The green wellies wearing, Barbour jacket sporting ,horse loving, money rolling, land-owning lot had a lot to celebrate last night - one of their own had unexpectedly scooped the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.
When Zara Phillips' name was read out I initially scoffed in indignation. How dare a spoilt, over-privileged minor member of the Royal Family beat the likes of boxer Joe Calazaghe, golfer Darren Clarke and scally gymnast Beth Tweddle to the award.
Little rich girl, jumping around on a horse while the rest of us have to do a day's work to make a living, "boo, boo" I shouted from the comfort of my own living room.
But, after a while and after vague contemplations about using this outrage to provoke a class war, the revolution obviously followed by the establishment of a new ruling elite with me as President, I begrudgingly accepted that Zara was a worthy winner.
In truth, it might tell us more about the sort of people who vote for the BBC Award than anything else, because you can bet if it had been the same crowd who spend their time watching X Factor there would have been a far different result, but Zara is a World Champion in sport with a worldwide following.
Yes, she comes from a privileged background and speaks with that annoying toned down posh accent used by posh people who are worried about being perceived as posh and, yes, she's something like 21st in line for the throne, but she has actually achieved something of note in sport which, sadly, hasn't happened too often this year for we Brits!
Personally I wanted Beth Tweddle to win because she achieved equally fantastic things in gymnastics and she wasn't born into the royal family and hasn't had the best education, conditioning, blah de blah that money can buy but, still, well done Zara.
As I mentioned back in October, well done for winning a gold medal in the Three Day Event at the World Equestrian Games, but also well done for becoming the only member of the Royal Family to have achieved anything other than lurid tabloid headlines, gossip and fashion blunders since, hmmm..... well since anyone I can remember.
Sadly, there was nobody from the North-East present among the winners, although Alan Shearer was in the audience. But, for what it's worth my North-East Sports Personality of the Year Award goes to......... Paul Collingwood. He'll be delighted, I'm sure!
Let me know if you disagree...
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