The one thing the English will never forgive the Germans for is 2 page
Shop opening hours 149
shoes, kitchen utensils or electrical goods. They still concentrate mainly on everyday needs. An exception is the first warehouse shopping club in Europe, opened in 1993 in Essex by the American company Costco. Here, 'members' (who have paid a small fee) can find almost everything that a shopper could ever want to buy - at a reduced price. Shopping clubs of this kind have spread rapidly all over the USA. At the time of writing, it is too early to say whether they will do so in Britain. The move out of town, however, is already well established, with many of the country's chain stores following the supermarkets into specially built shopping centres, most of them covered. (Britain has some of the largest covered shopping areas in Europe.) In 1980 only 5% of shop sales took place in these locations. In 1994 this figure had jumped to 25%.
The area in town where the local shops are concentrated is known as the high street (the American equivalent is 'Main Street'). British high streets have suffered from the move towards out-of-town shopping. In the worst-affected towns, as many as a quarter of the shops in the high street are vacant. But high streets have often survived by adapting. In larger towns, shops have tended to become either more specialized or to sell especially cheap goods (for people who are too poor to own a car and drive out of town). Many have become charity shops (selling second-hand items and staffed by volunteers) and discount stores. Many of the central streets are now reserved for pedestrians, so that they are more pleasant to be in.
Even most small high streets still manage to have at least one representative of the various kinds of conventional food shop (such as butcher, grocer, fishmonger, greengrocer), which do well by selling more expensive luxury items. (Although the middle classes use them, supermarkets have never been regarded as 'smart* or fashionable places in which to shop.)
The survival of the high street has been helped by the fact that department stores have been comparatively slow to move out of town. Almost every large town or suburb has at least one of these. They are usually not chain stores and each company runs a maximum of a few branches in the same region.
Shop opening hours
The normal time for shops to open is nine in the morning. Large out-of-town supermarkets stay open all day until about eight o'clock. Most small shops stay open all day (some take a break for lunch, usually between one and two) and then close at half-past five or a bit later. In some towns there is an 'early closing day' when the shops shut at midday and do not open again. However, this is becoming rarer. In fact, over the last twenty-five years, shop opening hours have become more varied. Regulations have been relaxed. It is now much easier than it used to be to find shops open after six. In some areas the local authorities are encouraging high street shops to
> The corner shop
A shop by itself in a residential area is often referred to as 'the corner shop'. These sometimes sell various kinds of food, but they are not always general grocers. Usually their main business is in newspapers, magazines, sweets and tobacco products. It is from these that most 'paper rounds' (see chapter 16) are organized. Only in corner shops do shopkeepers know their customers personally. Only in them is the interaction across the counter often social as well as transactional. People working in other shops are often very helpful, but the conversation usually has some clear purpose.
In the last few decades, many corner shops have been taken over by people from southern Asia who have delighted the neighbourhood by staying open very long hours.
> Some well-known names
The best known supermarket chains
are Sainsbury and Tesco, although there are others. Asda is the best known of many discount stores.
There is only one department store with a large number of branches. This is Marks & Spencer. It is so well-known that it is often referred to as 'Marks and Sparks' or just 'M and S'. To the British, clothes at M and S are typical of the middle range: they are neither cheap nor expensive, fairly good quality and rather conservative. Unlike most other department stores, M and S also has a 'food hall', where items are more expensive than they are in supermarkets.
In a category all by itself is Wool-worth's, which used to have a branch in almost every high street in the country. It sells mostly sweets, music, toys and children's clothes of the cheaper kind.
stay open very late on some evenings as a way of putting new life into their 'dead' town centres.
But the most significant change in recent years has been with regard to Sundays. By the early 1990s many shops, including chain stores, were opening on some Sundays, especially in the period before Christmas. In doing this they were taking a risk with the law. Sometimes they were taken to court, sometimes not. The rules were so old and confused that nobody really knew what was and what wasn't legal. It was agreed that something had to be done. On one side were the 'Keep Sunday Special' lobby, a group of people from various Christian churches and trade unions. They argued that Sunday should be special, a day of rest, a day for all the family to be together. They also feared that Sunday-opening would mean that shop workers would be forced to work too many hours. On the other side were a number of lobbies, especially people from women's and consumer groups. They argued that working women needed more than one day (Saturday) in which to rush around doing the shopping. In any case, they argued, shopping was also something that the whole family could do together. In 1993 Parliament voted on the matter. By a small majority, the idea of a complete 'free-for-all' was defeated. Small shops are allowed to open on Sundays for as long as they like, but large shops and supermarkets can only open for a maximum of six hours.
