(from House of Commons debates, Jul 11, 2005)
Later, also him:
Estuary English is used as a dialect disguise for the independently educated elite at the heart of our party or its imitative intonation from those who are on the make or on the way up ... By and large, the dominance of Estuary English, not just in politics but ... in the broadcast media as well – regional broadcasting quite rarely has people who are broadcasting to their listeners in the accent with which their listeners will communicate, and that’s a shame. Regional accents are not museum pieces to be pinned to a board and examined with amusement. They’re a means of communication which should be preserved and enhanced – one of our great cultural assets as a nation, I think.
This is a part of the liberal discourse that I am strongly opposed to. And yes, I believe that "regional accents are museum pieces to be pinned to a board and examined with amusement". They are certainly cute and shouldn’t carry a stigma; but I consider levelling out of a language to allow for easier communication to be a much worthier goal than preserving regional differences.
