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Letter from London
October 22, 2008
I’ve been visiting London and the north of England for the past few days. Since I moved to the US in 2005, I’ve neglected British politics somewhat. I look at the news now and then, but it all seems increasingly strange. The saga of Gordon Brown is completely bewildering to me - his popularity now restored by the worst financial crisis in the country’s history? Whatever happened to “no more boom and bust”? Whatever happened to “prudence with a purpose”? (Allow me to mention a headline I once wrote for The Economist: “Gordon and Prudence–It’s So Over.” Little did I know.) It all seems such a long time ago.
And yet, in other respects, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Mohamed Fayed is on the front page of the Evening Standard still, this time questioned over an alleged sexual assault - which he vehemently denies. Peter Mandelson is back in government, and “Tory sleaze” is a resurgent theme: these stories seem to have the same Russian oligarch in common, which is a new twist, but still. When Mandelson left office for the second time, and the papers were saying his political career was over, I bet my friend and FT colleague Gideon Rachman a fiver that he would be back for a third spell in due course. And so it proved. However, Gideon now denies all knowledge of this wager. Did I dream it? I think not. I am searching for documentary support. Had blogs existed back then, I feel I would be in the money.
Private Eye is the fixed point around which the country revolves. Could anything be more English? The current issue has a disappointingly indulgent review of three new television programmes about America: travelogues looking at the United States as though it were another (much more vulgar) planet, narrated with effortless superiority by Stephen Fry, Simon Schama and Griff Rhys-Jones. I sampled all three, as it happens, and could not stand to watch more than five minutes of any of them. Simon Schama, striving for intellectual depth as well as flattering visuals, was worried about the water shortage out west. Driving through the Nevada desert, he talked about “paradise lost”. Was it a green and pleasant land before the gluttonous appetites of Las Vegas stripped it bare? Who’d have thunk? Never mind, I am very fond of the Nevada desert.
Also from the current Private Eye, a feature called “Dumb Britain” compiles idiotic answers from TV quiz shows. It has this:
The Weakest Link
Anne Robinson: In education, what is a formal cap worn by academics and also a piece of equipment used by bricklayers?
Contestant: Trowel
As a friend said when I read that out to her, “Aw.” But really, “The Weakest Link” is still in business? And Anne Robinson, I imagine, is still very stern and rude to her guests - who, if they prevail against her scorn and all odds, stand to win as much as Gideon owes me, or even a little more. How come she hasn’t died of boredom?
Back to the Standard, and another very British story. A 16-year old is stabbed to death for no reason. The killer is sentenced to 12 years. He should be out for his 30th birthday. The judge is quoted: “This was an unprovoked attack, but I accept that your intention was not to kill when you used [the knife] to inflict that fatal wound and that you have behavioural and learning difficulties.”
Yes, I dare say stabbing people falls under the heading of “behavioural difficulties”. Calling Theodore Dalrymple. Get me back to the land of the sane.
Could we be viewing the same Britain?
I will tell my story: first I read one or two books in ‘British English’ and noticed the writing was much more elegant and the analysis much sharper, to-the-point and engaging than in comparable American tomes. The endless drivel of American textbooks, for example, written in the supposedly talkative and engaging but, yes — vulgar — vernacular, could not compare with their crisp and clear British parallels. (Some further good writing which I encountered on the way: Iain Nicolson, Roger Penrose, Julian Barnes.) Following that I began reading the Economist, which five to seven years ago was still a high-quality publication, that is before developed American tendencies.
Also you cannot ignore such delightful baroque constructions such as: Oxbridge colleges and their attendant attire; the expansive titles and honours granted to the gentry, cabinet members, and senior civil servants; the opaque nomencalture used by government departments, the law and various other professional bodies — which however on second inspection invariably show themselves to be very rational and consistent.
It seems to this admiring outsider at least, that the Brits have perfected the practice of controlled gradualism in the building of their institutions (both private and public), constatntly pruning and rationalising wherever necessary, until thereby a magnificient garden comes to exist — and since after Cromwell all this achieved without recourse to the violent spasms as beheld the continent and the trans-Atlantic.
