Mind your language

June 7, 2010 — simonashall

This story particularly caught my eye today both in the papers this morning and then Radio 5 Live earlier this evening. There is a move by the Queen’s English Society to form an Academy of English to protect and adjudicate on the proper use of English worldwide.

It’s interesting on a number of levels. A lot of people will say “who knows what the correct version of English is?” and the answer to that one is simple – anyone who understands the rules of grammar and cares enough to stick to them. The next question is “So which version of English are we talking about?” and the answer to that again is simple – the original, English one.

Then we move onto “How do you expect to get people to speak English according to the rules?” and the answer to that is that there is no expectation to be able to do this – the academy is simply there to preserve the heritage and providence of the language. In France and Spain, similar academies exist.

The final objection is usually one of snobbery – the idea that correct use of English is somehow a statement of class and superiority. I don’t accept that  our great language should become a pawn  through which people express their desired status. It may be that there are differences in English proficiency between socio-economic groups but the academy wouldn’t seek to highlight those and nor should it. Neither must it be held hostage by any perceived taboo within them.

It is important that we understand the unique place our language has served in the world in modern historical times. Those who enjoy it in a purer form than one typically encounters in everyday life should have an establishment that ensures future generations can do so too.

Posted in Education, English identity, news. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

Something a little different

June 6, 2010 — simonashall

Sir Edward on the cusp of fame, c1900

Apologies for no updates during the past few days, I’ve been having connection problems with Virgin Media – no great surprise, I’m sure – and contrary to what you might think, paying a premium for fibre optic broadband doesn’t seem to buy you any better service or reliability than anything else.

They are still fixing the problem but I’ll start by doing a posting that I missed out on June 2. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a great passion for classical music and particular the works of Sir Edward Elgar. Having read just about everything ever written about him, having studied his manuscripts and letters and done my own research on his life and works, if you except the academic world, I’d probably count as a bit of an authority on him and June 2 is his birthday (153rd this year).

To many people, Elgar means pomp and circumstance, pageantry and marching and for the political it can mean Edwardian complacency and Imperial folly. That’s fine, I’m not going to say that Elgar wasn’t a proud patriot and a Conservative and that he eschewed the values of Empire. He didn’t – he opposed Irish Home Rule and despaired about what he saw as the threat of socialism.

But he was far more complex a man than that. Born the son of a lowly music shop owner, he fought all his life against the social barriers of Victorian England, not to mention the religious ones – the son of a Roman Catholic convert, he encountered the full weight of prejudice that the largely semi-aristocratic musical establishment had to offer. The family of his wife Alice were utterly opposed to their marriage – her father was a Major-General in India and it was considered she was marrying substantially beneath her – in age as well as class.

Unlike his peers, he didn’t have a formal academic musical education and was self-taught. He tried to move to London twice but had to give up for financial reasons and return to Worcester – and was generally viewed as a provincial non-entity by his contemporaries until 1899, when he was 42. That year, having made a modest name for himself writing secular oratorios for the many and various choral societies that provided a social and musical backbone of Victorian middle-class life, Elgar decided to write an orchestral work based on his friends, representing them or a facet of them in music.

Elgar the man was not at all pompous or stiff – he could be jovial, easy-going and excitable but also prone to mood swings, immaturity and deep nostalgia. He was a dreamer, often tied down by self-doubt who kept few close companions but many acquaintances and he loved puzzles and cyphers of every kind from crosswords to musical conundrums. An orchestral work that used references to people that only he and a few others would “get” appealed to him hugely and he made the puzzle even deeper by included in it a “larger theme” that he said “‘goes’, but is not played”.

The resulting work was the Enigma Variations, which began the journey of Elgar from plain Edward Elgar, three counties musician, to Sir Edward Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GVCO, Master of the King’s Musik. The man whose in-laws had written his wife out of her inheritance for marrying him ended up towering above them all in the order of precedence. And while Nimrod is the most famous variation that we all know, they are all fantastic and worth listening to – showing as they do the many sides of Elgar’s character.

I have a wonderful drawing of Elgar’s birthplace in Broadheath above my piano. And here is my little birthday tribute to him.

Posted in English identity, Mundane occurances, Music. Tags: , . No Comments »

Welsh opportunity

October 27, 2009 — admin
St George and the dragon could be friends...

St George and the dragon could be friends...

