6 - Sunday, December 27, 1998 - North Shore News ‘OU probably haven’t noticed, what with the holiday merri- ment ali around, but a remark- able thing is happening in B.C. Call it the remaking of a premier. Pick up a newspaper, click on the television or tune into a radio station in the past week and you’ve seen and heard the common-man side of Gien Clark. Here’s Glen in a denim jacket at his kid’s hockey practice; there’s coffee- drinking Glen earnestly admitting he needs to tend to the party’s grassroots. It’s not because it’s a slow news time of year; it’s because the premier’s office has embarked on a high-octane medi blitz promoting the premier not as the cold, business-suited leader he had increasingly become over the course of the past year, but rather as the working man with the same concerns as his north shore news VIEWPOINT cS as usual hard-working constituents. Manipulation of image has been the political arena’s stock-in-trade for cen- turies, though only recently have books and movies -~ from Dr. Strangelove to Wag The Dog — pulled the curtain away from the process. As deceptive as the practice is, how- ever, we should not fault the political cabals that craft these plans in their paneled backrooms. The fault lies with a public that is swayed by this tailor-madé sleight of hand. What’s been so infuriating about Clark’s reign is the way his govern- ment never takes responsibility when things go awry, yet is the first to take credit for success. Don’t let a change of clothes fool you into thinking there’s been a change of direction. “In the grcat Canadian tradition, the whole idea (of the ARSBC) got started in a bar.” North Vancouver lawyer Jay Straith, on the founding of the Artificial Reef Society of B.C. (Fram a Dee. 20 News Sunday Focus feature.) oo00 “People don’t stop driving, even though they know they’re damaging the environment, and people don’t stop drinking because it’s bad for them. Why would they stop this one habit?” Diana Lux, on the impact on smokers from the B.C. gov- ernment’s decision to release a comprehensive list of the toxic chemicals in cigarettes. (From a Dee. 23 News story.) 900 “As Denis ¥ says, ‘you could put a skull and cross boncs on a pack of cigarettes, and people would be lining up down the block.’ (The list) won’t stop people and it won't stop me.” North Vancouver smoker Stephanie Diana, on the same issue. (From Dec. 23 News story.) Q00 “Nowadays we don’t fight. You just live once in this world and you can go at any time.” Identical owin Andre Urrea, on his win William. (From a Dee. 25 News This Week feature.) 900 “The secret to success is hanging around with success- ful peopiv. Always be positive; if you’re negative you're not going to get anywhere in life.” Hdeniical ovin William Urrea, on the power of positivity. (From the sane Dee. 25 News This Week feature.) aaa “I want people to be aware the replacement is one thing but the excess is not necessary. Yeah, I got ripped off but some people don’t even have a chance to be ripped off.” Gail Renard, on the response of News readers to a story abour $350 worth of Christmas gifts for her kids stolen from the trunk of her car. (From a Dee. 25 News story.) 099 “And then I want us to march to Victoria.” North Vancouver District Coun. Lisa Muri, on the need for taxpayers to respond to provincial downloading. (From a Dee. 25 News story.) ; A CHILE WAS BORN— \_WHIcH PRETTY MucH LIVED AMONG US AND Diep ON THE CROSS To PAY FOR OUR SINS... MEANS WE DON'T OWER you ACENT FOR ALL § THAT RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL STUFF. OlRICe aE x-editor now slums with Fergie THE stiff upper lip, trademark of Britain’s much maligned “upper classes,” has been work- ing overtime recently. Open sea- son has been declared on tradi- tional British toffs. Bad cnough were the Labour government's plans, announced last month, to strip heredi- tary peers of their auto- Matic right to vote in the House of Lords. Then, just a week later, the other shoe fell with a publication issued by the Office of National Statistics, Britain's equivalent of Statistics The ONS, it emerges, has long quiet- ~ dy maintained its own “social classifica- don” of the population, a study which has nothing in the slightest to do with Debrett or Burke's Peerage. What now hit the headlines was the first apdate of the survey in 75 years — a tool needed for the 200! national census. Even today, class-conscious Brits are still famitiar with the Victorian concept of a person’s “station in lite.” Under the latest ONS classification the stations at which many members of socicty’s once revered upper crust have arrived are dis- tinetly surprising and unwelcome destina- tions, Britain's official new 1998 social reg- ister is strictly occupation-based, con- cerned exclusively with employment con- ditions and relations. It takes into account such things as job security, bene- fits and managerial responsibility. If you don’t have — or need — a specific occu- pation, vou wind up deep down in the cellar, no matrer how blue your blood and how many centuries-old your pedi- gree, The updated list has eight “rankings” (for- xet “classes.” please!) ranging from Al (big employers and protes- sionals) to A7 (unskilled Jabourers) and A8 (jobless). Each with some odd bedfel- lows, | was personally delighted to find that — were Tot now retired atier 32 years as editor-in-chief of the News ~- \d be basking in AT category, which includes editors, celebrity chets and football coaches. As itis, Dhave to slum today with TV host and ex-Royal Fergie, aka Sarah Duchess of York, in A2 — reserved tor journalists, nurses, actors and junior police officers among others. Bat fm stil doing better than most of the unclassifiable (and thus untisted) aristoc- racy. Even Princess Margaret's furniture- making son, Lord Linley, would be way down in Ad (self employed) or AS (cratisman). There have been interesting changes, too, in people's class — oops! ranking — since the original 1920s study. The update recognizes new realities, says University of Essex professor David Rose who headed the research for the revised listing. For exampic, teachers, librarians and bank managers have all been pro- and yon moted from A2 to Al. Meanwhile, hair- dressers have been booted down from A3 to AG, where they now join such humble toilers as janitors, gardeners and assembly-line workers. So gone forever in Britain, it seems, are the comty old days when vou were born into a class — noble, upper, middie or working — and remained Joyal to it all your life. Ar feast you always knew where you belonged and were mostly content to stay there, which solved a lot of social problems, In Britain's brave new world its citi- zeas will never know from one census ranking list to the next exactly where they belong in the great free-enterprise pecking order, nor even why. Just what the coffs might have expeet- ed, once the socialists swept into power, you say. Bur therein lies the ultimate ireny about this ruthless sidelining of the former cream of British society by chassi- fication-mad bureaucrats. Truc, the new rankings will be enacted by Tony Blair's Labour government. But the whole social upheaval was actually set in morion by his Tory predecessors! og CONGRATULATIONS to North Van's newest members of the Diamond 60 Club — Wooderott’s Doug and Gwen Brown, who today, Dec. 27, cele- brate the anniversary of their 1938 wed- ding in Bristol, England ... And many happy returns of tomorrow, Dec. 28, to West Van Kiwanis birthday boy Bill Pulham. oa WRIGHT OR WRONG: When swal- lowing your own medicine, the spoon always seems too big. HOW TO: REACH: US: Administratio’ * LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Letters must include your name, lull address & telephone number. 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