Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron and the Chipping Norton set

In view of the events of the past two days, I think it worth repeating this observation made by Dominic Sandbrook on high50 three years ago:
The truth is that Chipping Norton could hardly be a less appropriate headquarters for a Dan Brown-style international conspiracy. In a wildly overwrought column, the Telegraph’s Peter Oborne laid into the “louche, affluent, power-hungry and amoral” conspirators, but none of those words really apply to poor old Chippy. Of all the popular Cotswold towns, it is easily the most unpretentious. 
You want louche? Try Stow on the Wold. Amoral? Bourton-on-the-Water. Power-hungry? You don’t know power-hungry until you’ve been to Moreton-in-Marsh.
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2 comments:

Gareth said...

I was brought up in Charlbury, just down the road from Chippy but as someone aptly put it 'a good two hills away'. Chippy is full of pretension compared to Charlbury which has greater community spirit, dynamism and generally things going on. (this month - a beer festival to raise funds for the primary school; next month - a two-day free music festival.)

People there don't recognise the 'Chipping Norton Set' nonsense. The difference between the two can be summed up in the words, possibly apocryphal, of a former MP who described Charlbury as 'that difficult place'.

Anonymous said...

You're talking bollocks Gareth. Chippy is just like a larger version of Charlbury in style and community spirit and Jonathan is spot on when saying that it is nothing like the other tourist dormitory towns. It's a working town and none of the so-called Set would be seen dead in it apart from Cameron and (occasionally) Clarkson.