High life
Eagle on top
Taki
Rougemont hehe Royal Yacht Squadron sailed into town last weekend and went down to glori- ous defeat against the Eagle Club and the Gstaad Yacht Club in a triangular ski race. We all know about the Royal Squadron, its members having the right to fly the white ensign, the blackballing of Sir Thomas Lip- ton for being in trade, Earl Mountbatten ditto for wearing too many decorations while swimming off Cowes. The Eagle, thanks to my indiscretions, is also familiar to Spectator readers.
The GYC is a different story altogether. It was founded last year by George Nichol- son, as in Camper & Nicholson, and the best way to describe my latest club is that it's one big name drop. It has only 50 mem- bers, its patron is King Constantine of Greece (an Olympic gold medal winner in sailing) and its honorary members include the King of Spain. I defected from the Eagle and raced for the GYC because most of our members are sailors who can't ski, as opposed to the Royal Squadron whose troops were unable to ski because of har- rowing hangovers. Needless to say, the Eagle wiped the floor with us, but, what the hell, it was fun watching English salts of both sexes trying to tack on snow.
Just before the starting gun went off, I pulled out a London paper whose headline was 'MPs Lower the Age of Consent for Gay Sex'. I trooped the paper in front of the Royal Squadron team in the manner they used to troop the colours for the boys about to go into battle. Some of them laughed but from the corner of my eye I noticed one old salt looking like Orlando Furioso. I don't blame him. England has been the laughing stock all week. `0i, get me 50 poofters quick, and I'll make them all peers,' must have been the way Blair put it. It did not go unnoticed even in the birth- place of homosexuality, where a friend of mine wrote that the Lords plan to open Parliament next year wearing their birthday suits.
Which brings me to a Speccie article of two weeks ago by Nicholas Farrell. It was all about the corrupt 'Inglesi' — at least according to Madeleine Albright — and how the Italians perceive perfidious Albion. (Basically as a bunch of homos who cheat and lie.) As it happened, I was in Athens at the time, read the piece and got the idea to ask around. What did Greeks think of `sous Englesous'? As they say in Brooklyn, I shoulda stood in bed, i.e. the talismanic view of an English gentleman playing fair has gone the way of belletrism among rock stars. Like the Italians, the death of Princess Diana looks awfully sus- picious to Greek eyes.
`But are you mad? Don't you realise this is a rumour started by a man whose lies and dishonesty make Bill Clinton look like George Washington?' I blurted out to a group of friends. `So why didn't Prince Philip sue him?' came the answer. When I tried to explain that English royals don't sue, it was like talking to a Stalin show trial judge. They must be afraid of a trial, was the consensus. The transparent absurdity of Fayed's claims has taken root. (It shows what slinging mud can do; Fayed has con- vinced thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, that the Palace did it. Now it is alleged that he paid £10,000 for stolen documents which gave him advance warning in his libel battle with Neil Hamil- ton; par for the course.) And it gets worse. The Elgin Marbles are the proverbial red flag in front of the Greek bull. 'We have always been their allies, and look what they do,' is the pat answer. Hanging Greek-Cypriot patriots fighting for 'enosis' with Greece following the war has not exactly helped.
Ironically, General Pinochet has very few friends in my birthplace. 'But he helped them during the war for Las Malvinas, and look how they paid him back,' said yet another countryman of mine. And under diplomatic immunity to boot, I added.
The fact that John Latsis offered his boat to Prince Charles last summer and was pil- loried by the British press for his generosity also rankled. The Greeks are very generous by nature, and they view the English as free-loaders. When I tried to explain that it was solely the English press that attacked Latsis, nobody wanted to know. And then there's the bombing of Serbia. If there was any love left for a very old and valued friend, it went with the wind the moment the Grinning Hyena went along with the Draft Dodger and began to lob bombs. The good news is the Americans are hated more, which is probably why Albright is accusing the Brits of corruption in the first place.
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