As I’m going to marry a Welsh girl next summer, I’ve got a vested interest in the Principality so it’s interesting to me to consider how Wales and England will relate to each other during the next two Parliaments.

To my mind, in both Scotland and Northern Ireland, the principle argument of the United Kingdom’s integrity has been lost – Ulster will return to Ireland and Scotland will become an independent state; it is just a question of when, and how.

In Wales though – and despite the equally bloody history of Anglo-Welsh relations – there is a far milder desire for that kind of thing and despite Plaid Cymru’s successes as a protest vote, people in Wales generally want to think about how to secure better government within the UK.

Today, we have a Welsh opinion poll that is promising news for DC, following a good showing the European elections, where the Conservatives always do well. How he and his government approach the question of engaging with the Welsh people will be an important question if he becomes the next PM. There are Welsh links in the party – from Ffion Hague to Cheryl Gillian, widely regarded as a rising star - and there is a real opportunity to cement some of the Union’s crumbling brickwork.

Labour’s policy in Wales has been the same for 100 years. They tap into the hopelessness and victimhood of post-industrial decline and keep people where they are using the Welfare State. In large tracts of Wales, this has worked well for them and some of the safest Labour seats are in south Welsh ex-mining constituencies.

Parts of Wales can be every bit as rough and tough as the grittiest areas of England. But a renovated Cardiff and new impetus from devolution has reinforced the natural optimism of the Welsh people, particularly in the south, which is why I think more of them are prepared to give DC a chance.

The Welsh aren’t natural Tory voters outside the border regions. If they can’t vote Labour, they’ll go to PC – hell, they’ll even vote for Lembit Opik ahead of the Conservative. So this poll reveals a decisive, if fragile, shift. It’s an opportunity for the Conservatives to leave a legacy of good in parts of the UK that we haven’t previously reached.

So many other things need fixing and the Conservatives need to keep electoral support in England high to stay in office. But this is one Welsh opportunity that I sincerely hope we will seize upon. We need to show to a part of the UK previously neglected by us that we are serious about the future of every single person on our green and pleasant island.

Update 29/10: A breakdown of the figures shows more starkly the pick-up in Conservative support in Wales. Congratulations to the Tory Welsh team, which seems to be getting its message across. Now let’s not waste that progress through non-delivery.

Posted in English identity, The United Kingdom. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . No Comments »

Name that won’t be spoken

October 22, 2009 — admin

There are in almost every democracy in the world political organisations that prosper on hatred, division, racialism and the politics of the gutter.

In the UK, our politicians have made such a hash of running the country that a million people voted for them in the last election. And now our national broadcaster has invited them onto a platform where their views will be disseminated to millions more people (probably very few of whom vote for them already).

Whether that is right or not is not really the point. What is definitely wrong is the way that some idiots have been determined to object so heartily as to afford the offending group more publicity than they could ever have hoped for.

I think have mentioned the BNP by name on this blog once before – although, to borrow a phrase from John Cleese, I think I got away with it. They, nor any issue surrounding them, will ever be mentioned on here again. It’s not that I don’t care; it’s just that they are simply not worth it.

Posted in English identity, news. No Comments »

The Nelson Touch

October 21, 2009 — admin

NelsonToday is the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar – back in 2005, the 200th anniversary was marked with a particular fine pair of Trafalgar crowns issued by the Royal Mint, although generally it was kept quiet by the Labour government so as not upset the French or Spanish.

Trafalgar was a significant naval victory but it also marked the date of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson’s death, the manner of which ensured his place in history as a national hero and a symbol of the best exemplars of leadership and courage. By common consent, Nelson was an inspirational leader, who knew how to get the best out of the men at his command and who gained their trust to execute some very unlikely victories through unorthodox tactics.

Today we’d call him a natural leader, an influencer, an risk-taker and innovator and he would probably have been running an investment bank in the City of London. He would have been generously remunerated in advance of the banking crisis on account of him having made a great deal of money for investors. Unfortunately, his non-traditional methods would have resulted in him making some mistakes, requiring his bank to be re-capitalised at government expense.

Nelson won some great victories but also made mistakes as a commander, some of which cost lives. The bankers have kept Britain’s economy afloat for nearly 20 years but have made mistakes that have cost the nation billions of pounds.

One has a monument 150ft high in the middle of London, the other extracts ire from the most even-tempered man on the Clapham Omnibus. Yet they have more in common than you would think.

