T for 2?
Over the past couple of days the media seem to be making a big deal over the fact that David Milliband did not clap when his brother said that Britain taking part in the Iraq invasion was a mistake. The supposed division between Ed and David is now the main themes in any discussion of the Labour leadership. The media are talking bollocks! David and Ed may be brothers but they are not clones. They will have different opinions. This is good. It would be far worse to return to the old days when Tony Blair filled his cabinet with yes men.
And speaking of Mr. Blair, when in power he attempted to ingratiate himself with ordinary people by imitating “estuary English”. This is an accent used by people who live along the Thames estuary and is characterised by “Glottal replacement” where a consonant, in this case a “T”, is replaced by a glotal stop To you and me this means dropping your T’s.
Dropping your T’s has long been a feature of working class accents in England but it took a real nob head like Tony Blair to attempt an accent by picking just this one feature. Consequently Mr. Blair became the only man on Earth to speak in a middle class English access with a glottal stop instead of a T. The effect was risible and made worse by inconsistency. Presumably he only put it on when appealing to the masses.
In opposition Labour look set for a rerun of the old power battle between Blair and Brown but this time staring the Brothers Milliband. As each brother struggles to differentiate himself, I find one interesting commonality: They both have that weird middle class accent with the inconsistent glotal stop – Just like Mr. Blair.
Not a good omen.
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