David Cameron’s post-Letterman history and culture primer

56 Comments Sarah Drury 27 September 2012 18:00

David Cameron on "The Late Show with David Letterman" in New York. Picture: Press Association.

Last night David Cameron became the first British Prime Minister to appear on the David Letterman chat show whilst in office. Unfortunately for the PM, the most noteworthy thing to come out of the interview was Cameron’s inability to answer two questions on basic British history. You can listen to the interview below:

listen to ‘Cameron’s Letterman quiz, 26 Sep 12’ on Audioboo

And for the benefit of those who suspect that they’d find themselves floundering in response to those questions, here are the answers:

Question: What does Magna Carta mean?
Answer: Great Charter

The Magna Carta was drafted by Archbishop Stephen Langton and other senior Bishops in 1215, and signed by King John of England later that year. It would serve as a document to establish the rights of English citizens and to limit the power of the monarch, paving the way for Parliament to be set up.

The next time someone fails a citizenship test for not knowing the number of members who sit in the Northern Ireland Assembly, they can use the excuse ‘but the Prime Minister of this country doesn’t know the meaning of Magna Carta!’ Of all the subjects we expected David Cameron to stumble on in his appearance on Letterman, British history (which he claims to be obsessed with and studied until he was 18) was the last.

Question: Who wrote the words and music to Rule Britannia?
Answer: James Thomson and Thomas Arne respectively.

‘Rule, Britannia!’ is a poem written by James Thomson. The poem was set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740, creating one of the most recognisable British songs in history.

It has been played at numerous royal events, and is now closely associated with the British armed forces.

Slightly more specialist knowledge this one, but still shouldn’t be much trouble for a PM who studied History and History of Art to A-level at Eton. At least the Prime Minister’s team now knows that briefing him before an interview like this one should include Key Stage 3 history textbooks as well as graphs and charts on the state of the economy.

Tags: David Cameron

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William Blakes Ghost

Who lets these idiots post this garbage on here? They should be sacked? Its pathetic!
Bill Brinsmead

Relaxed, agreeable, knowing but not knowledgeable – just the right pose for the light touch bear traps set by Letterman.
Edward Hicks

Don’t be ridiculous. I did History and Art History A-Level at Winchester (a better school) and certainly didn’t study who wrote Rule, Britannia! Even if one specifically studied the relevant period, I doubt it features in the syllabus. That sort of knowledge comes from attending flagwaving events with songsheets, such as Proms in the Park (and I still couldn’t tell you who wrote the words).
Nobody (including the above article) seems to have picked up on the fact that Magna Carta wasn’t signed *anywhere*, let alone at Runnymede. It was sealed.
It also bears little relationship to the eventual establishment of Parliament.
http://twitter.com/ianwalkeruk Ian Walker

Watching the whole thing, I thought Cameron did fine. He was relaxed and funny. Can you imagine Brown in the same situation? On second thoughts, please don’t – I don’t want to ruin your weekend.
James102

Just another example of what motivates our political class: attention seeking.
Blair always gave the impression of being a frustrated actor, craving the limelight to the extent he was prepared to order the bombing and killing of tens of thousands. He probably just thought of it as a scene from a film where everyone would get up at the end of the shooting.
Eric

The Magna Carta episode reminds me that what we need is a written Constitution (which, inter alia, could include the composition of the lower and upper chambers). It could also be – or even should – be taught in our schools, so that our young understand and appreciate our system of government.

In addition, a Rights and Responsibilities Bill would resolve many areas that are currently unsatisfactory.
Salisbury

Having a good general knowledge is frequently confused with being highly intelligent. Actually, it is almost entirely about fact retention. I read a great deal and have probably encountered the information about who wrote Rule Britannia a dozen or more times in my life; but I also have an appalling memory for facts, faces, where I’ve left the car keys (in fact for everything except slights) and wouldn’t have been able to tell you the answer until it came up in this context. I’ll be interested to know whether by Christmas I could still reel it off.

The only stupidity here is to assert that knowing the names of these obscure artists (could anybody here, let alone Mr SmartAlec Uddin, without looking it up, name a single other work either Arne or Thomson wrote?) has anything to do with “basic British history”. If I encountered somebody who didn’t understand the significance of the words of Rule Britannia to our past, I’d regard them as rather ignorant; but not knowing that it was a minor poet whom no one has ever heard of who wrote the words seems to me neither here nor there. As to Magna Carta, it seems to me that Cameron understands its place in our history well enough; I’m surprised he couldn’t translate such an obvious phrase, but the fact that the answer is so obvious suggests to me that it may have been the stress of the moment that kept it from coming to him.
- Michael990
  
  One rues the day that Latin O-level became no longer a requirement for entry to Oxbridge…
- Fergus Pickering
  
  James Thomson wrote ‘The Seasons’ to which Vivaldi wrote music. I do not believe Cameron did not know the translation of Magna Carta. An Eton boy not know first year Latin? Impossible!. I expect he didn’t want to appear too clever. Ordinary peple distrust cleverness. That is why Boris plays the fool. Incidentally, Letterman didn’t know waht Magna Carta means either, nor did his researcher. Carta does not mean map.
HoiSinhVienUk

Wow, I couldn’t believe the amount of coverage Call Me Dave got for not
answering two questions on Letterman that most Brits wouldn’t know. Do
we want a nerd who can do pub quiz questions? I thought we wanted a Man
of the People. Surprised only one article I’ve read has pointed out he
answered all the other questions about Magna Carta, including its
SIGNIFICANCE. Isn’t that what modern British education is supposed to
emphasise, over facts? I like this line: “He also revealed that it was
thanks to TV that he was first recognised in the US, when he was walking
in New York and a passer-by shouted: “Hey! Prime Minister’s Questions!
We love your show!” That wasn’t taken from a politically motivated
website, though.

