British Studies

Program postuniversitar de conversie profesional pentru cadrele didactice din mediul rural
Specializarea LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ Forma de nvmnt ID - semestrul I
BRITISH STUDIES COURSE
Reghina DASCL
2005
Ministerul Educaiei i Cercetrii Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural
LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ

British studies course
Reghina DASCL
2005
2005
Ministerul Educaiei i Cercetrii Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural Nici o parte a acestei lucrri nu poate fi reprodus fr acordul scris al Ministerului Educaiei i Cercetrii
My thanks are due to Dean Hufstetler, language consultant.
ISBN 973-0-04114-8
Contents
Contents
Introduction to the British studies course Unit 1 WHO ARE THE BRITISH? BRITISH IDENTITY A PROCESSUAL APPROACH Unit objectives CHAPTER I Ten questions and answers about the British Isles Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? What is the population of Britain? Which are Britains largest ethnic minority groups? Which religions are represented in Britain? What does the Union Jack stand for? Does Britain have a National Day? What are Britains floral symbols? How do the British celebrate traditional and religious holidays? How many people speak English worldwide? Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own languages? British Identity between oneness and hybridity The way we never were. Cultural icons and their value Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs CHAPTER II The making of a nation: historical invasions and their contribution to the ethnogenesis of the British. The major waves of immigration What is a nation? The Celtic past and its posterity The Roman Conquest - a blessing in disguise? The Anglo-Saxon invasion The Viking invasion The Norman Conquest and its consequences A History of four nations? The major waves of immigration Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No.1 Selected bibliography 4 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 11 12 12 13 17 17 17 20 23 24 30 31
1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.1.7 1.1.8 1.1.9 1.1.10 1.1.11 1.1.12
1.2
1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7
31 33 35 39 42 44 46 49 49 50 53 55 56
Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural
Contents
Unit 2
BRITAIN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY? Unit objectives CHAPTER I Britishness / Englishness / Europeanness hybrid, plural identities vs. national identities The resilience* of a term: Britain / British The history of an idea: devolution The legacy of the English revolution The Glorious Revolution Dissent and the industrial revolution Home Rule Devolution Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs CHAPTER II Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain From immigration to multiculturalism A short historical survey of immigration in Britain Racism Racial relations in contemporary Britain and the fight against racial discrimination Factfile: The Lawrence case Ethnic / racial / national / cultural identities in a globalised world Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 2 Selected bibliography BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM Unit objectives CHAPTER I British monarchy how valid an institution in the third millennium? Monarchy an oasis of aristocracy in a modern world Is the monarch a figurehead? Functions of monarchy. Royal prerogatives Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs
57 58 59
2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7
59 63 63 66 69 73 76 79 79 84 87 87 88 94 96 99 101 103 104 104 105 107 107 108 109 110
2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6
Unit 3
3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3
110 111 115 121 122 124
3.2 3.2.1
127 CHAPTER II For or against the monarchy? The tragic death of a princess and calls for the reform of the 131 monarchy 132 Summary 132 Key concepts
Contents
Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 3 Selected bibliography Unit 4 4.1 BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN ACTION Unit objectives
132 133 134 134 135 136
4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6
137 CHAPTER I A brief historical outline of the British Parliament. The House of Lords and its radical reform under New Labour A brief historical outline of the British Parliament 137 Life of Parliament The House of Lords in history Functions of the House of Lords Calls for the reform of the House of Lords New Labour and the Reform of the Lords: 800 years of history ends in 7 minutes Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs CHAPTER II British democracy in action: the House of Commons, the thrust towards decentralization Elections Political parties The House of Commons Functions of the House of Commons The decline of commons power and the movement for reform Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 4 Selected bibliography GALLERY OF FAMOUS BRITS General Bibliography 140 143 145 147 148 153 153 156 157
4.2
4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5
157 160 163 166 171
173 174 174 177 179 180 181 184
Introduction
Introduction to the British studies course

The British Studies Course is structured in four units divided in turn into chapters and subchapters. The four units are interconnected, and a number of key-words and cultural concepts are to be found in all of them. The main goal of all these units is to enable you to identify and critically relate to fundamental aspects of contemporary British society such as cultural identity, the ethnogenesis* of the British people, multiculturalism, traditional political and cultural institutions currently undergoing radical changes. Further on, such acquisitions and skills will help you to make more sense of your own society and its mechanisms in the age of globalization, enabling you to analyse, compare, expand concepts and also integrate the knowledge and these skills at various levels of the curricular area. The new concepts are not only presented in a summary at the end of each unit and sub-unit but also defined in the Glossary section (the words and concepts to be defined are marked with an asterisk *). Pictures of important personalities and institutions are also provided. The heroes and heroines of our story are featured in the Gallery of Famous Brits at the end of the course (the personalities whose pictures you can see in the Gallery are marked with the symbol *). The content and the themes of the units are not meant to stimulate mechanical reproduction but first and foremost to challenge and question your received notions and judgments, to permanently encourage you to resort to your own life and cultural experience, to your values and mind-sets. Throughout the course you will be stimulated to construct logical argumentation, to base your assumptions on logical arguments and facts and thus to steer clear of emotional side-taking, to engage in a civilized and meaningful dialogue of ideas. It is also the goal of this course to stimulate you to go beyond simplifying and reductionist* oppositions such as national identity vs. globalization, nationalism vs. multiculturalism. The course attempts to mentally equip you with new, more integrative approaches and strategies of analysing the phenomena of the contemporary world. Throughout the course you are given ample opportunities to critically reflect on the new material and new ideas presented by solving the tasks assigned: Think First and SAQs (you can compare your answers to questions with answers provided at the end of each unit or chapter). The main objective of the tasks is to help you make use of and integrate previously acquired knowledge and skills and to discover, on your own, new concepts. Should you fail to provide the correct answer you will be asked to reread certain subchapters or pages so as to succeed. You are also asked to collect your answers and include them in a portfolio so as to be able to ask for clarification or discuss your answers during the tutorials. Every unit and chapter specify in their objectives the skills and competences targeted and that is what you will actually be able to do after you have covered a certain unit. Thus you will be able to take responsibility for your own 4
Introduction
learning process, as you will be in a position to monitor and assess your own progress and take initiative for further action. The four units are the following: 1. Who Are the British? British identity a processual approach 2. Britain a multicultural society? 3. British monarchy in the third millennium 4. British democracy in action The units are further subdivided into the following chapters: UNIT 1: Who are the British? British identity a processual approach Ten questions and answers about the British Isles from the geographical, demographic, religious, linguistic and sociocultural perspectives The making of a nation: historical invasions and their contribution to the ethnogenesis of the British. The major waves of immigration UNIT 2: Britain a multicultural society? Britishness / Englishness / Europeanness taken as hybrid, plural identities Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain UNIT 3: British monarchy in the third millennium British monarchy - how valid an institution in the third millennium? For or against the monarchy? UNIT 4: British democracy in action A brief historical outline of the British Parliament. The House of Lords and its radical reform under New Labour British democracy in action: the House of Commons, the thrust towards decentralization
Instruments of evaluation
At the end of each unit you will be asked to submit a test paper to your tutor who will check it and return it to you complete with feed-back and grading. There are four SAAs (Send-Away Assignments) to be submitted and you can find them at the end of each of the four units. These assignments will either be submitted via snail mail or via e-mail, as agreed upon with your tutor. Think First tasks are meant to build on previously acquired knowledge and offer new contexts for integrating this knowledge; SAQs (Self-Assessed Questions) are meant to check newly-acquired knowledge, skills, and competences. Formative evaluation - whose purpose is to validate or ensure that the goals of instruction are being achieved and to improve the instruction, accounts for 40% of your final grading. Summative evaluation, on the other hand, provides information on whether you learned what you were supposed to learn after using a certain instructional module. Summative evaluation accounts for 60% of your overall grade.
Who are the British?
Unit 1
WHO ARE THE BRITISH? BRITISH IDENTITY A PROCESSUAL APPROACH Unit Outline
Unit objectives 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.1.7 1.1.8 1.1.9 1.1.10 1.1.11 1.1.12 CHAPTER I Ten questions and answers about the British Isles Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? What is the population of Britain? Which are Britains largest ethnic minority groups? Which religions are represented in Britain? What does the Union Jack stand for? Does Britain have a National Day? What are Britains floral symbols? How do the British celebrate traditional and religious holidays? 7 8 8 9 9 10 11 12 12 13
How many people speak English worldwide? 17 Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own 17 languages? British Identity between oneness and hybridity 17 The way we never were. Cultural icons and their value 20 Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs 23 24 30 31
1.2
1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7
CHAPTER II The making of a nation: historical invasions and their contribution to the ethnogenesis of the British. The major waves of immigration What is a nation? The Celtic past and its posterity The Roman Conquest - a blessing in disguise? The Anglo-Saxon invasion The Viking invasion The Norman Conquest and its consequences A History of four nations? The major waves of immigration Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No.1 Selected bibliography
31 33 35 39 42 44 46 49 49 50 53 55 56
This introductory unit assumes the form of a questionnaire in its first part, as I think that this constitutes a most motivating and awareness-raising activity enabling us as teachers to revisit and brush up our students knowledge of Britain and things British. This unit also deals in its first part with cultural stereotypes and clichs and offers ways of challenging such reductionist views. It is also meant to rid our minds of ethnical, racial, and national purism. It aims to clarify the role that the historical invasions played in the ethnogenesis of the British people. It challenges traditional approaches that view such complex phenomena as historical disasters suggesting instead an analysis that views them in their entirety, as important moments in the shaping of a national identity. It is also meant to establish a clear-cut distinction between invasions and immigration underlining their defining and distinctive traits. Unit objectives After you have completed the study of this unit, you should be able to: describe and analyse demographic, religious, linguistic, cultural and political aspects of the constituent units of Great Britain; identify cultural icons, accounting for their relative epistemological* value; draw parallels between traditional practices, customs, holidays in Britain and Romania; challenge old-fashioned and counterproductive references to nation-states criticize arguments in favour of a monolithic perception of the British as a homogeneous entity, one nation, one race, or even as four nations in one; identify the specific contribution of various ethnic groups to the moulding of a plural identity confidently talk about British identity as hybrid, plural and diverse; clearly distinguish between invasion and immigration draw parallels between ethnogenetic processes in Britain and Romania recognize and use specific concepts and cultural studies terminology.
1.1 Ten questions and answers about the British Isles 1.1.1 Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain?
Think First! You might wish to look at a map or try to remember which are the parts of Great Britain. This will certainly help you to answer the question. Use the space provided below to write your answer.
Figure 1.1 A Map of the United Kingdom
We generally use the term Britain informally to mean the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is made up of the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Being made up of England, Scotland and Wales, Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, whilst Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic form the second largest island. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark) are not part of the United Kingdom. They are largely self-governing with their own legislative assemblies and systems of law. Nevertheless, the British government is responsible for their defence and international relations.
1.1.2 What is the population of Britain?

According to the last census* of 2001, the population of the UK rose to almost 59 million people (it has more than doubled since the beginning of the 20th century) and the segment of population that has increased most dramatically is that of the ethnic minorities (from 6% of the total population in 1991 to 9% in 2001).
1.1.3 Which are Britains largest ethnic minority groups?

Think First! Before you answer this question reflect for a minute on the unique contribution that the ethnic minorities have made over recent decades to the overall picture of British society today. Can you mention any of the rock, hip-hop and pop artists, fashion trends, famous novelists, film stars or football players belonging to ethnic minority groups? Please use the space provided below to write down your answer. Please include your answer in your portfolio for easy access to matters that need further clarification and discussion during the tutorials.
The largest ethnic minority is that of the Afro-Caribbeans (over 1.300.000), followed by Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (altogether 2 million people). Considerable numbers of Chinese, Italians, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Poles, Australians, New Zealanders, people from the USA and Canada are also resident in Britain. London boasts the largest ethnic population amongst all European cities (ethnic minority groups representing 27% of its total population).
1.1.4 What religions are represented in Britain?

Think First! Before you answer the question could you take some time and think back to the census we had in Romania three years ago? What did you experience when the census clerk asked what your religious faith was? Were you tempted, even for a second, to joke about such a question? Your answer is based on your personal experience and it would be a good idea to include it in your portfolio and discuss it with your classmates and tutor.
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Several religions are represented in Britain. One British citizen in 10 is Roman-Catholic and there are almost 2 million members of the Anglican Church -- the Established Church, that is the church legally recognised as the official church of the state. The Presbyterian Church is the Established Church of Scotland. In Northern Ireland nearly 40% are Catholic, while half of the population is Protestant. In Wales the Anglican religion was disestablished in 1920, hence there is no Established Church, but Methodism and Baptism are the two most widespread religions. Britain also boasts one of the largest Muslim communities in Western Europe - over 1.5 million people and over 600 mosques and prayer centres. The Sikh* community is also quite substantial, mostly concentrated in London, Manchester and Birmingham. There are over 160 Hindu temples in the UK, whilst the Jewish faith and several other religions are also represented. According to the latest census, 0.7% of the British -- who are no longer a nation of church-goers -- declared their religion to be Jedi*, some of them in jest but quite a few of them in response to an online campaign that urged British people to register as Jedi since 10.000 recordings of it would render the religion of the Jedi official.
Figure 1.2 The Union Jack
1.1.5 What does the Union Jack stand for?

Among the most cherished national symbols we should mention the Union Flag or as it is commonly known, the Union Jack (which derives its name from its use on the jack-staff of naval vessels to show their nationality) which brings together and embodies the emblems of its three constituent units. The crosses that appear on the union Flag are those of the three patron saints of the constituent countries: the red cross of St. George, for England, on a white ground, the white diagonal cross of St. Andrew, for Scotland, on a blue ground and the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick, for Ireland, on a white ground.
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The final version of the Union Flag appeared in 1801 when the union of Great Britain with Ireland was completed with the inclusion of the cross of St. Patrick. The fiery dragon of Wales on a field of white and green is not represented on the Union Jack since Wales was already united with England, but it is of course widely used throughout Wales.
1.1.6 Does Britain have a National Day?

Scotlands national day is St. Andrews Day (30 November), although Burns Night (see section 1.1.8) has tended to overshadow it lately. St. Davids Day (1 March) is the national day of Wales, and it is commemorated by the wearing of daffodils or leeks* by patriotic Welsh women and men. Englands national day is St. Georges Day (23 April). The military saints name, rescuer of a hapless maid and slayer of dragons had his name used as a battle cry by English knights who fought beneath the red cross banner of St. George during the Hundred Years War (1338-1453). St Patricks Day (17 March) is the national day of Northern Ireland. The work of St. Patrick was a vital factor in the spread of Christianity in Celtic Ireland in the 5th century. Born in Britain, he was carried off by pirates and spent six years in slavery before escaping and training as a missionary. The day is marked by the wearing of shamrocks*, the national badge of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
1.1.7 What are Britains floral symbols?

The national flower of England is the rose and it has been adopted as an emblem since the time of the Wars of Roses (14551485). The Wars of the Roses were the civil wars waged by the royal houses of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) and that of York (whose emblem was a white rose). After his victory over Richard III, Henry of Lancaster inaugurated the Tudor dynasty and married Elizabeth of York. Thus the two roses were symbolically united in the new Tudor rose (a red rose with a white centre). The Scottish national flower is the thistle*. It is customary to display the three flowers beneath the shield on the royal coat of arms*.
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1.1.8 How do the British celebrate traditional and religious holidays?

Think first! Before you read the answer, write in the space below what holidays Brits and Romanians might share. Do you know any specific British holidays? After you write your answer in the space provided below you could check it against the following paragraphs.
Holidays in England are either common law holidays such as Good Friday and Christmas or bank holidays (since on these days banks are legally closed). Most of the bank holidays fall on a Monday thus extending the weekend. There are six bank holidays in England and Wales: New Years Eve, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring and Late Summer bank holidays and Boxing Day (26 December). Some traditional holidays recall ancient or more recent historical events or religious festivals, and they deserve special attention: Halloween which falls on 31 October is thought to be derived from the most important of the four holidays of the British Celts (first millennium BC) the festival of Samhain, a critical moment of the year when spirits were believed to circulate freely between the world of the living and the underworld, the realm of the dead. People had to arm themselves with the right incantations and rituals so as to keep the evil spirits at bay. Ghoulish* costumes, apple bobbing*, Halloween lanterns, pumpkins carved in the shape of human faces (glowing when candles are lit inside) and the custom of trick or treat are characteristic of contemporary celebrations of Halloween. It is mostly associated with America today, although the custom originated in Celtic Britain. In some villages and market towns Christmas waits (carol singers) and wassailers (people who carry boughs and cribs of ribbon and evergreen) or mummers who perform old, traditional plays based on St. George and the Dragon are still a common sight during the festive season.
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First footing is another old tradition. At midnight on 31 December first footers (traditionally tall, dark, good-looking men) step over the threshold bringing the New Years Luck, usually a piece of coal, a loaf and a bottle of whisky. They enter the house, place the fuel on the fire, put the loaf on the table and pour a glass for the head of the house and they do not speak as a rule before wishing everyone A Happy New Year. In Scotland the New Year remains the greatest of all annual festivals. It is called Hogmanay and its culminating point is at the stroke of midnight with huge gatherings of people greeting the new year by linking arms and singing Auld Lang Syne (see below). Think first! In our increasingly urbanized world, customs and ritual practices that have been observed since times immemorial are gradually dying out. Give examples of such traditions and practices and suggest ways in which they could be rescued from extinction. Please do not forget to include this answer in your portfolio for further discussions during tutorials.
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Burns Night commemorates the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) and it is celebrated on 25 January, a day of traditional meals, pride of place being held by haggis minced mutton, offal*, oatmeal, onion, herbs and spices all boiled in a sheep stomach. People gather in great numbers in inns and Burns clubs, link arms at the end and sing the most famous song Auld Lang Syne whose verses were written by Robert Burns: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And days o auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, Well take a cup o kindness yet For auld lang syne! SAQ 1 Could you translate the poem by Burns from Scots into English? Use the space provided to write your translation; then check it against the Answers section, at the end of this unit.
Another custom this time linked to Easter and the Lenten* fast preceding it is Pancake Day whose religious name is Shrove Tuesday. It is the day preceding Ash Wednesday (a day of penitence just before the start of Lent) and derives its name from the compulsory confessions made on that day (shrifts from the verb shrive, shrove, shriven, being absolved, having your sins forgiven). On this specific day all the goodies in the pantry have to be finished off, making room for the ascetism of the Lenten fast.
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Some villages have won some fame as pancake race organizers. The oldest and most famous among them is Olney in Buckinghamshire. The race is only 380 metres long but not a piece of cake for the competitors (women over 16 wearing a cap and apron) who have to run it and at the same time toss their pancakes at least three times during the race. Guy Fawkes Night brings to mind the plot of 1605 when Guy Fawkes, a fervent Roman Catholic at the head of a group of conspirators, attempted to blow up King James I* (the first of the Stuarts) and the Houses of Parliament, as they disagreed with the Kings Protestant policies. They managed to store about 30 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar under the Houses of Parliament, but before the State Opening - which fell on 5 November that year - the gunpowder plot was discovered. Guy Fawkes together with his fellow plotters were executed for high treason. On November 5th people symbolically celebrate the victory of order, law, tradition and of the Establishment over disruption, anarchy and lawlessness. Bonfires are lit, effigies, stuffed figures of Guy Fawkes are burnt and there are also firework displays. Children traditionally parade their home-made guys on the streets of their town or villages and ask passers-by for a penny for the guy, this money being used as a contribution towards their fireworks.
Figure 1.3 Guy Fawkes meets his intended victim (King James I)
Figure 1.4 Guy Fawkes
Several weeks before Remembrance Day, which falls on the Sunday closest to 11 November, the day the peace treaty was signed that put an end to World War I (Armistice Day), the British wear red paper poppies on the lapel of their coats thus paying homage to the nations heroes, those who lost their lives in the two world wars and subsequent conflicts like the Falklands War, the Gulf War or the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, more recently. The flower badges represent the poppies that grew in the cornfields of Flanders in Belgium, where many thousands of British soldiers lost their lives in the First World War. The queen leads the ceremonies held on Remembrance Sunday, when at 11 am a two-minute silence is observed at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London and elsewhere in the country and when again wreaths of poppies are left at the Cenotaph and other war memorials in the country. 16
1.1.9 How many people speak English worldwide?

Recent estimates suggest that over 337 million people speak English as their first language, with possibly some 350 million speaking it as a second language and a further 100 million others use it fluently as a foreign language. English is the official or semiofficial language in over 60 countries. Over two thirds of the worlds scientists write in English and over 80% of the worlds electronically stored information is in English. English is the lingua franca* of the contemporary world as Latin was the lingua franca of mediaeval times.
1.1.10 Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own languages?
Languages belonging to the Celtic family are still spoken in Britain and today there are still about 70.000 people speaking Scottish Gaelic. The greatest concentration of speakers of Gaelic is in the Highlands (north of Scotland) and in the islands of the Hebrides (west of the Scottish mainland). In both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland there are speakers of Gaelic (about 200.000). Welsh, another language of Celtic origin is spoken in Wales. Scots, a dialect derived from the Northumbrian branch of Old English, completely separate from Gaelic, has been spoken for centuries in the south of Scotland, in the Lowlands, its literary tradition being based especially on Robert Burns poetry.
1.1.11 British identity between unity and diversity

During the last millennium England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have not lived in isolation. Since the Viking invasion (8th century), if not earlier, the cultures of the British Isles have interacted with each other. The conflict between Celtic and Germanic cultures, the Norman Conquest, the impact of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the effect of migration within the British Isles, the consequences of imperial expansion all have left a lasting mark upon the cultural relationships within these islands. Although one would expect to encounter many differences in landscape, architecture, place names and local customs, the visitor can communicate with people from Wales to Kent. The linguistic unity is very much in favour of the idea of oneness and sameness: one nation -- one language. Although people are struck by various accents and unfamiliar words or ways of constructing sentences, Britishness presupposes the existence of a more or less Standard English, a lingua franca, rendering the transmission of a cultural inheritance possible throughout the kingdom. 17
language, political culture and religion
This basis for oneness is however not absolute, and the transmission of this British culture does not preclude* the existence of a literature which is more limited in appeal to a particular region or nation, either by virtue of language or of cultural context. A visitor to both Caernarfon* and Canterbury* might experience a true culture shock when confronted with such different cultural milieus*. Another point of convergence would be the political culture expressed in a party system, which has extended throughout Britain with the same labels: Whig / Tory, Liberal / Conservative, and Liberal Unionist / Labour. In the 19th century the Liberal Party in Wales and in Scotland sought to present itself as the national party, and Scottish and Welsh Liberals pressed hard at times for Home Rule*. Home Rule (or to use the political jargon of postmodernity devolution*) has been met with considerable reserve by many, not least by the Scots and Welsh themselves, who found this surge of nationalism and this celebration of cultural individuality a major hindrance* to social and political stability. A common religious culture does exist despite the intricacies of tensions between religious cultures in the constituent units of the British Isles. One can mention three major ecclesiastical communities: Roman Catholic, Anglican/Episcopalian, and Presbyterian/Free Church. Despite the homogeneity of this pattern, religious allegiance* has been far from uniform. Presbyterianism is a minor phenomenon in England, being essentially Scottish in numerical strength and stature. Anglicanism is essentially English and Scottish. Even Welsh Episcopalians had to defend themselves against the charge that they belonged to an alien church. It is difficult to territorialize Methodism in its various forms, as it was everywhere but was nowhere dominant, which also holds true for other Dissenting* or Free Churches. But at the same time, the British churches have expressed, created and transmitted a certain sense of identity. At the beginning of the 19th century one could have spoken unequivocally of a British Protestant self-image. Today non-church going has become a defining trait of the British religious life, and the nature of British identity might be transformed by a marginalisation of all Christian traditions. Think First! Before you read the next paragraph, try to anticipate the next factor, besides those mentioned above, that would make the British take pride in their identity as British. Write your answer in the space below.
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The British identity is predominantly conceived as imperial. The Empire was frequently stated to be the logical expression of British greatness. It was the goal to which all previous British history had pointed: England without an Empire! England in that case would not be the England we love! (Joseph Chamberlain*); If we lose India, we will become a third-rate power (W. Churchill*). The Empire, being the common achievement of all the peoples of the islands, added one more vital justification for their political unity. The maintenance of unity in Britain during World War I seemed to testify both to the vitality of the British Empire and the cohesion of Britain. But at the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that the very unity of the UK of Great Britain and Ireland was in a process of dissolution. The constitutional settlement of the Irish Free State in 1922 gave the appearance of strengthening a sense of Britishness. Colonial nationalism became more and more demanding and Britain was made to acknowledge the equal status of the selfgoverning Dominions at the 1926 Imperial Conference, codified in the 1931 Statute of Westminster. Unrest in India finally led to the 1933 Government of India Act. It was a measure bitterly opposed by Churchill* who feared the disappearance of the brightest jewel in the Crown. Churchill declared in 1940 that he had not become the Kings Prime Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire, but by the year of his death, 1965, that Empire had virtually passed away. Of course the British Empire had in a way only been transmuted* into the British Commonwealth. Although decolonisation, despite its difficult moments, did not cause a domestic crisis, the psychological adjustments which governments and people had to make to the changed conditions cannot be overlooked. The imperial myth that had underpinned British national existence for so long, crumbled, and the general feeling of loss that accompanied it cast ever more doubt on a world role for Britain. Many attempts have been made to define Britains essential character. Britain appears to some as a multi-national state or as a national one to others. Its distinctive cultural attributes have all received considerable emphasis and central funding. For many it remains undesirable to seek an integral nationalism, though some might feel attracted to this view. Sometimes people talk very vividly about a federation of Britain as a structure capable of embracing the totality of relations within the island. As someone once said, Britain is a house with many mansions, which can and should contain Ulster (Northern Ireland) and Clydeside (Scotland) within the United Kingdom for so long as this remains the wish of most inhabitants. We, Europeans, live in a world that is equally marked by a quest for unity -- not uniformity -and at the same time, paradoxically, for individuality.
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1.1.12 The way we never were. Cultural icons and their value
It is very risky to reduce something as complex and diverse as identity to some images, objects, rituals, behaviour patterns and current practices that we often call cultural icons. Cultural icons, nevertheless, like all cultural clichs and stereotypes have some value as they are short-cuts to acquiring authentic knowledge about cultural identities. Some years ago the Brits were invited by a prestigious paper to respond to a questionnaire regarding the cultural icons of Britishness. In the Daily Telegraph of October 8, 1995, the results of the opinion poll appeared. When reading the readers reactions, what becomes apparent is the difficulty of essentializing a very complex and heterogeneous phenomenon like British society today. What shone through the respondents answers was also the fact that when the English are debating Britishness, they are really debating Englishness. Many are inclined to attribute to Britain icons and traditions, which are deeply English. In some cases using Britain for England represents an attempt to find a term that sounds more pluralistic than England. Think first! Before moving on, try and predict what the British have chosen as cultural icons of Britishness, i.e. images, social practices, customs, food, meals, everyday routines that in some way or another even we, foreigners, have come to identify as typically English. Write down your answer in the space provided and then check it against the next paragraphs.
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Some of the cultural icons that surfaced were: vicars on bicycles, thatched cottages*, net curtains, changing trains at Crewe (an important railway junction in Cheshire, N-W England), Brief Encounter (a famous British film directed by David Lean in the 50s), walking the dog, ducks on the village pond, orderly queues, Spitfires (aircraft flown by the British in World War II), God Save the Queen/King*, Magna Carta*, Trooping the Colour*, the Salvation Army playing carols outside Fortnums*, the white cliffs of Dover*, Beefeaters*, Francis Drake*, Stonehenge*, a robin in the snow*, half-timbering*, Marks and Spencer*, . However, nearly all the interviewees agreed upon five items of Englishness: cricket on the green, pubs, church bells, The Last Night of the Proms* and... fish and chips. We should add however that over 90 per cent of the fish and chips shops are run by members of ethnic minorities. Other important icons are the motto of the Royal House, the phrase that belongs to the Royal Familys coat of arms (Dieu et mon droi God and my right) but also to the sacred institution of monarchy itself. The present-day Queen can claim a royal lineage stretching back virtually unbroken to the West Saxon King Cerdic* in the 5th century. But if we look in detail at the Royal Family tree, it turns out to have been anything but British. In the 1000 years since the death of the last English monarch Harold Godwinson* in the 10th century, there have been neo-French Normans in the 11th, French Angevins and Plantagenets* in the 12th, 13th and 14th, Welsh Tudors*, Scottish Stuarts*, a Dutch Prince of Orange at the end of the 17th century and the Germans Hanoverians* throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. These foreign kings and queens have made it their habit to marry a succession of French, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Prussian, German and Greek consorts.
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Think First! Before reading on, reflect on the fact that people can hardly think of a more typically British festive occasion than Christmas. Use the space provided and write what you think is typically British about Christmas in Britain. Read the next paragraph to check your answers.
When the British have a traditional Christmas Dinner, they eat an Aztec bird (turkey) by an Alsatian tree (fir-tree), followed by a pudding spiced with sub-tropical preserves, while in England itself the most popular of Christmas carols still tells us of a Bohemian king Wenceslas to music taken from a Swedish Spring song. Similarly, Santa Claus is Dutch; pantomime is Italian and crackers are French. The Yule log* is Viking (and the Yule Tide is another name for The Twelve Days of Christmas). Shakespeare, an institution in himself, a supreme celebrator of Englishness, ransacked the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome and of medieval and Renaissance Europe in search of plots, characters and inspiration for his plays. The sources of Hamlet are a Latin history of Denmark and a story from a French collection of Histoires Tragiques (Tragical Stories). Only 10 of his 37 plays are set in England, two in mythical Ancient Britain, a further 10 in Italy, five in France, four in Rome and four in Greece. A last argument comes from the English language, whose vocabulary is another example of a heavy ransacking of the lexicons of the many cultures it came into contact with. The legacy of multiple linguistic invasions is present in Modern English. The vocabulary of English is a heterogeneous multilingual hotchpotch. Maybe no other language is so diverse in its provenance*. Not only Dutch, Danish and German, Old Norse, Old French or Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, but also Arabic (soda, alcohol) Gujarati (bungalow), Hindi (chintz), Mexican (tomato), Chinese (tea), Haitian (potato), Persian (caravan, sofa), Australian (budgerigar), Polynesian (tattoo). Scones and crumpets traditionally served with tea are both Dutch words. Toast and marmalade are French and Portuguese respectively. 22
Britain is a multilingual country par excellence. Today Londoners alone speak nearly 200 languages other than English, with a quarter of Londons school pupils speaking another language at home. Widely spoken languages include Punjabi 52 per cent of British Asians speak it; Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Caribbean Creole/Patois. Pluralism in Britain requires expansion of the vision of what it is to be British. There is a double consciousness about being both Welsh and Scottish and at the same time British or British and European. It is often said that nationalities are not like hats; human beings can and do put on several at a time. We live in a world where it is possible to hold, value and reconcile separate identities.
Key Concepts
stereotype clich census devolution Home Rule hybrid identity ethnical purism multicultural Commonwealth decolonisation bank holidays common law holidays Established Church cultural icons coat of arms
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Glossary
allegiance = loyalty, faith and dutiful support to leader, country, idea etc. Angevins and Plantagenets = royal family of England from 1154 to 1399 which included Henry II, Richard II and Richard III. Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, father to Henry II, often used Plantagenet to name his English royal descendants. bank holiday = an official holiday (on a day other than Saturday and Sunday) when banks, post offices and factories as well as many shops are closed. Beefeater = soldier who wears a special old-fashioned uniform (which dates back to the 15th century) and acts as a ceremonial guard in the Tower of London. bobbing (apple-) = trying to pick up apples floating on water using only ones mouth and not ones hands (typical of Halloween parties). Caernarfon = a small holiday town on the coast of NW Wales which is well-known for its castle that has hosted since the late 13th century the investiture of the monarchs first born son as Prince of Wales. Canterbury = a small city in SE England, famous for its cathedral, which is the chief church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England. Cerdic = (in Anglo-Saxon tradition) the first Germanic king of Wessex. There are some accounts of military campaigns that he fought in during the fifth and sixth centuries which are recorded mainly in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The most interesting fact about Cerdic is that his name is Celtic and not Germanic, this could either be because his parents in naming him were influenced by the surrounding Celtic culture or that he was in fact part Celtic himself, rather than pure Germanic. census = an official counting of a countrys total population, complete with other important information about the economic, professional, religious, cultural structure of the population. In Britain there is usually a census every ten years, and the latest from 2001 marked a century since the first modern census was organized. clich = an idea or expression used so often that it has lost much of its expressive force, it has turned into a platitude. Chamberlain, Joseph = member of the Liberal Party, a leader of the Radicals, whose successful social reforms made him a national political figure. He was a minister in Gladstones first government but resigned over the issue of Irish Home Rule. This action helped to 24
bring down the Liberal government. Chamberlain became leader of the Liberal Unionists and in 1886 he formed an alliance with the Conservative Party. He wanted to transform the British Empire into a united trading block. His son, Neville Chamberlain, also became a leading figure in politics. Churchill, Sir Winston (1874-1965) = English politician who was the Prime Minister of Britain during most of the Second World War. He is unanimously admired and remembered for his great leadership of the nation, for his famous speeches and brilliant sense of humour. coat of arms = set of patterns or pictures usually pained on a shield or shield-like shape, used by a noble family, town council, university as their special sign, symbol. The Commonwealth = a loose association of states with no formal constitution or rules, among which only a few, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, remain dependencies of Britain. There are 50 odd states within the Commonwealth, - nearly one-third of the worlds independent states with a combined population of over 1.5 billion, around one quarter of the total population of the world. The Queen is recognised as Head of the Commonwealth. In 16 countries, including Canada and Australia, she is also Head of State. Thirty countries, like Zimbabwe, India, Guyana, Ghana, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cyprus, etc., are republics and six of them, like Brunei, Malaysia, Lesotho and Tonga have their own royal families common law holiday = traditional holidays whose origins go back to the common law, the unwritten law of England based on judges decisions and custom rather than on written law passed by Parliament cultural icon = a person, object, work of art, place, practice invested with special symbolic value for a nation, with a particular representational force for an entire culture decolonisation = withdrawal of a state from its former colonies, leaving them independent. This process was accelerated a great deal after World War II. devolution = the transfer (or devolving) of governmental or personal power to a person or group at a lower or more local level. The second referendum for devolution organized in Wales and Scotland in September 1997 was successful and on 6 May 1999 elections were held in the two countries and their parliaments were reopened after 500 and 300 years, respectively. Dissenting (churches) = separation from the Church of England of various religious faiths because of their refusal to accept doctrines of the Established Church.
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Drake, Sir Francis (1540-1596) = English navigator and important courtier of Queen Elizabeth I*. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. He led the English navy to victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Dover (white cliffs of) = a town in SE England known as a port from which ships travel to and from France carrying passengers and goods. The port is below some high cliffs which can be seen from a distance. English people say that the first sight of the white cliffs of Dover is a sign that one is near home again after travelling. epistemological = relating to the method and grounds of knowledge. Established Church = official, state church established by law (in England and in Scotland where the Presbyterian Church is the Established Church). ethnical purism = a meaningless attempt to search for an untainted, pure essence of a nation, unspoilt by foreign influences. etnogenesis = the long process of the creation, shaping of a group of people, of a nation. Fortnums (Fortnum and Mason) = a famous food store in Piccadilly, London which sells quality goods and is thought of as being a place where rich people buy their supplies and go for their afternoon tea. ghoulish (ghoul) = spirit preying on corpses in Muslim superstition; sinister, morbid. God Save the Queen/King = the British national anthem which originated in a patriotic song first performed in 1745. On official occasions it is usual to sing the first stanza only, the words of which are as follows: God save our gracious Queen! / Long live our noble Queen! / God save the Queen! / Send her victorious, / Happy and glorious, / Long to reign over us, / God save the Queen!. Godwinson (Harold) = the earl of Godwin and his son Harold II dominated the last years of Anglo-Saxon history bringing to an end the House of Wessex (802-1066). half-timbering = an old, traditional style of house building with the wood of the frame showing in the walls, especially in the outer walls. Hanoverian = a line of kings and queens who originally came from Hanover (NW Germany) and who reigned between 1714 and 1901. hindrance = act of stopping, obstructing or delaying the development of a person, activity, etc. 26
hybrid identity = mixed, plural, heterogeneous identity as opposed to pure, homogeneous identity
Home Rule = self-government by an area that was once politically dependent. It is also used with reference to the nationalist movement in Ireland between 1870 and 1921 when the Free Irish State was established. Jedi = good, noble characters that were featured in the popular science fiction film Star Wars (directed by Steven Spielberg). Leek = vegetable related to onion, but with lower leaves and bulb in cylindrical white form; Welsh national emblem.
Figure 1.5 Leek - Welsh national symbol
Lent (Lenten) = period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve of 40 weekdays devoted to fasting and penitence. lingua franca = a language serving as medium between different nations whose own languages are not the same; system providing mutual understanding. Magna Carta = a famous document in British history agreed by King John at Runnymede, near London, in 1215, Britains best known constitutional document. It is considered to be the earliest monument to English freedom and the basis for all further legislation defining civil rights. Marks and Spencer = one of a group of very well-known department stores found in mainly large towns in Britain selling clothes, food, and other goods for the home under the name St Michael. milieu = environment, social surrounding, state of life. offal = inner organs of animals (liver, kidneys, lungs) used as food. preclude = exclude, prevent, make impracticable. Proms = concerts in which parts of the audience stand. These performances of classical music are held over a period of several weeks every summer in the Royal Albert Hall in London. They were established by Henry Wood in 1895 and have become a great national event. The Last Night is a very special occasion when the second part of the programme always consists of some well-loved Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural 27
tunes which the standing crowds sing along with. The programme ends with Sir Edward Elgars Land of Hope and Glory and people sing it while waving Union Jacks. provenance = (place of) origin. reductionist = an unjustifiably simplistic, narrow and limiting perspective robin (in the snow) = a common small European bird with a brown back and wings and a red breast. A robin in the snow is one of the most frequent motifs represented on British Christmas cards. Royal Coat of Arms (also shortened to Royal arms) = heraldic symbol of the British Royal House consisting of a shield topped by a helmet and a lion bearing the Royal crown and flanked by two rampant (standing) animals: a lion and a unicorn, surrounded by a garter. In the design, the shield shows the various royal emblems of different parts of the United Kingdom: the three lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion of Scotland in the second and the harp of Ireland in the third. It is surrounded by a garter bearing the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ('Evil to him who evil thinks'), which symbolises the Order of the Garter, an ancient order of knighthood of which the Queen is Sovereign. The shield is supported by the English lion and Scottish unicorn and is surmounted by the Royal crown. Below the motto of the Sovereign, Dieu et mon droit ('God and my right') appears. The plant badges of the United Kingdom -- rose, thistle and shamrock -- are often displayed beneath the shield.
Figure 1.6 The Royal Coat of Arms
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The function of the Royal Coat of Arms is to identify the person who is Head of State. The royal arms are borne only by the Sovereign. They are also used in many ways in connection with the administration and government of the country, on coins, in churches and on public buildings. shamrock = clover, trefoil, used as symbol of Ireland
Figure 1.7 Shamrock symbol of Ireland
Sikh = a member of a religion (Sikhism) that developed from Hinduism in the 16th century to become a completely separate religion which is important in modern India. Male Sikhs usually have beards and wear turbans. stereotype = fixed mental impressions, a fixed set of ideas about what a particular type of person or thing is like, which is wrongly believed to be true in all cases. Stonehenge = a group of very large and tall stones arranged in circles which stand on the Salisbury Plain in S England. They date back to Megalithic times (3500-3000 BC) and their functions - either astronomical or religious or both - are still the subject of heated debate. Stuart = royal family of England and Scotland from James I (1603) to Anne (1714). thatched cottages = a house in the country with a roof covering of straw, reeds, etc. They are considered to be lovely and oldfashioned, and there are only a few hundreds left in Britain as the maintenance of the roof is extremely costly. thistle = prickly plant with globular heads of purple flowers; Scottish national emblem
Figure 1.8 Thistle Scottish national emblem
transmute = change from one form, nature, substance into another.

