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Caledonia, Cambria and Hibemia 5 page


50 4Identity


> The three classes A stereotyped view of the upper, middle and working classes (left to right), as seen in a satirical television programme. Frost over England, in 1967. This view is now quite a long way from the reality, but still lives on in people's minds.


A stereotyped representation of the three classes

talk about 'BBC English' or 'Oxford English' (referring to the univer­sity, not the town) or 'the Queen's English'. RP is not associated with any particular part of the country. The vast majority of people, however, speak with an accent which is geographically limited. In England and Wales, anyone who speaks with a strong regional accent is automatically assumed to be working class. Conversely, anyone with an RP accent is assumed to be upper or upper-middle class. (In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the situ­ation is slightly different; in these places, some forms of regional accent are almost as prestigious as RP.) During the last quarter of the twentieth century, the way that people wish to identify themselves seems to have changed. In Britain, as anywhere else where there are recognized social classes, a certain amount of’ social climbing' goes on; that is, people try to appear as if they belong to as high a class as possible. These days, however, nobody wants to be thought of as snobbish. The word 'posh' illus­trates this tendency. It is used by people from all classes to mean 'of a class higher than the one I (the speaker) belong to' and it is normally used with negative connotations. To accuse someone of being posh is to accuse them of being pretentious. Working-class people in particular are traditionally proud of their class membership and would not usually wish to be thought of as belonging to any other class. Interestingly, a survey conducted in the early 1990s showed that the proportion of people who describe themselves as working class is actually greater than the proportion whom sociologists would classify as such! This is one manifestation of a phenomenon known as 'inverted snobbery', whereby middle-class people try to adopt working-class values and habits. They do this in the belief that the working classes are in some way 'better' (for example, more honest) than the middle classes. In this egalitarian climate, the unofficial segregation of the classes in Britain has become less rigid than it was. A person whose accent shows that he or she is working class is no longer prohibited from most high-status jobs for that reason alone. Nobody takes elocution lessons any more in order to sound more upper class. It is now acceptable for radio and television presenters to speak with 'an accent' (i.e. not to use strict RP). It is also notable that, at the time of writing, only one of the last six British Prime Ministers went to an elitist school for upper-class children, while almost every previous Prime Minister in history did. In general, the different classes mix more readily and easily with each other than they used to. There has been a great increase in the number of people from working-class origins who are houseowners (see chapter 19) and who do traditionally middle-class jobs (see chapter . 15). The lower and middle classes have drawn closer to each other in their attitudes.

 




 

 

Men and women

Generally speaking, British people invest about the same amount of their identity in their gender as people in other parts of northern Europe do. On the one hand, society no longer overtly endorses differences in the public and social roles of men and women, and it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex. On the other hand, people still (often unconsciously) expect a fairly large number of differences in everyday behaviour and domestic roles.

In terms of everyday habits and mannerisms, British society prob­ably expects a sharper difference between the sexes than most other European societies do. For example, it is still far more acceptable for a man to look untidy and scruffy than it is for a woman; and it is still far more acceptable for a woman to display emotions and be demon-strably friendly than it is for a man to do so.

As far as roles are concerned, most people assume that a family's financial situation is not just the responsibility of the man. On the other hand, they would still normally complement the woman, not the man, on a beautifully decorated or well-kept house. Everyday care of the children is still seen as mainly the woman's responsibility. Although almost as many women have jobs as men, nearly half of the jobs done by women are part-time. In fact, the majority of mothers with children under the age of twelve either have no job or work only during school hours. Men certainly take a more active domestic role than they did forty years ago. Some things, however, never seem to change. A comparison of child-rearing habits of the 1980s and the 1980s showed that the proportion of men who never changed a baby's nappy had remained the same (40%)!

In general, the sharpest distinction between the expected roles and behaviour of the two sexes is found in the lower and upper classes. The distinction is far less clear among the middle classes, but it is still there.

At the public level there are contradictions. Britain was one of the first European countries to have a woman Prime Minister and a woman chairperson of debate in its Parliament. However, in the early nineties, only about 5% of MPs were women, only 20% of lawyers in Britain were women, less than 10% of accountants were women and there was one female consultant brain surgeon in the whole country (see also chapter 15).

At the 1997 election the proportion of women MPs increased sharply (to 18%) and nearly every institution in the country has opened its doors to women now. One of the last to do so was the Anglican Church, which, after much debate, decided in favour of the ordination of women priests in 1993. However, there are a few institutions which, at the time of writing, still don't accept female members - for example, the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London, an association for graduates of these two universities.