QUESTIONS
1 What are the differences (if any) between the present role of trade unions in Britain and their role in your country?
2 How can banking be such an important part of the British economy when some British people don't even have bank accounts?
3 Here is an extract from a book written by a Frenchman who has spent a long time living in England:
Continentals are always disconcerted by the English attitude to work. They appear neither to view it as a heavy burden imposed by fate, nor to embrace it as a sacred obligation. Effort is a matter of personal choice, and payment simply a quid pro quo. (from Les Anglais by Phillipe Daudy) Do you find the British attitude to work confusing? In your country, do people see work as a 'heavy burden' or a 'sacred obligation' (or something else) ?
4 In your country, do shops stay open for more or fewer hours a week than they do in Britain? Do you think the de-regulation of shop opening hours is a good thing?
The media
British people watch a lot of television. They are also reported to be the world's most dedicated home-video users. But this does not mean that they have given up reading. They are the world's third biggest newspaper buyers; only the Japanese and the Swedes buy
more.
The importance of the national press
Newspaper publication is dominated by the national press, which is an indication of the comparative weakness of regional identity in Britain (see chapter 4). Nearly 80% of all households buy a copy of one of the main national papers every day. There are more than eighty local and regional daily papers; but the total circulation of all of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the national 'dailies'. The only non-national papers with significant circulations are published in the evenings, when they do not compete with the national papers, which always appear in the mornings.
Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance of the national press is absolute. The 'Sunday papers' are so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of them are sisters of a daily (published by the same company) but employing separate editors and journalists.
The morning newspaper is a British household institution; such an important one that, until the laws were relaxed in the early 1990s, newsagents were the only shops that were allowed to open on Sundays. People could not be expected to do without their newspapers for even one day, especially a day when there was more free time to read them. The Sunday papers sell slightly more copies than the national dailies and are thicker. Some of them have six or more sections making up a total of well over 200 pages.
Another indication of the importance of'the papers' is the morning 'paper round'. Most newsagents organize these, and more than half of the country's readers get their morning paper delivered to their door by a teenager who gets up at around half-past five every day in order to earn a bit of extra pocket money.
>The national papers and Scotland
There is an exception to the dominance of the national press throughout Britain. This is in Scotland, where one paper, the Sunday Post, sells well over a million copies. Another weekly, Scotland on Sunday, also has a large circulation. There are three other notable 'Scotland only' papers, but two of these, the Glasgow Herald and the Scotsman, are quality papers (see page 152) with small circulations and the other, the Daily Record, is actually the sister paper of the (London) Doily Mirror. The other national British papers are all sold in Scotland, although sometimes in special Scottish editions.
The graphs above show the approxi- however, is an improvement on past mate average daily circulation decades. In 1950, for example, they figures for national newspapers in sold twenty times as many. Educa - the early 1990s. You can see that the tion seems to be having an effect on tabloids sell about six times as many people's reading habits. copies as the broadsheets. This,
The two types of national newspaper
Each of the national papers can be characterized as belonging to one of two distinct categories. The 'quality papers', or 'broadsheets', cater for the better educated readers. The 'popular papers', or 'tabloids', sell to a much larger readership. They contain far less print than the broadsheets and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. While the broadsheets devote much space to politics and other 'serious' news, the tabloids concentrate on 'human interest' stories, which often means sex and scandal!
However, the broadsheets do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amounts of attention to sport. The difference between them is in the treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence (> Different approaches, different subjects).
The reason that the quality newspapers are called broadsheets and the popular ones tabloids is because they are different shapes. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids. It is a mystery why, in Britain, reading intelligent papers should need highly-developed skills of paper-folding! But it certainly seems to be the rule. In 1989 a new paper was published, the Sunday Correspondent, advertising itself as the country's first quality tabloid'. It closed after one year.
Different approaches, different subjects
Here are some details of the front
pages of some national dailies for one date (21; March 1993). For each paper, the first line is the main headline and the figures in brackets are the height of the letters used for it.
