A Royal Correspondent?

One of the most eccentric of the regular contributions to the Herald is the item written by one, Daniela Elser, an Australia-based and self-described “royal correspondent.”

A “royal correspondent” would normally be thought of as one who has particular links with the royal family and with particular sources of information and insights not available to the ordinary on-looker.

Daniela Elser, however, professes no such qualifications. Her stock-in-trade is a commentary that might be made by anyone, but that, in her case, drips with scorn, bile and derision. Week after week, we are treated to this one-woman demolition job of anything to do with the royal family. Just why her evident animus against the royals should be thought worth publishing by the Herald is never made clear – her report certainly offers no explanation.

“One” (to offer a usage that is used by many English-speakers but draws particular scorn from Elser) does not need to be royalist or even a republican to wonder at the depth and savagery of her animus. But we are entitled to wonder why the rest of us have to put up with it on such a boringly repetitive scale.