52 4 Identity

Religious and political identity

In comparison with some other European countries, and with the J one notable exception of Northern Ireland (see below), neither religion nor politics is an important part of people's social identity in modern Britain. This is partly because the two do not, as they do in some other countries, go together in any significant way.

Of course, there are many people who regard themselves as ' belonging to this or that church or party. Some people among the '» minority who are regular churchgoers and the very small minority who are active members of political parties feel this sense of belonging strongly and deeply. It may form a very important part of their own idea of themselves as individuals. But even for these people it plays little part in determining other aspects of their lives such as where they work, which trade union they belong to, who their friends are or who they would like their neighbours to be. For the vast majority of parents in the country (some ethnic groups excepted), the religion or voting habits of their future son-in-law's or daughter-in-law's family are of only passing interest and rarely the major cause of objection to the proposed marriage.

Social and everyday contacts

British people give a relatively high value to the everyday personal contacts that they make. Some writers on Britain have talked about the British desire to 'belong', and it is certainly true that the pub, or the working man's club, or the numerous other clubs devoted to various sports and pastimes play a very important part in many people's lives. In these places people forge contacts with other people who share some of the same interests and attitudes. For many people these contacts are an important part of their social identity. Another factor is work. Many people make their social contacts through work and, partly as a result of this, the profession or skill which they practise is also an important aspect of their sense of identity. However, since British people do not spend more of their free time out of the house than most other Europeans do, these means of self-identifica­tion should not be over-emphasized.

Identity in Northern Ireland

In this part of the UK, the pattern of identity and loyalty outlined above does not apply. Here, ethnicity, family, politics and religion are all inter-related, and social class has a comparatively minor role in establishing identity. Northern Ireland is a polarized society where most people are born into, and stay in, one or other of the two communities for the whole of their lives.

On one side of the divide are people whose ancestors came from lowland Scotland or England. They are self-consciously Protestant and want Northern Ireland to remain in the UK. On the other side


Being British 5 3


> A divided community This is the wall, built in 1984, which separates the Catholic Falls Road from the Protestant Shankhill Road -a vivid sign of segregation in Belfast.

are people whose ancestors were native Irish. They are self-con­sciously Catholic and would like Northern Ireland to become part of

the Irish Republic.

Although the two communities live side-by-side, their lives are almost entirely segregated. They live in different housing estates, listen to different radio and television programmes, register with different doctors, have prescriptions made up by chemists of their own denominations, march to commemorate different anniversaries and read different newspapers. Their children go to different schools, so that those who go on to university often find themselves mixing with people from the 'other' community for the first time in their lives. For the majority who do not go to university, merely talking to somebody from the other community is a rare event.

In this atmosphere, marrying a member of the other community is traditionally regarded with horror, and has sometimes even resulted in the deaths of the Romeos and Juliets concerned (as punish­ment for the 'betrayal' of their people). The extremes of these hard­line attitudes are gradually softening. It should also be noted that they apply to a much lesser extent among the middle-classes. It is illustrative of this that while in football, a mainly working-class sport, Northern Ireland and the Republic have separate teams, in rugby, a more


54. 4 Identity

middle-class sport, there is only one team for the whole of Ireland, in which Protestants from the north play alongside Catholics from the south with no sign of disharmony whatsoever.

Being British

Last of all, a few words about British identity and loyalty. How import­ant is it to British people that they are British? Do they feel they 'belong' to Britain?

Perhaps because of the long tradition of a clear separation between the individual and the state, British people, although many of them feel proud to be British, are not normally actively patriotic. They often feel uncomfortable if, in conversation with somebody from another country, that person refers to 'you' where 'you' means Britain or the British government. They are individualistic and do not like to feel that they are personally representing their country.

During the last quarter of the twentieth century there was a dramatic and severe loss of confidence in British public institutions (see chapter 6). Nearly one third of the people questioned in an opinion poll in the early 1990s said that they could think of nothing about Britain to be proud of. In addition, almost half said that they would emigrate if they could - suggesting a low degree of attachment to the country. This decrease in confidence was accompanied by a change in the previous rather patronizing attitude to foreigners and foreign ways. In the days of empire, foreigners were often con­sidered amusing, even interesting, but not really to be taken seriously. These days, many foreign ways of doing things are admired (although perhaps a bit resentfully) and there is a greater openness to foreign influences.

