[Graham King]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

I think these poems all extremely amusing but it is well known the Staggers has a tin ear. Socialism in Britain is a very prosy thing. Though that was not always so.

I find them fine and amusing too... but the rest of your comment, John, I find I simply do not comprehend. Tin ear?... socialism prosy? (Also, why the NS is called the Staggers. That has puzzled me for a while.)
...May I beg elucidation?
You oldsters and your non-text-speak!!
(P.S. I am 51).

[Adrian Fry]

You're right, John. Also, the NS tends to specify poetry of that's what's wanted. It's not precluded by the rubric but I'm betting the winner will be prose, hopefully mine.

[Rob Stuart]

Graham, the New Statesman is nicknamed 'The Staggers' because at various points in its 100 year history it has staggered from one crisis to the other in terms of its funding, ownership and circulation. John will tell you this is because they're a bunch of Trots, I'm sure.

[Graham King]

Thanks Rob!
Does the 'tin ear' indicate a deafness to appeals, or inability to discern fine quality work?

I am hoping someone will rite a Geoffrey Willans version of something different... pretty much anything done in 'Molesworth' style would be hilarious, I'm thinking. From previous threads I know some Spherians have the apt gift of the gab!

[John Whitworth]

I meant that an ability to write rhyming, scanning verse and an ability to appreciate same tends to pass by our left-leaning ruling classes, but that was not always so. You might suppose Bill and Bazza refute this thesis by their very existence but (a) they are oldish and (b) they are not (alas) members of the ruling elite. Or perhaps they are.

The Staggers was always down-the-middle Labour. Very anti-Trot therefore. Their most distinguished editor in my time was Paul Johnson, their most disastrous Richard Crossman.

[basil ransome-davies]

Don't let John wind you up, folks, but he's correct in saying the NS was always a mainstream Labour rag, not friendly to the ultra-left. Incidentally, way back when the NS used to be the New Statesman & Nation, familiarly known as the Staggers & Naggers. Sounds rather like dated posh schoolboy slang to me. As an oldie I sometimes call breakfast 'brekkers' (not that I was ever a posh schoolboy).

[John Whitworth]

We don't hold it against you, Bazza. I wasn't a posh schoolboy either. Oh the shame.

[Adrian Fry]

I attended a state boarding school for the partially sighted in the days when such a joyful anachronism was possible and we used to say 'brekkers'. You don't have to be a toff to say brekkers, but it helps.

[Ann Drysdale]

It was a sort of Sloaney slang, adding the "ggers" after the first vowel. Often preceded by, for some obscure reason, "Harry".

So, one might have heard in Kensington wine bar:

I noticed Letitia wasn't at Tarquin's party. In fact I haven't seen her around at all for a while.

Oh, Darling, I thought everybody knew - she's Harry Preggers, and not a notion of who's the Daddy.

[Jerome Betts]

Ann, I remember things like 'Harry Gooders' and so on from days, I think, before Sloanes made the media in publications like the proto-Private Eye, Parson's Pleasure. but wondered whether it had become slightly parodic by then. Waste paper basket as wagger-pagger-bagger? Probably a joke extension. However, the formula must go back to the 19th century if we owe 'Soccer' (Association football) and 'Rugger' (Rugby football to it. Maybe this esteeemd forum would become 'Harry Ratters'?