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Trooping the Colour = a ceremony held on the British Queens official birthday in June when many horses and foot soldiers march across Horse Guards Parade in London carrying their flags, and the Queen herself takes the salute. Tudor(s) = a famous dynasty of British monarchs inaugurated by Henry VII in 1485 and which came to an end with the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Yule Log = a sacred log. Before Christian times it was customary for the pagans to make huge fires on winter solstice day to honour the Great Sun at a most critical moment of the year. A log wasvthen taken from the big communal fire and used to light the fire in individual homes. (The most probable etymology for the Romanian Crciun originates in the ancient name of the same sacred log. Both the Ukrainians and Albanians call the log that is traditionally burned on the shortest night of the year to help the waning god krcum or keregum ). Derived from the Danish yule.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Roughly, the verses mean: Should old friends be forgotten, And never remembered (brought to mind)? Should old friends be forgotten, And days of long ago. For (the sake of) long ago, my dear, For (the sake) of long ago, Well drink a toast For the sake of long ago!
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1.2. The making of a nation: historical invasions and their contribution to the ethnogenesis of the British. The major waves of immigration 1.2.1 What is a nation?
Think First! Nation is a concept that we often take for granted rarely questioning its meaning or its appropriacy in usage. Before reading on, take a minute to reflect on your understanding of the term. What does the term refer to? What does it include and what does it exclude? Use the space provided below to write down your answer. It would be a good idea to add this answer to your portfolio so that you could further clarify this important concept with your peers and tutor during tutorials.
In the context of the contemporary globalized world concepts such as nation-states, sovereignty, independence or autonomy tend to lose their absolute value. They increasingly demand that one gains a broader perspective on issues such as national identities. Leopold Von Ranke a great German historian of the 19th century developed a concept of the nation that continues to carry weight even today. Defining the nation as a universalist concept, Ranke stresses the role of nations in history and the belief that the nation was a divinely created unit at work in universal history, with each nation having its own appointed moment of destiny. However, the nation is not only a unifying concept but also exclusive and divisive, stressing a difference between a particular society and its neighbours. It provides a narrow working frame, because what we now perceive as national boundaries had in the past little or no reality. People should be more interested in discovering here the episodes of interchange, of the continuous intermingling of cultural elements which individuals could define as cultural osmosis*.
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An example is the border between Wales and England. Herefordshire and Shropshire are part of England, and their inhabitants are English with all the appropriate mental equipment that goes with it (in the map below you can find them under the coding SAL and HEF). But in fact these border counties have been the scene of continuous intermingling between the Welsh and English cultures over a long period of time. The same point may also be made about the border between England and Scotland, which was drawn at one time to include the Lothians* (Midlothian, East and West Lothian are clustered together as L, E and W on the map below) as within England and at another to include Celtic Cumbria* (you can find Cumberland marked as CUL in the map below) within the kingdom of Strathclyde*. The modern distinction between Ulster and south-west Scotland did not exist in the late middle ages, since the channel dividing the two areas served as a unifying element for the post-Viking society which occupied the isles.
Figure 1.9 A Map of the British counties
With this pattern in mind let us see how the history of the various nations of the British Isles transcends the internal boundaries of later date. 32
Thus the Roman Conquest, the barbarian invasions, the Viking raids, the Norman Conquest, the Reformation*, CounterReformation* and the Industrial Revolution* were events that affected the British Isles as a whole and brought about crucial changes in the models of interaction and exchange within these isles and between the British Isles and Europe.
1.2.2 The Celtic past and its posterity

Let us begin with the Celts. This episode is generally seen as an arena for the confrontation of two distinct races, the Celts and Anglo-Saxons. In fact we are dealing here with linguistic and cultural differences. Both linguistic branches stem from a common IndoEuropean* stock, there are many similarities in their tribal organisation, religious beliefs, social classes characteristic of the configuration of Indo-European societies. Scholars are divided on the issue of migration, especially on its definition as conquest, extermination and displacement. Many are supporters of an anti-migrationist point of view or of the processual approach*, which favours a pattern of interaction between local communities with the subsequent fashioning of a nuclear area, of a style zone. They reject the theories about the advent of the war-mad Indo-European tribes emerging from a proto-Indo-European fatherland. Such catastrophe theories postulate the utter extermination of the peaceful Neolithic* farmer cultures and the consequent displacement of ideology, pantheon (all their deities, gods) and social organization. The processual approach highlights, on the contrary, interaction, exchange networks of complementary crafts and episodes of convergence and divergence, of continuous development. SAQ 1 In the case of Celtic, the lower status language survived especially in place names: Wear, Don, Ouse, Dore, Rye, Avon, Thames, London; we also have several river names from the Celtic substratum of English, all derived from Isca (water): Axe. Exe, Esjk, Usk, Wiske, and also a few words such as tor, crag, combe, bin, brock, avon. The number of words is much more limited than in the case of the Thraco-Dacian substratum of 161 words. What words belonging to the Thraco-Dacian substratum of Romanian can you remember? Check your findings against the answer given in the Answers section.
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The Celts were among the four great Barbarian peoples known alongside the Scythians, Persians and Libyans. These indigenous elements, the communities with which the Romans came into contact in the 1st century BC were Celtic-speaking, iron-using societies organized on a tribal pattern. All over Britain there are also clear indications of a unity of artistic expression, of ritual and religious beliefs. The British Celts were neither among the earliest Celts nor among those of widest distribution. But on the other hand, these Celts have left us the most complete picture of their civilization, since they enjoyed freedom from foreign, especially Roman, conquest longer than their continental neighbours. In parts they escaped such influences altogether and thus preserved their culture in a purer form. Their culture, language and art also indicate that they shared a common culture with the Celts of continental Europe, groups of whom crossed the Alps and sacked Rome in 390 BC. In her classic work, Pagan Celtic Britain, Anne Ross assembles evidence in favour of a common pattern reflected in attitudes and beliefs: a reverence for rivers and wells, the cult of the severed head, totemic animals and plants. SAQ 2 In her book Urme celtice n spiritualitatea i cultura romneasc (Univers, Bucuresti, 1972) Virginia Cartianu offers a comparative analysis of similar practices, rituals, artefacts and iconographic motifs in Romanian traditional society and art, underlining the lasting effects of Celticity on Romanian territory. Three of the items listed below are not Celtic. Can you guess which they are? Check your findings against the answer provided in the Answers section. contracts reinforced by oaths with no written support, written contracts signed by both parties, oaths taken on a hot iron, reinforcing contracts by curses, blood brotherhood, marriage fairs (such as the famous Mount Gaina Fair), the head considered the seat of the soul; sacredness of the severed head (endowed with prophetic gifts); the wheel; a cult of roses; circumscribed cross; a cult of sacred stones; 34
a cult of sacred trees; scroll and spiral motifs; boars, stags, the horse; pigs and sows; the raven, the crow; the swan torcs; temples; communication with the underworld through various objects and practices; sacrifices for the duration of a new building.
Figure 1.10 A Celtic torc
1.2.3 The Roman Conquest a blessing in disguise?

The Roman Conquest led to a social and cultural revolution. South of a line between Lincoln and Lyme Bay, various Celtic kingdoms lost their independence and were incorporated into the empire. The southern Lowlands formed a military province with the most Romanised section of Britain. North and west, a zone existed over which there was military rather than administrative control.
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Figure 1.11 A Map of Roman Britain
When we speak about the blessing in disguise, and the modernizing effects of the Roman Conquest, it is sometimes forgotten that a process of modernization had already been under way in the south, where social change, the development of larger political units, urbanisation and a wider market economy, accompanied by a certain level of literacy and numeracy, determined some people to term this development prior to the actual Conquest as Indirect Romanization. Think first! Before you read the next paragraph try to anticipate what the great benefits of the Roman conquest of Celtic Britain might have been. Think of a similar process undergone by the Roman province of Dacia. Write your answer in the space provided below and dont forget to include it in your portfolio for further discussions during your tutorials.
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Modernisation was greatly accelerated after the Claudian invasion of 43 A.D.: the setting up of a literate bureaucracy, rationalization of the infrastructure of settlements, development of a centralised road system, refinement of manners, of domestic comfort (villas, mosaics, central heating, sewage), etc. SAQ 3 The Roman Baths in the city of Bath constitute the best preserved Roman religious baths from the ancient world. Why were the Baths so important for the Romans so as to name a city after them? A comparison with similar places in Romania will certainly help you to come up with the right answer.
Figure 1.12 The Great Bath Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural
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Figure 1.13 The Gorgons head
Figure 1.14 Goddess Minerva
Of all Romanising influences, the most important was undoubtedly Christianity. The coming of St. Patrick to Northern Ireland and of other missionaries to the southern half of the country is normally seen as part of the history of the Christian Church. In cultural terms, however, it marked the opening up of Ireland to the values of Rome; it made Ireland part of the Roman-led globalisation process that was going on at the time. The success of the new faith in Ireland should not be exaggerated, since many traditional aspects of Irish life survived for many centuries. But the splendid isolation of Ireland was broken down during this period. The Christian Church was no longer a network of sects: its organization was monarchical in the sense that both the Emperor and the Pope exercised a great deal of power. Latin was the sacred language of the Church, and its centre was Rome. The Christian missionaries to Ireland in the course of the 5th century were also agents of Romanisation. There were other marked differences between the religions formerly professed and Christianity. The Druids* and filids* of the Celts committed to memory tens of thousands of verses, a process stretching over a period of 20 years or so. Christianity, on the other hand, was a religion of the book, so it also brought literacy in its wake, no matter that it functioned on a restricted scale. Thus, around the year 400 A.D., we can easily perceive a contrast between cultural areas. England south of a line from the Thames estuary was heavily Romanised, whilst a second cultural area including Scotland, Ireland and Wales was made up of societies still rather heavily local in their outlook. Here local kinships prevailed as well as the patronage of local aristocratic elites and, although the impact of the Christian teaching was very powerful, these societies still clung to their own rites of passage, to old institutions like fosterage* and wake*, and in general, to immemorial customs. Over much of the British Isles, the Celtic-speaking world survived the arrival and departure of the Roman legions. The vitality of local cultures led to the invention or re-editing of origin legends and genealogies of founding heroes, narrative histories which were eventually committed to writing in the early middle ages (amongst 38
the most famous examples: The Arthurian cycle and the Cornish legend of Tristan and Iseult).
1.2.4 The Anglo-Saxon invasion

For the next important chapter of British history, the AngloSaxon invasion, we have as an extraordinary source of information, the work of the monk, great scholar and historian Bede (mostly known as the Venerable Bede), who completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in 731. It is an account related from the angle of the invaders, who were pagan while their victims were Christian. Bede solved the problem by attributing the English victory to the working of Divine Providence. The character of this invasion has to be judged critically. We know from archaeological evidence that the continuous history of Anglo-Saxon settlements actually began under Roman rule, round the year 400. We should also avoid an understanding of this invasion as catastrophe-ridden, complete with massacres and the total destruction of villas, Roman castra, etc. The Roman towns were not totally abandoned, they became the tuns or settlements (manors) of the powerful Anglo-Saxon chieftains. There is ample evidence that the English knew what a ceaster was -- a word used with remarkable consistency in place names: Mameceaster (Manchester) or Ventanceaster (Winchester). There are hints at the clashes of different cultures in the 6th and th 7 centuries. The impact of Christianization was important, but for many bretwaldas or Brytenwaldas (these were sub-kings, a concept that indicates the instability of political power and dominance in a heptarchy* marred* by internal battles for power) who depended on warfare for amassing wealth, the conversion to Christianity was skindeep. It was a society riddled with feuds, and the succession to kingdoms was fluid and uncertain. The criterion of eligibility for kings was gift-giving or potlatch*. The splendour of the great royal shipburial at Sutton Hoo (discovered in 1939), shows that kingdoms were won and lost for such treasures, a trait that the Germanic tribes shared with many heroic warrior societies on the continent. The pagan ship-burial of Sutton Hoo and the pagan aristocratic ideas expressed in Beowulf (8th century epic about the adventures and fortunes of Beowulf) or in the heroic lines of the Battle of Maldon (a poem celebrating a great battle against the Vikings in 991), may serve as a reminder that there was no instant Christianization. It was a world in which if a king lost support he quickly perished and his kingdom with him. Beowulf fights with monsters and dragons, inhabitants of a pre-Christian mental world. When he is killed, his followers lay him with rich treasures in a mound overlooking the sea, just as the East Angles had done for their king at Sutton Hoo:
Impact of Christianisation
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Then the warriors rode around the barrow They praised his manhood and the prowess of his hands, They raised his name; it is right a man Should be lavish in honouring his lord and friend. They said that he was of all the worlds kings The gentlest of men, and the most gracious, The kindest to his people, the keenest for fame. SAQ 4 You have read above about the instability, violence and some other features of the Anglo-Saxon world. Can you think of some suitable adjectives to characterise the AngloSaxons? Checks your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
Bede also celebrates the harmonious relations of Ireland with Northumbria, and of Scotland with N England. The art of the period indicates the existence of close links between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria and the Irish kingdoms. Cooperation and exchange were not, however, the sole models of interaction. There was also continuous tension and hostility between these cultures, as proved by: Offas Dyke (an earthwork nearly 150 miles long) built in the 8th century and forming a continuous barrier between Wales and England from sea to sea. Military victory was accompanied by the persistent advance of agrarian settlements and by the development of the manorial system the creation of nuclear settlements, of villages and open fields, and the administrative division into counties, shires and hundreds (subdivisions of shires, each hundred having its own court for settling local business). The Anglo-Saxons were themselves ethnically mixed, originating in several Germanic cultures (Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Frisians etc); they cannot be judged as a monolithic entity, there were great differences between their kingdoms. The sharpest 40
difference was between, on the one hand the older kingdoms of the east and south coasts - East Anglia, Essex, Kent and Sussex - and, on the other, the newer, more powerful, expanding kingdoms of the north, the Midlands and south-west Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex in particular. Their settlement and the diffusion of their cultural model led English society towards a more mobile structure, which valued loyalty to lord rather than loyalty to kin, the latter being typical of more static, more traditional societies. Monarchical institutions stood a much better chance of developing in this type of society. It was a more fluid social structure that encouraged trade as an honourable, socially acceptable activity. There was a certain amount of localism in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but this trait should not be overemphasized. Pre-Christian Ireland had indeed been tribal, rural, hierarchical and based on a kin ethos, but from the 5th century on, it underwent considerable change, despite the survival for many centuries to come of old institutions and beliefs. There was still polygamy, and up to the 12th century, even the ancient tarbfeis* survived and an overall obsession with rituals. Despite the important changes that the British Isles saw from the 5th to 8th centuries, the late Roman Empire exercised a continuing influence upon all the cultures of the British Isles, which is why there are sufficient grounds for calling these centuries the Post-Roman centuries. The conversion of this traditional society of kings, warriors and farmers to Christianity was initiated by Pope Gregory the Great in 597 and according to tradition he had seen English youths in Rome and pronounced them not Angles but angels. Despite the relative success of the conversion in its first stages, in the next centuries Anglo-Saxon monks were going to become some of the most devout missionaries in the whole of Europe, many of them returning to their lands of origin, Saxony or Frisia, preaching and setting up sees* (like St. Boniface). SAQ 5 Read the following passage from Bedes History: This is how the present life of man on earth, King, appears to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us. You are sitting feasting with your aldermen* and thegns* in winter time; the fire is burning on the hearth in the middle of the hall and all inside is warm, while outside the wintry storms of rain and snow are raging; and a sparrow flies swiftly through the hall. It enters in at one door and quickly flies out through the other. For the few minutes it is inside, the storm and wintry tempest cannot touch it, but after the briefest moment of calm, it flits from your sight, out of the wintry storm and into it again. So this life of man appears but for a moment; what follows or indeed what went before we know not at all. (quoted in the Oxford History of Britain, ed. Kenneth O. Morgan, p. 73).
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What is the message of this famous text? What is the King urged upon to do?
The fact that Bede was a devout man of the Church attempting the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons should lead you to a correct answer.
1.2.5 The Viking invasion

An important consequence of the Viking invasion is the weakening of the power of the Roman image. The Old Order falls; the equilibrium of the old cultures is disturbed by the onset of a new sea-borne power. In 789 the first ships of the Danes land on the English coast. The raids in the north are far more serious and the old centres of learning in the monasteries of Lindisfarne, Jarrow, Iona were plundered. Mobility seems to be a crucial factor in conquest. Thanks to their longships, (see picture below) a crucial invention, the Vikings managed to dominate for a long period much of the Irish and North Seas. When it came to settlement patterns, the new social order was broadly based upon farmers.
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Figure 1.15 A Viking longship
Along the East Coast of Britain, Anglo-Saxon England ceased to exist in any meaningful sense. The literate Christian culture linked to Rome and to the Carolingian Empire*, was replaced by a pagan, oral culture, which looked to Denmark and Norway. In the second half of the eleventh century the society that emerged was quite different from that of previous ages, and there were profound changes. The changes in urban development, trade and shipwrighting were of such scope that Anglo-Scandinavia might be an appropriate term for the resulting mix. Besides the market orientation (it is said of the Vikings that with them piracy and trade were so inextricably woven, that trade was piracy and piracy their trade), they added substantially to the proportion of freemen* in the areas that they controlled Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk. The typical Viking was a farmer in arms, not a warrior seeking to control unfree labour. Their society was far more flexible and less authoritarian than the one it replaced. The Viking invasion, by mobilizing the resistance of the Anglo-Saxons, paved the way or served as ferment for the renewal of the whole society. The old-style lordship of the AngloSaxons gave way to feudal kingship with its distinctive features that were to reach maturity with the Norman Conquest. But if feudalism is understood literally, meaning the holding of land in return for military service, then a new monarchy was brought into existence by the Danish threat. This new-style monarchy could exert its power from Wessex over Mercia, Ireland as well as over the Danelaw*. The establishment of the new political order consisted in the functioning of the royal house as a bureaucratic base for professional armies, the promulgation of laws on the basis of royal authority rather than the expression of local customs, the reinforcement of centralisation of power. However, the Viking influence was not evenly distributed and there were varying degrees of dominance in the different regions of Britain. The kingdom of Norway remained strong in Scotland until the middle of the 13th century, especially in the Western Isles, in Orkney and Shetland as well as in some Irish towns such as Waterford or Wexford. In the Danelaw, the Norse influence was deeply felt long after the Norman Conquest.
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1.2.6 The Norman Conquest and its consequences

One could of course speculate on the consequences of a different course of history for the British Isles had the battle of Hastings (1066) turned out differently. The Viking as well as the Norman Conquests focus our attention on those common or specific cultural traits that evolve from such accidents of history. The nature of the society that emerges and develops gradually after the Norman Conquest is, in traditional terms, of a colonial type. The Norman successes created a French-speaking ascendancy throughout the British Isles and, as in other instances of elite dominance, the French language left its mark on the language of the conquered. It resulted in the doubling of the English vocabulary, in itself indicative of the profound changes that marked British society and which surfaced at the level of expression. This partly accounts for the huge menu of words we can choose from today. SAQ 6 Identify the words of French origin in the list below. Many of them will look and sound familiar to you, because French and Romanian belong to the same group of languages Romance:
crown peace sovereign house regal kingly pig farmer army abbey lesson ham chamber prayer pity prince servant brother wife priest navy wardrobe cupboard sheriff castle yard cow deer hunting horse stone beef book parliament reign city town hamlet clerk parson convent earl thane goal scullery tea tomato window gate portal mercy veal court curtain battle war mother prince sir church lady pardon lord prison chain collar feast breakfast supper bacon mutton royal duke borough cushion woman man child pork
After you have identified each, group them under the following headings: 44 administration and law: manners and courtly life: home, household:
the military: religion: ranks:
Now check your findings against the answer provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
As to the colonial nature of society during the Norman Conquest, settlers continued to arrive well into the 12th century, displacing more and more English who had survived the first generation of conquest. The term Norman must be used with caution because it was not a pure entity but rather a generic term extending over Picard*, Breton* and Flemish* elements. Normanisation used various instruments to reform English society and impose a colonial ideology. If the Viking invasion brought about the fall of many aspects of the Old Order, the Norman Conquest completed the process. During the Viking centuries, the British Isles remained divided into distinct political and cultural communities, all of them affected to a greater or lesser extent by Norse influences. With the coming of the Norman Conquest, the communities of the British Isles were brought together at the aristocratic level, in Church and state, within a single cultural and political ascendancy looking towards France. At the end of the 13th century the political future of the British Isles seemed to be directed towards a unified Norman ascendancy. The Norman Scots were in favour of a kingdom of Scotland, in Ireland. They settled for real autonomy, and all this was made possible by the decision of England to seek an imperial future in France in the Hundred Years War*. Whilst these different Norman societies stuck to traditional structures of feudal lordship, London was established as a great trading metropolis. Progress, manufacturing, an increased degree of social mobility and market relations created a new reality that was already attracting important segments of the population to the Scottish Lowlands, the south-west of Ireland and south Wales. The future of Norman rule was to be influenced both by military enterprise and by factors quite out of human control, such as the Black Death*.
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1.2.7 A History of four nations? The major waves of immigration