Along with this openness, however, goes a sense of vulnerability, so that patriotism often takes a rather defensive form. For instance, there are worries about the loss of British identity in the European Union (see chapter 12). This is perhaps why the British cling so obstinately to certain distinctive ways of doing things, such as driving on the left and using different systems of measurement (see chapter 5-).

It is in this climate of opinion that the dramatic increase in support for the government during the Falklands/Malvinas War in 1982 must be interpreted (see chapter i 2). Here was a rare modern occasion for the British people to be actively patriotic. Many of them felt that here, for once, Britain was doing something right and doing it effectively!

The modern British are not really chauvinistic. Open hostility to people from other countries is very rare. If there is any chauvinism at all, it expresses itself through ignorance. Most British people know remarkably little about Europe and who lives there. The popular image of Europe seems to be that it is something to do with the French. An entry in the Radio Times can serve as an example. This is a very popular


Questions and suggestions ss

magazine which gives details of all the week's radio and television programmes. In April 1994 it subtitled its introduction to a pro­gramme which previewed that year's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest as 'tips for Ie top'. Notice the 'Ie'. It is an indication of the apparently widespread assumption that Europe is a place where everybody speaks French.

The British continue to be very bad about learning other peoples' languages. Fluency in any European language other than English is generally regarded as exotic. But there is nothing defensive or deliber­ate about this attitude. The British do not refuse to speak other languages. They are just lazy.


 


QUESTIONS

1 In the early years of the twentieth century, the playwright and social commentator George Bernard Shaw remarked that an Englishman only had to open his mouth to make some other Englishman despise him. What was he talking about? Would he say the same thing today?

2 In the 1930s people in middle-class neighbour­hoods often reacted angrily to the building of housing estates for the working class nearby. In one area they even built a wall to separate the two neighbourhoods! This could never happen today. Why not? What has changed?

3 Standard English is used 'naturally' in everyday speech by between 15'% and 30% of the popula­tion in Britain (it depends how you define it). Received pronunciation (RP), again depending


 

on how you define it, is used in everyday speech by only 3% to 12% of the population. So why is standard English with an RP accent the usual model for people learning British English as a foreign language? What justification can you find for this practice?

4 Do the social classes in your country differenti­ate themselves in the same ways as they do in Britain? Do language, accent, clothes, money, habits and attitudes play the same roles in your country?

5 This chapter considers several factors that can go towards creating a person's sense of identity. Some of these are more important in Britain and some are less important. Are the same factors the important ones in your country?


 


SUGGESTIONS

• Many BBC television comedy programmes depend for much of their

humour on habits and values determined by social class. Recent examples (which you may be able to get on video) include Only Fools and Horses and Birds of a Feather, both of which portray Cockney values, and Keeping Up Appearances, which makes fun of the pretentiousness of some middle-class people.

• If you are interested in accents and dialects, English Accents and Dialects by Hughes and Trudgill (Edward Arnold) is an academic book with long texts exemplifying the main types of English spoken in Britain. There is an accompanying cassette.

• The Queen and I by Sue Townsend (Mandarin) is fun to read and portrays working class characters humorously contrasted with members of the upper classes (the royal family).


Attitudes


> Land of tradition A reputation for tradition can lead to its artificial preservation - or even its re-introduction. A notable example is the Asquith taxi. This was introduced onto the streets of London in 1994. It is an exact replica of London taxis of the 19305 (except, of course, that it has modern facilities - and a modern meter!). It is deliberately designed that way to appeal to tourists, who equate London with tradition. Similarly, when London's famous red buses were privatized (sold to private companies) in the early 1990s, the different bus companies wanted to paint their buses in their company colours. The government ruled that all buses had to stay red because that is what the people of London wanted, and that is what the government believed would help the tourist trade.


