Most will know the story already. At a reception hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort, on 29th November, the courtier and trusted royal confidante of many decades, Baroness Hussey, encountered the charity executive Ngozi Fulani. During their brief exchange, Hussey introduced herself and began pleasantly chatting. Clearly Fulani did not have the manners to introduce herself properly, and so the Baroness leaned forward to move aside one of Fulani’s locks and view her nametag, to which Fulani took immediate offence.
Hussey then offended Fulani further by asking where she was from. Fulani told Hussey that she was from the UK. Fulani claims that Hussey then asked her where she was “really from.” Frankly, I doubt the truth of this account. I expect she said something like, “And where is your family from, originally?” Fulani interpreted the polite interest of the octogenarian to be, in her own words, “abuse.”
Now, given that both of Fulani’s parents came to England from the West Indies, that she dresses in traditional pan-African attire, and that her name is the not wholly Anglo-Saxon sounding ‘Ngozi Fulani,’ one may be forgiven—one might have thought—for assuming that Ms Fulani enjoyed some ethnic heritage from beyond these isles. As it happens, I am quite familiar with this line of enquiry. On account of my Mediterranean surname, I am often asked if I am Italian, or if my parents are Italian. As my great-grandfather came to England from Gibraltar over a century ago, bringing the Morello name with him, I might be more justified than Fulani in claiming that such questions ‘abusively’ ‘other’ me. Indeed, getting into the habit of being so offended, and publicising my ‘hurt’ could turn out to be quite lucrative, it seems.
My shortcoming in this regard, however, is that I am not out to be offended. I interpret such questions as coming from a genuine interest in me, or at least a sincere attempt to foster some cordial conversation. In fact, unless one goes about with a predisposition to be offended, it’s very difficult to see how such innocuous exchanges can give rise to offence at all.
Nonetheless, as it happens, I am occasionally offended by others, and it has been my life’s experience that people certainly can be offensive—usually unintentionally, but some people are just rude—and at such moments one can declare oneself as having been offended and be rude back, or one can declare having been offended and leave the situation, or one can—and this is best—accept that rudeness is part of life and take it on the chin, recognising that having been so offended might be indicative of some thinning of the skin.
From the little I know of Fulani, I get the impression that she would have no problem at all with telling someone that she was offended. So why did she not tell Baroness Hussey that she objected to such questions? I think it’s because Fulani knew that had she said this, it would have been greeted with shock and dismay from Hussey, followed by profuse apologies. The fact is, Fulani well knew that Hussey had in no way intended to offend her, and that had she indicated her ‘hurt’ at the time, Fulani would have looked petty and Hussey would have looked courteous and mannerly. So, Fulani waited until the event was over and threw Hussey to the online mob, who are ever waiting, frothing at the mouth, desperate to be offended on someone else’s behalf so as to scramble up the victim pyramid on another’s back.
Now, let us suppose that Fulani’s account of the exchange is accurate, and that Hussey truly asked her where she was “really from,” and who her “people were.” It seems to me that a well-mannered person who is willing to make allowances for others—which is perhaps first in the order of manners—would interpret this as the well-intentioned but somewhat clumsy speech of an elderly person. But no. Not Fulani. In fact, she has addressed this point directly in a subsequent BBC interview: “I’ve heard so many suggestions it’s about her age and stuff like that and I think that’s a kind of a disrespect about ageism … Are we saying that because of your age you can’t be racist or you can’t be inappropriate?”
Yes. Yes, that’s what we’re saying. It’s perfectly possible for older people to say things that might seem offensive to younger ears, but are meant with no malice whatever, and in our culture the imperative is—or at least should be—on the younger person to make allowances.
As it happens, people born in England, raised with English culture and with English sensibilities, have had to become accustomed to those from other countries coming in astonishing numbers and taking over entire towns. Around 40% of the population of England’s capital was born outside the UK. The way that English people have negotiated such a cultural shake-up in such a short amount of time is by making allowances. The English constantly make allowances for cultural differences, in order to make what would otherwise be a very tense cultural situation work for the time being, and to help people feel welcome.