• The Sun
I'VE MESSED UP MY LIFE
(5.4 cm high)
Topic: an interview with the
Duchess of York
Total text on page:155 words
(one article)
• The Daily Mirror
£5m FERGIE'S HIJACKED OUR
CHARITY (3.,5 cm)
Topic: the activities of the Duchess
of York
Total text on page: 240 + words
(two articles)
• The Daily Express
MINISTER URGES SCHOOL CONDOMS (3 cm)
Topic: government campaign to reduce teenage pregnancies Total text on page: 260 + words (three articles)
• The Times
South Africa had nuclear bombs,
admits de Klerk (1.7 cm)
Total text on page: 1 ,900 + words
(five articles)
• The Guardian
Serb shelling halts UN airlift
(1.7 cm)
Topic: the war in the former Yugoslavia
Total text on page: i ,900 + words (four articles)
• The Daily Telegraph
Tory Maastricht revolt is beaten
off (i. 5 cm)
Topic: discussion of the Maastricht
Treaty in Parliament
Total text on page: 2,100 + words
(five articles)
The press: politics 153
The characteristics of the national press: politics
The way politics is presented in the national newspapers reflects the fact that British political parties are essentially parliamentary organizations (see chapter 6). Although different papers have differing political outlooks, none of the large newspapers is an organ of a political party. Many are often obviously in favour of the policies of this or that party (and even more obviously against the policies of another party), but none of them would ever use 'we' or 'us' to refer to a certain party (d> Papers and politics).
What counts for the newspaper publishers is business. All of them are in the business first and foremost to make money. Their primary concern is to sell as many copies as possible and to attract as much advertising as possible. They normally put selling copies ahead of political integrity. The abrupt turnabout in the stance of the Scottish edition of the Sun in early 1991 is a good example. It had previously, along with the Conservative party which it normally supports, vigorously opposed any idea of Scottish independence or home rule; but when it saw the opinion polls in early 1991 (and bearing in mind its comparatively low sales in Scotland), it decided to change its mind completely (see chapter 12).
The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large multinational companies. This fact helps to explain two notable features. One of these is its freedom from interference from government influence, which is virtually absolute. The press is so powerful in this respect that it is sometimes referred to as 'the fourth estate' (the other three being the Commons, the Lords and the monarch). This freedom is ensured because there is a general
> Papers and politics
None of the big national newspapers
'belongs' to a political party. However, each paper has an idea of what kind of reader it is appealing to and a fairly predictable political outlook. Each can therefore be seen, rather simplistically, as occupying a certain position on the right-left spectrum.
As you can see, the right seems to be heavily over-represented in the national press. This is not because such a large majority of British people hold right-wing views. It is partly because the press tends to be owned by Conservative party supporters. In any case, a large number of readers are not very interested in the political coverage of a paper. They buy it for the sport, or the human interest stories, or for some other reason.
15416 The media
> Sex and scandal
Sex and scandal sell newspapers. In September 1992, when there were plenty of such stories around involving famous people and royalty, sales of tabloids went up by 122,000. But in October, when stories of this kind had dried up, they fell by more than 200,000. Even the quality Observer got in on the act. On i i October 1992, its magazine section featured nine pages of photos of the pop-star Madonna taken from Sex (her best-selling book). That week, its sales were 74,000 greater than usual. The next Sunday, without Madonna, they were exactly 74,000 less than they had been the week before.
feeling in the country that 'freedom of speech' is a basic constitutional right. A striking example of the importance of freedom of speech occurred during the Second World War. During this time, the country had a coalition government of Conservative and Labour politicians, so that there was really no opposition in Parliament at all. At one time, the cabinet wanted to use a special wartime regulation to temporarily ban the Daily Mirror, which had been consistently critical of the government. The Labour party, which until then had been completely loyal to the government, immediately demanded a debate on the matter, and the other national papers, although they disagreed with the opinions of the Mirror, all leapt to its defence and opposed the ban. The government was forced to back down and the Mirror continued to appear throughout the war.
The characteristics of the national press: sex and scandal
The other feature of the national press which is partially the result of the commercial interests of its owners is its shallowness. Few other European countries have a popular press which is so 'low'. Some of the tabloids have almost given up even the pretence of dealing with serious matters. Apart from sport, their pages are full of little except stories about the private lives of famous people. Sometimes their 'stories' are not articles at all, they are just excuses to show pictures of almost naked women. During the 198os, page three of the Sun became infamous in this respect and the women who posed for its photographs became known as 'page three girls'.
