army through privilege - I bet you can count the number of working class scouse officers in the army on one hand, yet the ones we know of from rich backgrounds - Ian Duncan Smith, Prince Harry, that bloke who cheated at Who Wants to be A Millionaire, Major James Hewitt, all seem a few Ferrero Rochet short of an Ambassador's reception platter. 

 

I think where privilege helps you get into stuff like the music industry though is through the fact middle class and working class people have wholly different expectations of their lives. A middle class lad who wants to be  an actor will probably get more support from their parents, both practically and emotionally, whereas working class lads will be expected to get a 'proper job'. 

 

In the past that'd be less of an issue, as bands were signed straight from their garage where they gigged in their spare time, I think a lot of times now though they've come from performing arts schools, and most working class people won't go near them. 

 

Spastics like Lilly Allen and Peaches Geldoff are a good example. Well connected, well financed, the latter especially was quite clearly a retard yet has 'journalist, author, broadcaster and model' on her epitaph. 

 

Every careers thing I had at school was a case of asked what do you want to be? I answered I want to work in motorsport to be greeted with "that's not really a career" and be pushed in another direction. This is an industry we lead the world in and which largely grew from men in sheds and barns fucking about with cars, Ron Dennis of McLaren for instance started out fixing cars on his drive, but in a state school full of kids from council estates it's not viewed as doable. 

 

I think you're certainly right that how things are viewed is certainly different in private schools, the bosses son at the place I worked a couple of jobs back who destroyed his dads business had such a weird view of things, couldn't understand how I could work and try to get a business off the ground at the same time and that I was willing to take a massively long term view. 

 

I'm buying a couple of hundred quids worth of metalwork, selling it on gradually, putting that straight back into buying another batch and not taking any profit out until I'm 5 or 6 batches down the line. When he goes to daddy and goes "I wan't to try doing x can I have 10 grand please". It wasn't helped by the way both his parents just bowed down to him and gave him anything or allowed his decisions even though he left his very expensive school with 1 GCSE pass. He had no comprehension of just how lucky he was, always thought it odd given his parents both came from coal mining families and his dad was just very lucky to be in the right place at the right time about 20 years ago and made a lot of money on the coat tails of someone else.

 

On the flip side I worked with a lad at HMRC who was from a very long term rich family, came to Uni at Newcastle and stayed because he liked it up here. When I joined the team I was on for most of my time there if there was one person I instantly thought I wouldn't get on with it was him, totally sound lad, working even though he could have got away with doing fuck and being in the family business. Knew exactly how lucky he was. The only one I would consistently go out with for a pint from work and still keep in regular contact with. 

 

There is a massive disconnect between a lot, but some people like the lad I worked with and people like Tony Benn can see that it's not the same.

 

I know my experience of university was a lot different to most. I didn't do any of the freshers or rag shit. I worked all the way through as otherwise I couldn't have gone, it's a simple as that.

 

Oddly when I was at HMRC I was the only person on my team who actually grew up on a council estate, I was also somehow the most educated (even if that's hard to believe with the shit I post on here). I tended to work harder too, but I think that's a by product of having had to fight for what little I have. It does have it's downsides, I'm massively aggressive sometimes and have a tendency to never back down if I know I'm right. I'm not from the worst of areas but certainly it was a case of if you show weakness it's exploited so you get this thing of never wanting to back down from anything.

 

I don't really know where I'm going with this now! 

 

Caitlin Moran probably explains it a lot better than me.

 

https://nowtnorsummat.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/you-cant-even-change-the-colour-of-your-front-door/

[Bjornebye]

Can we all just agree that he is a turd cunt and leave it at that. his name fucking offends me let alone a conversation about the fucking posh army tank it's true face-stalking twat

[VladimirIlyich]

Every careers thing I had at school was a case of asked what do you want to be? I answered I want to work in motorsport to be greeted with "that's not really a career" and be pushed in another direction. This is an industry we lead the world in and which largely grew from men in sheds and barns fucking about with cars, Ron Dennis of McLaren for instance started out fixing cars on his drive, but in a state school full of kids from council estates it's not viewed as doable.

 

I think you're certainly right that how things are viewed is certainly different in private schools, the bosses son at the place I worked a couple of jobs back who destroyed his dads business had such a weird view of things, couldn't understand how I could work and try to get a business off the ground at the same time and that I was willing to take a massively long term view.

 

I'm buying a couple of hundred quids worth of metalwork, selling it on gradually, putting that straight back into buying another batch and not taking any profit out until I'm 5 or 6 batches down the line. When he goes to daddy and goes "I wan't to try doing x can I have 10 grand please". It wasn't helped by the way both his parents just bowed down to him and gave him anything or allowed his decisions even though he left his very expensive school with 1 GCSE pass. He had no comprehension of just how lucky he was, always thought it odd given his parents both came from coal mining families and his dad was just very lucky to be in the right place at the right time about 20 years ago and made a lot of money on the coat tails of someone else.

 

On the flip side I worked with a lad at HMRC who was from a very long term rich family, came to Uni at Newcastle and stayed because he liked it up here. When I joined the team I was on for most of my time there if there was one person I instantly thought I wouldn't get on with it was him, totally sound lad, working even though he could have got away with doing fuck and being in the family business. Knew exactly how lucky he was. The only one I would consistently go out with for a pint from work and still keep in regular contact with.

 

There is a massive disconnect between a lot, but some people like the lad I worked with and people like Tony Benn can see that it's not the same.

 

I know my experience of university was a lot different to most. I didn't do any of the freshers or rag shit. I worked all the way through as otherwise I couldn't have gone, it's a simple as that.

 

Oddly when I was at HMRC I was the only person on my team who actually grew up on a council estate, I was also somehow the most educated (even if that's hard to believe with the shit I post on here). I tended to work harder too, but I think that's a by product of having had to fight for what little I have. It does have it's downsides, I'm massively aggressive sometimes and have a tendency to never back down if I know I'm right. I'm not from the worst of areas but certainly it was a case of if you show weakness it's exploited so you get this thing of never wanting to back down from anything.

 

I don't really know where I'm going with this now!

 

Caitlin Moran probably explains it a lot better than me.

 

https://nowtnorsummat.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/you-cant-even-change-the-colour-of-your-front-door/

Read that article a while back and it does knock the nail right on the head.

There are so many obstacles for working class/lower class kids and people before they even think about getting an education or career. It's a bit like that toll road on the M6 and the wealthy are simply able to get ahead by jumping on the toll road by having a few quid while the masses are all stuck in a series of traffic jams,hold ups and accidents along the way,and are all pushed into the same bottleneck.

Its near impossible to explain this or have the wealthy understand as they will never have to go down this route. It will always be the toll road option.