What better example of the British ethos of deliberate and comprehensive planning, as opposed to the more cavalier and ad hoc ways common in many parts and places on the far side of the Atlantic, than the British Government’s systematic handling of the recent credit crisis, in contrast to the US Treaasury’s extemporizing.
Posted by: RCS | October 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm | Report this commentDear Mr. Crook, I am writing to Mr.Rachman now to shame him. A wager is a sacred thing. A man shows his true colour if he fails to hold his end of it. He should hand over the fiver in an inflation-adjusted amount to make amends or know his honour as a man and credibility is forever shattered.
Posted by: elizabeth schumann | October 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 am | Report this commentCorrection:I mean, of course, ARE forever shattered!!!
Posted by: elizabeth schumann | October 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 am | Report this commentLke yo,u; Clive, I feel a foreigner in the land of my birth whenever I visit. And after your comments I’m not sure I relish my visit next week.
RCS, I don’t know whether your comments are another example of your wit? Certainly yours is one - rose-tinted - view. However, the reality has been that it has taken unremitting struggle for anyone other than the old landed/new moneyed classes to rise to the present level of society in the UK. The great disparities in income and wealth levels apparently still cause continuing dissent and (viz Clive’s news items) and law-breaking.
And, as for writing standards, when in the UK I can’t bear to read any newspaper (other than my favourite FT, of course!) because of the low standard of English I find.
Posted by: Derek Tunnicliffe | October 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 am | Report this commentHonestly Clive..if you think America is the land of the sane, as evidenced in the above blog, you really have lost the plot. Britain doesnt need you Clive…to be unsupportive and critical. Just because your accent gets you lots of attention in Washington doesnt mean you have to turn your back on Mother England. Just remember, you get the attention you do in America because of your accent. In the south of Spain, youd be just another Brit Abroad!
Posted by: Land of the Sane??? | October 23rd, 2008 at 10:43 am | Report this commentI agree with Elizabeth Schumman’s argument - expressed here and on my own blog - that a man should honour his wagers. No doubt about that.
Posted by: Gideon Rachman | October 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm | Report this commentBut this is an interesting dilemma. I have no recollection of ever taking this Mandelson bet with Clive - and he has no documentary evidence.
Am I saying he is lying? Not at all. I suspect we probably did make this bet. But maybe we didn’t. Clive is getting on. His memory could be playing tricks with him.
Anyway, this is an ugly precedent. What happens if - in future - other friends of mine approach me claiming that we had bet that, for example, Gordon Brown would be gone by Christmas, and he’s still there - so could I please hand over the fiver I owe them.
What do I say? I’ve paid Clive because I trust him - but I dont trust you? Difficult.
Anyway, I believe Clive is leaving the country tonight. I’ll buy him a drink worth at least £5 next time I’m in Washington.
Wow, as an American who lives in London, I feel like this article is a bit of Alice through the Looking Glass.
I moved overseas in 1999 (married a British man) and then returned to the US in late 2005 for 3 years. I had the most difficult time trying to adjust living back in the States. I found people so shallow, incredibly ill-informed, naive, and basically far more concerned with American Idol than what was happening to people in Iraq.
We moved back to the UK this past June, and I feel like I could breath a big sigh of relief when we landed in Heathrow. Yes, London has its problems, but it feels wonderful to be able to watch proper news again, read intelligent newspapers (you have a vast array here in the UK), and listen to people discuss politics, not just here in the UK, but even the latest events in Austria.
Perhaps Clive is becoming American, I wonder if he’s had botox yet?
Posted by: meljomur | October 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm | Report this commentGideon, maybe Clive is mixing you with Gideon Litchfield (the famous ‘Gideon Problem’ you once wrote about on your blog)? Therefore the only fair solution is that both you and Mr Litchfield pay Clive half the sum.
Posted by: RCS | October 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm | Report this commentBetween Gentlemen,
A bet is always one Pound.
Both participants hath proven themselves curmudgeons.
Humbug.
Posted by: In Light of Nihilism | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm | Report this commentGR probably just said “You betcha???” which CC in all innocence interpreted as a promise to pay.
Posted by: J.J. | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm | Report this commentDear J.J.,
Less humbug,
Please.