An Asquith taxi

The British, like the people of every country, tend to be attributed with certain characteristics which are supposedly typical. However, it is best to be cautious about accepting such characterizations too easily, and in the case of Britain there are three particular reasons to be cautious. The first three sections of this chapter deal with them in turn and comment on several stereotyped images of the British. Stereotypes and change Societies change over time while their reputations lag behind. Many things which are often regarded as typically British derive from books, songs or plays which were written a long time ago and which are no longer representative of modern life. One example of this is the popular belief that Britain is a 'land of tradition'. This is what most tourist brochures claim (> Land of tradition). The claim is based on what can be seen in public life and on centuries of political con­tinuity. And at this level - the level of public life - it is undoubtedly true. The annual ceremony of the state opening of Parliament, for instance, carefully follows customs which are centuries old (see chapter 9). So does the military ceremony of 'trooping the colour'. Likewise, the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace never changes. However, in their private everyday lives, the British as individuals are probably less inclined to follow tradition than are the people of most other countries. There are very few ancient customs that are followed by the majority of families on special occasions. The country has fewer local parades or processions with genuine folk roots than most other countries have. The English language has fewer sayings or proverbs that are in common everyday use than many other languages do. The British are too individualistic for these things. In addition, it should be noted that they are the most enthusi­astic video-watching people in the world — the very opposite of a traditional pastime! There are many examples of supposedly typical British habits which are simply not typical any more. For example, the stereotyped image of the London 'city gent' includes the wearing of a bowler hat. In fact, this type of hat has not been commonly worn for a long time. Food and drink provide other examples. The traditional 'British' (or

 


English versus British 57

'English') breakfast is a large 'fry-up' (see chapter 20) preceded by cereal with milk and followed by toast, butter and marmalade, all washed down with lots of tea. In fact, only about 10% of the people in Britain actually have this sort of breakfast. Two-thirds have cut out the fry-up and just have the cereal, tea and toast. The rest have even less. What the vast majority of British people have in the mornings is therefore much closer to what they call a 'continental' (i.e. European) breakfast than it is to a 'British' one. The image of the British as a nation of tea-drinkers is another stereotype which is somewhat out of date. It is true that it is still prepared in a distinctive way (strong and with milk), but more coffee than tea is now bought in the country's shops. As for the tradition of afternoon tea with biscuits, scones, sandwiches or cake, this is a minority activity, largely confined to retired people and the leisured upper-middle class (although preserved in tea shops in tourist resorts).

Even when a British habit conforms to the stereotype, the wrong conclusions can sometimes be drawn from it. The supposed British love of queuing is an example. Yes, British people do form queues whenever they are waiting for something, but this does not mean that they enjoy it. In 1992, a survey found that the average wait to pay in a British supermarket was three minutes and twenty-three seconds, and that the average wait to be served in a bank was two minutes and thirty-three seconds. You might think that these times sound very reasonable. But The Sunday Times newspaper did not think so. It referred to these figures as a 'problem'. Some banks now promise to serve their customers 'within two minutes'. It would therefore seem wrong to conclude that their habit of queuing shows that the British are a patient people. Apparently, the British hate having to wait and have less patience than people in many other countries.

English versus British

Because English culture dominates the cultures of the other three nations of the British Isles (see chapter 1), everyday habits, attitudes and values among the peoples of the four nations are very similar. However, they are not identical, and what is often regarded as typic­ally British may in fact be only typically English. This is especially true with regard to one notable characteristic - anti-intellectualism.

Among many people in Britain, there exists a suspicion of intelli­gence, education and 'high culture'. Teachers and academic staff, although respected, do not have as high a status as they do in most other countries. Nobody normally proclaims their academic quali­fications or title to the world at large. No professor would expect, or want, to be addressed as 'Professor' on any but the most formal occa­sion. There are large sections of both the upper and working class in Britain who, traditionally at least, have not encouraged their children to go to university (see chapter 14). This lack of enthusiasm for education is certainly decreasing. Nevertheless, it is still unusual for


58 5 Attitudes


> Swots The slang word 'swot' was first used in public schools (see chapter 14). It describes someone who works hard and does well academically. It is a term of abuse. Swots are not very popular. In the English mind, schol­arship is something rather strange and exotic, so much so that the sight of the manager of a football team simply writing something down during a match is considered worthy of comment. During the 1990 English football Cup Final, when he saw this happening, the BBC com­mentator said (without apparent irony), 'And you can see Steve Coppell's been to university — he's taking notes!'

