A Little Brit History: Britain – The Natives are Revolting!

The British Beehive’ By George Cruickshank 1867. 

Us Brits don’t get too excited by things, we are calm and reasonable. We certainly don’t get too upset by things like religion or politics. In fact, if you visit Britain then don’t even think of discussing politics in the Pub – remember the old drinkers maxim ‘never discuss politics or religion whilst you are drinking’ (Stick to the weather old boy – much safer!).

‘English history in particular seems the work of a temperate community, seldom shaken by convulsions’  (Simon Schama A History of Britain)

For the most part, this sums up what it feels like to live in England and more generally in Britain too. Britain likes to present itself to the world as being a stable and (mostly) harmonious place. This harmony, we believe is especially noticeable when we compare ourselves to the rest of Europe, this is not a new idea:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, 

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 

This other Eden, demi-paradise, 

This fortress built by Nature for herself 

Against infection and the hand of war, 

This happy breed of men, this little world, 

This precious stone set in the silver sea, 

Which serves it in the office of a wall 

Or as a moat defensive to a house, 

Against the envy of less happier lands,– 

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

(William Shakespeare King Richard III Act 2 Scene 1)

Along with relatively secure borders another important contributor to stability (some would argue) was the class system.  A really good illustration of this system can be seen in the ‘Beehive’ engraving at the top of this page. This presents a view of British society as being stable and well structured. Everyone has a place and very importantly knows what this place is. Of course, things are different now – but some would say not that different.  As this sketch from the TV show ‘The Frost report’ suggests, class was still an issue in the 1960′s.

Ok, so this wasn’t actually a fair system. It concentrated wealth and power with the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the rest. Britain grabbed half the world to pay for it all – along the way causing  problems which rumble on to this day ( see Palestine, Israel, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, quite a lot of Africa, India, Pakistan etc).  Above all, ordinary people didn’t care for this system and the 1860′s, despite the impression given by the engraving – were punctuated by protest movements and civil unrest.

You may still hear Britain described (usually by us Brits) as the ‘Home of Democracy’, conducted within the ‘Mother of Parliaments’. In fact, ordinary people were not allowed the vote until the Great Reform act of 1867, legislation passed in the teeth of resistance from the ruling classes. In truth, Britain had been home to some pretty dubious ‘democratic’ practices. Firstly, most people just weren’t trusted to vote. One abuse was the routine purchase of votes and if necessary, violence and intimidation could be used. 

Another major abuse was the ‘Rotten Borough’ – this was a sparsely populated area, often one in which most of the people had left to live in the cities. Despite an area having few inhabitants it could still elect an MP to Parliament.  For example, Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 3 houses and seven voters.

Photo from Flickr – Cheetleys

By contrast, thousands of people in the Cities could not vote. Of course, it was the people in the inner cities, surviving in grim housing and work places who were most drawn to protest about their conditions. These were the people that those with power most wanted to stop from voting.

I still think that for the most part, Simon Schama’s description of a Britain ‘seldom shaken by convulsions’ is  one that still applies today. However, politically we are going through a bit of a strange time. I am not sure how much people outside Britain have heard about the MP’s expenses scandal. To be honest, if you don’t know about it, don’t ask me – I am completely fed up with it (If you’d like to know more – see explanation of scandal from BBC or listen to this podcast).

Look at this video from a recent ‘Question Time’ on BBC. To be honest, I haven’t watched this for years as it had all got too bland. Someone in the pub mentioned this was worth a look – and boy, was he right! The audience just doesn’t normally react to politicians like this.

Suffice it to say that there is a growing feeling that we are at one of those turning points in our history. People are fed up and want a change – how do I know this? All of a sudden, it is safe to discuss politics without being told to shut up. It is even possible to hear people in Pubs talking about it!