Posted by: In Light of Nihilism | October 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm | Report this commentMr. Crook,
Allow me to provide my own ‘letter from London’–only from a less jaded, and indeed American, eye.
In the four years (on and off) I’ve lived in the United Kingdom I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with your fellow countrymen for the sort of snootiness you’ve displayed in this post about your country.
I’ve realised that Britons are not the snotty, jealous critics of America they like to portray themselves to be; on the contrary, Britons display an almost soppy love affair for the United States and its culture.
Your post is only the latest example in a long string of equally silly remonstrations of America Lovin’ I’ve come across over many months. Even your supposedly harsh criticisms of my native land are couched in protestations of admiration for the Land of the Free. Hence you had Tony Benn a few years back proclaiming his love of the American people whilst bashing the Bush administration on Question Time; in Britain, it seems unacceptable to levy criticism against the US without lavish praise following–the same cannot be said for Britain’s other allies.
Really, none of this edifying in the slightest. It isn’t edifying when you have expatriate Britons spewing absolute bile about their native land and people–as Britons are wont to do to a degree unrivalled by others. There was a nasty piece in Vanity Fair last year by a British woman skewering Britons in New York for their ‘attitudes’. Was that supposed to be controversial?
It is passé these days to be the Briton in America, Mr. Crook–you’re just another Brit slobbering over America (wow, what a surprise) whilst looking down from on high on Britain. At least the smaller US expat community in Britain (proportionally and absolutely), me included, are fully aware of the pros and cons of our decision. No ‘punch-drunk love’ here, my friend.
Mr. Crook, you obviously don’t see those travelogues about America in quite the same fashion as I’ve come to see them–with disdain for them, like you, but for altogether different reasons.
For me they’re but the latest example of round the clock coverage of all things American in this country. Perhaps you can blame it on the US presidential election, but I’m not so convinced. Every news cast on the Ten O’Clock News has to add a tidbit about the American presidential elections, even on the most inane ‘news’–and yet good luck trying to find anything approaching that level of enthusiasm for Canada’s (just completed) elections. You have those travelogues going on and on, ad nausea, about Americana–as if Britons needed an introduction to a country that has blind-sided them for well over 6 decades. You have Pizza Hut making mildly funny but raucously ridiculous ads promoting their pizza and ‘American style loving’. Your broadcasters talk about ‘the president’ on first instance as though he were yours. Is this all to do with a black man running for US president? Probably. But again, I don’t think so–I was here during the 2004 election (’here’ being Scotland) and I remember precisely the same kind of fixation by the British media then as I perceive now.
We were recently treated to Boris Johnson’s ‘endorsement’ for Barack Obama. He describes America as ‘the last, best hope for Earth’ (what nonsense), whilst stating that ‘we must hope that any ill-considered new taxes will be thwarted by Congress’. Since when should ‘we’ (i.e., Britons) give a damn about American taxes? But of course, it’s that same reflexive love for America–which he goes on to describe as ‘the greatest country on Earth’–that comes so quickly, and so embarrassingly, to Britons, especially among the chattering classes.
The list goes on and on and on…even conversations I have with random Britons ‘at ground level’, so to speak, suggest an inordinate fixation with my country.
Inordinate, and I think altogether detrimental.
It is detrimental because it suggests an inability to look beyond the Anglo-American alliance for equally-weighty, equally-helpful friends elsewhere in the world. To wit, Britain can’t contemplate a world where its foreign policy isn’t more or less in step with the (asymmetrical) needs of its partner in the ’special relationship’. This says nothing, of course, for America’s other ’special relationships’, as with Israel; alas, Britain’s mistress is a fickle one.
It is detrimental because it has made Britons culturally Balkanised–increasingly aware of goings-on in the US, whilst inversely increasingly unaware of what goes on just 34 kilometres off the Dover coast. It is also detrimental because it allows Britons to buy into the myth that there is something exceptionally ‘good’ in the American temperament that oversteps the nasty sludge lurking beneath the ‘American Dream’. The same could be said for all countries, of course…but good luck trying to convince Britons of this vis-à-vis, say, France–a country whom Britain last fought almost exactly as long ago as it did America–its TRUE perennial ally during the bloodiest episodes of the last century.