The question of race had permeated the whole history of imperialism and the contacts established over five centuries between Britain and the peoples of the entire world. In the centuries following the Norman Conquest, immigration was mainly characterized by agricultural, financial, trading and industrial skills. Jewish money lenders had entered Britain with the Norman Conquest, and their financial talents were passed on later to the Lombard bankers from northern Italy (a connection still celebrated today in Lombard Street in the City of London). The expanding trade was influenced by the merchants of the Hanseatic League*, who set up trading posts in London and on the East Coast of England. Dutch and Flemish weavers arrived and contributed substantially to transforming England from a provider of wool into a European cloth manufacturer, contributing to the national wealth. Many of these became assimilated into the larger British society, but sometimes they preserved their own cultural traditions.
Dutch and Flemish immigrants
Gypsy and Black immigrants
French and Dutch Protestant immigrants
Although Britain was most encouraging towards immigration, from which it benefited immensely. It granted no rights to immigrants, who could be summarily expelled from the country. This happened with the German Hansa merchants, and especially with the Jews sacrificed in the interests of Christian piety by Edward I in 1290. Gypsies and blacks followed in the 16th century. The latter were largely associated with the slave trade (the first blacks arrived in Britain with the Roman army, when the African division of the Roman army was stationed on Hadrians Wall in the 3rd century). John Hawkins, one of those picturesque courtiers cum pirates in Elizabeths retinue, carried his first slave cargo in 1562. By 1650 slavery had become an important trade, bringing wealth, particularly to the ports on the south-west coast. Even before the formal abolition of slavery in 1833, there was tolerance, which enabled freed and escaped slaves, servants and other black people to live in Britain. There was a black community, mainly in London, which numbered some 15,000 by the mid-18th century (a community which mostly disappeared in the 19th century through intermarriage). In 1655 the Jews created their first permanent Jewish community as they flocked in after Cromwell* had removed the legal bars regarding their residence. The French Huguenots, escaping from Louis XIVs persecutions in the 1680s, were the only significant wave of immigration in the 17th century. Dutch Protestants likewise found a safe haven from religious persecution at home. For the next two centuries there was no more large-scale immigration into the country. In fact Britain was exporting more and more people herself, mainly to North America and expanding colonies worldwide. The growing attraction of North America towards the end of the 19th century caused some 79,000 European immigrants to leave Britain for America in addition to 210,000 Britons (John Oakland, British Civilization, Routledge, 1995:50-55). Although immigrants had formerly been allowed easy access to Britain, an increasing number of
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restrictions on newcomers imposed a gradual curb on immigration. At the 1871 census the number of people born outside the British Empire was quite low - 157,000 out of 31.5 million. SAQ 7 What are the major causes of immigration in your opinion? Write your answer in the space below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
But in spite of these low figures, immigration became increasingly a matter of concern in the 1930s, when a lot of Jews fled persecution in other parts of Europe to settle in Britain in the East End, traditionally a centre of immigrant concentration. A general xenophobic* feeling spread, while nationalism and the spymania (hysterical fear of spies) generated by the First World War increased. More and more people asked for immigration control. An Alien Restriction Act in 1919 was supposed to curb immigration substantially. However more refugees and immigrants arrived in the inter-war period during the world economic recession. A large number of Poles, Latvians and Ukrainians streamed into the country after World War II. Political and economic refugees Hungarian, Czechs, Chileans, Libyans, East African Asians, Iranians and Vietnamese continued to arrive in the 1950s. Before World War II, most of the immigrants to Britain came from largely White Old Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the late 40s this pattern was to reverse in favour of the largely coloured Commonwealth nations of India, Pakistan and the West Indies. In the face of this coloured Commonwealth immigration, racist attitudes and severe forms of discrimination greeted the arrivals. These people from the New Commonwealth in the 40s were specifically invited by government agencies to fill the vacant manual and lower paid jobs of an economy that had been shattered by the war. The Caribbean blacks were welcomed to work in public transport, manufacturing and the National Health Service. The first group of 492 Jamaicans arrived at Tilbury Docks in 1948.
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Figure 1.16 Empire Windrush
SAQ 8 The SS Empire Windrush carrying hundreds of young men and women from the Caribbean, docked in Tilbury. The ships arrival signalled the beginning of a mass migration from the disintegrating empire which was to have profound effects on Britain for the years to come. Here are some excerpts from a Speech by The Prince of Wales at the S.S. Empire Windrush Reception, 25 June, 1998: It is an immense pleasure to meet the Windrush veterans here today. Thank you for coming and for your contributions to this country during the war, when many of you fought for it, and since. Stoicism, patience and dignity is called for during difficult times. However, it would be wrong to dwell on these: we are here to celebrate. Equally, it would be insulting to suggest that all the optimistic expectations you had when you stepped off the Windrush were met. There are many obstacles to overcome: ignorance and prejudice, the challenge of finding decent housing and work, the general cultural shock and the sheer cold What does the Prince of Wales think about interracial relations in contemporary Britain? Write your answer in the space below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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Tens of thousands followed in the 50s, reaching a peak in the early 60s. By the 1970s coloured people had become a familiar sight in such towns as Glasgow, Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester. In the 70s a wave of Asians expelled from East Africa arrived, many of whom were business or professional workers. The East African colonies were granted independence from Britain in the 60s and during the colonial period Indians had settled there in large numbers with the encouragement of Britain. In 1969, the new Irish immigration was estimated at 750,000 from the Irish Republic and many thousands from Northern Ireland. In the 70s and 80s came Hong Kong Chinese and refugees from Vietnam, many of whom went into the catering business.
Summary
In this unit you have revised and enriched some of the previously acquired knowledge of Britain, its national symbols, its main institutions, social and cultural practices and traditions. It offered you the opportunity to engage with cultural stereotypes, with what we call cultural icons, to judge their essentialism as well as to challenge their relative, limited value. Whilst presenting the historical invasions and their contribution to the shaping of the British national identity, the second chapter of this unit aims at fighting commonly held views about the catastrophic and downright destructive character of historical invasions. Adopting a processual approach we can successfully illustrate such phenomena as cultural osmosis, exchange or acculturation. Comparisons are invited between the Romanization of Celtic Britain and that of the province of Dacia, as well as reflections on a common Celtic cultural stock. The main waves of immigration are then surveyed, highlighting the shaping of the post-war multicultural Britain, a situation that renders problematic the definition of Britain as an entity made up of four nations.
Key Concepts
nation-state cultural osmosis migration processual approach elite dominance ascendancy waves of immigration colonial ideology slave trade xenophobia (-ic) 49
Glossary
alderman = member of English county or borough council, next in dignity to Mayor. ascendancy = a position of power, influence and control. Black Death = the plague epidemic of the 14th century which reduced the population of England by one third and greatly influenced important social shifts such as the generalization of paid labour. Breton = native of Brittany in NW France. Carolingian Empire = second Frankish dynasty, founded by Charlemagne, a great leader, promoter of Christianity who was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800. colonial ideology = policy of maintaining colonies, mentality supporting the exploitation of allegedly backward and weak peoples under the pretext of civilizing them and helping them out of savagery Counter-Reformation = a Catholic reformation of the church in the 16 and 17th centuries in response to the claims of the Reformation. Cromwell, Oliver = an English general, politician and Puritan. He was leader of the parliamentarian army against King Charles I in the Civil War and became Lord Protector of England after the Kings execution in 1649. Cumbria = a county of NW England made up mostly of the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, which contains the beautiful Lake District national park. Danelaw = part of N and E England occupied by Danes in the 9th11th centuries. Druid = priest, magician, soothsayer, teacher of the Celts, one of the highest and most prestigious positions in Celtic societies. Most probably the etymology of the word can be traced to oak, the most sacred tree for Celts. So a druid was one who had the knowledge of the oak, hence a deep, great knowledge. elite dominance = in conquests and invasions episodes of dominance due to the accepted superiority of a certain economic, military, social or cultural system. filid = a bard, a poet of the Celts. Flemish = native of Flanders, a region of the Low Countries in what is now part of Belgium and Holland. 50
fosterage = tradition of severing childrens bond with their natural parents by sending them at an early age to live and work for a different family. freeman = one who is not a slave or a serf. Hanseatic league = trade organization of German towns which existed from the 13th to the 17th centuries to protect each other against competition from abroad. Bremen, Hamburg and Lbeck are still known as Hanseatic cities. heptarchy = government by seven rulers; the seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons in the 7th and 8th centuries: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. Hundred Years War (1337-1453) = war between England and France resulting from royal quarrels, particularly over land, and ended with the defeat of the English as they were pushed back out of France. immigration (waves of) = the process of entering another country to make ones life and home there. Indo-European = a large group of people who are said to have emerged from their homeland - according to most historians in the steppe land between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, in the early second millennium BC to dominate most of the rest of Europe and regions even farther afield in the Near and central East, due mostly to their mobility (they had domesticated the horse by 3000 BC). It also refers to a group of languages that includes most of those spoken in Europe, Iran and India. It was a British lawyer of the 18th century, William Jones, who first used the term to refer to languages such as Greek, Latin, German, English, Russian, French, Sanskrit or Persian as he found striking similarities in the words used in all these languages to name family relations, numerals, plants, etc. Industrial Revolution = rapid development of British industry by use of machines in the 18th and early 19th century; it triggered a whole range of radical changes in the economic, social and cultural spheres. Lothian = region in SE Scotland which contains the city of Edinburgh. mar = to spoil, disfigure, ruin. migration = movement from one place (country, town etc), to another, displacement of large numbers of people.
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nation-state = a large number of people of mainly common descent, language, history, usually inhabiting a territory bounded by defined limits and forming a society under one government. Neolithic age = the later stone age when ground or polished stone weapons and implements prevailed, an age characterized by revolutionary breakthroughs in the material and spiritual realms: farming, pottery, writing, urban planning, religion etc. Stone-using agricultural communities were established in Eastern Europe by the 6th millennium BC. osmosis (cultural) = intense process of cultural diffusion, dissemination and interaction. Picard = a native of Picardie, an extended region in N France. potlatch = a word of Polynesian origin designating a specific giftgiving practice still in existence in traditional societies. The aspirants to high social standing first amassed great wealth, and this was followed by huge tribal feasts. processual approach = a complex and unbiased perspective on invasions and conquests, that goes beyond a catastrophe-ridden view of them and lays emphasis on peer polity interaction, cooperation, acculturation etc. Reformation = the religious movement in Europe in the 16th century leading to the establishment of the Protestant Church (Martin Luther, Jean Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli are the greatest representatives of this movement). see = episcopal unit: e.g. the see of Canterbury; the papacy or papal court: e.g. Holy See, See of Rome. slave trade = procuring, transporting and selling as slaves, of human beings, especially of African blacks. Strathclyde = region in central Scotland whose centre is the city of Glasgow. tarbfeis = a rite also known as bulls dream, a shamanic divination practice for electing the king: the Druid gorged on the flesh of the sacred bull and in the trance that followed he found out the name of the future king of legendary Tara, the seat of kings. thane (thegn) = one holding land from a king by military service, ranking between ordinary freemen and hereditary nobles; in Scotland it could mean chief of clan. totem = animal, plant or object adopted as emblem of clan or individual on grounds of kinship. 52
wake = vigil, watch beside corpse before burial, lamentations and merry making in connection with it. xenophobia (-ic) = unreasonable fear and dislike of strange or foreign people, customs etc.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Some of the 161 words of Dacian origin are: prunc, mo, brad, copac, buz, grumaz, gard, strugure, mazre, balaur, viezure, a rbda, a speria, tare, mare, bucuros. The suffixes esc and ete are of the same origin as well as dava, the Dacian word for fortified settlement. Several names of rivers are of Dacian origin as well: Donaris (Dunre), Argessos (Arge), Samus (Some), Maris (Mure), Dierna (Cerna), Alutus (Olt). Ovid, the Roman poet, is believed to have written a number of poems in Dacian during his exile, but they had never been found. SAQ 2 The Celtic presence in the Pre-Roman Dacia is amply illustrated: Contracts sealed by typical gestures such as shaking hands, followed by toasts, or swearing on various objects, such as hot iron, or conjuring gods, or, on the contrary uttering curses are all typical of the Celtic world (Roman legislation is typically based on written agreements); Marriage fairs typical of Brittany, for example, in Northern France are also a Celtic practice; Birds and various animals had a sacred status in the Celtic pantheon and they were often subject to miraculous transformations or they helped the heroes and heroines in difficult situations: ravens, geese, swans or boars, pigs, sows, stags and horses. Boars and stags were often adopted as totems* in Celtic societies. Romanian fairy tales can attest to the magic status of pigs and boars; For the Celts the head was the seat of the soul and a severed head (like that of the famous Celtic hero Bran) continued to prophesy and inspire Celtic warriors even after beheading. In one of the over 900 variants of our national ballad Miorita, the shepherd asks to be killed by having his head severed; Torcs (close-fitting neck-rings) were sacred jewels believed to ward off evil forces, often worn in battles; The magic cauldron (or vat) is a favoured medium of miraculous transformation and regeneration; The iconographic motifs still found on the monumental gates of Maramures, on the houses, tombstones or domestic objects such as dowry chests found in Banat, Oltenia or Dobrogea attest to the Celtic influence: scrolls, spirals, horsemen, solar symbols (such as the wheel), etc; Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural 53
For the Celts there was uninhibited circulation between the world of the living and that of the dead, so they used to send messages to the dead and on their most important festivals there were special festivities honouring the dead. We can amply document such practices in Romania.
Thus the three items which are not Celtic are: written contracts, a cult of roses and temples. SAQ 3 A bath was a complex concept for the Romans addressing the human mind as well as the body: men sana in corpore sano (it was usually made up of a gym, a library, a meeting place where people could have a drink and socialize). The Great Bath in the city of Bath was accidentally discovered in the 19th century when a leak from the Kings Bath (built in the 12th century over the original Roman reservoir) had to be investigated and mended. In the Great Bath we can see the changing room (apodyterium) where the bathers stripped, then they moved into the hottest room (caldarium) for scraping, oiling, cleaning and hair and hard skin removal, then moved to the tepidarium to cool gently before an invigorating cold plunge in the frigidarium. SAQ 4 Should your answer not be comparable to the one given below, please revise section 1.2.4 of the unit. The Anglo-Saxon ethos can be described as one of loyalty, courage, heroism, devotion to ones lord (lordship based on kinship is far more important at this stage than kingship which is characteristic of a later date. A good example would be the poem The Battle of Maldon, in which a nobleman asks to be killed since his life has no meaning after the death of his lord on the battlefield). Their poetry and their songs also reveal a reflective, melancholy mood. The fleeting passage of time is a primary source of such melancholy reflections. SAQ 5 These famous words are ascribed by Bede to a Northumbrian nobleman who is urging King Edwin to accept Christianity, since life without faith can be compared to the miserable life of the bird which can only for a brief moment enjoy the good and righteous life. SAQ 6 administration and law: clerk, sovereign, crown, parliament, goal, prison, reign, royal, regal, city; religion: abbey, convent, prayer, priest, lesson, parson, mercy, pity, pardon; 54
manners and courtly life: chain, collar, feast, beef, bacon, veal, mutton, pork; home/household; castle, chamber, scullery, portal, curtain, supper, wardrobe, cushion; ranks: prince, duke, baron, sir, servant, farmer; military: army, navy, battle, peace.
SAQ 7 Should your answer not be comparable to the one given below, please revise section 1.2.7 of the unit. The major causes of immigration are: political and religious persecution, poverty, illiberal, totalitarian regimes, the need to join members of ones family. SAQ 8 The Prince of Waless attitude is twofold: on the one hand he acknowledges the black Brits contribution to a culturally diverse country, to British life in general but at the same time thinks that prejudice and discrimination remain everyday facts of life for many of them. SAA No. 1 Why is the enlarged definition of Britain as four nations in one still too narrow for defining Britishness? Send the answer to this question to your tutor. Your test paper should not exceed two pages (1000 words). In order to successfully complete the assigned task you should particularly review subchapter 1.2.7 about the major waves of immigration and also subchapters 1.2.2.-1.2.6 with regard to the ethogenesis of the Brits. An adequate coverage of the content required accounts for 70% of your grade while your linguistic accuracy accounts for the remainder of 30%. You could consider the bibliography below for further reading.
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Selected Bibliography
1. Cartianu,V. 1972. Urme celtice n spiritualitatea i cultura romneasc. Bucureti: Editura Univers, pp.45-46; 155-174 2. Dascl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timioara: Eurostampa, pp.22-35; 62-64 3. Irimia Anghelescu, M. Dicionarul universului britanic, Bucureti: Humanitas 4. McDowall, D. 1991. An Illustrated History of Britain. Harlow: Longman, 5. Nicolescu, A. 1999. Istoria Civilizaiei Britanice. Volumul I. Iai: Institutul European, pp.19-32 6. Room, A. 1996. An A to Z of British Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press
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Britain a multicultural society
Unit 2
BRITAIN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY? Unit Outline
Unit objectives 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7 CHAPTER I Britishness / Englishness / Europeanness hybrid, plural identities vs. national identities The resilience* of a term: Britain / British The history of an idea: devolution The legacy of the English revolution The Glorious Revolution Dissent and the industrial revolution Home Rule Devolution Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6 CHAPTER II Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain From immigration to multiculturalism A short historical survey of immigration in Britain Racism Racial relations in contemporary Britain and the fight against racial discrimination Factfile: The Lawrence case Ethnic / racial / national / cultural identities in a globalised world Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 2 Selected bibliography 58 59
59 63 63 66 69 73 76 79 79 84 87 87 88 94 96 99 101 103 104 104 105 107 107
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This unit traces in its first part the development of an idea, that of devolution that has already led to a debate of unprecedented breadth about the future of Britishness. The first chapter examines the troubled past of the provinces, the episodes of cultural exchange, of cooperation and amalgamation but also the more tense and critical moments of the unions history. It raises a question that no one can answer yet: are we faced with a steady process of dissolution of Britishness or with a new concept of Britishness? The second chapter of this unit discusses inter-racial relations from a multicultural perspective furthering respect and understanding for cultural diversity and inter-cultural communication. Beyond mind-sets, ideas and attitudes a multicultural framework assumes the establishment of institutional structures, legislation and public policies meant to translate ideas into social practice. British society is viewed in this unit through the lenses of racial discrimination and multiculturalism, highlighting great achievements but also setbacks in its pursuit of inter-racial justice and fairness. After you have completed the study of this unit, you should be able to: Unit objectives challenge an anglocentric* view of Britishness; identify the stages in the development of the idea of devolution; develop a critical reading of nationalist attitudes and cultural productions; identify and challenge most manifest forms of discrimination; identify and empathize with attempts at saving tradition and culture from the levelling effect of globalisation; recognize and use new specific concepts and cultural studies terminology.
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2.1 Britishness, Englishness, Europeanness hybrid, plural identities vs. national identities 2.1.1 The resilience of a term: British
Think First! Before you start reading, try to consider the following problems: Are the terms English and British interchangeable? Can you perceive any differences of meaning between British on the one hand and Scottish, Irish and Welsh on the other? Please remember to include your answer in your portfolio for further discussions during the tutorials.
I would like to consider first the cultural clashes, convergences and divergences that led to a definite type of relationship shaping certain identity formulas in the units that make up Britain. Britishness is not an isolated discrete phenomenon to be sharply differentiated from Irishness or Scottishness; neither is it so inclusive of those identities as the present-day situation suggests. There is much more talk about Europeanness in Scotland today than there is of Britishness. That is why quite a few historians hold the view that Britishness is undergoing a slow but definite process of dissolution.
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The term Britishness has had as troubled a history as the countries that make up the British Isles. The Britons were one of the migratory waves of Celtic tribes that settled mostly in Wales and England. A tentative etymology ascribes to both varieties briton or pryton the meaning of a tattooed person. The first reference to the British Isles, i.e. to the toponym, we owe to Herodotus who, adding to them the determinant kassiteride (rich in tin) refers to the resources of tin in the isles of Albion and Ierne (ca 445 BC). The ethnonym prydain (painted, tattooed body) in Welsh was transcribed by the Romans as britani. The term might have outlived the withdrawal of the Romans and the defeat of the Britons at the hands of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, because the regal style rex Britanniae (king of Britain) had an appeal to certain Saxon kings. William the Conqueror also liked to be regarded as monarch totius Britanniae (of the whole of Britain). Sometimes Britannia was taken to be synonymous with England, the first entity to be united. But some Scottish writers took exception to the fact that many English and foreigners used Britain as both the name of the Roman province and of the whole island. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Scottish writer John Major declared: At the present there are, and for a long time have been, to speak accurately, two kingdoms in the island: the Scottish kingdom, namely, and the EnglishYet all the inhabitants are Britons All men born in Britain are Britons, seeing that on any other reasoning Britons could not be distinguished from other races. It was James VI of Scotland and I of England who in 1604 proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, France and Ireland. The new title gained wide acceptance after the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707.
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SAQ 1 In the image below you can see the cover of a very important book debating the future of Britishness: Andrew Marrs The Day Britain Died published in 2000. Can you guess what the object wrapped up in the Union Jack is? What does the title of the book suggest? If Britain was born in 1707, could a date be ascribed to its death?
Figure 2.1 The front cover of A. Marrs book
So the term British is marked by inconsistency and has a lengthy but at the same time rather awkward pedigree. On both sides of the border people had been accustomed to think of themselves as English or Scots. They continued to do so even when referred to as Britons. The term North Britain gained status in Scotland but it was no longer deemed acceptable by the end of the 19th century, when Scotland returned with a vengeance. On the other hand there is no record of any English tendency to adopt South Britain or to describe themselves as South Britons.
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In fact, the English hardly considered themselves Britons. There was, however, a period of high enthusiasm in the whole nation in the mid-18th century -- a time when the British Empire was becoming solidly established, a time when everybody was proud to be British and when people felt obliged to ask every morning what victory there was for fear of missing one. British pride was expressed in a nationalist song written by the Scotsman James Thomson in 1742: Rule, Britannia, rule the waves; / Britons never will be slaves. It was probably the only occasion on which the English prided themselves on being British. By the end of the 19th century, Welsh identity no longer permitted talk of only two kingdoms. And what about England? British institutions developed and continue to exist in England. There are national museums, libraries, and galleries in Scotland and Wales, but there is nothing that is English national there. England has absorbed hundreds of thousands of Irish, Scottish and Welsh families. When history along national lines was the order of the day, English historians shifted quite freely between British and English. SAQ 2 The following paragraph is taken from an article by Professor Alan Pulverness, from Norwich Institute for Language Education. What does the author mean? Look at video footage of the England vs. Germany final in the 1966 World Cup, and youll see England supporters waving the Union Jack; fast forward 30 years to England vs. Scotland in the Euro 96 championship, and England supporters have reclaimed the cross of St George as a visible assertion of their group identity. Please write your answer in the space below (in no more than 150 words) and then compare it to that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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2.1.2 The history of an idea: devolution

Britain is today in the midst of radical changes: constitutional, legislative, cultural, on a scale that does not enable us yet to foresee the future configuration of the United Kingdom. The issue of Britishness is far more problematic now, with the multiple waves of immigration that started in the late 40s. The range of cultural mutations challenges Britishness in ways that would have been inconceivable at the beginning of the 20th century. Has Britishness become a structure able to accommodate and encourage the conversation of various cultures and multiple traditions? Can it permit, encourage, tolerate beliefs, values and practices which may have their own logic? After the Norman Conquest and for much of the 15th and 16th centuries, the history of the British Isles was predominantly the history of individual communities. A proto-industrial revolution in East Anglia, the Cotswolds and the West Riding of Yorkshire was another important development that secured Britains transition from a colonial-style economy, exporting mostly raw materials for manufacture. At the beginning of the 16th century the military society, dominated by the castle with its strategic, defensive, public and domestic aspects, gave way to the squires manor house, to market towns and individual farmers. It became gradually a society stratified by a different factor - wealth. Differences between England and Wales became minimal and, although the Welsh language survived and the differences of mentality between north and south Wales were preserved, a new amalgam of Norman, Welsh and English elements facilitated the incorporation of Wales into the English political, legal and administrative system (Acts of Union 1536-1543). In Scotland, a stark contrast is created between the Lowlands and Highlands. English was dominant even among the nobility in the Lowlands. The development of a cash economy* and the strengthening of the boroughs* were concentrated in the Lowlands, whilst in the west, feudal relations and services in kind* lingered on.
2.1.3 The legacy of the English revolution

The 16th century is characterized by the emergence of the English Empire, an empire based mainly on the predominance of the wealth, resources and population of southern England over the rest of the British Isles and later on over North America and the West Indies. It is a period marked by such developments as large scale emigration, which can be seen as a form of steady internal colonization, with Ireland the prime attraction for many from Scotland, Wales and England. Imperial dominance manifested itself vigorously: Scotland was conquered by Cromwells armies and parliamentary union was achieved in 1707 through the Act of Union. An important factor
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leading to the Union was John Knoxs* Kirk the reformed church of Scotland, in the latter half of the 16th century, a process very much encouraged by the Tudors and by the succession of James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, to the English Crown in 1603. The extension of the new imperial power and the modernisation of society were symbolised by the royal supremacy, the translation of the Bible into English (the Bible in English proved to be a formidable instrument of Anglicization), clerical marriage and the dissolution of the monasteries. However, we cannot speak about a single, national English culture at this point. SAQ 3 In 1396 the first translation of the Bible was the work of John Wycliffe a scholar from Oxford. Henry IV condemned his work and Wycliffe was exiled. What could have been so subversive about the translation of the Bible into English? Think about the spread of literacy in those times and common peoples knowledge of the classical languages (Greek, Latin). Write your answer in no more than 100 words and compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
Figure 2.2 John Wycliffe
The unprecedented rise in importance of London was based on the development of the cloth trade from the 15th century. The cultural dominance by the south over the rest of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland was the impact of the Reformation. The ideas of Luther*, Zwingli* and Calvin* could not have had such an impact on the British Isles without the support of the government: Henry VIIIs chief minister Thomas Cromwell with his Lutheran sympathies and the reign of Edward VI, when the Privy Council* became strongly Protestant. The Reformation polarised the communities of the British Isles between those conforming to the idea of an Established Church and those who demanded more than conformity in ritual and external
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assent. Whilst this polarisation was held at bay during Elizabeths** reign through her diplomacy and spirit of moderation and tolerance, the early years of the 17th century brought about the re-emergence of the Counter-Reformation in Germany and a revival of ritualism in England. The split was in other words between the Anglicans and the Puritans, although a decisive split did not occur until the crisis of 1640-1642. The Civil War was to leave an imprint on English life, which lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. A penal code passed after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 -- and not seriously modified until 1828 -- made dissenters second-class citizens. SAQ 4 The Civil War, The Puritan Revolution or The English Revolution was the first of the so-called great revolutions. It began as a protest against an oppressive and uncompromising government, and it generated new political and religious ideas, extending the English tradition that the governments power should be limited. Arrange the following scrambled events of the English Revolution in chronological order: A Parliament reduced to one third, made up mostly of Puritans tries the king for high treason and in January 1649 Charles I is executed; Monarchy and the House of Lords abolished by Cromwell; a Protectorate is constituted with Cromwell Lord Protector and a one-house parliament; King feels compelled to summon Parliament and ask for their financial and military support; Charles I dissolves parliament desiring to become an absolute monarch; 1642 Charles gathered his army. Kings followers called Cavaliers, those of Parliament Roundheads (because of their specific haircut). when he tries to impose Anglicanism in Presbyterian Scotland, the Presbyterian Scots rioted, raised an army, occupied N England; between 1642 and 1648 several battles fought (Naseby, Marston Moor, Preston) and several attempts made at negotiations with the king fail; In 1660 Charles II is restored to the throne. Parliament imposes its conditions in return for its support (mostly limiting the kings prerogatives).
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Figure 2.3 King Charles I
Figure 2.4 Oliver Cromwell
By the end of the 17th century, an English empire had come into existence affecting most of the British communities, although rural Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and north Wales remained more or less unaffected. In these regions, local institutions like the wise men of the village, the fair, the wake and kinship ties retained their hold in the face of attempts at Anglicization by the English-oriented gentry and clergy. The shift of Scotland from pro-French Auld Alliance* to Reformation is very important. John Knox, who had taken a crucial part in the Edwardian reformation, was backed financially by the English. Likewise in Ireland, the mid-17th century marked the peak of reformation and the myth of the Irish massacre of 1640 led to a string of punitive actions, which followed in the next decade under Cromwell. The Protestant interest was placed on the defensive after the Restoration and even forced into full retreat during the crisis of 16881689. After the victory of William III at the Boyne in 1690, the future of Ireland was decided for the next two centuries on the basis of Protestant landowning ascendancy. Most historians agree that for many in those two centuries, the sense of belonging to a church replaced an earlier culturally-based identity formula. The divisiveness of the feudal period gave way to a new form of divisiveness based on religion.
2.1.4 The Glorious Revolution

The year 1688, the year of the Glorious Revolution, is undoubtedly a landmark in the history of English liberties. The victory of Protestantism and the underlying principles of modernity were consolidated and assured by the flight of James II* and the subsequent accession of William and Mary*. Absolutist monarchies based on the divine right that placed the person of the king beyond human judgement had come to an end and had given way to parliamentary sovereignty. The Bill of Rights* overrode the hereditary rights of the monarchy, which had formed the basis of the restored constitution of 66
A clash of cultures in Wales
1660, and replaced it with the will of the nation expressed through parliament. The Toleration Act of 1689 was seen as a revolutionary step towards democracy and freedom. It granted freedom of worship to Protestant nonconformists provided they shared the basic doctrines laid down in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church*, and it allowed dissenters to build their own places of worship. In the context of the British Isles, the Revolution gained many more meanings. In Scotland it was only after the battle of Culloden of 1746 that the regime set up in 1689 became relatively secure. The same can be said about Ireland. James II was decisively defeated and Ulster Protestantism triumphant only after the fate of the Stuart cause was decided by the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (the blood bath that took place still holds a prominent place in the Irish collective memory). The result of William IIIs* victories can hardly be regarded as a victory of liberal principles, as sometimes suggested. It meant the establishment of Episcopalian ascendancy in Ireland and of Presbyterianism in Scotland. The legacy of the civil wars led to the perpetuation of distrust and hostility between the cultures of the Church and of Dissent. An Anglican ascendancy, as Jonathan Clark remarks in his book English Society 1688-1832 prevails as a unifying factor controlling the institutions of power long after 1688. Episcopalian culture was dominant in the universities, public schools, army, navy and the Church itself. Dissenting culture had to create its own structures in response to such challenges. The English Empire thrived after 1688, with the growth of the American colonies; trade with the colonies became an important feature of the English economy. The prosperity of London in the 18th century, but also the rise of such ports as Liverpool and Bristol, was bound up with colonial trade including slave trade. The triumphal mood of the first half of the century gave way to a deep crisis from 1763 (when the government attempted to raise money from the colonies by means of the Stamp Act of 1765) up to the recognition of American independence in 1783. A series of British defeats followed, which ended with the decisive defeat of France in America and India, a high point of imperial achievement. Imperialism was traditionally underpinned by efforts at Anglicization. It is interesting to follow the course that such anglicising influences took in Wales, Scotland and Ireland and how these were fed into the subcultures there. South Wales was anglicised, i.e. cosmopolitanised and commercialised, whilst the north, heavily Welsh-speaking and rural, embraced Methodism*. For Scotland the dominant culture was Lowland Presbyterianism reinforced by the Act of Union, reflected in the power of the Kirk, universities and schools. In Ireland we see three cultures clashing: Episcopalian in the east, Presbyterian in Ulster (Northern Ireland) and the Catholic majority to be found in all provinces. Episcopalians held power, though a minority numerically, as they were mostly landowners who belonged to the Established Church. 67
A cultural mapping of Scotland
The development of the market economy brought with it the rise of an urban middle class that was mostly Catholic. Continuous pressure against the penal laws that discriminated the Catholics was mounting and with it the threat of sectarian violence. The rebellion convinced the leaders of the time of the necessity of union between Ireland and Britain: cultural colonization was no longer enough. The Act of Union of 1800 provided for Irish representation in the House of Commons (100 members) as well as for the election of 25 peers to the House of Lords. It is said that the shadow of 1798 lay heavily over 19th century Irish history. Nevertheless, George III* invoked constitutional grounds for not granting Catholics the right of entry to parliament, so the Act of Union only gave the Anglo-Irish Episcopalian segment the representation at Westminster. In Scotland there were three cultures as well: the Presbyterian in the Lowlands, Episcopalianism on the East Coast and Catholicism. The real struggle was between the Episcopalians, on the one hand and, on the other, the Presbyterians. The Glorious Revolution replaced an Episcopalian tendency with a Presbyterian one. The Kirk Session made up of ministers and elders became the chosen instrument for the enforcement of Presbyterian views on private and public morality. SAQ 5 Among the sentences below there are four which are false. They can prevent you from understanding the reasons underlying the union of Scotland with England. Can you find them? In 1603, James VI of Scotland - legitimate heir to the English throne after the death of Elizabeth (who left no heir herself); becomes James I of England. Many Scots were favourable to the Act of Union. The English Parliament threatened to ban Scottish exports entering England -- thus potentially bankrupting the Scots as England was their largest and most lucrative market. The large Scottish landowners, who dominated the Scottish Parliament, relied heavily on exporting cattle to England and they faced economic ruin if the English carried out their threat. Amid riots and unrest in many Scottish towns, the Act of Union was passed. The Act of Union was saluted with enthusiasm by the Scottish Parliament. The Scots were forced to convert to Anglicanism. The terms of the Act of Union allowed Scotland to keep its own educational and legal systems and its own church. Scotland had a Secretary of State in 1885 and up to 1997 the Secretary of State had been a member of the Cabinet. Scotland was allowed to keep its own parliament.
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1. 2. 3. 4.
2.1.5 Dissent and the industrial revolution

