You think I jest? Its for real.Study author Joy Hirsch from both University College London and Yale University in the US, said, If people feel they are making more effort, it may be because they are using a part of the brain which they do not habitually use.

The study, which was published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, would certainly explain Twitter: admittedly no brain power whatsoever goes in to a lot of what goes on there, but it does mean that people who are confronted with very different viewpoints from their own simply do not know how to react. And so they shout. And shout and shout.

But what a splendid excuse this will be for all manner of tricky situations.

Youre being hounded to pay the gas bill? Im so sorry, my good man, I simply dont understand what youre talking about. (Incidentally, companies sending out reminders are actually adopting the opposite approach: a recent bill reminder ended with the words, Already paid? Nice one. Do grow up, everyone.)

And it also explains the promotion of the elite. Old Etonians cant be blamed for hiring other Old Etonians: theyre the only people they really understand.

On the other end of the scale all those fomenting class warfare are doing so because they correctly perceive that the toffs dont understand them, although that doesnt entirely explain the fact that left wing extremists these days tend to be privately educated trust funders from wealthy and privileged backgrounds.

This report explains something else, too: the British obsession with elocution lessons. Back in the day they were absolutely par for the course in any school worth its salt until someone (almost certainly from a highly privileged background) decided they were classist and we should celebrate regional accents instead.

The result of this was the likes of Tony Blair dropping his ts and doing terrible things to glottal stops, while half the broadcasters on state radio are incomprehensible to the rest of us.

It is also noted that social mobility is getting an awful lot worse.

Is this why? It is impossible for anEnglishmantoopenhismouthwithout making some otherEnglishman hateor despise him, wrote George Bernard Shaw, but in trying to refine ones accent, that was the start of progress up the social scale.

Just look at Margaret Thatcher, who changed her accent quite as much as Blair, except in the opposite direction.

And if all else fails, look at the Queen, who has spent her life dealing with people with radically different backgrounds and must thus have the brain power of an Einstein. And follow her example. Have you come far? is a favoured opening. Geographically or socially? Over to you.

See the article here:
England is still a nation divided by language says VIRGINIA BLACKBURN - Daily Express