Wild amusement in the Darley-Hutchins household today at the discovery that British Oprah-wannabe Trisha had made herself extremely unpopular in her adopted home county of Norfolk by saying that all the women there were far too stupid for her to hang out with. (Telegraph, TV Trisha says Norfolk women are 'intellectually inferior'.)
Now, we lived in Norfolk for some years and I know I met some exceptionally stupid women there. Good grief, I even blundered into a brief relationship with one – although thinking back, I was the stupid one to get sucked in and she was pretty damn smart to trap me. But leaving aside that sordid little aspect of my past, I really can't say that the proportion of stupid people I met up there was any higher than anywhere else in the country. God knows, some of the ones round here make me wonder whether evolution stopped half way and gave up in disgust. Nor were there noticeably more women than men.
So what on earth is Trisha on about?
Well, I reckon it's the old town vs country snobbery at work again. Trisha's a Londoner by upbringing, if I remember correctly. It sounds like she's fallen for the old favourite of assuming that just because country folk have funny accents they must be stupider. Which is a very satifying thing to think if you happen to be the Londerer but, in my experience, tends to be complete bollocks.