Rangen en standen in Nederland

Het kan natuurlijk zo zijn dat u aanwezig was op het feest dat op het omslag staat afgebeeld; het kan, maar erg waarschijnlijk is dat niet. De foto is gemaakt op het Debutantenbal in het Kurhaus te Scheveningen, een jaarlijks terugkerend feest voor kinderen van de Nederlandse elite. Bijzonder moeilijk om daar binnen te komen, nee, onmogelijk zelfs, tenzij u bent opgegroeid in de hoogste kringen in dit land.

Nederland is een open samenleving, zo horen we dikwijls. Iemand wordt wat hij waard is en wie vlijtig is, goed geschoold en in het bezit van een flinke dosis ambitie, kan het ver schoppen. Het is een gangbare gedachte die onder meer wordt verspreid door mensen die zelf deel uitmaken van de upper class. “De elite is een meritocratie,” zei Martijn Sanders (oud-directeur van het Amsterdamse Concertgebouw, kunstpaus en legendarisch netwerker) twee jaar geleden tegen de Volkskrant. “Je moet je in Nederland wél waarmaken.” Zoiets klinkt geruststellend uit de mond van een notabele; reden voor veel mensen om het dan ook maar te geloven.

Edoch, de werkelijkheid is een tikkeltje anders. Volgens onze redacteur Beatrijs Ritsema, die deze week het omslagartikel schreef, is het niet waar dat hoge posities in de samenleving via eerlijke concurrentie toegankelijk zijn voor iedereen. Het ‘evangelie van de gelijke kansen’ is een veelgehoord leerstuk, maar valt in de praktijk nogal tegen. Waar iemand terechtkomt, wordt in hoge mate bepaald door geboorte, en zo brengt de elite kinderen voort die op hun beurt ook weer deel zullen uitmaken van de elite.

Wie tot deze kaste behoort, doet er alles aan om zijn bevoorrechte positie te bestendigen. Door hard te werken, goed te trouwen, door om te gaan met soortgenoten, goede omgangsvormen, voldoende culturele bagage en last but not least, door nimmer in opspraak te komen. Daarnaast is het uiteraard van belang dat de kinderen een opvoeding krijgen die ze voorbestemt voor een even aantrekkelijke positie in de samenleving.

Twee jaar geleden publiceerde HP/De Tijd een soortgelijk artikel (Nette mensen van de hand van redacteur Kirsten Munk) en daarin sprak socioloog Jaap Dronkers de volgende woorden: “Als je voor een vacature tien kandidaten hebt met precies dezelfde mooie universitaire opleiding, dan kies je voor de mooie achternaam. Dat heeft twee voordelen: de kandidaat heeft toegang tot een deur die voor anderen gesloten blijft, en hij heeft betere manieren.”

Toegang tot een deur die voor anderen gesloten blijft? Jawel, en Munk legde destijds omstandig uit hoe de happy few onopvallend maar zeer doordacht door het leven gaat, en elkaar altijd en overal weet te vinden. Buurt, school, sportclub, vakantiekamp, studierichting, studentenvereniging, eerste baan, partner, huwelijk; heel de levensloop is een stappenplan dat voorziet in de omgang met soortgenoten. En hoe bijzonder aantrekkelijk het leven ook verloopt, nooit blaast men hoog van de toren en er wordt veel aan gedaan om voorspoed en privileges voor de buitenwereld verborgen te houden.

De elite mag zich gelukkig prijzen dat ze vaak nauwelijks onderkend wordt, de beste garantie dat de zaken nog heel lang zullen blijven zoals ze zijn. Nederland egalitair? Het landschap wel, de bevolking geenszins.

Henk Steenhuis

Bron: hpdetijd.nl

Lords' membership cut considered

Membership of the House of Lords could be almost halved under proposals to replace peers with elected members.
The Financial Times says a cross-party working group is considering if there should be fewer than 400 represented in a reformed upper chamber.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who is leading the review, has said a "comprehensive reform package" would be in Labour's next election manifesto.

A White Paper of proposals is due to be published before the summer recess.

Reform commitment

Last year MPs voted for either a wholly or 80% elected upper chamber.

The Lords want to keep the current system of an all-appointed membership.

The FT reports that there was still debate over whether hereditary peers would be removed from the house immediately, and the details of election to the new chamber.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We will be bringing forward proposals for House of Lords reform in due course. We hope to publish a White Paper before the summer recess."

