<\/p>\n
Flowers are a minefield, and to be avoided unless you know their preferred florist; wine risks coming across as a passive-aggressive competition over who has better taste; and candles are too personal.<\/p>\n
But Smith thinks dining etiquette is where people reveal the most about themselves. \u201cThe British are the most judgmental when it comes to people,\u201d Smith reminds us. \u201cYou never have a second chance to make a first impression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rest assured, reader, I do know how to hold my knife and fork properly, unlike one of my fellow classmates, who gripped his fork in his right hand and wielded it like a shovel. No wonder he can\u2019t get a job.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, however, it wasn\u2019t long before my own shortcomings came to light.<\/p>\n
Your phone, Smith tells us, does not \u201ceat first\u201d \u2013 Gen Z slang for the increasingly common habit of taking pictures of a meal before eating it \u2013 and should remain out of sight at the dinner table. He tells me my usual habit of putting mine beside my plate gives the impression that something more interesting than the person opposite me might pop up.<\/p>\n
When it comes to conversation, Julius worries that my generation has become too comfortable discussing politics, money and the latest online controversy over dinner. \u201cThe royal mantra of \u2018never complain, never explain\u2019 is something the younger generation should take on board,\u201d he says. This feels almost alien in the confessional age of social media, where oversharing has become the norm.<\/p>\n
Instead, he encourages \u201clight-hearted conversation\u201d, such as talking about the weather or the World Cup, which all sounds rather boring to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in an increasingly individualistic culture where everyone wants to one-up each other,\u201d he says. \u201cThe younger generation don\u2019t know how to listen to each other, and always jump in in the middle of conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ranting, apparently, should also be banished from the table (guilty\u2026).<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong views shouldn\u2019t be expressed,\u201d says Smith. \u201cNever have a conversation with an idiot. There is no mileage in being vocal. Let them ramble, and then, once they have finished, say: \u2018I\u2019m sorry you feel that way.\u2019 That should silence them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it\u2019s about Sir Keir Starmer?\u201d I ask. He smirks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flowers are a minefield, and to be avoided unless you know their preferred florist; wine risks coming across as a passive-aggressive competition over who has better taste; and candles are too personal. But Smith thinks dining etiquette is where people reveal the most about themselves. \u201cThe British are the most judgmental when it comes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2505794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[411553,454806,493947,21738,491565,22769,21928,344742,24515,356051,382398,431081],"class_list":["post-2505793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-careers","tag-etiquette","tag-jobs-and-employment","tag-news","tag-other-lifestyle","tag-royal-family","tag-social-media","tag-standard","tag-the-royal-family","tag-uk-news","tag-us-content","tag-workplace"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Can-I-learn-good-table-manners-from-this-former-royal.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2505793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505795,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505793\/revisions\/2505795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2505794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}