GREETINGS, PLEBS.

So. Andrew Mitchell, government chief whip and member of the cabinet was a little miffed at being asked by the police to use a side entrance to leave Downing Street, rather than the wider gate that was also available. Frustrated at not getting his own way, he accused the police officers guarding the gate of being "fucking plebs" and heaven knows what other vile mouthed expletives.

Who's the real pleb here?  The term, which I can't remember using since I was a schoolboy, refers to the "plebeian" class of Romans: Roman citizens, but of distinctly lower rank than the patrician class of nobility, the land-owning class of elite players that ran the Empire. Of course that great "civilisation" was predicated on a culture of slavery and murderous brutality. Perhaps, as so many Tories do behind closed doors, Mr Mitchell longs for a society based on these values, and when angry and frustrated, out pours the true value system that lurks just below the surface of that obnoxious character.

 

There are patricians around today, and they are a rare race indeed: Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Tim Berners-Lee, Steven Hawking, Jessica Ennis, Chris Hoy. These people are qualified to look down on the rest of mundane humanity from their pantheon of excellence, though I somehow doubt that they would. A horrible little twerp like Andrew Mitchell is not. You know who the real pleb here is, Andrew? You.