Another overlooked point is this: On this
weekend’s X Factor, we learnt from the contestants that Sweden is the
capital of Australia and Bush is our PM. If this is the state of general
knowledge, I would have thought the hoi polloi would have sympathised
with Dave not knowing those two answers (although he did know all the
others). If he had known, there would have been sneering of a different
kind, people either resenting his intelligence or putting it down to an
expensive education.

Did you know who composed Rule Britannia? If
this had been during Dave’s brief honeymoon period, would there have
been such a fuss? Why can’t we judge something objectively on its merits
rather than use it as another stone to throw?

More seriously, on
the child grooming case in Bradford, I was gobsmacked by the social
worker on the Today Programme who said what all the case workers need is
more training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They need to be trained to understand that
when kids come in complaining of repeated rape (and I guess they’re not
in very good condition) it needs investigating. I suppose this is the
result of a centralised, procedure-driven state that frowns on
initiative. No wonder the public sector and the world of business will
never understand each other!

Credit to Brother Jack Straw who did
highlight the abuse a while ago (it was in his constituency, I
suppose). So far so PC, but he made the mistake of saying it was
perpetrated by Pakistanis in the area. I don’t have to explain the
outraged reaction of the Metropolitan elite to this, having hit the
point on the knee that will always elicit jerks.

“Missing Megan”
will now be a focal point for those AGAINST CHILD ABUSE! That teacher
has eloped with a girl (who’s nearly 16 and is not acting against her
will as far as I can see) at the wrong time. The full force of the law
will now be applied, even when Megan says how much she loves him. Or
perhaps the lawyers and parents will make sure she doesn’t say that.
(There’s always chat shows to go on at a later date, but not too late).
Annoyedatbias

What the hell? Have you seen the full interview? Watch it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stidwXIlvNE go to 16:20 for interview. I though he did a fine job, and how is expected to know the answer to all these things? It’s not common knowledge and he read PPE not British History? Arghhh…
Daniel Maris

Who’s betting a Magna Carta makes its way into Miliband’s first question.
- Dimoto
  
  By the by, I see from the Telegraph that Gordon the Moron had to cancel his UN press conference, ‘cos only one reporter turned up.
  What’s the betting it was Balls, heavily disguised as Jim Naughtie ?
  - http://www.facebook.com/amergin.selby Amergin Selby
    
    Gordon Brown was accepted into University at 16 achieved a degree with honours in History and later a PhD. How does this qualify him to be denigrated as a moron which is strictly someone with the mental age of an 8-12 year old.
    Or are you just playing silly playground name-calling games. Grow up.
    - Fergus Pickering
      
      It just shows how stupid a PhD can be. It is his emotional age which is about 8.
Noa

Why on earth one assume that studying History and the History of Art qualify him to know who wrote ”Rule Britannia’?
His role is to identify and seek the best interests of the nation, not to play straight man to Letterman. Whether he is capable of doing that is another question.
- Daniel Maris
  
  Yes but it was his (poor) judgement to go on the show which probably has a direct line to Alistair Campbell anyway. He was stitched up but he should have known he was going to be stitched up. I also don’t think it was justifiable from a security point of view. Those shows have quite large audiences that won’t have been pre-screened and could easily contain some nut with a gun who wants to make a point.
  - Noa
    
    Oh we can let him off on the Rule Britannia thing, but even a Latin dunce should have worked out what Magna Carta means in English.
    Still, we learned that his ignorance of history was profound when he said that the UK was the “junior partner” to America in the allied fight against Germany in 1940.
    And that he was an obsequious creep.
    - Daniel Maris
      
      Thanks for the reminder about how weak the Etonian/Oxford History graduate’s grasp of history is.
In2minds

Cameron on history? Cameron is history!
Daniel Maris

I think his appearance on this show also totally undermined the serious intent of his UN speech – highly questionable in any case.
Daniel Maris

What idiot advised him to go on this show? It was always going to be a minefield. Was it the old Borisphobia that drove him to do it after Boris had also come a bit of a cropper? Did he think he would shine where Boris was eclipsed?
- Noa
  
  He is preparing for a lucrative post ministerial career on the US lecture circuit. It will be much better paid is he is seen as a great war leader and staunch US ally.
  
