Scene from South London

Today The Big Questions was live from the Harris Academy in Peckham, South London. The panel was made up of writer and broadcaster, Cristina Odone, Hackney vicar and Queen's chaplain, Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the radio talk-show host, James O'Brien, and Mehid Hasan, a senior editor on the New Statesman. James was as impressive as usual but for me the star was Mehid Hasan who made his points very well. One of the big questions was class and they had Jade Goody’s mother Jackiey Budden in the studio audience to comment on ‘Does Class Still Matter’? Jackiey says No. Jackiey says the world is your oyster and her daughter had done very well for herself financially and now her grandchildren were attending private school. Jackiey said ‘Come round my drum’ meaning ‘do pay me a visit, drop by for canapés, I would be thrilled to see you’. Now, no one I know says ‘drum’ for ‘house’. Maybe they did in the 1970s after having watched an episode of The Sweeney or Minder but I haven’t heard it said since. Jackiey is the same age as me, we grew up in the same area and indeed we share some friends. My daughter went to school with Jade. No one in that circle says ‘drum’ for house. For fucks sake Jackiey, you are not in ‘Only Fools and Horses’. You came came across as the ignorant, mixed up, repulsive stupid woman you are and yes Jackiey, CLASS DOES FUCKING MATTER! The young people attending the Harris Academy in Peckham will not live as long as, or earn as much as, the young people attending Dulwich College a mile or so down the road. The young people attending the Harris Academy in Peckham are more likely to be stabbed or get shot or get cancer, than their ‘posher’ neighbours. The ones that do go on to University are unlikely to be gaining places in Oxbridge or any other redbrick university and they will find that in some professions their degree will be meaningless compared to the degrees held by the young people who hail from leafy Dulwich. James said an interesting thing. James enjoyed a privileged upbringing and went to private school. He said that some of his classmates were ‘similar to Jade, in as much as they did not know where East Anglian was’ but because of who their families were, because of what their families had in terms of money, cultural wealth and 'old school tie' connections these same people were now lawyers.
Nuff said.