It seems, however, according to Fulani, that there is no imperative on her to make allowances for anyone else: an elderly English courtier who encounters a woman dressed in full traditional pan-African garb and named Ngozi, should assume that the woman before her is as English as Alfred the Great. If she doesn’t, as far as Fulani is concerned, she’s just a racist.
It is not as if there is any cultural expectation for those with a darker shade of skin colour to wear traditional African clothing. Fulani could have turned up to the event in a navy-blue trouser suit if she wanted. Clearly Fulani, who has both BA and MA degrees in African Studies from the SOAS University of London, is proud of her African heritage. She has every right to treasure it, but then it is absurd to start crying “abuse!” when someone picks up on these most unsubtle signals and takes an interest.
Here’s a basic rule for living in a society: on meeting another person, if that person speaks clumsily, opt for the most charitable interpretation and make allowances. If you cannot do that, you are the one who needs manners, and you should not be attempting to converse with anyone at all—you’re not going to get very far.
This, however, is the real question: does England still have a society? A society is a pre-political conglomerate that does not merely emanate from the state, but is rather presupposed by the existence of such a state. A society is a moral unit, not a legal one. If a society exists, it is because the members of which it is composed feel bound to one another in a shared feeling of trust and affection, around which all their communal assumptions and commitments orbit. Without such moral elements that constitute what Roger Scruton famously referred to as the “first-person plural of settlement”—the ‘we’ that is said by a people who belong together—there is no society.
Obviously, mass immigration is hugely undermining of a settled society. It’s not impossible, however, to make it work. I come from immigrant stock on both sides of my family, and I have married a Romanian, and yet this people—the English—are our people, and we live an English life. Large single populations arriving and adopting ghetto cultures, however, rupture a society and erode it. This is what is visible across much of England, and Europe more broadly. And now, as proof of the position I have just presented, we have the case of Fulani and Hussey. A woman turns up at an event organised by the Queen Consort—it seems she was not personally invited by the organisers, but by another attendee—and arrives dressed in a way that identifies her with a number of cultures other than the one indigenous to these isles, and everyone must then tiptoe around her in case she screams “racist!”
This is indicative of a complete breakdown of the trust and shared cultural assumptions that are the very stuff on which a vigorous society is based. And now everyone must contribute to the erosion of such trust: Hussey was forced to resign from her position in the royal household. Having served Queen Elizabeth II as Woman of the Bedchamber, mentored Prince William as his Godmother, and loyally served the monarchy for decades as a most trusted courtier, the royals fell over each other to join others in kicking her. The Palace released a statement, saying that the “hurt” she had caused was “unacceptable and deeply regrettable.” The future king, her Godson William, released a statement asserting that “racism has no place in our society.” What racism? And more importantly, what society—given that the trust presupposed by a society does not seem to exist?
They could have said, of course, that there are two conflicting accounts of the exchange and that they are confident that Baroness Hussey did not intend to offend anyone. Those who already support the monarchy would have been keen to increase their support following such a response. As it happens, I personally feel a bit silly. I have repeatedly defended the monarchy as an essentially conservative institution against fellow conservatives who feel that it is rapidly becoming another celebrity clique, jumping on the popular ‘woke’ bandwagons of ‘mental health awareness’ and climate hysteria. Now, they have once again appeared to prove their most cynical detractors right.
Obviously, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex doing all they can to reinvent themselves as victims speaking truth to power, condemning the systemically racist institution of the British monarchy, the palace is currently hyper-sensitive on this issue. They should handle such ridiculous attacks, however, by dismissing them as without foundation. Now, however, by queuing up to join the chorus of condemnations of Baroness Hussey, the Royal Family has effectively confirmed that it has racists in its employment, fortifying the hate of those who already condemn the monarchy as an insufficiently modern institution. And the Royal Family have simultaneously further alienated its supporters, now we can all see how they treat their most loyal friends. Baroness Hussey, now in the eve of her years, has been thrown under the bus by the very institution to which she devoted her whole life, and I’m informed that she is now inconsolable. Well done, your Royal Highnesses, well done.
