Or you could just read a few back issues of Lord Snooty.When it all gets too much, there is always Jacob Rees-Mogg's reality TV programme. A proper English gentleman doing proper English things.
I have just returned to Britain after several years living abroad. Grew up here all my life and kind of ignored this, but coming back I can't help wondering... is it just me worried about Britain losing it's culture? Is everyone really cool with it or are people just numb to it now?
Living in places in East Asia and Africa, many people expressed to me an admiration for 'British' culture. British gentlemen, afternoon tea, the Oxford-Cambridge education system, etc etc. You know the stuff. After years abroad I kind of played up to it. I was proud to tell people about little quirks of our culture, our history, our religion and how it branched off from the rest of Christianity. How monarchy became the Magna Carta became the parliament became what we have today. All that proper 'British' stuff.
Coming back, it... seems like none of that really exists anymore? Seems like most areas I go to Brits aren't even a majority. And what's worse, most countries in Asia have better customer service, transport and atittudes than we do here.
Is anyone else worried about this? Are people just apathetic? Do they not realise because it's been a slow creep? Or do people really not mind all the things we've lost?
Back in the Good Old Days the second post would have been the usual polite "fuck off."I remember when trolls were better than this. Sigh, the England /Urban of yesteryear…
I remember when trolls were better than this. Sigh, the England /Urban of yesteryear…
… haut bourgois….
British culture is still alive and well...
I think my mum knows these people but in Brittany.I think I went there on holiday once. Sophie and Josh have a farmhouse there. Just outside Toulouse? A simply darling little cheese shop.
Grant Morrison!
I'm quite fascinated by the definition of British culture provided (British gentlemen, afternoon tea, the Oxford-Cambridge education system).
There really weren't any of the first in my 1970s childhood and I don't think I've really ever had any dealings with them - are these the people in bowler hats carrying briefcases from old newsreels? Afternoon tea I do remember in Enid Blyton books but has never been offered to me in real life. As for the Oxford -Cambridge education system while completely inaccessible to most of us I believe it is thriving?
The best (and possibly the only) cockanee singalong I ever experienced was at a theatrical bar in the West End; a drag queen wearing a tight-fitting Gerri Halliwell-style union jack dress led the proceedings and trotted out all the old favourites, Knees Up Mother Brown, Any Old Iron etc. I was surprised that I knew the words (probably from a misspent youth having watched old Ealing films, or Steptoe & Son?)I'd certainly enjoy having a knees up to Dahn To Margit at the end of a film.
if you watch eg the sweeney you sometimes see regan and carter singing with a small band backing. i saw something similar once, a three piece backing band for people at the fox, now closed, on kingsland road where a lady in her sixties or seventies was singing hey big spender. must be 30+ years ago nowThe best (and possibly the only) cockanee singalong I ever experienced was at a theatrical bar in the West End; a drag queen wearing a tight-fitting Gerri Halliwell-style union jack dress led the proceedings and trotted out all the old favourites, Knees Up Mother Brown, Any Old Iron etc. I was surprised that I knew the words (probably from a misspent youth having watched old Ealing films, or Steptoe & Son?)
Among the audience was a father and son celebrating the lad's bar mitzvah; the singer dedicated a song to him but I forget what it was, possibly My Old Man?
where i used to live, in a tower block in hackney, my upstairs neighbour would blast out chas and dave when spurs won. until he was nicked and convicted of murderApparently, a Department for Culture, Media & Sport think-tank is toying with the idea of rejuvenating British culture and national pride by making it mandatory for cinemas in England and Wales to play a Chas & Dave song at the end of the programme. This, they believe, would replace the outmoded tradition of piping the national anthem over the tannoy with something more up-to-date and meaningful.
Instead of standing to attention when the music begins, patrons will be encouraged to have a right old knees-up - and therein, I feel, lies the problem. Cinema-goers up north, in Wales, or indeed anywhere other than parts of Essex and Kent will not, I fear, respond favourably to compulsory cockanee singalongs.
That's the trouble with a lot of modern British people today - they ain't got no Cockney pride. Gertcha!
Seems quite appropriate that song composed to advertise (and sell) shite beer should become the nation's anthem.I'd certainly enjoy having a knees up to Dahn To Margit at the end of a film.
Typical Spurs fan.where i used to live, in a tower block in hackney, my upstairs neighbour would blast out chas and dave when spurs won. until he was nicked and convicted of murder
Got 15 years for murder and 30 for playing Chas and Dave.where i used to live, in a tower block in hackney, my upstairs neighbour would blast out chas and dave when spurs won. until he was nicked and convicted of murder