  Tony Blair has a lot to answer for.
William Jones

Dave never grills Pres. Obama about the details of US History…there’s a little joshing back and forth. The one interesting thing is that Obama did not even know the size of the U.S. Budget Deficit…I mean, he’s only the President, for crying out loud.
- Daniel Maris
  
  Yes, I understand that Obama was grilled by Letterman on the deficit.
  
  Of course one has to understand that for Americans Brits are in some sense an embodiment of “history” = “old stuff”.
http://twitter.com/HWSHY HWSHY

brit class divide promotes incompetence on both sides. chavs can’t because they shouldn’t. toffs can’t because they don’t have to
james102

More to the point what was the British Prime Minister doing
on a light entertainment chat show? Can we expect to see him make a guest
appearance in Coronation Street in the near future?
james102

More to the point what was the British Prime Minister doing
on a light entertainment chat show? Can we expect to see him make a guest
appearance in Coronation Street in the near future?
- telemachus
  
  The best PM in a generation did Little Britain
  - Dimoto
    
    What ?! Brown did Little Britain ??
- Daniel Maris
  
  Yes, as long as it’s for “charridee”.
- HooksLaw
  
  Seems a reasonable follow up to the Olympics in promoting Britain. I seem to recall Blair appearing with some comedienne for some reason. Brown did a comedy video…
  - James102
    
    No Brown was Chancellor but I can see where the confusion could occur.
- Malfleur
  
  “…what was the British Prime Minister doing on a light entertainment chat show?”
  
  Because he is no longer performing the functions of Prime Minister and thus has time on his hands. Those functions have become the responsibility of Brussels.
- Dimoto
  
  Worked for Blair. Think Boris might be better for “the Simpsons” though.
telemachus

Yes they have
Score is 2 but neither appeared
As said the problem was not the failure to answer
I guess we can all relate to that
Problem was his discomfort when caught out
The repartee of Boris would have turned it all round
http://www.coffeehousewall.co.uk/ Coffeehousewall

Why should anyone be expected to know the author and composer of Rule Britannia? With respect, are you sure that is what it means to be British? And I would have thought that since the Prime Minister did know when the Magna Carta was signed, and where he can be excused for not immediately having the translation of the Latin to mind.
- Hexhamgeezer
  
  He could have tried a guess – what with his education an’ that – Volcanic Cart driver or something?
- Hexhamgeezer
  
  He could have tried a guess – what with his education an’ that – Volcanic Cart driver or something?
  - Daniel Maris
    
    I think most Eton scholars would be ashamed to think they couldn’t translate Magna Carta.
    - telemachus
      
      As this is a stupid thread
      Did you know that there are only 3700 peace loving muslims in Mexico
      The rest of the population are Zeta worshipping Catholics much attracted to guns and cocaine
      - Archimedes
        
        Evidently they took care of the non peace-loving lot, then.
      - Austin Barry
        
        “peace loving muslims”?
        An oxymoron right up there with Jumbo Shrimp.
        
        telemachus
        
        Even the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is seen as a force for peace
      - anyfool
        
        As the age of consent in Mexico is only 12 years i am suprised there is only 3700.
- Chris Morriss
  
  He went to Eton, where Latin is compulsary. In any case, you only need a dog’s grasp of Latin to work out that ‘Magna’ means ‘great’ and ‘Carta’ means ‘Charter’ (in that context anyway). It really shows up his classical education (which he used to make such a lot of) as worthless.
  - HooksLaw
    
    All of which is pointless. The real point is that the magna carta was not the great liberating charter that was taught (briefly) in my day, but a power grab by the Barons.
    I have no more idea of who wrote rule brittania than Letterman or Obama probably have about who wrote the star spangled banner or hail the chief.
    
    Why was Letterman obsessed with this line of questioning?
    - Noa
      
      But every American will know that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. Their patriotism is patent and taught, whereas ours is innate and is no longer taught.
      So Cameron is deservedly displayed as ignorant to Americans It is his own fault.
      - Dimoto
        
        I think you are confusing what actually happened with the (typical) Telegraph/Spectator/Barclay Bros spin (i.e. that it was a tremendously damaging “gaff” by Cameron). The audience liked him and laughed and applauded his jokes.
        The only people likely to know all the answers to Letterman’s questions, are benighted immigrants, desperately boning up for their “citizenship examination”.
        
        Noa
        
        But the US lecture circuit audience will know.
        And his value has been degraded commensurately.
      - telemachus
        
        I am not as sure he was exposed as ignorant as bested and made look silly by a TV anchor man
        It does not bode well for future PMQ’s
        
        fubarroso
        
        It does not bode well for future PMQ’s
        
        Ain’t that a certainty
      - Fergus Pickering
        
        Every American will not know that. Many Americans cannot distinguish between the Civil War and the War of Independence.But then many English schoolchildren have never heard of Napoleon or Nelson or the Duke of Wellington. Most people are startlingly ignorant.
  - Fmist
    
    And of course Thomas Arne went to Eton!
- Heartless etc.,
  
  I’m pretty sure the H2B knows the authors of “Rue Britannia” – and keeps close contact with them.
telemachus

No matter his failure to answer We can all feel for him
Worse was his reaction to the failure
Boris would have trumped the repartee

David Cameron’s post-Letterman history and culture primer

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