Hussey Under the Bus
Most will know the story already. At a reception hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort, on 29th November, the courtier and trusted royal confidante of many decades, Baroness Hussey, encountered the charity executive Ngozi Fulani. During their brief exchange, Hussey introduced herself and began pleasantly chatting. Clearly Fulani did not have the manners to introduce herself properly, and so the Baroness leaned forward to move aside one of Fulani’s locks and view her nametag, to which Fulani took immediate offence.
Hussey then offended Fulani further by asking where she was from. Fulani told Hussey that she was from the UK. Fulani claims that Hussey then asked her where she was “really from.” Frankly, I doubt the truth of this account. I expect she said something like, “And where is your family from, originally?” Fulani interpreted the polite interest of the octogenarian to be, in her own words, “abuse.”
Now, given that both of Fulani’s parents came to England from the West Indies, that she dresses in traditional pan-African attire, and that her name is the not wholly Anglo-Saxon sounding ‘Ngozi Fulani,’ one may be forgiven—one might have thought—for assuming that Ms Fulani enjoyed some ethnic heritage from beyond these isles. As it happens, I am quite familiar with this line of enquiry. On account of my Mediterranean surname, I am often asked if I am Italian, or if my parents are Italian. As my great-grandfather came to England from Gibraltar over a century ago, bringing the Morello name with him, I might be more justified than Fulani in claiming that such questions ‘abusively’ ‘other’ me. Indeed, getting into the habit of being so offended, and publicising my ‘hurt’ could turn out to be quite lucrative, it seems.
My shortcoming in this regard, however, is that I am not out to be offended. I interpret such questions as coming from a genuine interest in me, or at least a sincere attempt to foster some cordial conversation. In fact, unless one goes about with a predisposition to be offended, it’s very difficult to see how such innocuous exchanges can give rise to offence at all.
Nonetheless, as it happens, I am occasionally offended by others, and it has been my life’s experience that people certainly can be offensive—usually unintentionally, but some people are just rude—and at such moments one can declare oneself as having been offended and be rude back, or one can declare having been offended and leave the situation, or one can—and this is best—accept that rudeness is part of life and take it on the chin, recognising that having been so offended might be indicative of some thinning of the skin.
From the little I know of Fulani, I get the impression that she would have no problem at all with telling someone that she was offended. So why did she not tell Baroness Hussey that she objected to such questions? I think it’s because Fulani knew that had she said this, it would have been greeted with shock and dismay from Hussey, followed by profuse apologies. The fact is, Fulani well knew that Hussey had in no way intended to offend her, and that had she indicated her ‘hurt’ at the time, Fulani would have looked petty and Hussey would have looked courteous and mannerly. So, Fulani waited until the event was over and threw Hussey to the online mob, who are ever waiting, frothing at the mouth, desperate to be offended on someone else’s behalf so as to scramble up the victim pyramid on another’s back.
Now, let us suppose that Fulani’s account of the exchange is accurate, and that Hussey truly asked her where she was “really from,” and who her “people were.” It seems to me that a well-mannered person who is willing to make allowances for others—which is perhaps first in the order of manners—would interpret this as the well-intentioned but somewhat clumsy speech of an elderly person. But no. Not Fulani. In fact, she has addressed this point directly in a subsequent BBC interview: “I’ve heard so many suggestions it’s about her age and stuff like that and I think that’s a kind of a disrespect about ageism … Are we saying that because of your age you can’t be racist or you can’t be inappropriate?”
Yes. Yes, that’s what we’re saying. It’s perfectly possible for older people to say things that might seem offensive to younger ears, but are meant with no malice whatever, and in our culture the imperative is—or at least should be—on the younger person to make allowances.
As it happens, people born in England, raised with English culture and with English sensibilities, have had to become accustomed to those from other countries coming in astonishing numbers and taking over entire towns. Around 40% of the population of England’s capital was born outside the UK. The way that English people have negotiated such a cultural shake-up in such a short amount of time is by making allowances. The English constantly make allowances for cultural differences, in order to make what would otherwise be a very tense cultural situation work for the time being, and to help people feel welcome.