In the early modern period (1500 1700) there was a heavy exodus into Ireland and the American colonies from Britain. The modern period was characterized by a large-scale movement of population into the industrial areas of Britain from Ireland and elsewhere. From this point of view, the multi-ethnic character of modern Britain is a continuation of 19th century trends. The structure of English society changed a lot with industrialism and urbanisation. By the early 20th century, over four-fifths of a vastly increasing population lived in towns, compared with one-third in the mid-18th century. Dissent, became a noteworthy factor rising numerically from a minority to a position of near equality with the Established Church. The Established Church was essential for the preservation of social order: membership of the Established Church was obligatory for full participation in politics, the army and the learned professions. The Anglican Church exerted control over the universities and important public schools. At Oxford, acceptance of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church was necessary for matriculation and at Cambridge for admission to a degree. However, in the turmoil of changes created by the Industrial Revolution, it was the dissenting sects that took more advantage of the developments than the Established Church. In cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester and Sheffield, the city councils were dominated by dissenters after the electoral reforms of the 1830s. Dissent was not a homogeneous phenomenon. Within Dissent, there were marked divisions between Independents, Baptists, Unitarians and Presbyterians. The situation was further complicated by the Evangelical Movement of Methodism within the Church of England, a missionary movement but very much inspired by Dissent. SAQ 6 By choosing the true sentences from the ones given below you will be able to account for the huge success of Methodism in Britain in the 19th century. Many new industrial towns had no churches and priest or any kind of religious organization;
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John Wesley never left his home town but his spreading fame made his church very popular; It advanced a highly theoretical and rational approach to the Bible; John Wesley*, a most charismatic Anglican pries, travelled around the country preaching (224.000 miles on horseback, sometimes preaching in three different villages in one day); He preached a personal and emotional form of religion, appealing to the spiritual needs of simple people, giving them a sense of purpose and dignity; He preached in the open air, and visiting prisons; The Evangelical Revival aimed to return to a simple faith based on the Bible. They combined preaching with lively singing and dancing; Puritans, Quakers and other Nonconformist sects became wellknown for their social concern, greatly influencing trade unionism and labour movement in Britain. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The Reform Act of 1832* and the establishment of University College London testify to the new strength of Dissenters. They expressed a growing demand against the paying of taxes for the upkeep of the parish church, against the legal requirement that dissenters be married within a Church of the Establishment, and the continued exclusion of dissenters from Oxford and Cambridge. In 1834 a dissenting conference demanded the Disestablishment of the Church*.
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SAQ 7 The main doctrinal and attitudinal differences between the two cultures, the Establishment and Dissent boil down to the sets below. What set of traits is characteristic of each of the two cultures? one was immoral, easy-going, bent on debauchery and frivolity, idleness, cockfighting, hunting, drinking, gambling; the other was a culture underscored by restraint, sobriety, respectability, hard work, perseverance and a commitment to temperance*. The Establishment:
The Dissent:
In mid-19th century the balance of these cultures shifted radically once more. The great ferment of all cultural, social, demographic and economic changes was the Industrial Revolution. This led to the creation of a new urban culture in the North - a term that should be made more flexible to include the industrial areas of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle, the factory towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire and the mining villages of the counties north of Nottinghamshire. The fame of London subsided in the new age, since shipbuilding and silk weaving were unable to compete with the industries of the powerful North. In 1870 historian Charles Trevelyan described the metropolis as a gigantic engine for depraving and degrading our population a common sink of everything that was worst in the United Kingdom. The 19th century is one of those ages that can best exemplify the shifts of power and authority within the British Isles and also the extent to which the centre could control but could at the same time be undermined by the periphery. Socio-economic changes were accompanied by major cultural changes. The ideology of Northern Dissent put forward the self-made man as a praiseworthy social ideal. The human prototypes of the age were the engineer and inventor. John Bright* began his political career with a speech advocating temperance and fought the imposition of Church rates upon dissenters. He was a devout follower of 17th century Puritanism and an opponent of the southern aristocracy, a radical thinker (a trait not typical of dissent), but his views found a home in the Liberal Party - very much the party of the North against the South.
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SAQ 8 What is the name of the famous engineer who completed the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol, who designed the first propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic and the Clifton suspension bridge to span the Avon Gorge? Wilkinson Wedgwood Brindley Stephenson Brunel Telford
Figure 2.5 An engineer of genius
A new factor that was added now to the general scene is internal migration. The new subcultures add tension to the clashing cultures within the various regions of the British Isles. Because of the influx of Catholic and Protestant immigrants from Ulster in search of employment in Wales, Cardiff became a melting pot* attracting, on top of Welsh internal migrants from rural areas, English and Irish immigrants. In Ireland the counterpart of the northern economic boom was the industrial expansion of Belfast and the Lagan Valley. As Belfast prospered, Dublin became a backwater like London, its infant industries, declined. A major cause of the continued division between Catholic and Protestant cultures in Ireland must be sought in their contrasting experiences during the atrocious years of famine (1845-1849). The Protestant north, where oats rather than potatoes constituted the normal diet, was spared from famine when successive potato crops failed. The small farming and labouring classes in the south and west bore the full brunt of the famine. By 1847 the labouring class, overwhelmingly Catholic, was decimated by disease and starvation. Those who managed to survive were forced to emigrate in large numbers (well over a million and a half) so that by 1851 Ireland had lost a quarter of its population through emigration or death (nearly one million). Memory of the famine is to this day part and parcel of the mentality of Catholic culture, differentiating it from that of Protestant Ireland. The memory of this social tragedy was taken with them by many Irish emigrants. 72
SAQ 9 The Irish emigrated in huge numbers to a part of the world where they still form the largest Irish community outside Ireland. Where is that? Write your answer below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
2.1.6 Home Rule

The ample economic changes of industrialisation and modernisation as well as urbanisation were a major effect of English investment and a response to the demands of the English market. So, whilst it may seem that the individual histories of the four national constituents can only be understood in such a larger context with England at the hub of all changes, the periphery (restricted to a mostly passive role in the first half of the century) embarked upon a much changed status towards the middle of the 19th century. The intermingling of cultures and the mobility of populations, were accompanied by inter-ethnic hostility, particularly towards Irish Catholics and Jews. It was at that time that Irish Catholicism, Welsh Non-Conformism and the Free Churches of Scotland formed an alliance with English dissent to bring pressure to bear upon the English establishment. This was the backdrop against which the Liberal Party was formed, the centre being now exposed to political pressures from the periphery. The rise of the Home Rule movement in Ireland in the 1800s led to a further intensification of ethnic rivalries throughout the British Isles. Paradoxically, one of the defenders of the establishment was someone who should have been destined by his birth and temperament for dissent: Benjamin Disraeli**. He was a man of Bohemian temperament, middle class origin and Jewish extraction. He was a defender of the aristocracy, in his opinion the only security for self-government, stability and of the preservation of past greatness. He portrayed the liberals as unpatriotic, a danger to property, a threat to the institutions of the nation, betrayers of Britains world and imperial interests. On the other hand, Gladstone** pressed for Home Rule, for free trade and for the introduction of competitive examinations into the Civil Service.
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Figure 2.6 Benjamin Disraeli
Figure 2.7 W. E. Gladstone
At the end of World War I Ireland was not divided by class but by culture. The cultural differences between north and south were accentuated by religion. The distinguishing features of Irish identity in the south were Catholicism and nationalism, nourished by a revival of an interest in Gaelic culture and the Irish language. In 1916 Sinn Fein* came into being to oppose the Protestant north-east. If in 1914 a civil war had been prevented as the Protestants of Ulster wanted at all costs to preserve the union, the Rule Bill was put into effect after the war, and after three years of military struggle, Ireland split into the six counties of Northern Ireland (Ulster), which were given a measure of Home Rule, and the 26 counties of the Free Irish State. SAQ 10 By arranging chronologically the following events you will end up with the story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland: 1. 30 January 1972 Blood Sunday when the customary water cannons were replaced by real guns and 13 demonstrators were shot dead by soldiers; 2. Stormont, the parliament of N Ireland unable to accept British interference, resigned; 3. Attacked by Protestant extremists. Clashes with the police - serious tensions between the communities; 4. August 1969 severe rioting broke out in Londonderry and Belfast; 5. British troops sent in to restore order; 6. 1969 IRA* moved in to protect Catholics from the gangs of protestant extremists; 7. British government decided to take over responsibility for law and order; 8. In the late 60s many Catholics (who made up more than a third of Irelands population) first organised peaceful demonstrations for civil rights; 9. The role of the army changed from protecting the Catholics to fighting the IRA who previously did not have much support in N Ireland;
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10. The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, and its provisions successfully passed. A referendum* organized in Ireland and N Ireland; 11. The Province under direct rule from London; 12. The agreement led to the reopening of Stormont and replacement of British rule by a power-sharing government where all political parties were represented; 13. They used all the methods of terrorism to try to achieve their aim to get the British army out and secure a united Ireland; 14. In 2002, Stormont was once again suspended over mounting disagreements, especially the refusal of the IRA to decommission (give up weapons); 15. Early 70s IRAs control of some urban areas was so great that they were called no-go areas (e.g. Londonderry). Now check your findings against the answer given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit. Home Rule was not specific to Ireland only; a movement for Welsh Home Rule made its appearance in the 1880s. There are many parallels that can be established between Ireland and Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries, with one major difference. It was mainly the rural areas of west Wales that supported Home Rule. Industry being much stronger there than in Ireland, south Wales became an important melting pot where the Irish, Welsh and English intermingled. Yet the great majority were Welsh and no massive emigration occurred from Wales. There were at least three Scotlands during this period. There Home Rule in were the Highlands which during the century saw their population Scotland drop substantially, with the balance shifting in favour of the urbanised and industrialised Lowlands. Emigration to Canada (Nova Scotia, Cape Breton or Prince Edward) became a pattern. Highland clearances* took place on a massive scale, as estates were turned over to the more profitable sheep farming. While the west Lowlands with Glasgow as the centre, was heavily industrialised, to the east, the Lowlands were mainly a rural area, with a long tradition of political, legal and cultural dominance. Three of the famous Scottish universities were there -- St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Edinburgh was the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. There was a disruption within the Scottish church in 1843, when four-fifths of the ministers, left the Established Church. This was an extraordinary event, an expression of Scottish nationalism against the control of Westminster. It was also a success for the middle-classs ability to draw upon local resources of wealth and expertise. The Highlands underwent great changes because of the influence of the missionary activities of the Methodists. Gaelic oral culture flourished and gave rise to a biblically oriented literacy. Quite paradoxically, a romanticised version of Highland culture was making headway in the Lowlands too. Due to the Ossian forgeries of Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural 75 Home Rule in Wales
James Macpherson* and of the novels of Walter Scott*, the cult of the Highlander achieved extraordinary success. A product of the Ossian poems and Scotts novels, Scotland is stereotyped as a timeless pre-industrial Highland world. Despite the fact that four-fifths of the Scots are urban dwellers and hold jobs characteristic of modern times, their imaginative lives continue to be shaped by this ruralist, pastoral and anti-national discourse imposed upon them, but against which they measure their own identity. SAQ 11 What movie of the 90s is based on this cult of the Highlander as a great hero fighting for Scotlands independence from under the English rule? Did you see the film? What was it that you liked about it? Please use the space below to write down your answer and do not forget to include it in your portfolio for further discussions with your peers and with your tutor during tutorials.
2.1.7 Devolution
After World War II the victory of Labour* restored the influence of the periphery in the persons of such cabinet ministers as Emmanuel Shinwell*, Aneurin Bevan* and Harold Wilson**. In the meanwhile, Ireland had toughened its anti-British attitude with the decision of neutrality during World War II. This was, however, a decision in favour of economic stagnation and cultural isolation. Here Church and State fought to keep Ireland uncontaminated by the pressures of modernity; divorce and contraception were prohibited and a system of literary censorship was enforced. By 1972 this attitude seemed to have changed decisively when the Irish voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the EEC*. For 50 years the politics of Northern Ireland has remained frozen in an ethno-religious mould with two-thirds of its Protestant 76
majority maintaining its unity against the supposed threat of the Catholic minority. In England, where the rich south-east provided a secure basis for Conservative political power, politics became based more and more on class divisions. Although in such delicate areas as Glasgow and Liverpool, ethnic hostilities were high, a workingclass authoritarian Toryism* could still thrive. The politics of class proved again to be stronger than the factors of ethnicity and religion. In Scotland, despite the fact that especially in the west, ethnic issues remained important, class came to the forefront. Nationalism was on the rise again when the discovery of important fields of oil off the east coast of Scotland provided an issue on which the Scottish National Party could capitalise. They demanded that Scottish oil should be used for the benefit of the Scottish people. Devolution became an issue that the Labour government could no longer ignore, and in 1979 it was put to referendum. Welsh nationalism received one of its cruellest blows when only a slim 11.8 per cent came out in favour of it and 46.5 per cent against, to the consternation of Plaid Cymru*. In Scotland it attracted 52 per cent of the votes cast but this amounted to only 33 per cent of the total electorate. SAQ 12 What you have found out about Wales and Scotland should enable you to answer the following question: Why was the referendum of 1979 unsuccessful in both Wales and Scotland? Write your answer in the space below and compare it to that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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Although long-standing historical patterns continue to manifest themselves culturally, politically and economically, the affairs of Scotland and Wales remain intertwined with Englands. Although many of the leading figures in English literature -- Yeats, Joyce, Synge, OCasey and Seamus Heaney -- were Irishmen, in sports (such as golf and rugby) the differences are virtually ignored. During the 1950s there was an immense wave of Irish immigration to the UK -- 355,000 people. However, the biggest political shake-up of British politics since the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 has been devolution that followed the 1997 referenda, bringing about a complete overhaul of the British context, building a modern constitution for the whole of the United Kingdom. The 1997 referenda were a historic step that the Welsh and the Scots took, leading the way to opening the Parliament of Scotland and the Assembly (Senned) in Wales after 300 years and almost 500 years, respectively. Although Tony Blair thinks that this devolving of power will strengthen the union, making it more flexible and more open, others, more nationalist in their views, like Alexander Salmond (leader of the SNP*), take it as the way to true independence. The Elections of May 1999 (parliamentary elections in the devolved Wales and Scotland) will be remembered as a big reshuffle of political power in British society. The elections saw the coronation of Labour by a narrow margin in all three nations of Great Britain, but facing a different opposition in each: Labour versus nationalism in its Scottish, Welsh and English forms. The main force opposing Labour is now reduced to the status of a fringe group west and north of the border. The Conservatives have become a vanishing force in UK politics. This new landscape is seen by Tony Blair as a big victory of Labour over old-style nationalism. The rise of nationalism has led to an escalation of sectarianism in the devolved countries. Scotland is seen as a very sectarian, AntiCatholic and anti-Irish society. Scotland is unlike Northern Ireland, a highly secularised society, where few people observe any religion at all. What devolution has unleashed is a new dynamic in British life, one that puts first the distinct political cultures of the constituents, whilst at the same time strengthening the union. Despite all speculation one thing remains clear: the nationalist parties did not win. The Scots, the Irish and the Welsh remain citizens of the same country and their future within the union will depend on the skill and intelligence and the capacity of Labour to accommodate diversity while sustaining in the most enlightened of fashions the feeling of belonging to a common core.
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Key Concepts
The English (Puritan) Revolution Dissent Disestablishment of the Anglican Church internal migration melting-pot effect Industrial Revolution Highland Clearances Bill of Rights Temperance Movement Plaid Cymru Scottish National Party IRA/Sinn Fein Fenian Irish Movement referendum Home Rule Devolution
Glossary
anglocentric = centred on England Auld Alliance = alliance that came into being after the attempt of Edward I* to conquer Scotland in 1295. The Scots turned to the king of France for support. According to the Auld Alliance whenever England attacked any of the two countries, the other would immediately make trouble behind Englands back. It lasted well into the 16th century. Battle of Britain = name given to the fighting between British and German aircraft during the summer and autumn of 1940, when the German aircraft repeatedly bombed British cities, and British aircraft tried to fight them off. The bombing stopped late in 1940 and this was seen by British people as a great victory for them. Winston Churchill said about the British pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain: Never in the field of human conflict was so much owned by so many to so few. Bevan, Aneurin = British Labour politician from Wales, known for his excellent speeches. As Minister of Health (1945-1951) he helped establish the NHS National Health Service. Bill of Rights = written statement of the most important rights of the citizens, which in 1689 consecrated a more democratic and progressive arrangement that overrode the power of the king to favour popular will represented in parliament.
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borough = town with corporation and privileges conferred by royal charter; town sending member(s) to parliament. Bright, John = British liberal politician of the 19th century, a radical thinker, who advocated free trade, was against the imposition of church taxes on dissenters and was a supporter of the Temperance Movement Calvin, Jean = French Protestant theologian involved in the Reformation in France and Switzerland and known for the severity of his system (the theory of predestination). Several dissenting churches, such as Puritanism, were born out of Calvinist Presbyterianism. cash economy = modern type of economy where the producer no longer produces for a limited use (family, feudal lord) but for the market, for sale. clearances (Highland clearances) = system of forcing people to leave their homes and land in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries to make the land clear for sheep farming. Many people left Scotland and emigrated to Canada and the US. devolution = the transfer (or devolving) of governmental or personal power to a person or group at a lower or more local level. The second referendum for devolution organized in Wales and Scotland in September 1997 was successful and on 6 May 1999 elections were held in the two countries and their parliaments were reopened after 500 and 300 years, respectively. Disestablishment = depriving church of State connection, so that it ceases to be the official religion for a nation. Disraeli, Benjamin = Conservative English politician and writer of Jewish origin. He was Prime Minister in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880. Dissent = movement in the 19th century Britain that led to the rise of Nonconformists, who organized for the Disestablishment of the Church and for recognition of their rights. EEC = European Economic Community, organization established (1958) by treaty between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Germany which was known informally as the Common Market. The EEC was the most significant of the three treaty organizations that were consolidated in 1967 to form the European Community (EC) known since the ratification in 1993 of the Maastricht treaty as the European Union. The EEC had as its aim the eventual economic union of its member nations, ultimately leading to political union. It worked for the free movement of labour and capital and the development of joint and reciprocal policies on labour, social welfare, agriculture, transport, and foreign trade. 80
English (Puritan) Revolution = the Civil War that brought about important constitutional changes, about experimenting with new ideas and institutions. It eroded the claims to monarchic absolutism in England and attested to the rising importance of Puritan ideas in English society. James II = King of England from 1685 and Scotland (as James VII). He became a Catholic and was forced to run away to France and was later defeated at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. Elizabeth I = one of the most glorious of all British monarchs (15331603) - Gloriana, The Phoenix of the World - daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (the second of his six wives). In her time under her moderate but authoritative rule England became a great power (they defended the Spanish Armada in 1588) and the foundation of the Empire was laid. She is known for saying: I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King. Fenian Irish Movement (name derived from the Irish hero Finn of the Fenian cycle of legends) = independence movement that started in the 1860s and which attempted risings in the USA, Canada as well as Ireland. In 1867 it astonished England by a series of bomb explosions. Gladstone, William Ewart = British liberal politician who was prime minister from 1868 to 1874, 1880 to 1885 and 1892-1894. He established national education, introduced the secret ballot, supported free trade and Home Rule for Ireland. Home Rule = self-government by an area that was once politically dependent. It is also used with reference to the nationalist movement in Ireland between 1870 and 1921 when the Free Irish State was established. Industrial Revolution = period of time (1750-1850) when new ground-breaking technologies and machines were invented and factories were set up and when traditional institutions, practices, relations in the public and private spheres underwent radical changes internal migration = important movements of people from one region to another (within the same country) leading to melting pot effects. IRA = the Irish Republican Army: an illegal organization whose aim is to unite Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as one republic. Part of the IRA, The Provisional IRA is known for its use of terrorist methods.
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kind (in) = using goods or natural products rather than money as a method of payment (opposed to in cash). Knox, John = Scottish religious reformer of the 16th century who established the Church of Scotland - the Kirk - and Presbyterianism (a religious system inspired by Jean Calvin, in which the government of the church is shared by a mixed body of priests and lay people). Labour = one of the two main political parties in Britain. It first assumed the name in 1906. For many years it represented the interest of the working class against the interests of the employers, although it was also supported by many middle class people, especially intellectuals. Starting with Harold Wilson there have been attempts at modernizing the party but none of such scope as those initiated under Tony Blairs New Labour. Lollardy (Lollards) = (probable etymology lollaer a mumbler of prayers), the only significant heretical movement in mediaeval England, hostile to ecclesiastical authority, corruption and wealth of clergy; their belief in a Bible in English prefigured Reformation and was to be one of the central convictions of Protestantism. Luther, Martin = religious leader of Reformation in Germany which led to the creation of the Protestant church and its break-away from the Catholic Church. In 1517 he wrote hiss famous 95 points that he nailed to the door of his church in Wittenberg. He attacked the powers of the Pope and he translated the Bible into German Macpherson, James (1736 -1796) = remembered for one of the most spectacular literary hoaxes (forgeries) of all time: the epic of Ossian. In 1760 he published "Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland and Translated from the Gallic or Erse Language" (1760), in which it was suggested that epic poetry relating to the legendary Fingal and his son Ossian might still remain to be discovered intact in the Highland oral tradition. The book was a great success and aroused interest in the possibility that Scotland might possess a body of classical literature analogous to the Homeric poetry of Greece. melting pot (effect) = place where there is a mixing of people of different races and nations. Methodism = Christian Protestant religion that places importance on social and personal morality Plaid Cymru = literally meaning Party of Wales, left-of-centre Welsh nationalist party, founded in 1925. After the devolution of 1997 it became the second most important political force after labour in the newly opened Senned.
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Privy Council = body of approximately 500 people of high rank in politics and public life who can be asked to advise the monarch on certain state affairs. referendum = the best known instrument of direct democracy where all people, rather than their representatives in parliament or the government, are asked to vote on a certain issue. Reform Bill of 1832 = initiated by the Whig (liberal) government that followed in 1830 the death of George IV opened the road to modern democracy in Britain, to the gradual enfranchisement (the right to vote) of all sectors of the population and to many other political and civil freedoms in Britain. resilience = endurance, tenacity, ability to return quickly to a state of normalcy after going through difficulty, change, shock etc. Scott, Walter = Scottish writer and poet (1771-1832) especially famous for his stories of Scottish life, including several based on historical characters such as Ivanhoe or The Heart of the Midlothian. Shinwell, Emanuel = prominent Labour politician of Jewish origin, who served as Secretary of State for Defence after WWII. Sinn Fein = Irish Political organization, the political wing of the IRA that embraces the same political ideas as IRA and also supports the use of force against British rule in Northern Ireland. SNP = The Scottish National Party was formed in 1934 from the union of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party. With the establishment of devolution for Scotland in 1999 the SNP has styled itself as the main opposition party to the Scottish Executive. Temperance Movement = 19th century movement in the in Britain, USA and N Europe due to the increase in alcoholism which had devastating individual and social consequences. It organized huge rallies to persuade people not to drink alcohol. Thirty nine Articles = a set of basic teachings and beliefs in the Church of England, written in 1571, which the Church still asks its priests to agree to in principle before appointment. Toryism = typical of Tory, a right-wing party established in the 17th century and which in the 1830s became the Conservative party. We still use Tory as an alternative name for Conservative. Wesley, John = Anglican priest of the 18th century who established Methodism and whose writings and teachings became the principles of the Methodist Church.
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William (III) and Mary = William III (of Orange), king of England Scotland and Ireland from 1689 to 1702. His wife, Mary II, the daughter of King James II, had equal power and that is why people usually talk about the reign of William and Mary. Wilson, Harold = English Labour politician (born in Yorkshire) who was prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976. Zwingli, Ulrich = Swiss humanist and reformer of the Church. His radicalism was apparent in his concept of church and state overlapping.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please read sections 2.1.6 and 2.1.7. On the front cover of A. Marrs book you can see a coffin wrapped up in the Union Jack being lowered into the grave a powerful symbolic image for the death of a nation, for the dissolution of Britishness as national identity. In the book and the film screened after the book the date ascribed to the death of Britain (born in 1707) is 1997 (devolution in Scotland and Wales). SAQ 2 Britishness was still considered to be a common good for all provinces in the 60s. The battle of Britain* fuelled like never before British pride. This type of heroism associated with Britishness and heroism in World War II gave way gradually to new patterns of expressing national identities in the 70s when Britishness started to feel oppressive. In the 70s Scottish and Welsh nationalism were on the rise and the troubles in Northern Ireland took a dramatic turn. In the 90s English nationalism became very prominent and more and more voices are heard today calling for an English Parliament, just like the national parliaments reopened in Scotland and Wales. SAQ 3 The whole movement of the Reformation, which sparked off such important cultural developments all over Europe hinged on the translation of the Bible into English, thus allowing people to have a direct knowledge of the Bible, thus also encouraging interpretation and different readings of the Bible and more critical attitudes to clerical corruption and abuse. Had Henry IV supported Wycliffe and the Lollards* to go on with their project the English Church might have become independent in the early 15th century. On the contrary, Henry IV was a devout Catholic. 84
SAQ 4 Charles I dissolves parliament desiring to become an absolute monarch; when he tries to impose Anglicanism in Presbyterian Scotland, the Presbyterian Scots rioted, raised an army, occupied Northern England. King feels compelled to summon Parliament and ask for their financial and military support. Parliament imposes its conditions in return for its support (mostly limiting the kings prerogatives). In 1642 Charles gathered his army. Kings followers called Cavaliers, those of Parliament Roundheads (because of their specific haircut). Between 1642 and 1648 several battles were fought (Naseby, Marston Moor, Preston) and several attempts made at negotiations with the king fail. A Parliament reduced to one third, made up mostly of Puritans tries the king for high treason and in January 1649 Charles I is executed. Monarchy and the House of Lords abolished by Cromwell; a Protectorate is constituted with Cromwell Lord Protector and a one-house parliament. In 1660 Charles II is restored to the throne. SAQ 5 The false sentences are: Many Scots were favourable to the Act of Union. The Act of Union was saluted with enthusiasm by the Scottish Parliament. The Scots were forced to convert to Anglicanism. Scotland was allowed to keep its own parliament. SAQ 6 The following sentences are false: John Wesley* never left his home but his spreading fame made his church very popular. It advanced a highly theoretical and rational approach to the Bible. They combined preaching with lively singing and dancing. SAQ 7 Establishment (land-owning aristocracy): immoral, easy-going, bent on debauchery and frivolity, idleness, cockfighting, hunting, drinking, gambling. The Culture of Dissent, on the other hand, was a culture underscored by restraint, sobriety, respectability, hard work, perseverance and a commitment to temperance and social reform.
SAQ 8 His name is Isamabard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859).

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SAQ 9 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please revise section 1.2.7. In the 19th century, Irish emigrated in huge numbers to America that has tried quite often recently to support the peace plans for Northern Ireland (e.g. Bill Clinton). SAQ 10 The right order of the sentences: 7, 3, 4, 8, 5, 12, 14, 1, 6, 2, 10, 9, 11, 13. SAQ 11 Braveheart (a film directed by Mel Gibson) won most Oscar awards in 1996, amongst them the Best Picture Award. Concern was expressed repeatedly with the films anglophobia. Teenage Scottish audiences cheered every time Wallace killed an Englishman. This Gibson-styled Wallace (a Scottish hero in the 13th century who fought against the English led by Edward I) was compared with the notorious Bosnian Serb military commander General Radko Mladic (one of the most wanted war criminals in Europe). SAQ 12 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please revise section 2.1.6. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have become ethnically, religiously, racially mixed over history. The nationalist movement in all three provinces capitalized on Celtic tradition (something they claimed made the big difference between them and the English). Thus they managed to antagonize important sections of the population who were English and who did not identify as closely with this Celtic heritage. The latter feared that devolution would make them second-class citizens in these provinces.
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2.2 Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain 2.2.1 From immigration to multiculturalism

Our main purpose so far was to reject a view of Britain as one nation, a monolithic entity standing in splendid isolation from the continent. A nationalist, ethno-essentialist point of view would distort the picture completely. The history of the British people has been a never-ending series of exchanges, of acculturations* and of crosscultural conversations. An anglocentrist view of English history would impoverish immensely the interplay of shaping forces that contributed to the emergence of a plurivocal identity, to the emergence of the plurality of identities that we call the British. We have considered mainly the phenomenon of internal hybridization and the process of internal migration and amalgamation, while also briefly discussing the waves of immigration. I am going to proceed to a discussion of the consequences of the main waves of immigration and of the configuration of a multicultural society - a cultural, social and political model that is meant to create what Homi Bhabha* calls a third space of understanding that transcends the dualism of us and them. In his Location of Culture, Bhabha insists on the necessity of getting away from a view of culture as an evaluative activity concerned primarily with the attribution of identity and authenticity (custom, tradition, ritual). This perspective necessarily would take us to a confrontational view of culture: on the one hand a core culture, a dominant culture and on the other hand the others colonial, folklorised and orientalised. It would lead us to a conception of majoritarian versus minoritarian perspective. The hybrid cosmopolitanism of contemporary metropolitan life cannot be denied in the context of globalisation and the unprecedented development of communication technologies. In Reinventing Britain. A Manifesto, Bhabha redefines culture as the activity of negotiating, regulating and authorising competing often conflicting demands for collective self-representation (1997: 9-10). The coexistence of different cultures replaces the dominance of a mainstream nationalist culture. Much of todays multiculturalist thinking is seeking to revise the homogeneous notion of national culture by emphasizing multiple identities of race, class and gender or by demonstrating the historical and artificial, constructed nature of Englishness, Scottishness, etc.
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SAQ 1 Before reading the next section, try to think of the meaning of multiculturalism. What does it mean, in your opinion? Write your answer in the space below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
2.2.2 A short historical survey of immigration in Britain