Mr. Crook, it’s people like you what make me shake my head in disillusionment over Britons. Your people feel quite comfortable bashing ‘Europe’ for all its ills, and for ‘taking your sovereignty’, when you’ve at least a direct say in the constitution of said organisation. But let’s not mention Briton’s quiet comfort at being America’s lapdog in Europe. Maybe I should have moved to France: a country with a schizophrenic relationship with the US, friendly and amorous and adversarial and EQUAL, all at once. At least it is more adult-like and complex than the pathetic, almost childlike deference by Britons for anything emanating from that side of the Pond.
London’s trains sometimes run late; it always rains in Edinburgh, another British city I’ve lived in and come to love; and yes, there has been an increase in stabbings in London. Mr. Crook may want to run away at first blush of those problems–not to mention his silly aside on British ‘plus ça change’ politics, as if America were any better on that count. That to me sounds like the same British self-hatred/American soppy-love that has taken root in the British media–and not just the BBC and the FT, but also the Guardian and the Independent, both of whose commentators never fail to praise American politics while lambasting the quaintness of Westminster politics.
The irony, of course, is risible: two stalwart papers of the left calling for Britain to mimic the US (a call echoed under different circumstances by Jack Straw)–a country whose aversion for the left is palpable in large swathes of my native land, and where the word ‘liberal’ (but never ‘conservative’) is bandied about like a bad word.
No, Mr. Straw, no, Mr. Crook. Britain should not mimic America–where inequality continues to rise, according to the OECD, whereas Britain has made great strides in bringing itself into line with the rest of more equitable Europe. Why should a country without a proper national rail network, without an adequate national health scheme, and for whom violent crime–and with guns, to boot–is the norm be held up as an example? Where flag and God are all important?
Yours,
An American in London
P.S. I should know a little thing or two about ‘violence’–a cousin of mine was killed not too long ago in Los Angeles in a knife AND gun crime, over a case of mistaken identity. All the ’stern’ justice levied by the state(s) in America have done absolutely nothing to reduce crime rates in my country. Whither Britain if it treads down the same path?
Posted by: RCMoya | October 23rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm | Report this commentRe GR / CC.
Pistols for two and coffee for one.
Posted by: J.J. | October 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm | Report this commentOr
Get a pack of cards and cut.
Dear RCMoya,
An eloquent and thoughtful analysis.
As an Irishman, I’ve always known the British were pathetic. So I wasn’t surprised by the bleak vein of pessimism coursing through your soul.
Especially how they undermine the E.U. every chance they get, not to mention clinging on to a currency that has no purpose in the Global economy.
The Iraq war ended British influence in Europe and ended American influence in Central and Eastern Europe.
They both, cling to the delusions of grandeur and the iconography of power;
yet are little more than paper tigers.
Regards,
Posted by: In Light of Nihilism | October 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm | Report this commentA Nihilist.
There will always be something special about London - Innit? and indeed something special about uncle sam’s land, you betcha!
Posted by: Steven | October 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm | Report this commentDear A Nihilist,
You say that: “As an Irishman… the British… how they undermine the EU…”
You say that as an Irishman?
Posted by: RCS | October 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm | Report this commentDear RCS,
I’m a nihilist!
I was born in Ireland by chance.
Only a nihilist can be truly objective.
Be Happy,
N
Posted by: In Light of Nihilism | October 23rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm | Report this commentmeijomur, I had the same impressions as you about the differences between the US and the UK the last time I visited Britain myself - in 1955.
However, I have to say that New York, where I was born and have lived in or close to all my life, is much less provincial that it was fifty plus years ago. This is due in large part to the huge amount of immigration we have had from Asia and Latin America since then.
New York used to be a great North Atlantic city. It is now a great world city (though it is rapidly becoming one of the smaller ones in this class, especially compared to places like Tokyo, one and a half times as large, or Beijing, with double New York’s population).
Posted by: algasema | October 23rd, 2008 at 4:52 pm | Report this commentMy home town is Zug, pop. ca 25 000, 26km from Zürich. The Americans were the first foreign companies to come here and open their European export offices here after WW2: the tax rates were rock-bottom low, in order to attract firms hwo owuld create jobs for the locals.