It seems, however, according to Fulani, that there is no imperative on her to make allowances for anyone else: an elderly English courtier who encounters a woman dressed in full traditional pan-African garb and named Ngozi, should assume that the woman before her is as English as Alfred the Great. If she doesn’t, as far as Fulani is concerned, she’s just a racist.
It is not as if there is any cultural expectation for those with a darker shade of skin colour to wear traditional African clothing. Fulani could have turned up to the event in a navy-blue trouser suit if she wanted. Clearly Fulani, who has both BA and MA degrees in African Studies from the SOAS University of London, is proud of her African heritage. She has every right to treasure it, but then it is absurd to start crying “abuse!” when someone picks up on these most unsubtle signals and takes an interest.
Here’s a basic rule for living in a society: on meeting another person, if that person speaks clumsily, opt for the most charitable interpretation and make allowances. If you cannot do that, you are the one who needs manners, and you should not be attempting to converse with anyone at all—you’re not going to get very far.
This, however, is the real question: does England still have a society? A society is a pre-political conglomerate that does not merely emanate from the state, but is rather presupposed by the existence of such a state. A society is a moral unit, not a legal one. If a society exists, it is because the members of which it is composed feel bound to one another in a shared feeling of trust and affection, around which all their communal assumptions and commitments orbit. Without such moral elements that constitute what Roger Scruton famously referred to as the “first-person plural of settlement”—the ‘we’ that is said by a people who belong together—there is no society.
Obviously, mass immigration is hugely undermining of a settled society. It’s not impossible, however, to make it work. I come from immigrant stock on both sides of my family, and I have married a Romanian, and yet this people—the English—are our people, and we live an English life. Large single populations arriving and adopting ghetto cultures, however, rupture a society and erode it. This is what is visible across much of England, and Europe more broadly. And now, as proof of the position I have just presented, we have the case of Fulani and Hussey. A woman turns up at an event organised by the Queen Consort—it seems she was not personally invited by the organisers, but by another attendee—and arrives dressed in a way that identifies her with a number of cultures other than the one indigenous to these isles, and everyone must then tiptoe around her in case she screams “racist!”
This is indicative of a complete breakdown of the trust and shared cultural assumptions that are the very stuff on which a vigorous society is based. And now everyone must contribute to the erosion of such trust: Hussey was forced to resign from her position in the royal household. Having served Queen Elizabeth II as Woman of the Bedchamber, mentored Prince William as his Godmother, and loyally served the monarchy for decades as a most trusted courtier, the royals fell over each other to join others in kicking her. The Palace released a statement, saying that the “hurt” she had caused was “unacceptable and deeply regrettable.” The future king, her Godson William, released a statement asserting that “racism has no place in our society.” What racism? And more importantly, what society—given that the trust presupposed by a society does not seem to exist?
They could have said, of course, that there are two conflicting accounts of the exchange and that they are confident that Baroness Hussey did not intend to offend anyone. Those who already support the monarchy would have been keen to increase their support following such a response. As it happens, I personally feel a bit silly. I have repeatedly defended the monarchy as an essentially conservative institution against fellow conservatives who feel that it is rapidly becoming another celebrity clique, jumping on the popular ‘woke’ bandwagons of ‘mental health awareness’ and climate hysteria. Now, they have once again appeared to prove their most cynical detractors right.
Obviously, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex doing all they can to reinvent themselves as victims speaking truth to power, condemning the systemically racist institution of the British monarchy, the palace is currently hyper-sensitive on this issue. They should handle such ridiculous attacks, however, by dismissing them as without foundation. Now, however, by queuing up to join the chorus of condemnations of Baroness Hussey, the Royal Family has effectively confirmed that it has racists in its employment, fortifying the hate of those who already condemn the monarchy as an insufficiently modern institution. And the Royal Family have simultaneously further alienated its supporters, now we can all see how they treat their most loyal friends. Baroness Hussey, now in the eve of her years, has been thrown under the bus by the very institution to which she devoted her whole life, and I’m informed that she is now inconsolable. Well done, your Royal Highnesses, well done.
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