Many people have come to Britain over the centuries through invasion, as a result of Britains expansion into the world, or to seek refuge from political or religious persecution. Other groups were also attracted to Britain by the chance of economic security, often bringing new trades or coming to work in new industries. Immigration expanded in the post-war period when immigrants were encouraged to come from the Caribbean to work in public transport, manufacturing and the National Health Service. The expansion of the British Empire across the globe by the 19th century also meant a two-way flow of people, with many coming to the mother country to work, study or help defend the nation. Black and Asian troops from the Empire fought for Britain in both the First and Second World Wars; memorial gates honouring their contribution were opened in Constitution Hill, London in 2001.
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SAQ 2 Match the following groups of people who settled in Britain with the right date of their settlement and also rank them chronologically. Check your answer against that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Norman Conquest Beginnings of slave trade Gypsies Celts Huguenots and other persecuted protestants Black community of London of about 15.000 Romans Jewish community expelled First Jewish community Caribbeans First black people (the African Division of the Roman army) Anglo-Saxons Irish workers fled starvation Resettlement of Jews Asians expelled from East Africa Jews fled pogroms in Russia and Poland and later the rise of Nazism in Germany. Seafarers from India and China settling in such ports as London, Liverpool and Cardiff. Immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh Hong Kong Chinese and refugees from Vietnam Vikings The first group of 492 Jamaicans arrived on the MV Empire Windrush a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. m. n. o. p. 17th century 3rd century 8th century 5th century 1066 1656 1st millennium BC 43 AD 16th century after 1066 19th and 20th century 1290 1960s and 1980's mid 18th century 19th century the 1970s and 1980s
17
q.
22 June 1948
18
r.
throughout the 1950s and early 60s 16th century the 1970's Mid 19th century
19 20 21
s. t. u.
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This history of immigration to Britain has produced todays uniquely diverse nation. Ethnic diversity has shaped Britains cultural life. The quality and breadth of the arts and popular culture have been enriched through the contribution of individuals from many backgrounds and traditions. British-born black, Asian and other ethnic minority individuals and communities are making their mark on the new face of Britain as a centre of style, fashion and pioneering ideas in popular culture and the arts. British cinema, television, fashion, youth subcultures, Britpop* and literature all owe a debt to the creative and talented people who have come here to settle over the years. Their diversity creates a unique identity as different traditions and approaches fuse to create a distinct hybrid, which is contemporary to British life and culture. The overall number of non-white Britons, according to the latest census of 2001 stands at well over four million -- more than the population of the Republic of Ireland. SAQ 3 What percentage of the overall population of England and Wales identified themselves as being from an ethnic minority population at the last census in 2001? 6.7% 9.9% 13.1% 16.3% 20.5%
Check your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
The Office for National Statistics anticipates that the minority ethnic population will almost double by 2020, because of its higher birth rate. An estimated two million Britons are of Irish descent. The numbers in other groups, such as those of Jewish, Cypriot, Turkish or other descents, are not known but add further to the ethnic diversity of the British population. It is difficult to talk about a single 'ethnic minority experience' of life in Britain today as there are as many differences within and between different ethnic groups as can be found by comparing the 'ethnic minorities' to the general population. What can be said of the ethnic minority groups as a whole is that they tend to be considerably younger than the population at large -- the median age of whites is 37, that of Afro-Caribbeans 33, Indians 31 and Bangladeshis 18. Almost half of all ethnic minority Britons live in London. Much debate focuses on the over 200 languages spoken in the capital's schools, and the unique mixture of cultural assets and social problems this creates for the 'global city'. Inner London is the only part of the country where black Britons outnumber British Asians, by almost two to one, while British Indians predominate in outer London suburbs such as Harrow.
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Think First! The following fragment comes from an essay by a well-known British novelist and playwright of Pakistani origin (his mother was English, his father Pakistani), Hanif Kureishi. How would you describe an inner city using the props below: he found three Englands. There was guide-book England, of palaces and forests; 19th century industrial England of factories and suburbs; and contemporary England of by-passes and suburbs. Now half a century later, there is another England as well: the inner city. The inner city in question is in Bradford/ derelict houses/ poverty/ unemployment/ most of the area an Asian district/ pubs stayed open late/ heavily policed/ diverse, disparate population, ethnically mixed/ no shared outlook, beliefs and an established form of life. (London Kills Me, Faber & Faber, 1991, pp. 128-130) Write your answer in the space below (in no more than 100 words) and do not forget to add it to your portfolio.
Moreover, there are parts of London where the non-whites form the majority of residents (Newham and Brent), whilst Southall's Sikhs, Leicester's Hindus and Brixton's black populations live in areas with white majorities. The relatively even dispersal of the 149,000 Chinese Britons may further add to their near invisibility in discussion about race in Britain. Racial tensions have been greatest over the last years not in the areas with the largest ethnic populations, but in north-west towns - Oldham, Burnley, Rochdale and Blackburn - which contain very high levels of internal ethnic segregation. In Rochdale, 96 per cent of the Pakistani community and 89 per cent of Bangladeshis live in the five inner wards, among the most deprived areas in the North-West. Pakistanis form the largest ethnic group in the North-West, Yorkshire and Scotland, while British Indians are the largest ethnic group in both the West and East Midlands, as well as in most of the predominantly white regions of England.
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The Afro-Caribbean community is the most 'integrated', with the highest levels of inter-racial marriages (eight times higher than those for blacks in the United States), while Afro-Caribbean women are doing relatively well in terms of employment and income. But with greater levels of unemployment and one in three Afro-Caribbean children in a single-parent family, there is a high level of child poverty. British Indians are, on average, slightly better off than white Britons, but there is a relatively high inequality within the group, particularly among women. Worst-off are people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin who are the most likely to be unemployed, living in poverty or overcrowded housing, and with lower levels of fluency in English than other ethnic groups, especially among women. SAQ 4 How many Pakistani and Bangladeshi are living in poverty? The correct answer is one of the five below: 7% 22% 37% 52% 67%
Now go to the Answers section and check your answer.
Yet over the last decade another tendency has gained ground: Indians and Pakistanis are gradually becoming the new Jews of Britain, Richard Ford says in an article published in the Guardian* of 12 June 1996. They enjoy rising prosperity through hard work while retaining a strong belief in the family. They start their own business, move into their own homes, and join the ranks of professionally qualified white collar workers. On the other hand, the Bangladeshis and the Afro-Caribbeans face an Irish future, being working class wage-earners, living mostly in council houses*. If education is the key to opportunity and mobility, then many positive developments might be expected. Most ethnic groups are over-represented among Britain's undergraduates, even though these are largely concentrated at the new universities. The problem is that similar, or better, levels of education and skills for almost all ethnic groups have not translated into equality in the world of work. Higher graduate unemployment and lower wages than for similarly qualified whites suggests continued racial disadvantage. The political, legal and business establishment remains largely white.
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Think First! Read the following fragments from Hanif Kureishis essay England In the mid-1960s Pakistanis were a risible subject in England, derided on television and exploited by politicians. They had the worst jobs, they were uncomfortable in England, some of them had difficulties with the language. They were despised and out of place. From the start I tried to deny my Pakistani self. It was a curse and I wanted to be rid of it. I wanted to be like everyone else. I read with understanding a story in a newspaper about a black boy, who, when he noticed that burnt skin turned white, jumped into a bath of boiling water. At school one teacher always spoke to me in a Peter Sellers Indian accent. Another refused to call me by name, calling me Pakistani Pete instead (London Kills Me, Faber & Faber, 1991, 73-75, 100) Now try to answer the following questions and write your answers in the space below: Have you ever experienced the feeling of being ridiculed for being different in a certain environment, at school, in the street, or on a visit abroad? Have you ever witnessed manifestations of racial attitudes? If yes, how did you react? Please add these answers to your portfolio for further discussions during the tutorials.
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2.2.3 Racism
As to the integration of ethnic minorities, many think that a kind of deep-rooted institutionalised racism inherent in the British continues to manifest itself. I think credit should be given to the British for a whole range of attitudes, institutions and structures that have developed in Britain with a view to accommodating, integrating and providing equal opportunities in all fields for people belonging to ethnic minorities. However, moments of intensification of racial hatred are quite frequent. In April 1968, perhaps in an attempt to challenge Edward Heath*s* leadership of the Conservative Party, Enoch Powell, a right-wing nationalist, forecast with inflammatory rhetoric rivers of blood in British cities on the lines of race riots in the US. A former Professor of Classics, Powell declared that, Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. We must be mad, literally mad as a nation, to be permitting the annual flow of some 50,000 dependents It is like watching a nation busily engaging in heaping up its own funeral pyres. He spoke very emotionally of a formerly quiet street, which had become a place of noise and confusion due to coloured neighbours. SAQ 5 Read the following fragments of different racist discourses. What ideas do they share? In what ways do they differ from one another? The breeding of millions of half-caste children would merely produce a generation of misfits and create national tensions (Duncan Sandys, 1967) This country will not be worth living in for our childrenAs I look ahead I am filled with foreboding. Like the Romans I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood (Enoch Powell, 1968). "Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam." (Oriana Fallaci, The Force of Reason, 2004) Christianitys ancient stronghold of Europe is rapidly giving way to Islam... Current trends suggest Islamization will happen, for Europeans seem to find it too strenuous to have children, stop illegal immigration, or even diversify their sources of immigrants. Instead, they prefer to settle unhappily into civilizational senility. (Daniel Pipes director of The Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures). We are a British nation with British characteristics. Every nation can take some minorities and in many ways they add to the richness and variety of this country. But the moment a minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened. Some people have felt swamped by immigrants. Theyve seen the whole character of their neighbourhood change 94
Of course people can feel that they are swamped. Small minorities can be absorbed but once a minority in a neighbourhood gets very large people do feel swamped. (Margaret Thatchers* speeches in Solomos, J. Race and Racism in Britain. London: Macmillan. 1993) Write your answer in the space below (in no more than 150 words) and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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2.2.4 Racial relations in contemporary Britain and the fight against racial discrimination
Immigration legislation introduced in 1962, 1968 and 1971, and the 1981 Nationality Act, brought in new restrictions to discourage immigration. During the 1990s the scale of immigration declined, consisting mainly of spouses and dependents of those already in Britain. More recently, there has been a growing number of refugees and asylum seekers. Immigration legislation in 1962 and 1968 aimed to enforce a two-strand policy: on the one hand to restrict the number of immigrants entering the country and on the other hand to pass laws to protect the rights of those immigrants who were already settled in Britain. In 1971 the Heath government introduced an Immigration Act which had the effect of treating Commonwealth citizens as aliens, except those born in Britain or who had a parent or grandparent born in Britain (patriality). New conditions for naturalisation and a redefinition of British citizenship are contained in the Nationality Act of 1981. In order to protect immigrant rights the Labour government passed the first Race Relations Act in 1965, which was followed by further acts in 1968 and 1976. These acts make it unlawful to discriminate against another person on grounds of racial, ethnic or national origin. The Race Relations Act of 1976 marked an important step forward in combating racial discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity in employment, education, provision of goods and facilities. The Act also distinguishes between two main types of racial discrimination: direct discrimination, i.e. treating a person, on racial grounds, less favourably than others and indirect discrimination - applying a requirement or condition which puts people from a particular racial group at a disadvantage compared to others. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act of 2000 extends coverage of the 1976 Act to all public authority functions, with only a few limited exceptions. It also imposes a statutory duty on listed public authorities in carrying out their functions to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups. It seeks to ensure that public sector services are provided fairly to everyone and that the public sector better reflects the society that it serves. Other Racial Acts include the Public Order Act of 1986, which makes incitement to racial hatred an offence. This covers the production and circulation of printed material. The act outlaws threatening abusive or insulting behaviour, causing harassment, alarm or distress. New offences of racially aggravated violence, criminal damage and racial harassment were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998. The Football (Offences) Act of 1991 makes racist chanting at football matches an offence.
Immigrant rights
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SAQ 6 Who was the first British Asian who played for England? She was picked to keep goal for the England womens under 16s side in a Dublin tournament against USA, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. She has played for Southampton Saints FC and Arsenal Ladies FC and her name is among the following: Michael Chopra Permi Jahooti Anwar Uddin Aman Dosanj Harpal Singh A very important structure created for combating racial discrimination was the Commission for Racial Equality CRE, set up under the 1976 Act. Its main duties are: to work towards the elimination of racial discrimination; to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations between persons of different racial groups and to keep the working of the Act under review. The CRE is empowered to issue codes of practice, to carry out formal investigations and to issue non-discriminatory notices after findings of unlawful racial discrimination. They have conducted over 100 such investigations that resulted in significant changes in employment practices and housing allocation policy. The codes of practice covering employment, education, housing and the health service provide guidance on the operation of the law. Racial equality Councils assist in cases of discrimination and promote race equality. There are 87 such councils funded jointly by the CRE and local authorities. Recent initiatives include The Leadership Challenge, launched in 1997, inviting British leaders to declare their commitment to the principles of diversity and racial equality and to take practical measures to promote racial equality in their organisations. In May 1998, Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted this challenge in the name of the government. There are Race in Media awards for the promotion of excellence in the handling of race issues in the media and Visible Women awards seeking to raise the profile of ethnic minority women. A Race Relations Forum was set up by the Home Secretary Jack Straw in June 1998. It advises on issues affecting ethnic minority communities and acts as a voice for ethnic minority interests in the heart of the government. The UK agreed to the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), which provides a legal base for community action to combat discrimination based on race. It enables member states to take action to combat criminal acts of racism and xenophobia and to promote the security of citizens. This is an important follow-on from the EU Joint Action on Racism and Xenophobia, to which the UK is also a signatory.
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SAQ 7 Discrimination manifests itself in many ways. Here are some of the targets of multicultural policies that need the establishment of a just, fair and diversity-respecting society. Can you match them with the concise definitions in the right column? 1
2
Ageism
Heterosexism
3 4
Racism Sexism
Institutional racism 6 Transphobia
a a false assumption of intrinsic superiority and value in able bodies and minds b a false assumption of intrinsic superiority and value in the white race c a false assumption of intrinsic superiority and value in men d a false assumption of intrinsic superiority and value in heterosexuality e a false assumption of intrinsic superiority and value in youth f a variety of practices and systems operating within an organization subordinating groups or individuals because of their culture g prejudice against transsexuals
Ableism
Yet despite the very vibrant and significant presence of the ethnic minorities in British life and culture and despite the fruitful attempts at shaping harmonious race relations in Britain today, with all the underlying institutions, legal framework and structures created, they are still confronted with a wide range of racial incidents. Although people from minority ethnic groups are now beginning to play a more active part in representative democracy they are still very much under-represented in national and local decision-making bodies, such as the two houses of Parliament or local councils (just 2.6% of all council employees are from ethnic minorities). There is a growing understanding and practice of difference and multiculturalism in the British society of today, but there is still a long way to go to reach racial equality and racial harmony. As someone said in a recently published report on racism in British institutions: They are en route but there is still another two miles to go This is a marathon, not a sprint. 98
2.2.5 Factfile: the Lawrence case

I would like Stephen to be remembered as a young man who had a future. He was well-loved and had he been given the chance to survive maybe he would have been the one to bridge the gap between black and white. (Doreen Lawrence, the late Stephen Lawrences mother) The first judicial inquiry into a racist murder was announced by the Home Secretary in July 1997 following public concern about the investigations of the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence. The terms of reference of the inquiry were to inquire into the matters arising from the death of Stephen Lawrence on 22 April 1993 in Eltham, south-east London, to date in order particularly to identify the lessons to be learned from the investigation and prosecution of racially motivated crimes. The inquiry resulted in the William Macpherson Report, published in 1999, which made 70 recommendations to be followed by the main institutions and decision-making authorities in Britain. Who was Stephen Lawrence? Not a famous man, just a boy, a very promising student who was stabbed to death one night in April 1993 while waiting for a bus in Eltham by a white gang shouting racist abuse. The Macpherson Report into his death marked a rare moment in Britains national life. It forced everyone to take a long, uncomfortable look into the mirror to examine not just the people we pay to protect us but ourselves. As the Home Secretary said in an admirable statement to the House of Commons: Sir William Macphersons report opens our eyes to what it is like to be black or Asian in Britain today. The Macpherson report points a finger at a police culture full of prejudice and ignorance and at a chance to make amends in the relations between Britains races. SAQ 8 Guess how many times more are Blacks and Asians stopped and searched by police than white people? Six/ three Four/ two Eight/ three Five both
Check your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of this unit.
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Several initiatives were announced which reformers were invited to embrace. The police, along with several other institutions, were to be made answerable under the 1976 Race Relations Act. Jack Straw* (the Home Secretary at the time) signalled his intention of setting much higher targets for the recruitment, retention and promotion of minority officers for all police services. In 2000 just 2 per cent of the police officers in England and Wales were from ethnic minorities; 3.3 per cent of the Metropolitan police (the Met) were drawn from ethnic minorities while 20 per cent of the wider London community came from a minority background. The Home Secretary insisted on a rise to 7 per cent nationally, and even higher in areas of high concentration of ethnic minorities. The setting up of the Racial and Violent Crimes task force was a major step forward. In the meantime it became possible for Lawrences parents to sue 42 officers involved in the failed investigation of their sons murder, including Sir Paul Condon, the former Met commissioner. The recommendations made in the Macpherson Report suggest changes of an unprecedented breadth and depth. There are proposals that the Court of Appeal should be given power to permit prosecution after acquittal where fresh and viable evidence is presented. Another fundamental flaw in the system of criminal justice highlighted by the Stephen Lawrence case was the fact that in Britain, the victim has no right to justice. Under French criminal procedure, victims or their families have a right to be joined as civil parties to criminal proceedings. Acting through a lawyer, the victim or family has the right to be kept informed of major steps in the criminal investigation. In Britain police, prosecution and courts had no formal, duty in law to take on board the right of the Lawrences to justice for their dead son. In the English system there was no one formally entitled, to protect the interests of the victims and their families.
Figure 2.8 Stephen Lawrence
Figure 2.9 Poster created by CRE
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Sir William Macphersons Report asserted that racist language should be a crime and that the CRE should be given statutory rights and powers to investigate the police. It defined institutional racism as the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping (Guardian Weekly, March 7, 1999). It also suggested amendments to the National Curriculum to promote cultural diversity and tolerance in schools. In April 1999 two nail-bomb attacks were targeted at the centre of the capitals Bangladeshi community in Brick Lane, East London. Another nail bomb went off in Brixton, centre of the black community. The Prime Minister said at the time: The true outcasts today, the true minorities, those truly excluded, are not the different races and religions of Britain but the racists, the bombers, the violent criminals who hate that vision of Britain and try to destroy it. (Guardian Weekly, 9 May 1999).
2.2.6 Ethnic / national / cultural identity in a globalized world

Analysing racism today in its complex structure and dynamics, one issue emerges -- it is the fear of living with difference. This fear arises in consequence of the coupling of difference and power, and it can make societies profoundly and deeply antihumane in their capacity to live with difference. Identity implies a distinct, homogeneous common culture marked by common values, shared understandings and loyalties. The reality in a society with class, gender and regional differences is totally different. A nation does not have one identity but many: an individual is a bearer of multiple, evolving and dialectically related identities. To attribute identity to a community of millions spread over vast expanses of space and time makes even less sense. Apart from a clearly manifested multicultural attitude and behaviour, there has also been clear resistance to updating Britains self-image to accommodate the multicultural reality of British society and its history. The notable absence during the V-Day* celebrations in 1995 of the recognition of the major contribution made by Indian and Caribbean soldiers in Britains armed forces during World War II was one example among many. There is also clear evidence of a counter-reaction in the field. Writers on globalisation have often pointed to a paradox: the increasing transnational flows of culture seem to be producing not global homogenisation but growing assertions of heterogeneity and local distinctiveness. Although we might have abandoned assumptions of objectively bounded societies and cultures, many authors argue that communities may often mobilize themselves by
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representing themselves as having clear boundaries which are endangered, as having essential qualities or distinctive ways of life that are under threat from the outside. Think first! There has been a lot of talk in Romanian society about the detrimental influence of Americanization (Macdonaldization) on Romanian culture. What is your opinion of such a phenomenon? Do you perceive it as a real threat? Please dont forget to include this answer in your portfolio for further discussions during tutorials.
An interesting case in point in this direction would be the West Indian Culture in Britain. Notting Hill in west London, has the largest street festival in Europe. A site of bloody interracial conflicts in the 50s, it has become internationally renowned for its carnival, a major tourist attraction held on August Bank Holiday. The streets of west London turn into a riot of noise and colour, where whistles blare, steel bands play and revellers clad in sequins and feathers dance the bank holiday weekend away. For the first five years of its existence (1966-1970) the carnival was a relatively small working class event attended by a few thousand people. Although several ethnic communities were involved (Irish, Turkish-Cypriot and Czechoslovak bands) the overall symbolism of the carnival was predominantly British or English, the themes of the masquerade including English monarchs, the novels of Dickens and scenes from Victorian England. 102
Politically the carnival expressed opposition to landlords and local authorities over issues such as housing shortages and extortionate rents. During the first half of the 1970s a collective West Indian ethnic identity developed in London, arising out of shared experiences of unemployment, police harassment and poor housing conditions. This emergent community adopted the carnival as its focal symbol. Within a few years the carnival became exclusively West Indian in its leadership and in musical and cultural form, a process accomplished through the deliberate removal of all artistic and cultural content not deemed to be West Indian. The implications of all these is not that cultural ghettoisation is recommendable in any way, but that a group must safeguard its cultural identity by controlling the flow of cultural forms into and out of its repertoire of symbolic practices, because in any society, in any particular period, there is a central system of practices, meanings and values which we can properly call dominant and effective not merely abstract but organized and lived a set of meanings and values which as they are experienced, as practices appear, are reciprocally confirming. It constitutes a sense of reality for most people in society, a sense of absolute because of experienced reality beyond which it is very difficult for most of the members of society to move, in most areas of their lives (Raymond Williams*, Culture and Society 1780-1950, Penguin, 1961)
Summary
In the first chapter of this unit you could follow a red thread in the development of a sense of common origins, common history and tradition a sense of Britishness in the British Isles. Beyond the troubled history of the provinces, the episodes of cultural dialogue and exchange, you could follow the main stages in the maturation of a national consciousness in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that led to claims for Home Rule and in recent years led to Wales and Scotland becoming devolved from the central authority in London. These recent developments stirred an unprecedented debate over the future of Britishness and of Britain, quite a few voices claiming that Britishness is undergoing a slow but irreversible process of dissolution and that devolution can only lead - in the more or less distant future - to independence. The second chapter of this unit aims at highlighting the great achievements of Britain in its laudable attempt at establishing a multicultural society, furthering respect, acceptance and understanding for cultural diversity and inter-cultural communication. Emphasis is laid on institutional structures, legislation and public policies meant to translate generous social and cultural ideals into everyday realities, into the provision of equal opportunities in all sectors of public and private life. You are challenged to judge for yourselves the achievements and also the setbacks in this pursuit for inter-racial justice and fairness by reading about Stephen Lawrence and the strong impact his murder had on contemporary British society.
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Key Concepts
acculturation multiculturalism Britpop racism institutional racism globalisation macdonaldization
Glossary
acculturation = process through which one adapts to or adopts a different culture. Bhabha, Homi = famous cultural studies scholar, a leading name in postcolonial studies born to a small Parsi community in Bombay, author of Nation and Narration (1990) and The Location of Culture (1994). Britpop = British musical movement from the middle 90s, characterised by the appearance of bands who borrowed many influences from 60s and 70s while creating big and catchy hooks, as well as the glamour of earlier pop stardom and the sense that they were creating the soundtrack to the lives of a new generation of British youth. council house = house or flat owned by the local town or county council for which the family living in it pays rent. institutional racism = racial discrimination entrenched in the policies, internal regulations, practices of the main institutions in a state, such as the police, employment offices, schools, etc. globalization = set of processes triggered by the development of information technology and mass communication that entail a 'reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer mapped in terms of territorial places, distances and borders. Also, the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa, generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows and networks of activity. The Guardian = serious, quality (as opposed to tabloids), national daily newspaper in Britain, targeting mainly well educated people with liberal or left-wing political opinions.
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Heath, Sir Edward = British Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of Britain from 1970 to 1974 and led Britain into the European Community.
macdonaldization = uncritical and unconditional surrender to the American way of life, fashions, traditions, popular culture, to the detriment of local values and practices. Often seen as a negative side of the process of globalization. multiculturalism = equal respect for the dignity of every human being, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation. racism = belief that racial differences between people are the main influence on their characters and abilities and especially that ones race is the best, the superior one; dislike and unfair treatment of people based on such a belief. Straw, Jack = outstanding Labour politician, who was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in 2001 and again in 2005. He was Home Secretary from 1997-2001. Thatcher, Margaret (Baroness of Kesteven) = the United Kingdoms first woman prime minister (19791990): the longest continually serving prime minister in 150 years). V-Day = May 9, 1945 the day on which victory in Europe in the Second World War was celebrated. Williams, Raymond = one of Britain's greatest post-war cultural historians, theorists and polemicists. His preoccupations for the interrelations between culture and ideology produced works like The Long Revolution or Problems in Materialism and Culture.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please revise section 2.2.1 of the unit. There are many definitions for multiculturalism, but a basic definition might be: respect for the equal dignity of any human being. It is based on respect for cultural diversity, equal opportunities, social justice, equal distribution of power among all members of society, irrespective of their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation etc; respect for alternative life choices of people. SAQ 2 4/g; 7/h; 11/b; 12/d; 20/c; 1/e; 9/j; 8/l; 3/i; 2/s; 5/a; 14/f; 6/n; 17/o; 13/u; 16/k; 21/q; 10/r; 18/m; 15/t 19/p
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SAQ 3 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please revise section 2.1.2. In the 2001 census, 9.9% of the population of England and Wales identified themselves as being from an ethnic minority. Wales. This figure includes those who identified as Irish (1.2%). The Irish category was included for the first time in the 2001 census following research published in 1997, which showed that Britains Irish population experience racial discrimination and disadvantage. SAQ 4 Two-thirds (67%) of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are living in poverty according to latest statistics. Poverty among Ethnic Minority Groups in Britain, a report published by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) defines poverty as living in families with incomes below 60% of the average; it also found that a third of Indians and Caribbeans and half of Black Africans are living in poverty. This compares with less than a quarter of the British population overall. [source: www.cpag.org.uk] SAQ 5 The common denominator of these fragments is their attempt to demonstrate how dangerous and destabilizing the ethnics are to the dominant culture, societal model, deeply-ingrained practices, traditions, institutions etc. The means of achieving their aims differ somewhat: by underscoring the threat posed to the future of European societies, even, more recently, the danger of having Europe islamized, by highlighting such sensitive issues as the future of the countrys young white population in the first discourse there is a barely dissimulated suggestion that the genetic wellbeing of Britain will be jeopardized. Whilst some of the fragments are more radical (the Sandys discourse or the Falacci and Pipes fragments and, above all, the prophetic notes in Powells speech) Margaret Thatchers interventions are somewhat tempered by political correctness: immigration is beneficial, of course, but limits should be imposed and the phenomenon should be curbed (mark the repetition of swamped). SAQ 6 In April 1999, Aman Dosanj became the first British Asian to play for England as goal-keeper in a Dublin tournament against USA, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
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SAQ 7 1/e; 2/d; 3/b; 4/c; 5/f; 6/g; 7/a SAQ 8 Black people were eight times, and Asians were three times more likely, to be stopped and searched than white people in 2001/2. 714,000 stops and searches were recorded in England and Wales in 2001/2, of which 12 per cent were of black people, six per cent were of Asian people and one per cent were of other minority ethnic groups.
SAA No. 2 What was the contribution of the culture of Dissent to the configuration of contemporary Britain? Is Britain a multicultural society? Support your opinions with data and facts. Send the answers to these questions to your tutor. Your test paper should not exceed two pages (1000 words). In order to successfully complete the assigned tasks you should particularly review subchapter 2.1.5 about the culture of Dissent and 2.2.4 and 2.2.5 on race relations in Britain and on the Lawrence case. An adequate coverage of the content required accounts for 70% of your grade while your linguistic accuracy accounts for the remainder. You could consider the bibliography below for further reading.
1. Bhabha, H. K. 1997. Re-Inventing Britain. A Manifesto in British Studies Now. 9/ April 1997. pp.9 - 10 2. Brnzeu. P. 1997. Corridors of Mirrors. The Spirit of Europe in Contemporary British and Romanian Fiction. Timioara: Amarcord, pp. 37-62 3. Dascl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timioara: Eurostampa, pp. 36-88 4. Irimia Anghelescu, M. Dicionarul universului britanic, Bucureti: Humanitas 5. Kureishi, H. 1991. London Kills Me. London: Faber & Faber, pp. 27-37 6. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 1999. Ethnic Diversity in Britain. London
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British monarchy in the third millenium
Unit 3
BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM Unit Outline
Unit objectives 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 109
110 CHAPTER I British monarchy how valid an institution in the third millennium? Monarchy an oasis of aristocracy in a modern world 110 Is the monarch a figurehead? 111 Functions of monarchy. Royal prerogatives 115 121 Key concepts 122 Glossary 124 Answers to SAQs 127 CHAPTER II For or against the monarchy? The tragic death of a princess and calls for the reform of the 131 monarchy Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 3 Selected bibliography 132 132 132 133 134 134
3.2 3.2.1
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This unit tries to analyse the complex aspects of the British monarchy and of its viability in the contemporary world. Monarchy stands for a cluster of values that can certainly not be called democratic. Its fundamental strength and prestige lie in its identification with British history, tradition and greatness, wellestablished values in the existence of the British nation. After you have completed the study of this unit, you should be able to: Unit objectives compare the monarchy to other forms of government; re-interpret tradition as reflected in the institution of the monarchy and the attempts at modernizing it; construct argumentation in a rational, well-informed manner regarding the merits and demerits of the monarchy; critically appraise both the strengths and the drawbacks of the institution of the monarchy; recognize and use new specific concepts and cultural studies terminology.
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3.1 British monarchy how valid an institution in the third millennium? 3.1.1 Monarchy an oasis of aristocracy in a modern world
A Romanian philosopher and political scientist sees British political institutions at the turn of the millennium in a far from flattering light: Against the backdrop of innovations such as the spleen, the game of golf and the English park, the English beheaded a king only to feverishly set about the restoration of the monarchy after a short respite; they fought for centuries with their traditional enemies across the Channel whilst voraciously absorbing at least three quarters of the polished French vocabulary; they preserved an oasis of aristocracy in a democratic sea that they themselves had sown the seeds of, colonised half the world just to find themselves the subjects of the most ample cross-fertilisation in modern history. Their traffic keeps to the left, they still go fox-hunting, cook abominably and, of course. they have a monarchy. (Andrei Cornea, Ultima familie. Despre monarhie la britanici in 22, 23-29 March 1999: 16). SAQ 1 What are the historical facts alluded to in Corneas article? Write your answer in the space below and compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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Britain is a myth-saver in a world that keeps debunking all myths. The monarchy provides a last link with a past of austere and clear-cut values but fails to inspire contemporaries. In this sense the British Royal Family is the last family. The Romanian scholar chooses to make the British monarchy in a way anti-representative because its strong ties with the past set it apart from the touch of real life. The last family like the last Chinese Emperor is a bizarre fossil in a world of sophisticated technology: cloning, artificial insemination, transsexuality, alternative families What follows attempts several answers to Andrei Corneas questions concerning the monarchy and the constitutional order of Britain.
3.1.2 The monarch as figurehead*

Let us see whether the monarch in Britain is that ceremonial hollow space that Cornea referred to in his article. The British have always been ruled by a monarch except for a very brief period, extremely unpopular: Cromwells Protectorate. The present-day sovereign can claim unbroken descent dating back to the Anglo Saxon king (rather bretwaldas) Cerdic in the 5th century. Other ancestors include Charlemagne*, Malcolm II* of Scotland and even the emperor Barbarossa*. Think First! The lines below are from William Shakespeares Hamlet (Act I, scene III): His will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth He may not, as unvalud persons do, Carve for himself. For on his choice depend The safety and the health of this whole state. (Shakespeare, III) Does the playwright consider the responsibilities of the monarch in a favourable light or not? Write your answer in the space below and add your answer to your portfolio for further discussions with your tutor and colleagues during tutorials.
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Since the Bill of Rights in 1689, after the Glorious Revolution that secured the succession of William of Orange as William III of England, every monarch reigns with the consent of Parliament in addition to their hereditary right. Although said to be a figurehead, a detainer of symbolic and not real power, the monarch is omnipresent. Coins, stamps, most visual images of Britain bear a picture of the Queens head a primordial national emblem. Also all major institutions bear the queens imprint: the post is carried by the Royal Mail, the ships in the Royal Navy are Her Majestys Ships, Her Majestys Government is made up of Her Majestys Ministers, official letters are sent On Her Majestys Service (OHMS). On the other hand, all these institutions that append the prefix Royal or Her Majestys cannot possibly benefit from the supervision of the monarch, and the prefixes actually stand for State or British. So we encounter here a problem that recalls the famous quarrel of medieval philosophers: name or substance? Are names real in themselves or are they conventions, symbols, fictions? I suggest that the answer to this problem could also come from the interpretation of the concept of power. For Hannah Arendt*, a famous philosopher of politics, power is associated with community and its ethos. Power is the glue that holds the community together. Power is significantly, in fact primordially, connected to public life: Power springs up whenever people get together and act in concert, but it derives its legitimacy from the initial getting together rather than from any action that then may follow (On Violence, 1969: 52). This type of power, distinguishable from authority, strength, domination, etc., is what keeps the public realm in existence. An understanding of power as sheer force, conflict, thirst for domination is also undermined by Dorothy Emmet*, who argues that power should be distinguished from domination since, she thinks, the production of intended effects need not be the achievement of intended effects through coercing other people (The Concept of Power, 1954:4). She distinguishes between power over and power with, or coercive vs. coactive power. Like Arendt, Emmet believes that power is not a thing but a capacity or relation between people. In this definition she is concerned to discuss the way in which the exercise of ritual power can make for the cohesion of a community. She cites the example of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a ritual that gathered up a number of aspects of the non-coercive kinds of power. 112
Think First! Before you go on reading, stop a minute and reflect on this gelling of the community. We often speak about the lack of cohesion in contemporary society, about the fact that communities are fragmented and no longer united in the name of commonly shared values, ideals etc. Is this power of holding people together and imparting a feeling of community and belonging to them real or symbolic? Use the space below to write your answer and please dont forget to add it to your portfolio so that you can further discuss the matter during tutorials.
The coronation of Elizabeth in 1953 was an occasion when the whole nation came together filled with a sense of common values and a desire to affirm their commitment to the nation. The ceremony of the Coronation fulfils the same social functions as more strictly religious rituals, affirming and celebrating the values of community.
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Anthropologists have long been aware of the functional importance of monarchies. In this respect the kings person in several cultures and in different historical periods, has been regarded as the guarantor and mirror of the social and environmental prosperity of the nation. SAQ 2 In what ways could the monarch be seen as a guarantor of the social and environmental prosperity of the nation in the past? You could try to remember from your own experience things that you read or heard about the sacred, miraculous nature of monarchs. Write your answer below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
Figure 3.1 HM Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation day - 2 June 1953
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3.1.3 Functions of monarchy. The Royal prerogatives*