Last summer, Mr Straw said he was committed to reform but conceded there was still "some way to go" and stressed the need for consensus.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both supported reform of the Lords.

Source: BBC

David Sellar appointed Lord Lyon

The Queen has been pleased, on the recommendation of the First Minister, to appoint Mr William David Hamilton Sellar, Solicitor, to be Lord Lyon King of Arms.

Her Majesty is also to appoint Mr Sellar to be Secretary of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

David Sellar, aged 67, is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (History) and Edinburgh (Law). He qualified as a solicitor in 1966. After two years as a legal assessor with the Scottish Land Court, he taught in the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh. He is now an honorary fellow of the Faculty. He is joint author of the Saltire Society’s Scottish Legal Tradition (1991), and has written on the history of various branches of Scots law, including marriage, divorce, incest, homicide and unjust enrichment. He has published on the Lordship of the Isles and on the origins of many Highland families, including the Campbells, MacDonalds, MacDougalls, MacLeods, Lamonts, MacNeills and Nicolsons.

He was O’Donnell Lecturer (in Celtic Studies) at Edinburgh in 1985, Stair Society Lecturer in 1997 and a Rhind Lecturer in 2000. He has been a Member of the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Literary Director of the Stair Society, Chairman of Council of the Scottish History Society and Chairman of the Conference of Scottish Medievalists. He has also served on the Council of the Scottish Genealogy Society and of the Heraldry Society of Scotland. He was appointed Bute Pursuivant of Arms in 2001.

The appointment followed public advertisement of the post and a selection board met to interview a short-list of candidates and provide a recommendation to the First Minister.

THE 79TH GRAND MASTER OF THE ORDER OF MALTA

Rome, 11 March 2008

Fra' Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, elected this morning by the Council Complete of State (the Order’s electoral body). In accepting the role, the new Grand Master swore his Oath before the Cardinal Patronus of the Order, Cardinal Pio Laghi, and the electoral body. He succeeds Fra’ Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master (1988-2008), who died on 7 February.

The new Grand Master affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out by his predecessor. Fra’ Matthew comes with a wide range of experience in Order affairs. He has been the Grand Prior of England since the Priory’s re-establishment in 1993, restored after an abeyance of 450 years. In this capacity, he has led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia after the recent disturbances in those countries, and with a large delegation from Britain he attends the Order’s annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with handicapped pilgrims.

Educated at Ampleforth and St.John’s College Cambridge, where he read history, Fra' Matthew, an art expert, has for most of his professional life worked at an international art auction house. As a child he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, had earlier postings. His mother was a member of the recusant Riddells of Swinburne Castle who suffered for their faith in penal times. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a knight of Malta, who was martyred in 1539.

Fra' Matthew served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen and has served as her Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Northumberland for a number of years.

In 1977 Fra' Matthew became a member of the Order of Malta, taking solemn religious vows in 1991.

As well as his passion for the decorative arts and for history, for which his encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of the Order is legendary, as is his very British sense of humour, Fra' Matthew spends any free time possible in his beloved Northumberland countryside.

Source: SMOM

English ‘title’ offered as TV promo

I haven’t actually seen the cable TV serial “The Tudors” but I can understand heavy marketing for its new season to cash in on the recent theatrical release of the unrelated Boleyn film (which owes much to the work of genealogist Tony Hoskins, a probable Henry VIII descendant via one of Mary Boleyn’s ‘Carey’ children). But at any rate today my eye was caught by a glossy magazine spread —

— promoting “The Tudors,” featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalie Dormer (as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn) wearing things unlikely to have been designed in the 16th century. But the text was even more interesting: a sweepstakes offer tied into the show, offering $50,000 plus an “authentic English title such as lord or lady” to a lucky entrant. Presumably a lordship of the manor?

In the fine print of the promotion rules there is the following:

Prize: One (1) Grand Prize includes … an authentic English title such as “Lord” or “Lady”. English titles shall be awarded subject to then-current English legislation, and are non-inheritable and for show purposes only. …

What on earth is a ‘title such as lord or lady’ which is ‘non-inheritable and for show purposes only’? This cannot describe a lordship of the manor, which may be freely bought and sold. Unless the promoter can arrange to have some sort of private lease or lifetime grant of such a lordship, while retaining ownership? At any rate, American credulity in the matter of aristocratic titles is profound and endless, but this seems to plumb a new depth.

Source: http://nltaylor.net/sketchbook/