The desire to attract more readers at all costs has meant that, these days, even the broadsheets in Britain can look rather 'popular' when compared to equivalent 'quality' papers in some other countries. They are still serious newspapers containing high-quality articles whose presentation of factual information is usually reliable. But even they now give a lot of coverage to news with a 'human interest' angle when they have the opportunity. (The treatment by The Sunday Times of Prince Charles and Princess Diana is an example see chapter7.)
This emphasis on revealing the details of people's private lives has led to discussion about the possible need to restrict the freedom of the press. This is because, in behaving this way, the press has found itself in conflict with another British principle which is as strongly felt as that of freedom of speech - the right to privacy. Many journalists now appear to spend their time trying to discover the most sensational secrets of well-known personalities, or even of ordinary people who, by chance, find themselves connected with some newsworthy situation. There is a widespread feeling that, in doing so, they behave too intrusively.
Complaints regarding invasions of privacy are dealt with by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). This organization is made up
of newspaper editors and journalists. In other words, the press is supposed to regulate itself. It follows a Code of Practice which sets limits on the extent to which newspapers should publish details of people's private lives. Many people are not happy with this arrangement and various governments have tried to formulate laws on the matter. However, against the right to privacy the press has successfully been able to oppose the concept of the public's 'right to know'.
Of course, Britain is not the only country where the press is controlled by large companies with the same single aim of making profits. So why is the British press more frivolous? The answer may lie in the function of the British press for its readers. British adults never read comics. These publications, which consist entirely of picture stories, are read only by children. It would be embarrassing for an adult to be seen reading one. Adults who want to read something very simple, with plenty of pictures to help them, have almost nowhere to go but the national press. Most people don't use newspapers for 'serious' news. For this, they turn to another source — broadcasting.
The press 155
> The rest of the press
If you go into any well-stocked newsagent's in Britain, you will not only find newspapers. You will also see rows and rows of magazines catering for almost every imaginable taste and specializing in almost every imaginable pastime. Among these publications there are a few weeklies dealing with news and current affairs. Partly because the national press is so predictable (and often so trivial), some of these periodicals manage to achieve a circulation of more than a hundred thousand.
The Economist is of the same type as Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel and I/Express. Its analyses, however, are generally more thorough. It is fairly obviously right-wing in its views, but the writing is of very high-quality and that is why it has the reputation of being one of the best weeklies in the world.
The New Stotesman and Society is the left-wing equivalent of The Economist and is equally serious and well-written.
Private Eye is a satirical magazine which makes fun of all parties and politicians, and also makes fun of the mainstream press. It specializes in political scandal and, as a result, is forever defending itself in legal actions. It is so outrageous that some chains of newsagents sometimes refuse to sell it. Although its humour is often very 'schoolboyish', it is also well-written and it is said that no politician can resist reading it.
The country's bestselling magazine is the Radio Times, which, as well as listing all the television and radio programmes for the coming week, contains some fifty pages of articles. (Note the typically British appeal to continuity in the name 'Radio Times'. The magazine was first published before television existed and has never bothered to update its title.)
156 16 The media
The BBC
Just as the British Parliament has the reputation for being 'the mother of parliaments', so the BBC might be said to be 'the mother of information services'. Its reputation for impartiality and objectivity in news reporting is, at least when compared to news broadcasting in many other countries, largely justified. Whenever it is accused of bias by one side of the political spectrum, it can always point out that the other side has complained of the same thing at some other time, so the complaints are evenly balanced. In fact, the BBC has often shown itself to be rather proud of the fact that it gets complaints from both sides of the political divide, because this testifies not only to its impartiality but also to its independence.
Interestingly, though, this independence is as much the result of habit and common agreement as it is the result of its legal status. It is true that it depends neither on advertising nor (directly) on the government for its income. It gets this from the licence fee which everybody who uses a television set has to pay. However, the government decides how much this fee is going to be, appoints the BBC's board of governors and its director general, has the right to veto any
> High ideals and independence
The reference to one man in the inscription on the right, which is found in the entrance to Broadcasting House (headquarters of the BBC), is appropriate. British politicians were slow to appreciate the social significance of'the wireless' (this is what the radio was generally known as until the 196os). Moreover, being British, they did not like the idea of having to debate culture in Parliament. They were only too happy to leave the matter to a suitable organization and its director general, John (later Lord) Reith.