The Queen appoints the Prime Minister. George III chose and dismissed Prime Ministers almost at will, but he was the last monarch able to do that. Elizabeth II does not actually choose, rather she confirms as Prime Minister the elected leader of the largest single party in the Commons. The monarch exercised more freedom in the choice of Prime Minister in the first half of the 20th century. This is a residual prerogative, with the exception of some special cases when she can have more real power. That happens in the case of a hung parliament* when no single party has an overall majority in the Commons and it is up to the monarch to designate a leading political figure with a better chance of forming a government which could command the support of a majority in the lower House. This has occurred more frequently than it is thought. Of the twentyfive general elections in the 20th century Britain between 1900 and 1997, five have failed to yield a clear result (January and December 1910, 1923, 1929 and 1974). In 1940 George VI had some influence on the choice of Winston Churchill to succeed Neville Chamberlain** as Prime Minister. In January 1957 Anthony Eden* fell ill, so the Queen took advice from Winston Churchill and invited Harold Macmillan** to form a new government. Then in October 1963, Macmillan was taken ill, and the Queen took advice from Macmillan in hospital and invited Lord Home* to form a new government. The Queen was confronted once with a hung parliament produced by the General Election of 1974. The dissolution of Parliament is again formal since the Queen can only do that at the request of her Prime Minister within the fiveyear maximum life-span of a Parliament. The last monarch that exercised this prerogative in an independent way was Queen Anne (1701-1714). The Queen prorogues* and then in a short while opens the new parliamentary session (this will be discussed in more detail in Unit Four) during a splendid ceremony called the State Opening of Parliament which has taken place on a Wednesday in November ever since 1536. She takes no part in the Parliament deliberations and in fact is forbidden to enter the chamber of the House of Commons, as all monarchs have been since 1641. In that year Charles I, in breach of parliamentary autonomy from the kings power, ordered the arrest of five members of whom he disapproved in an attempt to stamp out opposition to his discretionary rule.
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SAQ 3 The State Opening of Parliament is a rare occasion in the year to admire the glamour and decorum of the monarchs glittering ceremonial dress, her crown and, in general, the Regalia*. Try to match the symbolic objects with their definitions at the bottom of the box. Check your answer against that given in the Answers section. A) B) C) D) the Imperial State Crown; the Sovereign's Sceptre; the Ampulla; the Orb.
1. Object made of gold which contains the oil with which the Sovereign is anointed*. There is a small hole in the beak through which the oil is poured; 2. Worn by the sovereign on great state occasions. It has among numerous other precious stones the Stuart Sapphire, the Black Prince's Ruby, and St Edward's Sapphire, and, above all the extraordinary and ancient Kohinoor diamond; 3. Made from marked gold and set with over 600 precious stones and pearls, 6.5 inches in diameter made for Charles II's coronation in 1661, it represents Christian Sovereignty; 4. Provided with a Cross. It signifies the Sovereign's temporal power. It is decorated with 393 precious stones, including the Star of Africa (Cullinan I) diamond - the largest top quality cut diamond in the world;
Figure 3.2 The British Regalia
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The Royal Assent to legislation is another royal prerogative. Through applying the royal rubber stamp to Bills, they become Acts of Parliament. Charles II managed to postpone or replace bills, which he disapproved of by pretending that he had mislaid them! The same happened in the 19th century with controversial laws related to Catholic emancipation. Both George III and George IV managed to delay it. Queen Anne again was the last monarch to veto legislation. Creation of peers* is mainly on the advice of the Prime Minister. There was a time when this Royal prerogative was very important. In 1831 the threat of William IV to create new peers helped to ensure the passage of the first Reform Bill and in 1911 the willingness of George V to create as many as 400 new Liberal peers caused the hereditary majority of Conservatives in the Upper House (The House of Lords) to give way to the Liberal majority in the Lower House (The House of Commons). Appointments are usually made twice a year, when the names of the newly created peers appear in the Honours Lists*. Since 1964 life peerages have been the order of the day, but this was reversed under Margaret Thatchers rule after 1983, when William Whitelaw, a loyal supporter of Thatchers, and George Thomas, a distinguished Speaker of the Commons, were given hereditary peerages. The monarch is also involved in granting a range of honours, civilian and military. This, as in the case of the creation of peerages, happens twice a year when the Honours Lists are published. Nevertheless, certain occasions might arise when special investitures can be made, as in 1982 when honours were awarded to those who took part in the Falklands campaign. Although most nominations are made on the advice of the Prime Minister, some of these honours remain in the personal gift of the Monarch: the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit and the Royal Victorian Order. The Order of the Garter is the highest degree of British knighthood together with the Order of the Thistle. SAQ 4 What English monarch founded the Order of the Garter? Its motto is Honi soit qui mal y pense. What is its meaning? Can you remember where this motto appears? Write your answer in the space below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section.
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More often than not these honours have no political significance, just recognising and rewarding some outstanding personalities. Mother Theresa was awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen on her visit to India, when she opened the 1983 Commonwealth Conference. However, occasionally they do have political significance as in the case of Sir Humphrey Gibbs, who was awarded the Royal Victorian Order for his personal loyalty to the Crown in continuing to act as Her Majestys Governor of Rhodesia after that country had declared its unilateral independence from the Commonwealth in 1965 under the apartheid regime of Ian Smith. Public appointments refer again to a formal function. All important positions in the civil service, the police, the judiciary, the BBC and the Church of England are filled in the name of the monarch, as well as all ministerial appointments. However, these are done again on the recommendation of the Prime Minister or of various Secretaries The prerogative of mercy and pardon is again devoid of meaning. Since the House of Commons voted in 1965 to abolish the death penalty on a provisional basis, and since that decision has subsequently been confirmed in successive free votes, it now seems that this particular aspect of the royal prerogatives has also fallen into disuse. Pardons are granted only in very rare situations when there is some special reason why a sentence should not be carried out, e.g. the discovery that the evidence on which this was based was false. Other formal functions, of which most are redundant or meaningless, include the conclusion of international treaties, declaration of war, the introduction or amendment of colonial constitutions (meaning actually the states that have won their independence after World War II and are now part of the Commonwealth) and the establishment of public corporations. Although the sovereign is the head of the executive, the vast bulk of the prerogative powers of the Crown over 95 per cent of them are exercised not by the sovereign personally but either on the advice of ministers or by ministers themselves. In the conduct of foreign policy the Royal prerogative was used in the past in less formal situations, in fact in such a very 118
momentous and controversial matter as entry to the EC. The 1972 Treaty of Accession which took Britain into the EC was signed by Edward Heath as Prime Minister in Brussels without having to secure prior approval of that move by Parliament. The members of the Royal Family are actively engaged in many charitable organisations. They promote excellence and equal opportunities in the many trusts and funds that they have initiated and support. The Queen is Patron or President of many charity organizations like most members of the Royal Family. Late Princess Dianas most laudable initiatives in the campaigns against anti personnel land-mines and against poverty and disease should also be mentioned. SAQ 5 Match the members of the Royal family in the left column with the charity organizations they preside in the right column: Queen Elizabeth II Duke Of Edinburghs Award Scheme (awards made to young people between the ages of 14 and 21 for enterprise, initiative and achievement) Princes Trust (recreation and leisure facilities for deprived young people) president and patron of 700 organizations Save the Children Fund
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Princess Anne Charles, Prince of Wales
The monarch is the personification of the British state and this is an extension of her symbolic function. She is immensely popular and her many state visits serve the purpose of promoting British values worldwide. The Queen has great representational functions that derive from her ritual power. She is a superb ambassador; she is very popular and able to attract a lot of interest wherever her visits take her. In her quality of Head of the Commonwealth, again a predominantly ceremonial role strictly matching the ceremonial power of the Commonwealth itself, the Queen acts as a focus and a binding influence for this loose association of states: Queen Elizabeth is the bit of glue that somehow manages to hold the whole thing together and I suppose it is to some extent a matter of worry that clearly her
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personality is a major factor to all of us in the Commonwealth. She does the unifying. said David Lange, former Prime Minister of New Zealand (quoted in Bogdanor, 1997: 275). She is undoubtedly, Bogdanor* thinks, the worlds only international monarch. In 1999, the Australians organised a referendum on whether to retain the Queen as the Head of State or form a republic headed by a president. For many Australians who voted against the republic and for maintaining the Queen as Head of State the most commonsensical comment was: If it aint broke why fix it? SAQ 6 What is the Commonwealth? When was it set up and what was it meant to replace? Write your answer below and then compare it to that given in the Answers section.
The Queens annual Christmas broadcast to the people of her country and of the whole Commonwealth is a major highlight of Christmas festivities in the British Isles. These messages are unique since they are not made in her capacity as Queen of the UK, nor as queen of her other realms. They are delivered on the Queen's own responsibility and not on advice. Her Majesty also gives regular receptions and lunches for people who have made a contribution in different areas of national and international life. She also appears on many public occasions such as the services of the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle and Trooping the Colour. The Queen leads her people on important occasions, imparting a sense of unity and common purpose to them and raising their morale on such important national occasions as the Remembrance Day ceremony and national services at St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. 120
SAQ 7 What does Remembrance day commemorate, and when is it held? Compare your answer to that provided in the Answers section.
The Queen has regular and confidential contacts with the Prime Minister, enjoying what Walter Bagehot* called the right to be consulted, the right to encourage and the right to warn (The English Constitution, 1978:11). They usually meet every week on Tuesday evening and then for several days in the late summer when she is on holiday at Balmoral* in Scotland. She sees all Cabinet papers and the records of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings. She receives important Foreign Office telegrams and a daily summary of events in Parliament. Her experience of the affairs of state is unrivalled in modern times, since in almost 50 years on the throne she has had 10 Prime Ministers and 15 different governments. As a permanent fixture in the British political system, unlike temporary politicians, she has a greater knowledge than they do regarding domestic and international politics.
Key Concepts
figurehead non-coercive power Royal prerogative Act of Settlement Civil List Honours List Regalia State Opening of Parliament hung parliament
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Glossary
anoint = to apply ointment or oil within a religious ceremony during which a king/queen is consecrated. Arendt, Hanah = German-American philosopher and political theorist, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On Revolution, and Between Past and Future. She spent much of her life attempting to understand the political and moral causes of the Nazi rise in Germany and of other totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Bagehot, Walter = English journalist and economist, closely associated with the English institutionalist-historicist tradition. One of the early editors of the famous and influential "Manchester School" newspaper The Economist. His major work The English Constitution, of 1867 is still a landmark in the field. Balmoral = a castle in NE Scotland that has been a private home of the royal family since 1852, when it was bought by Prince Albert, Queen Victorias husband. Barbarossa, (Emperor) = Friedrich I. Barbarossa, German King, who became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1155. He led many expeditions to conquer Italy and lay siege to Milan. He died on a crusade to the Holy Land, on the way back in Turkey with a fever. But as his corpse was not brought back to Germany, there was no evidence, that he really was dead and this was the source of many legends linked to his name. It was rumoured, that he was still alive and would return in the right moment! Bogdanor, Vernon = Professor of government at Oxford University. His most important publications are: Devolution in the United Kingdom (1999), Politics and the Constitution: Essays on British Government (1996), The Monarchy and the Constitution (1995). Chamberlain, Neville = conservative politician who as prime minister continued the policy of non-intervention. He also thought that by agreeing to some of the demands being made by Hitler and Mussolini he could avoid a European war. The policy of appeasement was not met with approval by his foreign secretary Anthony Eden, who resigned in February, 1938. On 29th September, 1938, Chamberlain, Hitler, Daladier and Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement which spoke of peace in our time. Some politicians, including Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, attacked the agreement. In March, 1939, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain realized that Hitler could not be trusted, and his appeasement policy now came to an end. After the invasion of Poland, Chamberlain was forced to declare war on Germany. 122
Charlemagne = the first European Emperor (742-814) since Roman times, whose court was in what we now know as France. EC = The European Community, a West European political and economic organization established in 1967 to encourage trade and friendly relations between its member countries. Eden, Anthony = Conservative prime-minister 1955-1957, as foreign secretary from 1935 until 1938 when he resigned in protest over Neville Chamberlain's decision to "open conversations" with Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, a fascist. He was once again foreign secretary (1940-45) as part of a wartime coalition government under Churchill and again in the Conservative government that won election in 1951, holding the post until he became prime minister in April, 1955. Emmet, Dorothy = British philosopher, a challenger of intellectual fashion and explorer of uncharted territories, with vivid interests in the fields of social and political affairs, author of Function, Purpose and Powers (1958) Rules, Roles and Relations (1966) and The Moral Prism (1979) figurehead = representation in wood, usually of the top half of a woman, that in former times was placed at the front of a ship. It refers also to someone who is the head or chief in name only.
Figure 3.3 Figurehead
Hall, Stuart = British cultural theorist, born Jamaica in 1932, pioneer in the field of cultural studies in the 1970s. Author of The Hard Road to Renewal (1988), Resistance through Rituals (1989), The Formation of Modernity (1992), Questions of Cultural Identity (1996) and Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (1997). He currently sits on the Runnymede Trust's commission on the future of multi-ethnic Britain.
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Honours List = a list of important people to whom titles are to be given as a sign of respect. It is produced each year by the Prime Minister but the titles are actually given by the Queen in a special ceremony.
hung parliament = parliament in which no political party has more elected representatives than the others. Thus it is possible to win most seats in the Commons but not an overall majority. Macmillan, Harold = Minister of defence (1954) under Winston Churchill and foreign secretary (April-December 1955) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1955-1957) under Anthony Eden, whom he succeeded on the formers resignation in 1957. For Macmillan, the economy was his prime concern and to seek high employment which provoked a lot of resistance from the Treasury. Macmillan also saw the value of strengthening ties with Europe and sought belated entry to the European Economic Community (EEC), vetoed by Charles de Gaulle. Macmillan continued the divestment of the colonies, his "wind of change" speech (February 1960) indicating this policy. Malcolm II of Scotland = King of Scotland from 1005 to 1034, who battled to expand his kingdom, gaining land down to the River Tweed and in Strathclyde. Regalia = ceremonial clothes and decorations, especially those used on ceremonial occasions. Royal prerogative = any of the special rights of a king or queen. State Opening of Parliament = the occasion each year when the Queen officially opens the British Parliament after its summer break and makes a speech saying what the government plans to do. Every four (maximum five) years in the wake of general elections the Parliament has a short-lived span, since it is dissolved before elections and re-opened shortly after (e.g. 2005).
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 The events alluded to are: the execution of Charles I in 1649, the restoration of monarchy under Charles II in 1660, the century-long rivalry with France: The Battle of Hastings, Hundred Years War, The Seven Years War (1756-1763), the Norman conquest and the huge impact of French on the vocabulary of English, the consolidation of the British Empire, the waves of immigration in the 20th century. 124
SAQ 2 Ancient kings enjoyed a godly status, they were endowed with supernatural capacities such as giving sun or rain in due season. In the Middle Ages their status was that of intercessors between humans and God and the fact that they were anointed with holy oil conferred upon them nearly priestly status and also set the king above human judgement (Edgar was the first English king to be anointed in 973). For a long time monarchs were also believed to have magic healing powers. People afflicted with such terrible diseases such as scrofula longed to be touched by the king in the hopes of miraculous recovery. We have ample evidence about the royal gifts of healing from Edward the Confessor in the 11th century to Charles II in the 17th century. SAQ 3 A. B. C. D. SAQ 4 Should your answer not be comparable to that given below please revise subchapter 1.1.12 and the glossary entry Royal Coat of Arms on page 26. The Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III* during the Hundred Years War with France. The motto Honi soit qui mal y pense may well have been directed at critics of the Kings claims to the French throne, however, according to a tradition first recorded by Tudor chroniclers, it originated at a feast celebrating the capture of Calais in 1347. The Kings mistress, the Countess of Salisbury was mocked by courtiers for losing her garter during a dance, but Edward at once stepped forward and tied the blue ribbon around his own knee, uttering the motto as a rebuke and stating that the Garter would soon be held in the highest esteem. SAQ 5 Queen Elizabeth Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Princess Anne Charles, Prince of Wales president and patron of 700 organizations Duke Of Edinburghs Award Scheme Save the Children Fund Princes Trust the Imperial State Crown 2 the Sovereign's Sceptre 3 the Ampulla 1 the Orb 4
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SAQ 6 Should your answer not be comparable to the one given below please go back to the glossary entry The Commonwealth on page 23. The Commonwealth is a loose association of states with no formal constitution or rules, among which only a few, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, remain dependencies of Britain. The term as such was for the first time used by Lord Roseberry, a Liberal minister, who in 1884 considered Australias position in a commonwealth of nations to be the right thing. The organization founded in the post-war period was meant to replace the British Empire, although the belief that the British Commonwealth could still project Britain in the world had to be abandoned, in private, if not in public. As Blair stated in 1996: We no longer have an empire and although the Commonwealth gives us valuable links around the world it is not an alternative to Europe. (Blair, 1996:210). There are 53 states within the Commonwealth, nearly one-third of the worlds independent states with a combined population of over 1.8 billion. About 30 percent of the world's population are drawn from the broadest range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions. Members range from vast countries like Canada to small island states like Malta. The Queen is recognised as Head of the Commonwealth. In 16 countries, including Canada and Australia, she is also head of State. Thirty countries, like Zimbabwe, India, Guyana, Ghana, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cyprus, etc., are republics and six of them, like Brunei, Malaysia, Lesotho and Tonga have their own royal families. SAQ 7 Should your answer not be comparable to the one given below please go back to section 1.1.8. The Sunday nearest to the 11 November is when the Armistice was signed (concluding World War I). On Remembrance Sunday, the dead of both World Wars are remembered in special church services and civic ceremonies, the chief of which is the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London by members of the Royal Family (the whole procession is led by the Queen) in the presence of the leading statesmen and politicians. A two-minute silence is observed at 11 oclock in the whole country as a tribute to the nations heroes.
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3.2 For or against the monarchy?

Public attitudes to the monarchy have swayed from considerable support in the 70s and 80s to the very critical attitudes of recent years. A 1969 opinion poll demonstrated that only 13 per cent of the Brits thought it was a dated institution, 30 per cent thought it should continue unchanged, and about 50 per cent thought it was good value as long as it was willing to adapt to changing times. In an opinion poll of 1981, as many as 80 per cent of respondents thought that the Royal Family was a marvellous example to everyone of good family life. Also 90 per cent of those questioned preferred the British monarchy to a republic of the French or of the American type. Only 30 per cent of them thought that the monarchy cost the country more than it was worth. In January 1997 Do you want a monarchy? was the question put to the nation in an interactive media show which was without precedent in history, broadcast across the nation with 3,000 live guests, 14,000 telephone lines, 9 million viewers and 2.6 million phone calls. Sixty per cent of the voters agreed on the preservation of the monarchy. The programme showed that the monarchy and its crisis are issues larger than national proportions. Broadcast by satellite all around the world, the referendum was a showcase of British culture, debating the British understanding of democracy in what could be called a virtual networking interactive global studio. Pro-monarchists think that one argument definitely in favour of the monarchy is its unifying influence that goes beyond the ideological claims of any political party. The Queen is a permanent, non-partisan symbol of national unity (Jones and Kavanagh, British Politics Today 1998:120). The Queen is to be distinguished from other Heads of State, because, not being engaged in chief executive functions, like the US president, she can perform hundreds of engagements and overseas visits each year. She is a full-time Head of State and very experienced and skilled at her job. The Queen is scrupulously neutral but occasionally she hints at personal views. Queen Victoria* detested the liberal leader and four times Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone, and she also distrusted his party. Nevertheless she was compelled to accept him as Prime Minister. It was rumoured that the Queen Elisabeth II was not at all inclined towards the policies and personal disposition of Baroness Thatcher. In 1986 rumours had it that the Queen disapproved of Margaret Thatchers oppositions to economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa.
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As Cornea well remarks in his article, it is almost impossible to mark off a portion of the sovereigns life which is truly private. Even when on holiday, official papers will arrive on a regular basis for scrutiny. In modern times there can never be a holiday from the work of government, and the sovereign can never be completely off duty or on holiday in the traditional sense, as George VIs private secretary Sir Alan Lascelles puts it very memorably: We serve, may I remind you, one of the very few men in this world who never gets a holiday at all and who, unlike the rest of us, can look forward to no period of retirement at the end of his service, for his service never ends. George V called his work a life sentence (quoted in Vernon Bogdanor, The Monarchy and the Constitution,1997: 193-194). SAQ 1 Does Vernon Bogdanors statement sound a bit exaggerated? How many engagements do you think the Queen undertakes, as Head of State and of the Commonwealth? Choose the correct answer from the variants below: over 200 about 100 over 450 about 1000
How many people does the Queen entertain annually on various more or less formal occasions? The right answer is among the following: 14.000 37.000 10.000 48.000
Now compare your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of this unit.
The Monarchy generates lots of money. People think that the monarchy is good value. It may cost more than the royal houses of Holland or the Nordic countries, but it is good value for money.
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SAQ 2 You have so far read about several arguments in favour of the monarchy, of the institutional validity of the monarchy in the modern world. How could you account for the fact that most prime ministers of the Left, Liberal or Labour, have proved to be royalists? Write your answer in the space below and then compare it to the one given in the Answers section.
The opponents of the monarchy put forth several arguments against it. The most important claims are that in a democratic, meritocratic* age, hereditary rights should be invalidated and heads of state should be popularly elected. They think that the monarchs neutrality is only apparent, since the values that the monarch stands for cannot be depoliticised, and reinforce the conservative values of wealth, class, deference to social status, tradition, the Establishment*. They also think it is very costly. The Queen used to receive an annual grant of nearly 6 million GBP to meet the expenses of the nearly 400-strong royal household. The first Civil List Act was passed in 1697. It is sometimes believed that the Civil List* is remuneration for the sovereign, when it is actually used to meet official expenditure necessarily incurred through the sovereigns duty as head of state or head of the Commonwealth. Around 70 % of it is spent on the salaries of those working directly for the monarch and it is audited annually by the Treasury. In July 1990 a new arrangement was introduced whereby the Queen receives an agreed sum over a tenyear period with more money being made available in the early years (7.9 million GBP in 1991-92).
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The Queen is granted the Civil List in return for handing over the Crown estates to the Exchequer*, as has happened since George III. Although those estates officially belong to the Crown, no monarch could keep them if they considered, for example, that the Civil List was not to their liking. Nevertheless, the Queen has a considerable personal fortune in addition to jewellery and paintings. Her stamp collection alone is said to be worth over one million GBP. Critics argue that the tax-payers should not have to cover the Queens personal expenses, those of the royal dependants, when she is actually one of the richest women in the world. A MORI poll (a special survey of opinion in a country done by the company Market and Opinion Research International) in 1990 showed three-quarters of the population favoured taxing the Queens income. Prime Minister John Major announced that the Queen would pay income tax from April that year, though with a huge allowance and exemption from inheritance tax for the Prince of Wales. The Sunday Times in 1990, calculated her personal fortune at 7 billion GBP, though this was dismissed by the palace. Her critics also think that the functions that the Queen holds are mostly meaningless and absurd. The Queen, they say, by dispensing honours such as peerages, knighthoods and medals, in fact, creates for the Prime Minister, on whose advice she elevates people to such titles, a rich system of patronage, thus strengthening the Prime Ministers manipulative powers. Some of her other functions, they argue declaration of war, signing of treaties, granting pardons, her annual opening of Parliament, appointment of the Prime Minister, Cabinet, bishops, Lords of Appeal and heads of corporations - are meaningless. The Queen described the year 1992 as annus horribilis. It was the year the media burrowed into the private lives of the younger members of the royal family, into the intimacy of their love affairs and marriage problems; there were marital scandals surrounding her son Andrew and the heir to the throne, Charles. In the following years, the prestige of the monarchy was dealt further blows that came to a head in 1997 with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Then there was vivid discussion of the future role of the royal family. There was a general feeling of dismay and profound dissatisfaction with a monarchy that had become more and more aloof from the problems of the common people, ossified in rituals and artificial conventionalism.
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3.2.1 The tragic death of a princess and calls for the reform of the monarchy
The death of Diana in August 1997 damaged, some say beyond repair, the support for the monarchy in Britain. In a poll published by Observer in 1997, it is evident how the Queen and Prince Charles plummeted in popular support. The ratings plunged from 71 in 1981 to 10 for the Queen and from 58 to 5 per cent for Charles. Still 74 per cent of the interviewees thought that the institution should be maintained, but they added that an overhaul of the institution was mandatory and only 12 per cent thought that the status quo should be maintained. 81 per cent thought that the Royal family should become more informal and less concerned with preserving their traditional ways; 79 per cent thought that the monarchy was out of touch with ordinary people in Britain. To a last question concerning the succession to the Crown, only 38 per cent thought that Charles should be the next in line, whilst 53 per cent thought that the Crown should go to Charless son William. When Diana died in a car crash in Paris in the early hours of Saturday 30, August 1997, the princess precipitated an unprecedented crisis in the Royal Family. Let me repeat, Diana didnt cause this. She was a force of nature, but hardly El Nio. She was only a symbol of social changes happening already, a political symbol because of her royal fate and her choice of charities, friends, words and gestures. With her emotional fragility and self-revelation, her baseball caps, natural look of deference, hedonistic enjoyment of material things and her complicated sex life, she was representative of the new, emerging Britain just as surely as Charles and his mother represent an old nation said Andrew Marr (One year on, has Britain changed? in Guardian Weekly, 30 August 1998:13). The author of the article thinks that this was the major effect of Dianas death. It provided a much needed shock, a disruption to everyday rituals which allowed for communal self-recognition: The moment when we stared at the crowds and bouquets, we stared at ourselves and thought, bloody hell, so thats what were like. It offered, in the proper sense, a moment of national reflection. And because to know oneself is to change, then a year on, yes, it is safe to say that Dianas death changed the country (ibid.:13). The monarchy as an institution has to dovetail* with modern times whilst preserving the nearly sacred status that many of its supporters hold dear: tradition, high moral standards, stability and continuity as Stuart Hall* asserts in The Great Moving Right Show: The major significance of the monarchy is its capacity to continue to forge links among constitutional, political and social features of a society which has been struck by far-reaching economic and social problems and which is still marked by the powerful impact of the politics of Tory leader Margaret Thatcher (1983:19-39).
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Summary
In this unit you were given fairly ample opportunities to engage with the structure, functions and overall significance of a defining British institution monarchy whose fate is viewed with increasingly sceptical eyes in the modern world. Many believe that the very principles that underpin monarchy - such as hereditary rights or class privilege, look absurd and out of synch with modern times, with the very spirit of democracy. At the same time you are invited to weigh the strengths of the institution against its weaknesses, to develop awareness of the monarchs relatively symbolic power and to account for the support that monarchy has managed to secure over time from the, apparently, least likely political force to offer such support the Labour Party. The unprecedented crisis monarchy faced in the wake of princess Dianas death in 1997 is also highlighted as well as calls ever since for the modernization of the institution.
Key Concepts
Civil List Establishment Exchequer meritocracy/meritocratic
Glossary
Civil List = the sum of money voted yearly by Parliament to the King or Queen as head of state and to certain other related people. dovetail = to fit together compactly or neatly. Establishment = the powerful organizations and people who control public life and support the established order of society. Exchequer = the government department that is responsible for the collection of taxes and the paying out of public money. It is part of the Treasury whose chief minister is called Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hall, Stuart = British cultural theorist, born Jamaica in 1932, pioneer in the field of cultural studies in the 1970s. Author of The Hard Road to Renewal (1988), Resistance through Rituals (1989), The Formation of Modernity (1992), Questions of Cultural Identity (1996) and Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (1997). He currently sits on the Runnymede Trust's commission on the future of multi-ethnic Britain. 132
Holyrood House = a large mansion (properly The Palace of Holyrood House) in Edinburgh, Scotland used as residence by members of the Royal family when visiting Scotland. Its name is derived from the abbey whose ruins still stand in the park, built in the early 16th century and dedicated to the Holy Rood, or cross of Christ). meritocracy (-atic) = a social system which gives the highest positions to those with the most ability. Victoria = queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India and grand-daughter of George III. Victoria was the monarch who ruled for the longest period in English history (1837-1901), during which there was great industrial advancement, an expansion of the British Empire and an increase in the popularity of the monarchy.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Each year, HM Queen Elizabeth II undertakes a large number of engagements: some 478 in the UK and overseas (in 2003). Every year, Her Majesty entertains some 48,000 people from all sections of the community (including visitors from overseas) at Royal Garden Parties and other occasions. At least three garden parties take place at Buckingham Palace and a fourth at the Palace of Holyrood House*, in Edinburgh. Additional 'special' parties are occasionally arranged, for example to mark a significant anniversary for a charity. SAQ 2 Monarchy offers fixed constitutional landmarks and a degree of institutional continuity in a changing world. Pro-monarchists think that especially nowadays, with a New Labour government so committed to sweeping changes, to social and constitutional reforms, the monarchy is needed even more with its offer of legitimacy to a reforming administration. That is why the overwhelming majority of the prime ministers of the Left from Gladstone, Asquith and Attlee to Harold Wilson and today Tony Blair have proved to be such staunch royalists.
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SAA No. 3 Can you give any examples of non-coercive power that is nevertheless real power? Many people believe that we might see elections for a president of the UK by 2050. Do you agree or do you disagree? Bring arguments in favour of your views. Send the answers to these questions to your tutor. Your answer should not exceed two pages (1000 words). In order to successfully complete the assigned tasks you should particularly review subchapters 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 on the distinction coercive/non-coercive power and on the prerogatives of the monarch, as well as chapter 3.2. An adequate coverage of the content required accounts for 70% of your total grade while your linguistic accuracy accounts for 30% of it. You could consider the bibliography below for further reading.
1. Bogdanor,V. 1997. The Monarchy and the Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 185-194 2. Dascl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timioara: Eurostampa, pp. 101128 3. Emmet, D. 1953-54. The Concept of Power in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, spring 1954. pp.1-26 4. Jones, B. and D, Kavanagh. 1998. British Politics Today. Sixth edition. Manchester: MUP, pp. 120-130 5. McDowall, D. 1991. An Illustrated History of Britain. Harlow: Longman
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British democracy in action
Unit 4
BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN ACTION Unit Outline
Unit objectives 4.1 136
4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6
137 CHAPTER I A brief historical outline of the British Parliament. The House of Lords and its radical reform under New Labour A brief historical outline of the British Parliament 137 Life of Parliament The House of Lords in history Functions of the House of Lords Calls for the reform of the House of Lords New Labour and the Reform of the Lords: 800 years of history ends in 7 minutes Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs 140 143 145 147 148
153 153 156 157
4.2
4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5
CHAPTER II British democracy in action: the House of Commons, the thrust towards decentralization Elections Political parties The House of Commons Functions of the House of Commons The decline of commons power and the movement for reform Summary Key concepts Glossary Answers to SAQs SAA No. 4 Selected bibliography
157 160 163 166 171 173 174 174 177 179 180
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This unit attempts to trace the institution of parliament back to its origins and to highlight the important stages in the configuration of the constitutional monarchy. It also aims at tracing the shift of powers from the Lords to the Commons, starting with the late 19th century. The House of Lords (the Upper House) is critically approached as the traditional institution which makes great efforts to dovetail with modern times. Whilst acknowledging the need for an Upper House, New Labour has constantly attacked the anachronistic aspects of the Upper House, particularly the hereditary component of the House. The second chapter of this unit is meant to analyse the definitions, content and mechanisms of democracy, its evolution over time and particularly how democratic bodies function in contemporary Britain. It also assesses critically the shortcomings of such bodies and mechanisms: how powerful are people after they put a government in power? The House of Commons is presented as one of the central stages upon which popular representation and democracy unfold and where legislation is made. Unit objectives After you have completed the study of this unit, you should be able to: critically appraise the merits and demerits of the House of Lords; identify the specific structure of the Upper House; account for the necessity of restructuring the House of Lords; re-interpret tradition as embodied in the institution of the House of Lords and the attempts at modernizing it; construct argumentation concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the institution and its functions in a rational, well-informed manner; define democracy and identify its content and mechanisms; critically assess the great merits of democracy but also its shortcomings; challenge and demystify* contemporary democracy and its institutions; draw parallels between various manifestations of democracy in Europe; recognize and use new specific concepts and cultural studies terminology.
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4.1. A brief historical outline of the British Parliament. The House of Lords and its radical reform under New Labour 4.1.1 A brief historical outline of the British Parliament
It is often said that Britain has the mother of parliaments, with a history dating back to the elders councils* of traditional societies and to the Witan* of the Anglo-Saxon kings or their successor in early Norman times - the Commune Concilium. The very first parliament in Britain was held in 1241. Until then, the medieval kings, who were expected to meet all royal expenses private and public from their own revenue, could ask the barons in the Great Council - the true source of the two chambers, a gathering of leading men who met several times a year to grant aid in an emergency, such as war. In the 13th century however, not only private revenues but also baronial grants of support were no longer sufficient to meet the expenses of government. In Simon de Montforts Parlement* of 1265, two knights represented each county for the first time and there were also two representatives of each borough* (burgesses)*. Edward I* was the first to create a representative institution which could provide the money he needed. In 1275 he commanded each shire and each borough to send two representatives to his Parliament mainly to get their assent to extraordinary taxation. This was the germ of the House of Commons, and it contained a mixture of gentry (knights and other wealthy freemen from the shires and merchants from the towns). The commoners would have gladly avoided this honour, but they were afraid to anger the king. This rather than the Magna Carta was the beginning of the idea that there should be no taxation without representation, as later claimed by the American colonists of the 18th century in the Boston Tea Party*, an episode of the Independence War.
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SAQ 1 Magna Carta or the Great Charter signed by King John in 1215 is unanimously considered to be the earliest monument of English freedom, the basis of English liberty. It marks the transition from the age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation. Single out among the sentences below three which express the main thrust of this precious document and then check your answer against that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit: No freeman shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed or outlawed or in any way brought to ruin; None of the royals can ever get married without the monarchs consent; To no man will sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice; The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury; Anyone criticizing the monarch in any way is to be prosecuted under the Treason Felony Act. 1.
2.
3. A Speaker was for the first time elected in 1376 and voiced the objections of the commoners or their agreement, as they held very little prestige at the time. Despite the etymology of parliament (to meet for parley or discussion) the commoners had no right to speak in parliamentary sessions. They were only supposed to listen to the great feudal magnates. Anyway, as the debates leading to the Speakers address were extremely noisy and boisterous, Edward III decided to allot a special chamber to commoners - the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey; later on, from 1547 to 1834, the Commons were hosted in St Stephens Chapel, also founded by Edward III. While in most other European countries there were three important social categories, estates or classes, represented in the councils, the English parliament has almost from its very beginning been bicameral. The explanation lies in the fact that the former strife between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities led to their inclusion in one chamber. But the increasing might and authority of the Commons can also be accountable to its homogeneous social structure underlying the socio-political stability and the economic prosperity of England. The Upper House too proved stable: even in
Figure 4.1 King Edward I
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the most critical moments of its history, during Cromwells Protectorate and the civil wars preceding it, the question of eradicating the nobility never arose. Although the main function of the Commons was juridical, over the course of time they began to realize the strength of their position. By the middle of the 14th century the formula had appeared which in substance was the same as that used nowadays in voting resources to the Crown, namely by the Commons with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal. In 1407 Henry IV pledged that henceforth all money grants should be approved by the House of Commons before being considered by the Lords. A similar advance was made in the legislative field. Originally the kings legislation needed only the assent of his councillors, but starting with the right of individual commoners to present petitions, the Commons as a body gained the right to participate in giving their requests (i.e. their bills) the form of law. The subsequent development of the power of the House of Commons was built upon these foundations. The constitutional developments of the 17th century led to Parliament securing its position as supreme legislative authority. In 1832 the relative harmony between the two houses was shattered. The Great Reform Act ended the Lords control over the Commons by extending the franchise* to the lower middle classes and removing the Lords ability to nominate members. The Commons now ensured a very solid base in society; they came to represent wider interests, and the growth of the Liberal Party reflected this change. By the mid-19th century the House could sack Cabinets, remove individual ministers, it could force the government to disclose secret information; it set up select committees to carry out investigations and it rewrote government bills on the floor of the house (Mackintosh, The British Cabinet, 1977:613). Conflicting interests were manifested in a series of clashes between the liberal-controlled House of Commons and the Conservative-dominated Lords. There were further proofs in the first part of this century of the contempt in which the Lords held the Commons. When in 1909 the Liberal Chancellor declared war on poverty and squalor via a package of tax increases, the Lords threw it out, by 350 votes to 75 (Jones and Kavanagh, British Politics Today, 1998: 124-125). Although there was a Liberal majority in the Commons, in two elections in 1910, George V had to threaten the Lords with the creation of sufficient non-Conservative peers to make them give in.
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Figure 4.2 The Palace of Westminster home of the British Parliament
4.1.2 Life of Parliament

