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"...it still advertises to octogenarian Colonels in Tunbridge Wells." I'm merely curious - can you explain this reference to a US native?
by chadgeidel 10y ago
"...it still advertises to octogenarian Colonels in Tunbridge Wells."
I'm merely curious - can you explain this reference to a US native?
- Patient0 10y agoTunbridge Wells is a well-to-do town in Kent, southeast of London. Octogenarian = > 80 years old. So I think what he means by this phrase is "typical retired conservative voter: wealthy with traditional views".
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- conjectures 10y ago"The phrase Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells is a generic name used in the United Kingdom for a person, usually with strongly conservative political views, who writes letters to newspapers in a tone of moral outrage.[1] The term may have originated either with the 1944 BBC radio show Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, or with an editor of the letters page of the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser." - Wikipedia Colnels. How to explain. It's the kind of person who flies a Union Jack from a pole attached to their garden shed. They probably think it's ridiculous political correctness that we don't still celebrate Empire Day.
- inopinatus 10y agoThe "Tunbridge Wells" line is a contemptuous descriptor for traditionalist ("small-c") conservatives, generally used by people who regard themselves as progressive. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgusted_of_Tunbridge_Wells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgusted_of_Tunbridge_Wells for a discussion of the phrase's origins. As with all such derogatory epithets, the wielder either doesn't realise how powerfully and instantly doing so undermines their chances of changing hearts & minds, or doesn't care because they only wish to preach to their own choir.