Sunday, November 09, 2014

Bo Bruce nearly subject of awkward stories in the papers, says awkward story in the paper

Bo Bruce, who didn't win The Voice in 2012 and has been living up to that standard since, glimpsed back into the public eye this week as her posh-but-broke father continues to drag his family through the ringer:

The Earl of Cardigan threatened to make up "dirt" about his estranged daughter, The Voice singer Bo Bruce.

The aristocrat emailed Ms Bruce saying he was considering inventing damaging stories about her and sending them to the newspapers, the High Court heard yesterday.
[...]
In April 2012 Ms Bruce - who was a finalist on the BBC talent show in 2012 - was described as "the little scorpion that I have as a daughter" in an email from her father.

In a reference to newspaper articles about her, asked whether he should "invent some untrue tasty dirt" about her or alternatively could "say nice things".
The Earl has been fighting the trustees of his Estate for ages, and this charming episode was part of that.

It's unconfirmed that he also spent a lot of time standing round in shopping centres and public houses saying loudly "that Leanne Mitchell is good, isn't she? I'd definitely vote for her on The Voice, I would, and I'd be ashamed of myself if I voted for anyone else."


2 comments:

Robin Carmody said...

Perhaps surprisingly, considering my reputation, I haven't heard about this family before. Bloody hell.

The father is clearly fucked up beyond description, but (to play devil's advocate) isn't there almost something reassuring that someone from such a background can still feel such anger and rage that his child should do such things in the Cameron era, built as it is on a pact between the aristocracy and mass culture, or vice versa? Indeed, his whole situation - living on benefits, the world closing in around him - is more reminiscent of the aristocracy's general perceived position, and sense of its place in the world, in the time of "Jeans On" than now. It's all about a tension between two cultures which, compared to previous times, have on the broader scale merged comparatively harmoniously - and if they hadn't, the Cameron government couldn't really have happened, which is what makes this stranger and more startling than it would have been in the early 2000s when reality shows started to take off.

He's obviously an exceedingly nasty piece of work - a Times report from 2001 has him losing a court case and being forced to allow local residents to cross his land (his is the only privately-owned forest in Britain; the current government has just been stopped from selling off the rest for the second time in one term), but interestingly he witnessed the Battle of the Beanfield just after his daughter's birth, gave a testimony which largely ensured the failure of criminal claims against members of the convoy, and was accordingly attacked by the Daily Telegraph (one of those occasions when I wish rather gruesomely that it had a full digital archive) as a "class traitor". Amazing that even he could have had such a moment, considering the impotent rage he would show against his own family later; I can see those Melody Maker writers who used to argue, under the influence of punk, that hippiedom was really shire Toryism in disguise using him to make their case.

Robin Carmody said...

Ha, an earlier Earl of Cardigan wouldn't allow the railway to go through his land ... which is how and why Swindon grew from little more than a village. One of many, on both fronts.

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.