The time between two general elections (not exceeding 5 years) also called a Parliament is divided into sessions, each lasting about one year from October or November to the next October/November. The beginning of a new session is called the State Opening of Parliament beginning with the royal opening procession from Buckingham Palace (the residence of the Queen) to the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). The opening ceremony is a mixture of pageantry* and serious political business. Once the Queen has taken her seat on the throne in the House of Lords she reads a speech outlining the new laws the government is planning to make in the forthcoming parliamentary year. The title Queens Speech is misleading as it is not really the Queens Speech at all, but her governments. It is prepared by the Prime Minister and his or her colleagues and it is only read by the queen. The Queens Speech always takes place on a Wednesday in November, at 11 am. The whole glamorous ceremony has been kept unchanged since 1536. As the ceremony is held in the House of Lords, the Commons are summoned to hear 'The Queen's Speech from the Throne', formally opening the next session of the Parliament and setting out the policies of the Government. There is room for only very few spectators inside the Palace of Westminster, but through television, the ceremony has been made available to everyone. It is a long-standing tradition that the monarch never enters the House of Commons. Instead she uses a messenger, The Gentleman Usher or the Black Rod, to summon MPs (Members of Parliament) to the Lords. As the Black Rod approaches the Commons chamber across the Central Lobby of the Houses of 140
Parliament, the door of the Commons is traditionally slammed in his face. Then Black Rod raps three times on the door with his ebony stick, and the door is opened. This tradition dates back to 1642. By November 1641 Charles I had been ruling without any Parliament for 11 years. Threatened by the Scottish army, he asked Parliament for their support but they refused to accept without the Kings promise to grant more rights for Parliament. The King entered the House of Commons in January 1642, with troops, intending to arrest the five members most closely involved in what he regarded as treason. They had however escaped, and he was forced to withdraw empty-handed.
Figure 4.3 The Royal procession
Figure 4.4 Queens Speech
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SAQ 2 By putting the following events in order you will be able to obtain the script of The State Opening of Parliament ceremony: 1. As the Queen arrives at the Sovereign's Entrance to the House of Lords, the Royal Standard* is unfurled on the Victoria Tower, replacing the Union Flag, and it remains there while The Queen is within the palace. The Sovereign is received by the Earl Marshal and also by the Lord Great Chamberlain. 2. Several events occur before the actual State Opening and The Queen is the last person to drive down the Royal Route. The Regalia: the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance, the Sword of State are driven by coach from the Tower of London to Westminster Palace for the ceremony. The street liners pay compliments to the Regalia as they pass by, showing the symbolic respect due to them. 3. The Lord Chancellor now advances and, removing the Queen's Speech from a special silk bag, hands it to the Sovereign but before it is read, the 'faithful Commons' must be summoned to attend and hear the speech. 4. Various members of the Royal Family arrive by car and, before the Royal Procession sets out, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. This custom dates back to 5th November 1605, when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. 5. This is the moment when a traditional ritual is carried out to remind all concerned of the rights of the House of Commons and of the abuse of these rights by King Charles I. 6. The Sovereign sits on the throne, with the Duke of Edinburgh on her left. Other members of the Royal Family sit on the front benches nearest the throne. 7. The Queen travels from Buckingham Palace to Westminster along the Royal Route using the Irish State Coach drawn by four horses. She has her usual Escort of the Household Cavalry and street liners, who present arms as the Royal Procession passes, guard the whole route. 8. As The Queen moves up the Royal Staircase to the Robing Chamber she passes between two lines of dismounted troopers of the Household Cavalry in full dress with drawn swords exercising the privilege of being the only troops allowed to bear arms within the Royal Palaces.
Check your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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Each Parliament session is interrupted by three recesses: Christmas and Easter, each lasting one month, and the summer recess lasting about 11 weeks from early August to mid- or endOctober. A session of Parliament is ended by means of prorogation (suspension) as opposed to adjourning which means a short interruption, e.g. until the next day and dissolution indicating that new elections will be called. Parliament then stands prorogued (suspended) for a week or so until the new session opens. Prorogation brings to an end nearly all parliamentary business: in particular, public (government) Bills which have not passed by the end of the session are lost. The average number of sitting days (debates) in a session is about 168 days in the House of Commons and about 150 days in the House of Lords.
Figure 4.5 The Royal Standard
4.1.3 The House of Lords in history

The House of Lords is officially known under the name the Lords of Parliament; in the 18th and 19th centuries it was still called the First House or Upper House. It is the continuation into modern times of the original Norman Kings Court (Curia Regis) to which the king summoned the great men of the land. Each was summoned individually by name, and the right to be summoned was passed to the eldest son. Later, the right was associated with the grant of a special hereditary title (Lord). Some soon became extinct through the lack of an heir. Others survived through many generations. The Upper House consists of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester and the following 21 next most senior diocesan bishops of the Church of England (26 in all). The Lords Temporal consist of all hereditary peers and peeresses of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, of life peers created to assist the House in its judicial duties and the Lords of Appeal or law lords - 22 of them, including the Lord Chancellor*. The House of Lords is also the final court of
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appeal for civil cases in Britain and for criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although until very recently the House has still been disproportionately hereditary, the life peers tended to play a fuller and more regular part in the proceedings. Moreover, since 1963 it has been possible to disclaim hereditary peerages within 12 months of succession, and disclaimants lose their right to sit in the House but gain the right to vote and stand as candidates at parliamentary elections. The number of Lords used to exceed 1,200, although not all the peers with a right to sit in the House of Lords attend the sittings. Before 1999 there used to be 750 hereditary peers (61% of the total number of peers). A significant number of hereditary peerages were created during this century, and an important number of them under the premiership of Lloyd George (1916-1922). Some of them however date back to the Middle Ages: the Barony of Mowbray, (1283), the Dukedom of Norfolk and the Earldom of Shrewsbury (1483 and 1442 respectively). Hereditary peers however do not always keep a low profile and they are not always backwoodsmen*. Lord Home was Foreign Secretary under Macmillan and Heath, Lord Shackleton was a senior member of Harold Wilsons government, Lord Carrington was Defence Secretary in the Heath Government and Foreign Secretary in Thatchers government. Life peers have been created since 1958, the vast majority of them being distinguished men and women from a wide variety of walks of life who have been so honoured in recognition of their political or public services. They may be former civil servants or diplomats who retired at the top of their profession, soldiers who rose to the highest military rank, successful industrialists or prominent trade union leaders, distinguished scientists or academics. However, the largest category of life peers is formed of former politicians from the House of Commons or local government. They are either retired senior ministers or very senior backbenchers* whom the Prime Minister wishes to reward with a seat in the Lords. Since the introduction of life peerages, the dynamics of the Lords sittings have changed substantially for the better.
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Think first! The prestige of the House of Lords has eroded steadily over time. Thus it was abolished in 1649 being declared useless and dangerous by Oliver Cromwell, and in successive stages during the 20th century (1909, 1911, 1949) its prerogatives have been reduced. What could be the reasons for this decline in importance of the Upper House, in your opinion? Use the space below to write your answer. Do not forget to include your answer in your portfolio for further clarification during tutorials.
4.1.4 The functions of the House of Lords

The Lords have the power to examine and revise all government bills*, but they cannot amend or reject Money Bills. Every bill must pass both houses, but the Lords power has been restricted by the Parliamentary Acts of 1911 and 1949. If the Lords reject a bill which the Commons have passed, the bill can go for the Royal Assent if passed by the Commons again in the next session of Parliament (read about law-making in Unit 7).
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The functions of the House of Lords are mainly: legislative delay - they can delay for about one year the passage of Bills approved by the Commons; the power of legislative revision - the ability to amend and improve Bills inadequately considered by the Commons; and the power of well-informed deliberation - the ability to debate issues of the day in a more knowledgeable and less partisan way than this is done in the Commons. There is only one special power of absolute veto, if the House of Commons should pass a bill to extend its own life, without a new general election beyond five years from the previous general election. They could have used this power in 1915 and 1940 but they did not do so because all parties agreed that a general election in wartime could be most inconvenient. The supporters of the Upper House often claim that the Lords provide a useful second opinion on legislation; amendments can be suggested and new opinions expressed. They have more time than the Commons, so they can discuss a bill in far greater detail. The discussion can be freer than in the Commons because the Lords do not have to worry about their constituencies or about offending their electors. They also represent a rare mix of experience and wisdom so their thoughts and ideas can often be illuminating and even provocative. The Lords do not interfere with bills concerned primarily with finance (about one-quarter of all legislation) but have a key role in other respects. Thus by introducing non-controversial legislation, particularly in connection with local government, the Lords relieve the burden on the overworked Commons. The Lords revise and improve bills on their way to the Royal Assent, and the government often uses this stage to introduce its own amendments and improvements. Its judicial function is important as it is the highest court in the land, a function which is performed by the law lords including the Lord Chancellor, ex-Lord Chancellors and Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (including those retired). They do not pass judgement; rather they clarify the law and give opinions on appeals. This is indeed a vital function and their judgements tend to have great authority and have influenced the development of English law over the years. The House of Lords Select Committee on the European Community matches that of the House of Commons. Both of these committees are constantly involved in the scrutiny of the European Commission proposals received by Parliament. Sixty to seventy peers are involved in its subcommittees and its reports are widely read and are very influential. They also set up a number of ad-hoc committees on specific topics and are very scrupulous in consulting expert opinion. However, over the years, there has been a lot of disagreement over keeping the Upper Chamber unchanged.
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SAQ 3 What should be changed in the composition of the House of Lords and why? Do not write more than 200 words and please check your answer against that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
4.1.5 Calls for the reform of the House of Lords

The House of Lords has had a long history marked by considerable institutional resilience. The 1911 Parliament Act provided the statutory basis for the present limitation of the Lords power. The main provisions of this act were that Money Bills were meant to become law within one month of being sent to the Lords; that the legislation delaying prerogative was reduced to two years; and the maximum span of a Parliament should be reduced from seven to five years. Subsequently, the 1949 Parliament Act further reduced the delaying power of the Lords to one year, but failed to deal with other important matters such as its composition and functions. Other attempts at reforming the Upper House were made in 1957 and in 1958. The Life Peerage Act made possible the creation of life peers, including women life peers in their own right. In 1963 the Peerage Act allowed hereditary peers to disclaim their titles and make themselves eligible for election or re-election to the Lower House.
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The one further attempt at major reform was the ill-fated Parliament Number 2 Bill, which was introduced by the Labour government in 1968. It involved both a reduction in the total number of peers and an attack upon the hereditary principle. The proposal was for the House to be made up of 250 peers with voting rights who would be appointed by the government of the day, together with a large number of peers who would be entitled to speak but would be barred from voting. It was meant to become a kind of echo chamber for the government. The proposal was that the composition of the appointed chamber be checked from time to time and altered in consequence so as to ensure that the government had a voting majority over the principal opposition party. Also the delaying prerogative was to be halved to six months. The proposals were abandoned by the government in 1969 because of a sustained and effective filibuster (filibustering is a means of delaying and preventing action by making very slow and long speeches typical of the Lords) by backbenchers on both sides of the Commons led by Enoch Powell for the Conservatives and Michael Foot for Labour. In 1977, Lord Carrington, the Conservative leader in the House of Lords, proposed the creation of a reformed Chamber whose members would be elected by proportional representation from large regional constituencies*. His main argument was that such a chamber would reflect public opinion differently from the Commons, since the type of constituencies, dates, method of election would be different from those in elections for the Commons. In 1978 a different set of proposals was put forward by Lord Home according to which the membership of the Lords was to be reduced to 400, of whom one-third had to be nominated by the political parties and twothirds elected through proportional representation from about 250 large territorial constituencies. Margaret Thatcher never gave much thought to Lords reform, so neither of these proposals was ever implemented.
4.1.6 New Labour and the reform of the Lords: 800 years of history ends in 7 minutes
Labour set up a committee in 1998 to examine the New Labour manifesto commitment to reform the Lords. A bill to abolish the powers of hereditary peers makes provisions for a two-stage reform, Stage 2 being concerned with the shape of the chamber. It will be however very hard for the New Labour to create the necessary legislative time. Tony Blairs ideas for a reformed Upper Chamber are strangely similar to Cromwells Other House, which was to exclude almost all hereditary peers and be composed largely of his nominees and dependents. Under Stage One, 659 of the 751 hereditary peers have lost their 800-year-old rights to sit and vote. The 92 hereditary peers who have kept their seats will be removed in the final stage of the reform.
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SAQ 4 Guess which of the four items listed below was the criterion of selection for the 92 Hereditary Lords to be allowed to sit until stage two of the Reform? At least ten successive generations in the House of Lords; University degrees and doctorates; Number of books published; A 75-word election address in which they had to convincingly put their names forward;
Check your choice against the answer given in the Answers section.
Figure 4.6 Lord Irvine
As the reform bill passed in 1999 when the Queen opened a new parliamentary session she spoke to a severely reduced second chamber made up of life peers, the 26 Anglican bishops and the 92 hereditary peers after their unique election was completed. This was not accepted without anger however. An indignant alliance of peers accused the government of undemocratic plans to abolish hereditary voting rights. After its victory in the 2001 elections, the Labour Party continued with the process of reform to the Lords. In 2001, the proposed reforms for a new House of Lords were released. These were seen as a way of making the Lords more democratic.
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Think First! In your opinion which of the following recommendations made in the 2001 bill will enable the House of Lords to become more democratic?

a second chamber of 600 members; an end to 92 hereditary peers still in the Lords ; 120 members elected by the public; 120 appointed by an independent commission ; the rest would be appointed by political parties in proportion to votes received by a party at the most recent general election; the second chamber would have no veto over government legislation - merely the right to delay its introduction; bishops to be reduced from 25 to 16; a minimum of those in the second chamber will be female; minority groups will be represented; the final number of 600 will be met over a 10 year period.
Please add your answer to your portfolio for further discussions during the tutorials.
The government white paper* came under fierce attack in January 2002, in a two-day debate in the House of Lords and in a poll the British public overwhelmingly said an independent commission rather than the prime minister should make appointments to the upper chamber. Another survey showed that Labour backbenchers were in favour of an upper chamber with more than half of the members elected. 150
In response to the deadlock created over the percentage of elected peers, in May 2002, the government announced a major retreat from its original white paper, and a joint committee of the two chambers was called upon to decide on the entire powers and structure of the second chamber, with members of both houses allowed a free vote on its proposals (see the next chapter on free votes). Two weeks before voting on the future of the House of Lords, MPs and peers began to discuss the seven options for reform. The majority of MPs who spoke showed support for a mixed house, with more peers elected than appointed. In the Lords, the majority still opposed the election of members. After a two-day debate on Lords reform, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, backed a wholly appointed upper chamber. He said: "An appointed House of Lords, chosen in accordance with criteria that will make it more representative of the nation as a whole, can add real value to the high value of the House of Commons." The MPs failed to agree a final stage of Lords reform and despite a Labour manifesto commitment to introduce a more democratic second chamber, the prime minister backed a wholly appointed House of Lords. Arguing that a hybrid chamber would fail, Mr Blair told MPs they would have to choose between a wholly elected or wholly appointed second chamber: "The key question on election is do we want a revising chamber or a rival chamber? My view is that we want a revising chamber," he said. Responding to the report by the joint committee on Lords reform, the government said that there was no consensus in parliament for introducing any elected element into the second chamber. Instead it said it was only interested in removing the remaining 92 hereditary peers and establishing a new independent appointments commission. As soon as it became clear that Tony Blair would call general elections in May 2005, Labour stated that if they were returned to office, reform would take place "once and for all, early in a third term". With the governments published plan for the Lords to be 20 per cent directly elected, but with most Labour MPs wanting it to be largely elected, and ministers like Tony Blair and John Prescott worried that a democratic Lords would challenge the authority of the Commons, the reform was abandoned because the party could not agree. As well as promising early legislation on Lords reform, statements were made about changing the procedures of the House so that it worked more "fairly". The Lords should have the power to delay, "but not finally to frustrate the programme of a legitimatelyelected government". During the debate there were calls for the Government to consider direct election to the second chamber. As one delegate said: "We are ruled by a group of people in the House of Lords who have influence over our laws, but over whom we have no say. That's wrong."
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Think First! Before you go on reading, stop a minute and imagine yourself taking part in this heated debate on how to proceed to the next stage of the reform of the Lords. Choose one of the main positions in the debate and state your opinion bringing arguments in support: Fully and directly elected so as to make it at least as democratic as the House of Commons. (But then, why double the House of Commons? Shouldnt the House of Lords have a status and prerogatives of its own? How effective would it be?) Fully appointed by parties and several independent commissions (but then, wouldnt most of these be the cabinets and the Prime Ministers yes-men Wouldnt this create a system of patronage of the lords by the executive?) A mixed house with certain agreed upon percentage of elected peers and peers appointed both by the political parties but also by independent commissions and democratic bodies (but then, what percentage would be fair enough: more peers elected or more appointed and who will decide what commissions would be chosen?) Indirectly elected majority - 80% of the House to be selected from party lists, in proportion to votes cast for MPs at the general election (but then, what would the criteria of selection be?).
Please add your answers to the portfolio for further debates during the tutorials.
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In the 1950s Peter Bromhead* was still confident of the importance of the House of Lords for British society: So long as the House of Lords continues by the exercise of voluntary restraint to perform a restricted function in the exercise of political power, there is little reason for altering either its powers or its composition (The House of Lords and Contemporary Politics, 1958:16). Enoch Powell more than 10 years later, thought that it was at worst a useful device. But then even one of its members, Lord Foot says: It really can do very little. It performs a minor useful function of looking at matters in detail which the Commons has not got the time to do, but that is no satisfactory bicameral system (Hansard, 18 November 1980). It is important to remember, however, that the Lords were rather more effective at times than dignified. From 1979 to 1990 they voted down Thatchers legislation over 150 times. Governments were defeated in the Lords: Heath suffered 26 defeats between 1970 and 1974, and Labour 355 between 1975 and 1979. It is almost paradoxical that some of the most severe blows were dealt by a preponderantly Conservative house at Conservatives. This suggests that as they do not work under the pressure of seizing and keeping power, free as they are of constituency and re-election pressures, they take their role seriously as guardians of the constitution (Jones and Kavanagh, British Politics Today, 1998: 131).
Key Concepts
Elders council Prorogation Oueens Speech Lords temporal/lords spiritual Hereditary/life peers Law lords franchise Government bills filibustering Legislative delay backbencher
Glossary
backbencher = an MP who does not hold any special office and who, therefore, in the House of Commons sits on the back benches (as distinct from the front benches, on which ministers and members of the Shadow cabinet sit). backwoodsman = a member of the House of Lords who lives in the country and hardly ever attends its meetings.
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bill = a written plan for or a draft of a new law (Act of Parliament) which is brought to parliament for it to consider. borough = town with corporation and privileges conferred by royal charter; town sending member(s) to parliament. Boston Tea Party = protest in Boston in 1773 against the British tax on tea, when tea was thrown from British ships into the water. The slogan of the American colonists: No taxation without representation meant that the colonies should either have fair representation in the British parliament or should be independent. Three years later, the Declaration of Independence was signed. Bromhead, Peter = well-known writer, politician, cartoonist and designer. burgess = inhabitant of borough with full municipal rights; citizen; member of parliament for borough. Edward I = English king who completed the conquest of Wales and temporarily subdued Scotland. In contrast to his father (Henry III), Edward showed masterfulness in the disputes with the English barons. In 1271-72 he went on a crusade at Acre. During the years from 1272, when Edward succeeded his father, to 1290, striking achievements occurred: Edward conquered Wales in devastating campaigns and built massive castles to keep it secure. In England he held regular parliaments. A program of legislation strengthened royal control over the court system and reformed the tangled feudal land law. After 1294, wars in Scotland and France dominated Edward's reign. By a treaty (1303) with Philip IV of France, Edward retained Gascony. He failed, however, to quell the risings of William Wallace (Braveheart) and Robert the Bruce (later Robert I), and Scotland remained only half-conquered at his death. Elders council = in traditional societies senior members formed a body that held important responsibilities and privileges. filibuster(ing) = to try to delay or prevent action in a lawmaking body by making very slow and long speeches. franchise = the right of voting at public elections hereditary peer = a titled member of the aristocracy who has (rather used to have ) the right to speak and vote in the House of Lords provided he is 21 or older. Currently only 92 hereditary peers still preserve this right. law lords = peers in the House of Lords who sit as the highest court of appeal in England. They include the Lord Chancellor and any peers who have held high judicial office or have themselves been Lord Chancellor. 154
legislative delay = the Lords prerogative of delaying legislation that they find too divisive or controversial for one year only (since 1949). life peer = a person who is given a title during his or her lifetime, usually as a reward for public service. Life peers have the right to speak and vote in the House of Lords. Lord Chancellor = a political official who is the head of the legal system in England and Wales, the Speaker of the House of Lords and also a member of the Cabinet. Lords Spiritual = a collective term for those bishops in the Church of England who are members of the House of Lords. Lords Temporal = a collective name for all those peers in the House of Lords who are not Lords Spirituals. Montfort (Simon de) = a statesman, soldier and controversial politician who married Henry III's sister, although later he became the kings fiercest enemy and after capturing him (and the kings heir -- the future Edward I) in battle became the de facto ruler of the country. By summoning both knights and burgesses to a Parliament in January 1265, he founded the House of Commons. Queens Speech = the speech made by the Queen at the opening of the British parliament each year. It is prepared by the government and gives details of the governments programme for the next year and of their political ideas. prorogation = a period of time during which a set of meetings of a parliament is brought to an end, suspended, until a stated day. Royal Standard = a flag bearing the arms of the sovereign and flown to show that she or he is present in a particular place. white paper = an official report from the British government, explaining the governments ideas and plans concerning a particular subject before it suggests a new law in parliament. Witan = Council of the Anglo-Saxon kings, the forerunner of parliament, but including only royal household officials, great land owners, and top churchmen.
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Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 The three sentences from magna Carta are: No freeman shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed or outlawed or in any way brought to ruin; To no man will sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice; The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury. SAQ 2 The right order of the paragraphs: 2, 4, 7, 1, 8, 6, 3, 5. SAQ 3 Should your answer not be comparable to the one given below, please revise sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4. The hereditary principle, it was thought, is totally out of tune with democracy; the Lords have a poor attendance record and represent an outdated cluster of values no longer defensible in the contemporary world: inequality, the right to rule, wealth, exclusive private education, class privileges. The hereditary, non-elected peers should not be allowed to frustrate the will of the elected chamber. As Conservatives tend to have a majority over Labour in the Lords and as they can increase their number in time of need by summoning the less regular attenders (the backwoodsmen), they are able to delay and amend radical policies for party political reasons. Many think that several functions could much more effectively be performed by the Commons or, in the case of the judicial function, by a separate institution completely unconnected with a second legislative chamber (like the Supreme Court in the USA). Critics often air the view that a reformed chamber with younger and more dynamic members might perform these tasks more effectively. SAQ 4 They had to endure the humiliating process of putting their names forward for election in 75 words only. Very hard for people who are accustomed to making very long speeches. Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords gave one of the shortest addresses: a twoline election address outlining his parliamentary career.
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4.2 British democracy in action 4.2.1 Elections in Britain

Think First! In the late eighties, the demands for democracy in Eastern and Central Europe led to the overthrow of communism. Many people in the West cheered on these dramatic events as they viewed them on their television sets. Before you start reading the first paragraph, try to define democracy and democratic in your own words. What are the features that differentiate democracy from tyranny, dictatorship etc.? Dont forget to add your answer to your portfolio for discussions and further analysis of the concepts during your tutorials.
Democracy is the process which gives people a voice in society. It allows each of us to influence how our societies are governed and have our say about the kind of society we want. That is why it is important for everyone to understand how it works so that we can all play a full and positive role. It is very often used as a standard for judging a country's level of political as well as social and economic development. Joseph Schumpeter, for example, a well-known writer on politics, once described the way in which democracy had become a 'hoorah' word, an idea worth cheering for. Yet there is sometimes an incomplete understanding of the full rights and responsibilities that democracy may involve, of what this ideal may actually mean in reality or how it is best fulfilled in political practices and processes.
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Three essential freedoms sustain the British democratic way of life free elections, freedom of speech and open and equal treatment before the law. These rights are balanced by responsibilities since a democratic society can only function properly when its citizens play an active part in the institutions. General elections to choose MPs must be held at least every five years. However, the Prime Minister can 'call an election' before the end of his five year term of office, at a time when he/she believes his/her party is most popular. During a general election in Britain, the electorate vote for one candidate of a particular political party in their designated electoral region, known as a constituency. Only those who put themselves up for election can win, and it is the one who gains the largest number of votes who is the winner: this is what is called 'first-past-the-post' (FPTP). The winner needs only one more vote than his or her closest rival to be first-past-the-post although in reality there is usually a larger gap between the ones who come first and second. In cases where the result is very close, within the margin of a few hundred votes, there is a recount of all the ballot papers. The FPTP system seems both to work and to be fair, especially if you are the winner. It is the system the British have always had, and British people often appear quite traditional and unwilling to change something they are familiar with. But there are problems with the FPTP system that have led increasingly over the past decade to calls for reforms to make the system fairer and more 'democratic.' SAQ 1 Which of the reasons stated below express most decisively the shortcomings of FPTP in your opinion? Votes that did not go to the 'winner', that is, the total number of votes for all of the other candidates who lost often resulted in a figure far greater than that that the winner gained. If the losers gain nothing, then what about all those who didn't vote for the successful person? Dont these people feel disenfranchised, i.e. not gaining through their vote any representation in the House of Commons? Together, such voters may constitute a majority but with votes spread amongst different candidates, they represent a divided majority. Percentages of votes are not transformed into percentages of seats in Parliament. Within one constituency, a candidate may take a high percentage of votes but if he or she is not the winner, their votes mean very little at all and become statistics to be analysed, not a source of political power. It worked well in the past because of the traditional two-party system in the country. A new party like the Liberal-Democrat Party is disadvantaged by the system.
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Many think that proportional representation (PR) would be the fair solution to the problem. They wish to see more proportional representation where votes are more easily translated into parliamentary seats and not lost because of the FPTP system. During the 1980s and 90s, many members of the Labour Party were also attracted to PR because they were losing out in a system which seemed to make them unelectable. Before the 1980s, they could expect to be in government almost as often as the Conservatives. Some of the smaller political parties could also see the disadvantages of the existing system, with it being almost impossible for them to gain any seats in Parliament at all. Those more sceptical of PR claim that it would lead to a series of weak, coalition governments which offer limited stability in an ever-changing international political climate. Some PR critics claim that frequent general elections would, result in voter apathy and could actually lead to domination of a few powerful groups. The arguments for and against PR have not only persisted but have grown stronger since the Labour victory in 1997. Tony Blair's party had expressed interest in looking at ways to bring in elements of PR into the system but very little has been achieved so far, although it is on the political agenda. This question was frequently asked in previous years, especially by voters favouring the Liberal Democrats, when the Conservatives dominated the political scene. One possible solution suggested by some politicians to voters was to vote tactically (VT), as another aspect of British electoral system. Tactical voting is where a voter assesses the situation in their constituency at the time of a general election and votes for the party which is most likely to defeat the party they like the least. That means they may not actually vote for the party of their choice (especially if it is one with very little support in their area) and their vote will then be 'wasted'. In many constituencies during the 1980s and 90s, for example, the main opposition to the Conservatives was the Labour Party, and if Liberal Democrat voters switched to vote for Labour they could help to oust the Conservative MP. The same could be the case with those wishing to vote for the Green Party or an independent candidate but realising that a vote for a more mainstream party might be more likely to bring about some change. During the general election in May 2005, Conservative voters in many areas considered tactical voting for another party merely to help oust the Labour party. According to Andrew Marr, a well known political commentator, "We drop our ballot papers like feathers into the void and somewhere, sometimes, they accumulate to tip a giant scale and eject or elect an Honourable Member. But for our feathers to make a difference is rare.
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SAQ 2 Is tactical voting democratic enough in your opinion? Do you remember any instance in your voting experience when you voted tactically or when you cast a negative vote (as we often call the practice in Romania)? Compare your answer to that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
4.2.2 Political parties

