A Point of View

As Helen Mirren carries off her Oscar for sounding like the Queen, Clive James comments on the way we speak English today. Regional accents on radio and television reflect and reinforce the breach of the class divide, but a new noisy voice is less easy on the ear.

From Bruce Lee to Jean-Claude Van Damme to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Clive James reflects on the martial arts movie, and says meaningless violence is still meaningless no matter how you dress it up.

Clive James rails against changes to the names of things we rely on - such as railways and the Royal Mail - as a type of costly and annoying ‘fidgeting’. He points to other disturbing developments in what he sees as a growing misuse of language.

Taking as his cue the reported growth in cosmetic surgery, Clive James applauds the work of surgeons who repair the ravages of disease or damage to faces from accidents, but he wonders what drives people who don’t obviously need to alter their appearance.

Clive James reflects on man-made climate change from the standpoint of a sceptic, discussing the power of language to sway opinions when, he says, we have neither the time nor the talent to weigh the evidence for ourselves.