Incidentally, many members of Nelson’s illegitimate line are buried in Brookwood Cemetery. He himself is in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Posted in English identity, history. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

Raising the Rose

October 12, 2009 — admin
Cannon from the Mary Rose

Cannon from the Mary Rose

I struggle to understand how something as important The Mary Rose is housed in an exhibition only big enough to hold six percent of the artefacts that were brought to the surface with it. It’s depressing because it wouldn’t happen in the United States – where warships from only 30 years ago are kept as floating museums, nor in other parts of the UK that understand better the real function of national identity.

Identity is not a basis for nationalism – it isn’t a reason to think that you are better than everyone else. It is not a celebration of discredited moral values and practices nor an advertisement to return to them. Nor is it the quasi-worship of historical artefacts or the unhealthy focus on a particular part or event of history for the sake of nostalgia.

It is a self-awareness based on the narrative of history shored up by the tangible and concrete. It is the appreciation of context and an understanding of the relationship between the past, present and the people. It is not necessarily concerned with the future – that is the nation’s to decide.

My concern is not necessarily that the Mary Rose artefacts are largely hidden from view. It is the attitude within government that belies this; that English history – and the British history that frames it – is not important enough to warrant investment and the message that sends to people young and old.

We need to feed the vacuum of the English identity with positive and interesting stories. If we don’t, we hand the advantage to those who would define Englishness in an entirely different way.

Update 12/10: I’ve just watched the Newsnight edition with the focus on the emerging English Defence League. It is precisely these kinds of people who will fill a void if we are not prepared to invest in our heritage. Heritage shouldn’t be about large country houses and lofty art collections, it should be about the lives of ordinary people as our ancestors lived them. In Tudor Britain, people were farmers, labourers or craftsmen or else they were retained military personnel.

The records that survive are largely written by clergy, lawmakers or nobility and don’t paint a balanced picture of life. The Mary Rose artefacts can be a small part of cutting through this barrier.

Posted in English identity, news. Tags: , . No Comments »

Digging up our identity

September 24, 2009 — simonashall
Part of the Staffordshire treasure

Part of the Staffordshire treasure

When I was seven years old, I learned in school about the Sutton Hoo treasure, which was found in 1939 in Suffolk under confusing circumstances complicated by impending war. It fired my imagination about history and turned me into someone who became an avid watcher of archaeological documentaries and Time Team.

So I find it exciting when objects that are many hundreds of years old see the light of day and add to our knowledge of who we are, where we have come from and how our future might develop.

The news that a large stash of Anglo-Saxon gold has been discovered in Staffordshire is of particular interest politically as well. It will be crucial where this treasure ends up.

We talk so much about the English identity – or lack of it – and how the Scottish, Welsh and Irish seem to be more at ease with theirs. That’s partly because obsessive left-wing academics and media force us every time we talk about “heritage” and “identity” to re-visit things like the Empire, crusades, religious persecution and any other historical self-flagellation they can think of.

But the true English identity is no better encapsulated than in beautiful pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon treasure and we should all be able to understand these people, their lives and how they became us – because if you are the English majority, they are you.

Don’t get me wrong – I support and encourage the cultural diversity of the nation along with the most impeccable Guardianista. It’s something I’ve grown up with. But if we are to preserve tolerance of this diversity we must also make the case for the English identity and the value of the Staffordshire treasure is not the amount it will fetch at auction but how it can be a positive aesthetic and tangible objectification of where England came from.

Let us hope then that it doesn’t end up in the US or Middle East but is bought by the nation for the purpose of strengthening the nation.

Posted in English identity, archaeology, history, news. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

The thoughts of Chairman Wells (part 2)

August 24, 2009 — simonashall

Another classic blog post from Cllr Olly Wells, who seems intent on talking about anything apart from Knaphill.

This time, he’s hand-wringing about the return of foreign artefacts from British museums and having a good old Liberal self-flagellation session about the lingering wrongs of the Empire. Snore. On the bright side though, he does have a talent for the misplaced assumption. At the moment, he’s got relatives over from Taiwan.

“They have been doing a lot of sightseeing which has been good fun, but as usual
when people visit from abroad questions are raised about our imperial past which
we seem to have forgotten in the UK”

As usual!? More than 31 million people visited the UK in 2008. It seems hard to imagine that they are walking around London admiring Buckingham Palace or exploring Shakespearean Stratford overwhelming tour guides with accusatory questions about imperialism. Most tourists to Britain are just happy to see some sunshine and follow a fat woman with an umbrella.