There are three main political parties in the United Kingdom, Between them, the three main British political parties have, in one form or another, held power since 1678. Britains political parties originated in 1662 in the aftermath of the English Civil War as the Tories (now the Conservative Party, still commonly referred to as 'the Tories') and the Whigs (now the Liberal Democrats, though the term 'Whig' has become obsolete). The two remained the main political parties until the 21st century. Both names were originally insults: a "whiggamor" was a cattle driver, and a "tory" was an Irish term for an outlaw. Generally, the Tories were associated with larger land holders (or "land magnates") and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, expansion and tolerance. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense. The Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1835 "Tamworth Manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming bills while conserving the good. 160
Figure 4.7 Robert Peel
Peel's supporters split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party. Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party. The term 'Liberal Party' was first used officially in 1868, though it had been in use colloquially for decades beforehand. The Liberal Party formed a government in 1870 and then alternated with the Conservative Party as the party of government throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was established, and it changed its name to The Labour Party in 1906. After the First World War, this led to the demise of the Liberal Party as the main liberal force in British politics. The existence of the Labour Party on the left of British politics led to a slow waning of energy from the Liberal Party, ending with it taking third place in national politics. After performing poorly in the elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal Party was superseded by the Labour Party as the party of the left. The Labour Party had its first true victory after World War II in the 1945 election. Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, Labour governments alternated with Conservative governments. With the Conservatives in power for most of the time, In response to Labour's leftward shift, some moderate members formed a breakaway group in 1981, called the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP formed an alliance with the Liberal Party which contested the 1983 and 1987 general elections as a centrist alternative to Labour and the Conservatives. After some initial success, the SDP did not prosper, and was accused by some of splitting the anti-Conservative vote. The SDP eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988. Support for the new party has increased since then, and the Liberal Democrats (often referred to as Lib Dems) in 1997 and 2001 gained an increased number of seats in the House of Commons.
Figure 4.8 The logos of the three parties: Labour, Conservative and Lib Dems
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SAQ 3 Margaret Thatcher who became leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and the first woman prime minister of Britain, having been re-elected twice in successive general elections (a brilliant performance only equalled by Tony Blair in May 2005), left an indelible mark on British politics. Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party in 1994 and continued to move the party towards the centre (according to his critics to centre-right, a situation which earned him the title of Thatchers son). Match the achievements listed below with one of the two Prime Ministers mentioned above. New Labour New Britain Radical policies of privatisation Anti-trade union legislation Monetary reform The democratization of democracy Devolution The Neo-Conservative Revolution The Third Way Allegiance to free market and a Single European Market A European future for Britain: strengthening Britains ties with the European Union No rights without responsibilities
Margaret Thatcher:
Tony Blair:
Compare your answer to that provided in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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The Labour Party consolidated its position in 2001, winning a full second term - a first-time achievement for the Labour Party at the time. This led to a crisis of confidence in the Conservative Party, which had become complacent with its position as the 'natural party of government' after its 18 years in power. The party's drift to the right lost it nearly all its working-class voters, and its ageing membership (average age 65) and vote (third party among the under 45s) mean that avoiding extinction became a higher priority than winning an election. However, with Labour's drop in popularity in 2003-2004 coinciding with Michael Howard's becoming leader, the Conservatives appeared to have begun to recover their position as serious challengers to the Labour government. The May 2005 elections returned Labour to power, yet with a much slimmer majority in the House of Commons (from 167 in 2001 to 67 in 2005).
4.2.3 The House of Commons

Unlike the dignified elements of the constitution, the House of Commons has real power in the British political system, although this power is by no means absolute. The modern House of Commons is neither the government of the country nor even the principal place where most of the legislation is conceived. At the same time, it is essentially the stage upon which the party political battle is fought; it is the sounding-board for popular representation and redress, the proving ground for ministers and shadow ministers and the principal forum within which legislation and other actions of government are criticised and asserted between general elections (Forman, Mastering British Politics:153). The House of Commons is elected during the general election held at least every five years. Britain is divided into over 650 constituencies, each of which returns one member to the House of Commons. Each MP normally represents between 76.000 and 102,000 voters (who make up a constituency). If an MP dies or retires during the time between elections, a by-election is held to elect their successor.
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SAQ 4 By filling in the gaps with the right words or phrases you will find out about the main actors and the part that they play in the House of Commons: The ---------- (1) is the chief officer of the House of Commons, elected by MPs to preside over the House. His/Her three ---------(2) are the next most important officers of the House. They take no partisan part in debates or votes unless a vote is ---------- (3) which is a rare occasion and in that case they have the decisive vote, or ---------- (4). In front of the Speaker on the right sit the MPs of the biggest party, which forms the government and facing them sit the MPs of the parties who oppose them, the ---------- (5). The leader of the government, the ---------- (6) sits on the government ---------- (7), of course, next to his/her ---------- (8) the most important of these form the ---------- (9) The minister responsible for relations with other countries is called ---------- (10) The one responsible for law and security is called ---------- (11) The one who deals with financial matters and prepares the annual ---------- (12) is called --------- (13) Opposite this group sits the ---------- (14) - the main person in the largest party opposing the government - and the ---------- (15), each member of which specializes in a particular area of government. Paid office-holders in the government who are entitled to sit on the first bench, hence ---------- (16) make up about 100 of the total number of MPs. The figure includes the government ---------- (17) (the name is derived from the whipper-in in fox-hunting whose job is to ensure that the hounds are kept under control) They are Ministers of the ---------- (18) and constitute important channels between backbenchers and frontbenchers. MPs without special positions in their party sit behind their leaders at the back and are called ---------- (19). Opposition Prime Minister front bench Foreign Secretary ministers casting ballot Deputies tied front benchers Crown Speaker Cabinet Home Secretary Chancellor of the Exchequer backbenchers Leader of the Opposition budget Shadow Cabinet Whips
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Figure 4.9 Voting in the House of Commons
Whips are chosen within the party and their duties include keeping members informed on forthcoming parliamentary business, maintaining the partys voting strength, ensuring members attendance during important debates and also passing on to the party leadership the opinions of backbench members. The Whips also indicate the importance their party attaches to a vote on a particular issue by underlining items of business (once, twice, three times) on the notice sent to MPs. Failure to comply with a three-line whip (the most important) is usually seen as rebellion against the party (as has happened quite often lately with bills proposed by the New Labour government). SAQ 5 The whip also refers to a document sent out weekly to MPs detailing the forthcoming business of the House. Items are underlined once, twice or three times to indicate their importance to the party leadership. A three line whip means that party leadership expects MPS to turn up and vote on the matter under discussion. Rank the following messages so as to indicate one-, two- or a three-line whip and then compare your answer to that given in the Answers section: YOUR ATTENDANCE IS ESSENTIAL
YOUR ATTENDANCE IS REQUESTED
YOUR ATTENDANCE IS NECESSARY
On the Opposition side the so-called Shadow Cabinet is made up of twenty senior members of the Conservative party. The remainder formed of over 450 members are all backbenchers. They
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have no direct involvement with the government or the tasks of front bench Opposition. Some of them have been in the House a long time and they exert a good deal of influence within their own parties. However, most of them are relatively junior and have been in the House less than 10 years, trying to make their way as well as they can. They seek, for example, to attract the attention and approval of the party Whips by playing an active part in the proceedings both in the Chamber and upstairs in Committee. This is the Standing Committee formed of parliament members that considers possible changes to a Bill after its Second Reading (see below) in the House of Commons. When their party is in government the main function of backbenchers is to support it with their votes and to a lesser extent with their voices in Question Time and debate. Over the years the backbenches have been a nursery for important ministers. After serving for some years in the House and making their mark in debates, select committees, etc. they are usually rewarded with junior ministerial office.
4.2.4 Functions of the House of Commons

The main functions of the Lower House are: It sustains government. The Houses power is significant, since elections to the House decide the political complexion of the government and the majority party in the House provides the support needed. Parliamentary control and scrutiny of the executive is a vital function of MPs, who are called upon to control the activities of the executive and set limits to government actions. It is the most difficult of functions as, with the steady extension of government activity over the last 50 years, it became clear that the traditional approach to ensuring ministerial accountability to the Commons at Question Time* was not sufficient and it had to be supplemented by other institutional devices (select committees, pressure groups, etc). The government has to explain and defend its policies convincingly in the Commons; should it lose its argument on a regular basis, its credibility would be under threat and it would lower the morale of its supporters. An important means of scrutinising the Prime Minister is Question Time which, prior to Blairs victory in the elections of 1997, used to take place for two fifteen-minute sessions every Tuesday and Thursday and attracted disproportionate attention. It was mainly a heated engagement between the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister. Blair decided to have a one half-hour session Question Time on Wednesday afternoons.
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Think First! Do you think the Prime Ministers Question Time is an example of democracy? Do you think that half an hour is enough for such pressing and divisive issues as banning fox-hunting, the troubles in Northern Ireland or the Prince of Waless marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles? Use the space below to write your answers. Please include your answer in your portfolio for discussions during tutorials.
The Commons as sounding board of the nation. The representative character of the House with the MPs standing for their constituencies secures a fair geographical representation of the countrys interests, concerns and needs. An important role of the MPs is to publicise their constituents views and to seek the redress of their grievances. They can represent these views in a wide variety of ways: in major debates, on Ten-Minute Rule Bills* and emergency debates, through written and oral questions, etc.
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The legislative process. The scrutiny and approval of legislation is another fundamental and well recognised function of the Commons. The legislative process begins with a Green Paper, which makes suggestions for legislation which may be debated in Parliament before a Bill is introduced. Comments are invited from anyone who wants to write in, whether an individual or an organisation and all comments are looked at. The next stage is a White Paper, which contains firm proposals for a Bill, and again comments are invited. After these consultation stages, a new Bill is announced in Parliament by the minister in charge of it. Although this process is called the First Reading, no debate on the Bill takes place. Printed copies of the Bill are laid on the table of the House and made available for all MPs and other interested parties to read and comment upon. About two weeks later, after MPs have read the Bill, a thorough debate on general principles is held (about six hours), known as the Second Reading. It is then given detailed consideration, clause by clause, by a Commons committee. At the end a vote is taken to show whether or not the House approves the Bill. The voting may or may not be whipped*, which means that MPs are expected to vote as their party has decided they should (which is not always what really happens). If the bill is approved at the Second Reading, it is then referred to a Standing Committee where it is debated by a committee of between 16 and 50 MPs chosen to reflect the party balance in the House as a whole. It is debated clause by clause and line by line, and lots of amendments may be introduced during this stage. Some more controversial bills might take as long as 100 hours or more during the Committee Stage. Then the Bill is returned to the floor of the House, where the Report Stage and the Third Reading follow. These may last for six hours or more, taken together. During these stages the House as a whole debates the amendments passed by the Committee, and they may add their own amendments or new clauses. The Third Reading is usually no more than a brief and fairly repetitive debate on the general strengths and merits or demerits of the bill. Another whipped vote is taken. The scrutiny is complete, unless the House of Lords insists upon any substantial amendments, as the bill has to go through the same stages in the House of Lords as well. If this happens, the Commons has to consider them later. If the amendments are approved by the Commons, the latter simply sends a message notifying its agreement. Since the vast majority of amendments by the Lords are inspired by the need for technical improvements, such amendments usually cause no problems in the Commons. They merely underline the usefulness of a bicameral legislative procedure. Once it is through the Lords, a Bill is virtually in its final form awaiting the royal rubber stamp - the Royal Assent - to become an Act of Parliament. The whole process can take up to a year, but in special cases, pressure is put on the Commons and Lords to pass a bill very quickly (e.g. bills that deal with civil disorder, terrorism, etc); sometimes the process has to be completed within 24 hours. 168
SAQ 6 Match items in column one with items in column two to have a clear summary of the legislative process in British politics and then compare your findings to the answer given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit: 1. Five stages for a. the bill to go through in the Lords First Reading b. Close scrutiny, detailed analysis and examination of the bill
2.
3.
Committee Stage
c.
4. 5.
Third Reading Twelfth Stage
d. e.
6.
Report Stage
f.
7.
Royal Assent
g.
8.
Second Reading
h.
House considers the amendments made in the committee, deciding whether to accept or reject them. New amendments and clauses may be introduced. Debate is restricted; the only amendments allowed are verbal or drafting amendments. Whipped vote taken. Becomes Act of Parliament. Queen signs it. Green paper, White Paper, bill ordered to be printed and circulated, no debate Minister in charge of the bill explains its policy and major features; debate. The Bill scrutinised, amendments made; then discussed in the Commons and accepted, rejected or themselves changed. The act of parliament is entered into the Statute Book.
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Besides Government bills there are also Private Members Bills, which are introduced by individual MPs. They tend to deal with moral issues such as fox hunting, corporal punishment and euthanasia. The name of each MP who wishes to introduce a bill is put in a hat, and the names of a few lucky members are drawn at the beginning of each session. Most legislation passes through the Commons as the government wishes, but on a significant number of occasions the Commons have emphatically thrown it out. Since 1997 under Tony Blair, the Lords as well as backbenchers have rebelled on several occasions. SAQ 7 In the case of important matters, the voting procedure usually applied is called Division. Put the following sentences in chronological order so that you might find out what Division means. After you have done it, try and answer the question: Is this procedure cheat-proof? Can you understand now why the vote is called whipped? The exit doors, the one to the right hand of the Speaker and one to her/his left are opened. Two attendants count aloud while the Chief Whips see to it that all MPs leave by the right door. The Speaker calls: Clear the lobby. All MPs give their names and leave. Those in favour go out through the right-hand door and those against by the left-hand door. After two minutes, the Speaker puts the matter to the vote. Throughout the houses of Parliament bells start to ring signalling MPs to go to the division lobbies.
Compare your answer to that given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
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Political education. The house plays an important role in the democratic education of the nation. The various stages in the journey of a bill are as many occasions for citizens at large to tune in to national debates on vital issues that are going to influence the lives of common people. Ministers have to justify their actions on the floor of the House or in the Standing Committee rooms. The Hansard reports, printed verbatim reports of everything said and done during the proceedings of both parliamentary Houses, are published daily. (The records of the Lords date back to 1497 and those of the Commons to 1547). Many people watch the proceedings on TV. The twice-weekly clash between Thatcher and Kinnock at Prime Ministers Question Time used to be the biggest hit of the televised proceedings, although Thatcher fiercely opposed throughout her successive premierships the idea of televising the proceedings in the House. Summarised highlights of House proceedings are shown at 8.15 am on BBC, but there is also extensive coverage in the major news bulletins.
4.2.5 The decline of Commons power and the movement for reform
By the mid 70s it was believed that the Commons had reached its nadir of impotence and had been relegated to a subsidiary role, almost matching the ritual status of the Lords. It was alleged that most of its functions were of diminished importance and that the amendments introduced to bills proposed by the government were not substantial. It was reported that during three sessions in the early 1970s, 99.9 per cent of government amendments to bills were passed, while only 10 per cent of government backbench and 5 per cent of opposition amendments were approved (quoted in Jones and Kavanagh, British Politics Today: 136). It is generally felt that the persistent fight for independent powers from an executive dominated by the monarch and the nobility, has sapped the energy of the House; so now the Commons bows to an executive controlled by its own representatives. As Lord Hailsham memorably described the situation, governments have become elective dictatorships. Some of the factors that have contributed to this decline of influence and power are given in the following paragraphs: Firstly, there is the growing importance of parties in the political life of the country. They started to by-pass Parliament in reaching out to their electors, realising that support to their parties was instrumental in their chances for re-election. Secondly, as Tony Wright, an important Labour MP and political scientist, argues, Parliament as a forum for national policy debate does not really exist: What exists is government and opposition locked in an unending election campaign on the floor and in the committee rooms of the House of Commons. He surveys the main functions of Parliament and concludes that none are performed really well. He concludes: There is no institution more in need of
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reform the reform agenda has been sitting there for years Parliament does not exist - but the task is to make it exist. Thirdly, the power of the Prime Minister has tended to become greater and greater, as he or she has exerted sometimes a very tight control (as in the case of Thatcher and Blair) over the hundred members of the Cabinet. MPs are reluctant to challenge the prime ministerial endorsement by acting independently. Furthermore, the Commons prerogatives have been superseded by many other governmental agencies, like the civil service* (about half a million are employed in the civil service now compared to about 50,000 at the beginning of the 20th century). The growth of bureaucracy has also led to the delegation of a growing volume of legislation, with Parliament agreeing only the framework while often the important details are entrusted to civil servants. What is more, pressure groups have been on the rise over the last decade or so. These interest groups are an important source of advice, information and lobbying. Moreover, new legislation is often formulated by ministers and civil servants in conjunction with pressure group representatives. As with many European Parliaments, British membership of the EU leads to important decisions concerning the UK economy being taken by Community institutions rather than the House of Commons. The means of direct democracy such as referenda have also had an important effect on eroding the power of the Commons. The movement for reform has gained ground since the 60s and some of the recent reforms stemmed from a report of 1978 to the effect that the relationship between the House and the government is now weighed in favour of the government to a degree which arouses widespread anxiety and is inimical to the proper working of our parliamentary democracy. A House of Commons Commission was set up in 1978 which gave the House a greater measure of political and financial control over its own administration and personnel appointments. Special standing committees and ad hoc groupings that scrutinise bills in detail during the committee stage, were soon followed by others in an attempt to balance out the pressure groups. One of the most important reforms initiated was the setting up of select committees after the publication of the 1978 report. In 1979, most of the old committees that counted very little were abolished, and 14 new ones were established for Agriculture, Defence, Education, Employment, Wales, etc. They are made up of 156 MPs in all, and they have so far produced over 400 reports on a whole range of topics. Devolution and proportional representation might also have important effects on the activities of the House of Commons in the future. Once in power, Labour established the Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons. The leader of the House set out the governments four priorities in 1997: more effective legislation through the publication of more draft bills and more extensive consultation; holding ministers to account through the hourly afternoon sessions for questioning the Prime Minister and other ministers; improving the monitoring of delegated legislation, 172
much of which currently passes relatively unscrutinised; and the reducing of the ceremonial procedures often criticised as timeconsuming and unnecessary. In conclusion, while the House of Commons is in theory at least supreme in the constitutional arrangements of Britain, in practice it is usually controlled by the government in most normal Parliamentary circumstances. The position is however open to new challenges to the balance of power coming from radical reforms that are under way. SAQ 8 In what ways could devolution and reforms of election procedures, especially Proportional representation, influence Commons power? Can you think of further factors that might contribute to its strengthened role in British democracy? Write your answer in the space below and then check it against the answer given in the Answers section, at the end of the unit.
Summary
In this unit you were invited to sample the British democracy in action, to gradually become aware of the great merits of a political arrangement that laid the foundation of modern democracies, expressing the basic tenets of citizens rights, duties and freedoms in the Magna Carta of 1215 and developing and enhancing them ever since. You were permanently referred to as actors in the political game (you are mature Romanian citizens and you have voted at least once) and asked to analyse and compare the main democratic institutions and practices of British society to those in your own country. The history of the two Houses of Parliament further supports the idea of democratic development in British society and a particular emphasis is laid on the radical changes that the House of Lords underwent under the last eight years of New Labour rule.
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Key Concepts
constituency enfranchise/disenfranchise first-past-the-post (TPTP) proportional representation (PR) tactical voting casting ballot whipped/free vote Tory/Whig Lib-Dems Whip by-election Cabinet/Shadow Cabinet Question Time Division Hansard Civil Service
Glossary
by-election = an election held in a single constituency between one general election and the next. It may be held because an MP has retired or died, or because s/he has been transferred to the House of Lords. Cabinet = the government; the executive group of ministers, usually about 20 in number, who are chosen by the Prime Minister to determine government policies. The team of ministers in the Opposition (the major political party not currently in power) who would probably form the cabinet if their party won the next general election is called Shadow Cabinet. casting ballot = a deciding vote used when both sides have an equal number of votes Civil Service = the state organization, composed of several ministries or departments, that is responsible for carrying out the work of the government at all levels. Civil servants have no right to be actively involved in politics or to become an MP. Their position thus is not affected by a change of government. consituency = a political administrative district whose voters elect a single MP to represent them in the House of Commons.
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Division = a formal vote in the House of Commons when MPs divide into two groups, for the motion (aye) or against it (no) and go to one of two special corridors (division lobbies) to cast their vote. enfranchise = to grant adult citizens the right to vote. An adult in Britain legally refers to a person 18 and over. In the past, franchise was limited to male citizens only, but has been gradually extended over the past hundred and fifty years, becoming universal in 1928. (revoking this right is called disenfrachisement) first-past-the-post = a colloquial phrase (from horse-racing) that describes how the British electoral system works. The candidate given the largest number of individual votes, or the party gaining the largest number of seats subsequently, wins an election. Hansard = the short title of the daily publication that gives a wordfor-word report of proceedings in the Houses of Parliament (named after Luke Hansard, who first printed the journals of the House of Commons in 1774) Howard, Michael = outstanding British politician who in 1990 entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment, Following the 1992 election, Michael Howard was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment and In May 1993, he became Home Secretary, a position he held for four years. In November 2003, he was elected Leader of the Conservative Party and of Her Majesty's Opposition. Lib-Dems = a short, colloquial name for the Liberal Democrats, the third major political party in Britain and the youngest of them. It has its origins in the SDP (Social Democratic Party) founded in 1981 by four right-wing members of the labour Party. The SDP immediately formed an alliance with the Liberal Party, merged with it in 1988 and in 1989 adopted its present name. pageantry = splendid show of ceremonial grandness with people in beautiful, ceremonial dress. Peel, Robert = a famous politician and prime Minister who entered Parliament as a Tory in 1809, at the age of 21. In 1822 Peel became Home Secretary, and it was during this time that he is credited with far-ranging criminal reform and the creation of the Metropolitan Police (the terms 'bobbies' and 'peelers' come from his name). Peel was appointed Prime Minister in 1834 and in his Tamworth Manifesto he outlined his support for the Reform Act, a shift which highlighted his adoption of a more enlightened Conservatism. In 1841 during his second term as Prime Minister he began his battle to open up free trade.
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proportional representation = the system whereby a political party secures seats in an election in proportion to the actual numbers of people that voted for it. Proportional representation despite electoral promises of commitment both from Conservative and Labour politicians is not used in British political elections Question Time = the period of time in a Parliament when ministers answer members questions. Question Time is shown on television and can be interesting to watch because of the loud, sometimes angry discussions which take place. Ten-Minute Rule Bills = the start of public business on most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Time is given for a backbench MP to introduce a bill of their own. They may give a speech lasting ten minutes in support of their proposal. MPs must give fifteen days' notice to the Public Bill Office of their intention to present such a bill, and only one Ten Minute Rule Bill may be introduced on any one day. To secure this much sought after slot, MPs must be first in the queue at the Public Bill Office on the Tuesday or Wednesday morning three weeks prior to the date on which they wish to present their bill. MPs desperate for this opportunity have been known to sleep overnight in the ante-chamber next to the Public Bill Office in order to be first through the door when it opens the next morning. If the bill is approved by the House at this first reading stage, it joins the queue of Private Members' Bills waiting to receive a second reading. The government will only rarely allow a Ten Minute Rule Bill to progress far enough to become law, so MPs tend to use this procedure simply as a way of gaining publicity for a particular issue. Tory = an alternative name for the Conservative Party, the name being inherited from the former English right-wing political party in existence from the 17th century to the 1830s when the Conservative Party was formed. Whig = a British political party of the 17th century which supported the power of Parliament and wanted to limit royal power and which in the 19th century became the Liberal Party and arose as a left-wing party representing the interests of commerce and industry. whipped vote = a practice whereby an MP is determined to vote as his/her party decides, whilst in the case of a free vote this does not apply.
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Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Should your answer not be comparable to the one below please revise section 4.2.1 The most undemocratic reason is the non-representation of a substantial number of people in Britain in the House of Commons where policy and legislation are made. These people do feel frustrated, and this can contribute to the feeling of disenfranchisement and to the electorates apathy and absenteeism. SAQ 2 Should your answer not be comparable to the one below please revise section 4.2.1. Tactical voting has relative, circumstantial value as a democratic practice. Sometimes when none of the political contestants represent what you stand for, then you go for the lesser evil or you give your vote to those who can contribute to the defeat of those whom you consider dangerous for society (extremists, nationalists etc). It is not entirely democratic because it is not representative of ones real choice and ones political convictions. Of course, one simple way to solve the problem for an individual voter in Britain, if they are unhappy that their party never succeeds in their constituency because it is in a minority, is to move somewhere where they are in the majority. If it is too frustrating to cast your vote every five years and yet never help to elect an MP, changing residence is a simple but perhaps drastic measure. SAQ 3 Margaret Thatcher: Radical policies of privatisation; Anti-trade union legislation; monetary reform; The Neo-Conservative Revolution; Allegiance to free market and a Single European Market. Tony Blair: New Labour New Britain; The democratization of Democracy; Devolution; The Third Way; A European future for Britain: strengthening Britains ties with the European Union, No rights without responsibilities.
SAQ 4 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Speaker; Deputies; tied; casting ballot; Opposition; Prime Minister; front bench; ministers; 177
(9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) SAQ 5
Cabinet; Foreign Secretary; Home Secretary; budget; Chancellor of the Exchequer; Leader of the Opposition; Shadow Cabinet; front benchers; Whips; Crown; backbenchers
Your attendance is requested Your attendance is necessary Your attendance is essential SAQ 6
one line whip two-line whip three-line whip
Should your answer differ from the one given below please revise section 4.2.4. First Reading Green paper, White Paper, bill ordered to be printed and circulated, no debate. Second Reading Minister in charge of the bill explains its policy and major features; debate. Committee Stage Close scrutiny, detailed analysis and examination of the bill. Report Stage The House considers the amendments made in the committee, deciding whether to accept or reject them. New amendments and clauses may be introduced. Third Reading Debate is restricted; the only amendments allowed are verbal or drafting amendments. Whipped vote taken. Five stages for the The Bill scrutinised, amendments made; bill to go through then discussed in the Commons and the Lords accepted, rejected or themselves changed. Royal Assent Becomes Act of Parliament. Queen signs it. Twelfth Stage The act of parliament is entered into the Statute Book.
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SAQ 7 The Speaker calls: Clear the lobby. Throughout the houses of Parliament bells start to ring signalling MPs to go to the division lobbies. After two minutes, the Speaker puts the matter to the vote. The exit door, one to the right hand of the Speaker and one to her/his left are opened. Those in favour go out through the righthand door and those against by the left-hand door. All MPs give their names and leave. Two attendants count aloud while the Chief Whip sees to it that all MPs leave by the right door. SAQ 8 Should your answer be different from the one given below please revise sections 4.2.1 and 4.2.5 and also the glossary entry proportional representation on page 171.
Nothing can be anticipated with any certainty, but the consequences of devolution (reduction in size), proportional representation (new parties being represented in the House), increased demands for final accountability of the executive to Parliament, and the strengthened role of select committees and of the Nolan committee, also better contacts between Westminster and the European Parliament, might add important dimensions to this issue in the not so distant future.
SAA No. 4 In your opinion, is Labours proposal fair in resolving the point that legislative power should not be conferred by birth? What do you think about the law-making process in Britain? Is there any British procedure, practice or institution that you would like to see in Romanian society? Why? Send the answers to these questions to your tutor. Your answer should not exceed three pages (1500 words). In order to successfully complete the assigned tasks you should particularly review subchapters 4.1.5 and 4.1.6 referring to the reform of the House of Lords and subchapter 4.2.4 on the legislative function of the House of Commons. An adequate coverage of the content required accounts for 70% of your total grade and your linguistic accuracy for 30% of it. You could consider the bibliography below for further reading.
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1. Bromhead, P.A. 1958. The House of Lords and Contemporary Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 10-25 2. Dascl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timioara: Eurostampa, pp.130155 3. Garner, R. and R., Kelly. 1998. British Political Parties Today. Manchester: MUP, ch.I 4. Jones, B. and D, Kavanagh. 1998. British Politics Today. Sixth edition. Manchester: MUP, pp. 126-148 5. Robbins, K. 1998. Britain and Europe: Devolution and Foreign Policy in International Affairs, 74/1. pp.105-118.
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GALLERY OF FAMOUS BRITS
Edward I (1272 - 1307)
Edward III (1327 - 1377)
Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603)
James I (1603 - 11625)
Charles I (1625 - 1649)
George III (1760 - 1820) Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural
Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901)
Elizabeth II (Coronation 1953)
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John Wycliffe (1329 - 1384)
Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658)
John Wesley (1703 - 1791)
Robert Walpole (1676 - 1745) (generally regarded as Britains first Prime Minister)
Robert Peel (1788 - 1850)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)
William E. Gladstone (1809 - 1898)
Neville Chamberlain (1869 - 1940)
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
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Harold Macmillan (1894 - 1986)
Edward Heath (1916 - 2005)
Harold Wilson (1916 - 1995)
Betty Boothroyd (up to 2001 Speaker of the House of Commons)
Margaret Thatcher (born in 1925, Prime Minister 1979-1990)
Tony Blair (born 1953, Prime Minister since 1997) Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural
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General Bibliography
1. Bhabha, H. K. 1997. Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge 2. Brnzeu. P. 1997. Corridors of Mirrors. The Spirit of Europe in Contemporary British and Romanian Fiction. Timioara: Amarcord 3. Brown, I. 1966. A Book of England. London: Collins 4. Colley, L. 1992. Britons. London:Verso 5. Dascl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timioara: Eurostampa 6. Irimia Anghelescu, M. Dicionarul universului britanic, Bucureti: Humanitas 7. Jones, B. and D, Kavanagh. 1998. British Politics Today. Sixth edition. Manchester: MUP 8. Kearney, H. 1989. The British Isles. A History of Four Nations. Cambridge: CUP 9. McDowall, D. 1991. An Illustrated History of Britain. Harlow: Longman 10. Nicolescu, A. 1999. Istoria Civilizaiei Britanice. Volumul I. Iai: Institutul European 11. Oakland, J. 1998. British Civilization, An introduction. 2nd edition. London and New York: Routledge 12. Solomos, J. 1993. Race and Racism in Britain. London: Macmillan.
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Program postuniversitar de conversie profesional pentru cadrele didactice din mediul rural

Specializarea LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ Forma de nvmnt ID - semestrul I

BRITISH STUDIES COURSE

Ministerul Educaiei i Cercetrii Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ

My thanks are due to Dean Hufstetler, language consultant.

1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7

2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6

3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3

110 111 115 121 122 124

132 133 134 134 135 136

4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6

4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5

157 160 163 166 171

173 174 174 177 179 180 181 184

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Introduction to the British studies course

Who are the British?

1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Figure 1.1 A Map of the United Kingdom

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

1.1.2 What is the population of Britain?

1.1.3 Which are Britains largest ethnic minority groups?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

1.1.4 What religions are represented in Britain?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Figure 1.2 The Union Jack

1.1.5 What does the Union Jack stand for?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

1.1.6 Does Britain have a National Day?

1.1.7 What are Britains floral symbols?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

1.1.8 How do the British celebrate traditional and religious holidays?

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Who are the British?

Figure 1.4 Guy Fawkes

Who are the British?

1.1.9 How many people speak English worldwide?

1.1.11 British identity between unity and diversity

language, political culture and religion

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural

Who are the British?

Proiectul pentru nvmntul Rural