{Royal [Societies]}[30th June 1984]

[Redbook2:338-339][19840630:1315b]{Royal [Societies]}[30^th June 1984]

19840630.1315

[continued]

Strengthened by our decision (communicated to the [client]) to pass the work back to an in-house bookkeeper and computer, I told a Council Member of the Royal Society of [Q] yesterday (but not in Council) that he was being big-headed* – which he was: a selfish child. As a group, they come across as money-grabbing and ignorant, and they smell; this is a generalisation, of course, not applying to each individual. They are very far from the ideals implied by Royal patronage and Charitable status; like many such Societies, they seem to think that the objects of Charitable status are themselves, which is not the case.

The Royal Society of [V] is a little more aware of its responsibilities, but the same labels apply there too in some degree: curiously, the membership (at least of the Councils) of the R[Q] and the R[V] reflect generally and accurately the major split between the classes in Britain, which is that between the upper-middle classes, the well-spoken, and the rest 'below' them, the accented. This split is not solely determined by ancestry, etc., but seems to reflect strongly a cast of mind and attitude to life and matters.

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