But Cllr Wells hasn’t finished.

“The key question is should we return all the historical artefacts in the
British and other museums that we didn’t purchase or receive as gifts?”

Funny, I thought the key questions in museums were things like “how old is this?”, “what was it used for?” and “what is its historical significance?” Clearly I was wrong. The question that visitors to the V&A or the Ashmolean ought to be asking themselves is “under what circumstances was this artefact acquired and does it accord with the European Convention on Human Rights?” It all goes to show what a weird world many Lib Dems live in.

Finally, we get

“I don’t want to be seen as anti-patriotic, but it is worth noting that a
significant proportion of the world’s population appears to see us in an
imperial light, rightly or wrongly.”

Perish the thought that Cllr Wells should be viewed as unpatriotic – I didn’t know he cared – but no, it’s not worth noting because the only part of the world’s population that sees us in the light he describes are our enemies.

The problem with Liberals is they’ve spent so long worrying about what this country’s enemies believe that eventually they’ve started to think like them. It’s not good.

Posted in English identity, Other blogs, history, lib dems. Tags: . No Comments »

Strauss Deo

August 23, 2009 — simonashall

Last month, I feared that despite a victory at Lord’s, I might be here today reconciling myself to an Ashes defeat. They got a hiding at Headingley but England have shown great spirit in coming back to such a resounding victory at the Oval.

There are different types of captain. Some lead through great insight into the game and his players. Others have less insight but can balance this with consistent performances. Others yet seem to have shaky thinking about the game but can inspire a team with great batting displays. Andrew Strauss is one such captain, whose resilience against everything the Aussies threw at him has been the single main factor behind English success.

The averages are clear – the England captain was the leading run scorer in the series and with a 52 average was the only England player to average more than 35. His runs were more than the margin of victory at Lord’s, helped enforce the follow-on at Edgbaston and made the margin of victory at the Oval that much more comfortable for the bowlers.

At Cardiff and Headingley, where Strauss failed, England failed. And some of his captaincy decisions were odd, to say the least. But at the moment, he’s captain fantastic. Long may he stay so.

Posted in Cricket, English identity. Tags: , . No Comments »

Last of the gentlemen

July 31, 2009 — simonashall

When I was younger, I was crazy about football. I have supported Spurs all my life and remember watching the 1987 FA Cup Final and being totally gutted when we lost to Coventry City. I remember the 1991 Cup Final victory over Nottingham Forest and the great teams of Hoddle, Waddle, Gascoigne, Lineker and the legendary Clive Allen.

The old first division was a tough league of honest professionals – it lacked the spark of La Liga and Serie A but it produced good competitors and skilled players in the English style that all but the world’s best struggled to cope with.

Then money got involved and greed upon greed upon greed took over (if you don’t believe me, click on the Spurs link ) Footballers started getting paid a yearly wage every week and previously decent people turned into avaricious mercenaries overnight. The money attracted foreign players by the bucketload and now most young Englishmen are kept out of decent football by greed – the greed of the players coming here to play for silly money and the greed of the clubs in hoping that their presence will inspire more support, selling of merchandise and Champions’ League TV money.

As a result, good English players only know how to play as individuals. Their livelihoods depend less on their ability to work as a team and more on marketing and selling their own “brand” with the football a vehicle for doing this.

Things weren’t perfect in the 1980s. You had the bad boys of football like Vinnie Jones and there were plenty of hooligans about. Now the situation is reversed – the crowd seats are full of the middle-classes who can afford to shell out for starkly overpriced season tickets and the people who get involved in assaults in pubs reside on the field of play. It’s a race on the pitch not to win the game but who can become the most famous most quickly – therein lies the real reward.

Sir Bobby Robson epitomised the old football – the honest and hardworking professional approach that put the game first, the supporters second and themselves third. He was the last manager from the era where the reward was in excellence, peer respect and crowd adoration. He was the last manager who truly understood what it was to be responsible for his players and their actions. He was the last manager from the age where football was played not, perhaps, universally by gentlemen, but by men with a sense of perspective.

The circus that football has become is a unwholesome reflection of our society and its vehemently secular, tribal and amoral nature. Sir Bobby was the last torchbearer of football as a genuine sport. Now the money has it and the torch is extinguished, the last remaining saving grace of football has gone – a sad day.

Posted in English identity, news. Tags: , . No Comments »
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