The term ‘brat summer’ took on a whole new meaning last week thanks to the offspring of David and Victoria Beckham and their fellow Nineties icons, the Gallagher brothers.
Credit where credit is due: Noel, Liam, David and Victoria have one thing in common. They owe their success to their talent and perseverance, the sheer ambition that brought them fame and fortune.
Love them or loathe them, you can’t take that away from them: everything that’s theirs they earned. No trust funds or old-school ties to smooth their way. Just hard work and a determination to make something of their lives.
Sadly, the same is emphatically not true of their offspring. Almost without exception, this new nepo brat pack comes across as soft-bellied, entitled, spoilt and generally obnoxious. Oh, and misguidedly in love with themselves.
This, despite the fact that none of them have yet done anything remotely interesting or challenging with their lives – unless you count the usual dabbling in fashion/pop/whatever, which I don’t.
Instead, they seem to spend their days going on endless holidays, pouting idiotically into their smartphones, indulging in half-baked ‘projects’ and – in the case of the Beckham kids – bickering among each other.
On Friday, it transpired that Brooklyn, 26, and his wife, Nicola Peltz, 30, have both unfollowed Brooklyn’s two brothers, Romeo and Cruz, on Instagram.
Brooklyn driving a very fancy red motorbike through empty streets while Nicola rides pillion, to the tune of Lana Del Rey’s National Anthem (‘do you think you’ll buy me lots of diamonds?’). Caption on Instagram reads: ‘Me and you forever baby’
Apparently this is because the boys blocked their elder sibling after he posted a birthday tribute to his younger sister Harper featuring a photo of him, Nicola and Harper – ie without them in it – which Nicola then liked.
I feel sorry for poor old Vicky B. It must be exhausting for her. If this carries on much longer, she might have to actually eat a carb.
This spat is just the latest bit of petty in-fighting following months of speculation about a ‘rift’ between the Beckhams and their eldest son, supposedly driven by his wife’s animosity towards his family.
How deep this goes it’s hard to say, but there have been a lot of rather pointed posts from Brooklyn recently, including one where he drives a very fancy red motorbike through empty streets while Nicola rides pillion, to the tune of Lana Del Rey’s National Anthem (‘do you think you’ll buy me lots of diamonds?’). Caption reads: ‘Me and you forever baby.’
The narcissism of it. Who do these two nonentities think they are, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday? Hardly. Also, I’ve no idea if there was a pre-nup, but if there was, then judging by the rest of Brooklyn’s feed it must have included a stipulation that he gushes undying love and Clinton card cliches for his spouse in every other social media post. Meanwhile, she just stares sullenly into the camera.
What a ridiculous pair. You get the most incredible leg-up possible in life, and this is really the best you can do?
Instead of counting your blessings and being grateful that you don’t need to earn a living in the real world like the rest of us, you act like spoilt brats, picking holes in your perfect existence and making your parents’ lives, to whom you owe everything, miserable.
What is it? Boredom? Petulance? Or are they just not very nice and maybe (whisper it) a bit thick?
That would certainly seem to be the case when it comes to the Gallagher kids, who have also been showcasing their own brat lifestyle on social media.
Backstage at Heaton Park on Friday, ahead of Oasis’s first Manchester gig, Liam’s youngest child, Gene, 24, posted a photo of himself on Instagram with his brother Lennon, 25, and his cousins, Anais, 25, Donovan, 17, and Sonny, 14, alongside Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City.
At Oasis’s first Manchester gig, Liam’s youngest child, Gene (centre), posted a photo of himself on Instagram with his brother Lennon (right), and his cousins, Anais, Donovan and Sonny, alongside Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City
He captioned it: ‘Pic of the century, alright? now everyone els [sic] f*** off.’
Now, we all know that Liam is not short on swagger or bad language, so in that respect Gene is a chip off the old block.
But the idea that this line-up of perfectly unremarkable youngsters with their VIP lanyards organised for them by Daddy Dearest constitutes anything even remotely special is deluded. Not to mention illiterate.
But perhaps this is just what happens when your parents are self-made and want to give you the life they never had as youngsters.
If you grow up tough and put up with endless setbacks and disappointments, it’s a natural tendency to want to spare your children the same fate. You think you’re doing right by them.
But the truth is, it doesn’t work like that. Children only know what they are taught, and if you teach them they don’t have to earn anything they will take everything for granted and grow up into spoilt, entitled brats like this lot.
As for the Beckhams and their feuding children: if they want to put an end to this absurd sibling rivalry, it’s simple.
Turn off the money tap, don’t answer the phone – and then watch how quickly everyone starts behaving themselves.
On the subject of spoilt, entitled brats, I see Prince Harry’s ‘people’ have been spotted talking to King Charles’s ‘people’, presumably in an attempt to broker some sort of detente.
I wonder which side instigated proceedings – after all, there’s only one person who stands to benefit from a Sussex return to the Royal fold, and it’s certainly not the King.
I’m no sponger
Kemi Badenoch was spot on when she said last week – to predictable howls of outrage – that she does ‘not believe one in four of us can be considered disabled without the term losing all meaning’.
I have in my life been diagnosed with depression, general anxiety disorder, hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis – all by actual human doctors (as opposed to an online questionnaire).
These are all limiting, but they do not make me ‘disabled’, nor would I use them as an excuse to sponge off the British taxpayer.
Welfare should be for those who have no other options, not for those who just want an excuse to put their feet up.
Legend has it that the owner of Hermes, Jean-Louis Dumas, sketched the design for the Birkin handbag on the back of a sick bag after the actress Jane Birkin sat next to him on a plane.
How appropriate that the original prototype fetched £7 million at auction last week – a sum to make anyone feel rather queasy.
Arrogance of Unite boss
Raging against Angela Rayner’s refusal to support the striking bin workers in Birmingham who have been making residents’ lives a living hell of rats and rubbish for months now, Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, makes it clear who she thinks is really running the country: her.
She is the arrogance of the hard Left personified.
The Princess of Wales looked radiant yesterday at Wimbledon, despite the sweltering heat. Her composure reminded me of what my grandmother always used to say: ‘Horses sweat, men perspire – and ladies glow.’
No way to treat a legend
Tennis champ Martina Navratilova outside The Ivy in Wimbledon with her little dog Lulu
Last week, Martina Navratilova, the former world No1 and tennis legend, was turned away from The Ivy in Wimbledon (an over-priced and over-rated chain if you ask me) after they wouldn’t let her little dog Lulu in.
She later complained that Lulu was also barred from the All England Lawn Tennis Club itself.
Given your average woofster’s fondness for tennis balls, digging holes and peeing on lawns, the club thing makes perfect sense. But I can’t understand why The Ivy was so inflexible.
As far as I know, they are very happy to allow children on their premises. Given parenting standards these days, that’s invariably much worse than any dog.