parents to arrange extra private tuition for their children, even among those who can easily afford it. Anti-intellectual attitudes are held consciously only by a small proportion of the population, but an indication of how deep they run in society is that they are reflected in the English language. To refer to a person as somebody who 'gets all their ideas from books' is to speak of them negatively. The word 'clever' often has negative' connotations. It suggests someone who uses trickery, a person who cannot quite be trusted (as in the expression 'too clever by half) (> Swots). Evidence of this attitude can be found in all four nations of the British Isles. However, it is probably better seen as a specifically English characteristic and not a British one. The Scottish have always placed a high value on education for all classes. The Irish of all classes place a high value on being quick, ready and able with words. The Welsh are famous for exporting teachers to other parts of Britain and beyond. Multiculturalism The third reason for caution about generalizations relates to the large-scale immigration to Britain from places outside the British Isles in the twentieth century (see chapter 4). In its cities at least, Britain is a multicultural society. There are areas of London, for example, in which a distinctively Indian way of life predominates, with Indian shops, Indian clothes, Indian languages. Because in the local schools up to 90% of the pupils may be Indian, a distinctively Indian style of learning tends to take place. These 'new British' people have brought widely differing sets of attitudes with them. For example, while some seem to care no more about education for their children than people in traditional English culture, others seem to care about it a great deal more. However, the divergence from indigenous British attitudes in new British communities is constantly narrowing. These communities sometimes have their own newspapers but none have their own TV stations as they do in the United States. There, the numbers in such communities are larger and the physical space between them and other communities is greater, so that it is possible for people to live their whole lives in such communities without ever really learning English. This hardly ever happens in Britain. It is therefore still possible to talk about British characteristics in general (as the rest of this chapter does). In fact, the new British have made their own contribution to British life and attitudes. They have probably helped to make people more informal (see below); they have changed the nature of the 'corner shop' (see chapter 15); the most popular, well-attended festival in the whole of Britain is the annual Netting Hill Carnival in London at the end of August, which is of Caribbean inspiration and origin.

 


Conservatism 59


Conservatism The British have few living folk traditions and are too individualistic to have the same everyday habits as each other. However, this does not mean that they like change. They don't. They may not behave in traditional ways, but they like symbols of tradition and stability. For example, there are some very untraditional attitudes and habits "with regard to the family in modern Britain (see chapter 4). Nevertheless, politicians often cite their enthusiasm for 'traditional family values' (both parents married and living together, parents as the main source of authority for children etc) as a way of winning support. In general, the British value continuity over modernity for its own sake. They do not consider it especially smart to live in a new house and, in fact, there is prestige in living in an obviously old one (see chapter 19). They have a general sentimental attachment to older, supposedly safer, times. Their Christmas cards usually depict scenes from past centuries (see chapter 23); they like their pubs to look old (see chapter 20); they were reluctant to change their system of cur­rency (see chapter 15-). Moreover, a look at children's reading habits suggests that this attitude is not going to change. Publishers try hard to make their books for children up-to-date. But perhaps they needn't try so hard. In 1992 the two most popular children's writers were noticeably un-modern (they were both, in fact, dead). The most popular of all was Roald Dahl, whose fantasy stories are set in a rather old-fashioned world. The second most popular writer was Enid Biyton, whose stories take place in a comfortable white middle-class world before the 1960s. They contain no references to other races or classes and mention nothing more modern than a radio. In other words, they are mostly irrelevant to modem life (> Lord Snooty). Being different The British can be particularly and stubbornly conservative about anything which is perceived as a token ofBritishness. In these matters, their conservatism can combine with their individualism; they are rather proud of being different. It is, for example, very difficult to imagine that they will ever agree to change from driving on the left-hand side of the road to driving on the right. It doesn't matter that nobody can think of any intrinsic advantage in driving on the left. Why should they change just to be like everyone else? Indeed, as far as they are concerned, not being like everyone else is a good reason not to change. Developments at European Union (EU) level which might cause a change in some everyday aspect of British life are usually greeted with suspicion and hostility. The case of double-decker buses (see chapter 17) is an example. Whenever an EU committee makes a recommendation about standardizing the size and shape of these, it

Lord Snooty Lord Snooty illustrates the enthusi­asm of British children for charac­ters from earlier times. He first appeared in the Beano, a children's comic, in 1938. He is a young English aristocrat aged about ten, who loves sneaking out of his castle to play with local village children. He has always worn the same clothes, typical of wealthy young­sters of an earlier age but by now out of date. Surely, the children of the 1990s would prefer a present-day hero with whom to identify? That is what the editors of the Beano thought. In 1992 they decided to give Lord Snooty a rest. But loud protest fol­lowed, and he quickly found a new job in The Funday Times (the children's comic which is issued with The Sunday Times newspaper), as well as making further appearances in the Beano.


Lord Snooty 0 D C Thomson & Co Ltd 1989

 


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