Reith was a man with a mission. He saw in radio an opportunity for 'education' and initiation into 'high culture' for the masses. He included light entertainment in the programming, but only as a way of capturing an audience for the more 'important' programmes of classical music and drama, and the discussions of various topics by famous academics and authors whom Reith had persuaded to take part.
THIS TEMPLE TO THE ARTS AND MUSES
IS DEDICATED
TO ALMIGHTY GOD BY THE FIRST GOVERNORS IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1931 JOHN REITH BEING DIRECTOR-GENERAL AND THEY PRAY THAT THE GOOD SEED SOWN
MAY BRING FORTH GOOD HARVESTS THAT ALL THINGS FOUL OR HOSTILE TO PEACE
MAY BE BANISHED HENCE AND THAT THE PEOPLE INCLINING THEIR EAR TO WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY AND HONEST WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE OF GOOD REPORT MAY TREAD THE PATH OF VIRTUE AND OF WISDOM
BBC programme before it has been transmitted and even has the right to take away the BBC's licence to broadcast. In theory, therefore, it would be easy for a government to influence what the BBC does.
Nevertheless, partly by historical accident (> High ideals and independence), the BBC began, right from the start, to establish its effective independence and its reputation for impartiality. This first occurred through the medium of radio broadcasts to people in Britain. Then, in 1932 the BBC World Service was set up, "with a licence to broadcast first to the empire and then to other parts of the world. During the Second World War it became identified with the principles of democracy and free speech. In this way the BBC's fame became international. Today, the World Service still broadcasts around the globe, in English and in several other languages. In 1986 the Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indhira Ghandi, was assassinated. When her son Rajiv first heard reports that she had been attacked, he immediately tuned to the BBC World Service to get details that he could rely on. The BBC also runs five national radio stations inside Britain and several local ones (> BBC radio).
Television: organization
In terms of the size of its audience, television has long since taken over from radio as the most significant form of broadcasting in Britain. Its independence from government interference is largely a matter of tacit agreement. There have been occasions when the government has successfully persuaded the BBC not to show something. But there have also been many occasions when the BBC has refused to bow to government pressure. Most recent cases have involved Northern Ireland. For a brief period starting in the late 1980s, the government broke with the convention of non-interference and banned the transmission of interviews with members of outlawed organizations such as the IRA on television. The BBC's response was to make a mockery of this law by showing such interviews on the screen with an actor's voice (with just the right accent) dubbed over the moving mouth of the interviewee!
There is no advertising on the BBC. But Independent Television (ITV), which started in 19^4, gets its money from the advertisements it screens. It consists of a number of privately owned companies, each of which is responsible for programming in different parts of the country on the single channel given to it. In practice, these companies cannot afford to make all their own programmes, and so they generally share those they make. As a result, it is common for exactly the same programme to be showing on the ITV channel throughout the country.
When commercial television began, it was feared that advertisers would have too much control over programming and that the new channel would exhibit all the worst features of tabloid journalism. The Labour party, in opposition at the time of its introduction, was
Television organization 157
> BBC radio
Radio 1 began broadcasting in 1967. Devoted almost entirely to pop music, its birth was a signal that popular youth culture could no longer be ignored by the country's established institutions. In spite of recent competition from independent commercial radio stations, it still has over ten million listeners.
Radio 2 broadcasts mainly light music and chat shows.
Radio 3 is devoted to classical music.
Radio 4 broadcasts a variety of programmes, from plays and comedy shows to consumer advice programmes and in-depth news coverage. It has a small but dedicated following.
Radio 5 is largely given over to sports coverage and news.
Two particular radio programmes should be mentioned. Soap operas are normally associated with television, but The Archers is actually the longest-running soap in the world. It describes itself as 'an everyday story of country folk'. Its audience, which is mainly middle-class with a large proportion of elderly people, cannot compare in size with the television soaps, but it has become so famous that everybody in Britain knows about it and tourist attractions have been designed to capitalize on its fame.
Another radio 'institution' is the live commentary of cricket Test Matches in the summer (see chapter 21).
