As anyone who has the misfortune to know the current St Toylitropez, what is most depressing about the extension of wealth is the extension of the macabre phenomenon of bovine vulgarity and people devoid of any form of style, who simply have money.
What is it that makes people leaving yachts in The South of France actually dress as if they are going to some satanic ” Come as an incumbent of a Liverpool police cell or Glasgow dole queue” in track suit bottoms, hoodies and plimsoles?
I remember as a child, seeing ladies who looked like Grace Kelly having the doors of Aston Martin convertibles opened for them outside elegant restaurants in Eze, or Villefrance or Cap Martin, by men in linen suits and panama hats, and thinking… ” One day I want to be doing that”?
Where is aspiration, class, manners, panache, style, elegance?… Why has it gone?
It is being crushed like every other institution that is western.
Linda Hutchinson
1 year ago
I think it’s a shame that Mallorca is best know in the UK for these types of antics. It’s a beautiful place, remember spending a number of holidays walking in the Serra de Tramuntana, blissful.
JP Martin
1 year ago
A British colleague sold a holiday home in Mallorca several years ago because the island had become “too German”.
The George II Gin distillery we built is still in use!
In those days Gin was more popular than Rum.
Ian Stewart
1 year ago
Oh dear let’s blame the uncultured plebs for dragging the island down! What elitist snobbery.
”There was very little that was educative or high-minded about the new kind of holiday — no jolly character-building while roughing it or tramping over the hills singing “Strawberry Fair”.”
I am currently reading ‘Travellers in the Third Reich’ by Julia Boyd, in which the writer details the experiences and insights of the thousands of upper and middle class English and American tourists, artists, intelligentsia and politicians as they travelled around Germany in the late thirties – and how so many of them failed to even notice the daily persecution of the Jews; or if they did notice it, gave it no regard at all. Many of them were too busy attending parties, operas, tennis, walking, even labour camps, and praising the new regime, as German culture was being destroyed before their very eyes.
It ain’t just the working class who can undermine culture.
Good point – but the specific instance you point out could perhaps be because jew persecution wasn’t yet as bad and open as it would be post 1940, and also because a rather high level of anti Semitic bigotry was standard even in upper class Western European or US society as well.
Probably all the more reason for it to be canceled by the w*tch smellers pursuivants. Important that the working classes, or what remains of them, be reminded that they’re in the wrong, for ever and ever, amen.
Warren Trees
1 year ago
It’s not just in Mallorca. Anywhere that has sandy beaches, sun and salt water seems to allow for the shedding of our hardened shells and the emergence of our primal being, replete with the uninhibited sex drive that lingers just under the surface. Something a pill simply cannot achieve.
in English both spellings are fine, unless you feel the native spelling should always be used…can’t imagine many British even being able to spell Deutschland, for instance.
As anyone who has the misfortune to know the current St Toylitropez, what is most depressing about the extension of wealth is the extension of the macabre phenomenon of bovine vulgarity and people devoid of any form of style, who simply have money.
What is it that makes people leaving yachts in The South of France actually dress as if they are going to some satanic ” Come as an incumbent of a Liverpool police cell or Glasgow dole queue” in track suit bottoms, hoodies and plimsoles?
I remember as a child, seeing ladies who looked like Grace Kelly having the doors of Aston Martin convertibles opened for them outside elegant restaurants in Eze, or Villefrance or Cap Martin, by men in linen suits and panama hats, and thinking… ” One day I want to be doing that”?
Where is aspiration, class, manners, panache, style, elegance?… Why has it gone?
And probably behaving as badly as any modern visitor, but behind closed doors.
Ooh what would the neighbours think? Mr Windsor-Knott and Mrs Heold Knife like pen would be shocked…
I agree, this is very depressing Nicky.
It is being crushed like every other institution that is western.
I think it’s a shame that Mallorca is best know in the UK for these types of antics. It’s a beautiful place, remember spending a number of holidays walking in the Serra de Tramuntana, blissful.
A British colleague sold a holiday home in Mallorca several years ago because the island had become “too German”.
well done him!
‘We’ did own Minorca from 1708-1783 ( with two short breaks) so we already had ‘form’ in this part of the salubrious Mediterranean.
And i bet the behaviour of the average British Tar ashore was pretty similar to the modern lads on a package holiday.
The George II Gin distillery we built is still in use!
In those days Gin was more popular than Rum.
Oh dear let’s blame the uncultured plebs for dragging the island down! What elitist snobbery.
”There was very little that was educative or high-minded about the new kind of holiday — no jolly character-building while roughing it or tramping over the hills singing “Strawberry Fair”.”
I am currently reading ‘Travellers in the Third Reich’ by Julia Boyd, in which the writer details the experiences and insights of the thousands of upper and middle class English and American tourists, artists, intelligentsia and politicians as they travelled around Germany in the late thirties – and how so many of them failed to even notice the daily persecution of the Jews; or if they did notice it, gave it no regard at all. Many of them were too busy attending parties, operas, tennis, walking, even labour camps, and praising the new regime, as German culture was being destroyed before their very eyes.
It ain’t just the working class who can undermine culture.
Good point – but the specific instance you point out could perhaps be because jew persecution wasn’t yet as bad and open as it would be post 1940, and also because a rather high level of anti Semitic bigotry was standard even in upper class Western European or US society as well.
There simply aren’t ” Thousands of upper class English”…
Carry on Abroad is more or less a documentary film about working class life in the early 1970s – a hugely enjoyable but important social document
Probably all the more reason for it to be canceled by the w*tch smellers pursuivants. Important that the working classes, or what remains of them, be reminded that they’re in the wrong, for ever and ever, amen.
It’s not just in Mallorca. Anywhere that has sandy beaches, sun and salt water seems to allow for the shedding of our hardened shells and the emergence of our primal being, replete with the uninhibited sex drive that lingers just under the surface. Something a pill simply cannot achieve.
Nor viagra it must be said.
How absolutely fabulous that you did not even spell the name of the island correctly.
in English both spellings are fine, unless you feel the native spelling should always be used…can’t imagine many British even being able to spell Deutschland, for instance.