Late in WW2 a US bomber lost its way after dropping bombs in Southern Germany and finally ran out of fuel and ditched in the Lake of Zug, but all the crew were saved by Zug fishermen who rowed out and pulled them out of the water.
There are about 270 clubs here from A for Archaeology to Z for Yodelling. The International Club was founded by American women
in the 1960s (?) and the Men’s Business Club was founded by Brits.
There’s a great custom here called the “Stammtisch” in traditional restaurants. The owner sets up a big table called the Stammtisch - “the regulars’ table” - so any person arriving alone can sit there and eat the day’s menu at the host’s table (that’s the origin of the phrase Table d’Hôte).
P.S. I was a witness once in a court case, and afterwards I met a friend for lunch in the Rathauskeller in the Old Town (Altstadt) and who was sitting across the room at the Stammtisch? The judge from the court, who winked at me - yes, you betcha - he did.
Posted by: J.J. | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm | Report this commentJ.J., the concept of Stammtisch is not peculiar to Zug, where, by the way, I spent New Year’s Eve dining at Gulm. The chef ended up pouring out his marital woes at our table well into the New Year. RC S, let’s put paid to the Rachman/Crook wager debate: “O, that a man might know
Posted by: elizabeth schumann | October 24th, 2008 at 12:01 am | Report this commentThe end of this day’s business, ere it come,
But it sufficeth that the day will end
And then the end is known.
A painful read. It feels as if you have become allergic to all the things that you used to tolerate. I just hope you are happier in your new land. Yes, the US is a great country but how can you compare either geography or politics, people or beliefs. Go back, enjoy, and stop your dissing.
Posted by: louise | October 24th, 2008 at 7:09 am | Report this commentAs an American living six months of the year in Britain, I find British people are much too critical of their culture and themselves. This is an endlessly fascinating and wonderful place, full of history. When I hear Brits knocking their country I sometimes can’t believe they’re talking about the same place.
Many Britons here and Americans living in Britain, love to portray Americans in the US as vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed bigots. From television to conversation at the local pub, bashing Americans has become quite the national pastime here in Britain. Sometimes I’m afraid to open my mouth and reveal my American accent. I think the only thing that saves me from being skewered and roasted on the same spit with the rest of Americana, is that I am a man of color. I am apparently viewed as a victim of racist America worthy of sympathy. I do not see myself or most of my fellow Americans in that light at all.
I’ve certainly not noticed many ‘Brits slobbering over America’ as RCMoya has. However, from my experience Americans generally are very fond of Britain and the British people and find much to admire. I wouldn’t say slobbering, but generally very positive.
People vote with their feet. If Britain or the US were such wretched places, there wouldn’t be such a clamouring from the rest of the world to immigrate.
I find that much of media is biased one way or another and much as I’d like to say I am not affected by the media I watch, I know this is not true. Fox is generally conservative and too critical of the left. MSNBC is generally left, and too critical of conservatives. MSNBC sending Keith Olbermann, a sneeringly hateful left-leaning commentator to report at the Republican National Convention in the role of unbiased news reporter, was unbelievably stupid. What next, Sean Hannity, providing unbiased news coverage of an Obama administration?
I find the BBC to be blatantly anti-American and anti-Christian. Perhaps I am too sensitive.
Much as I love both Britain and America, in the twenty years or so that I’ve spent living between the two I’ve seen the culture in both countries become coarser, less civil, more violent, and the language more vulgar. (Having just sat on a London bus near two fowl mouthed teen-agers, American teens have nothing over on their British cousins.) I am appalled at some of the public behavior of the youth in both countries.
As for crime, here in London I’ve had my home robbed, my pocket picked of cash and my wallet stolen. I chalk that up to the fact that it’s a large city, and crime seems to go along with the package. It would be the same in large cities in the US and elsewhere. My home in the US is in a small rural town where people sometimes leave their doors unlocked, and crime is low. That’s probably true of most small towns in any country. I don’t believe crime in either country has much to do with easy access to guns and knives. In my father’s time he tells me you could go onto the parking lot of any rural high school in mid-west America and you’d find a loaded shotgun in many of the back windows of unlocked pick-up trucks and trunks of cars teenage boys drove to school. Knives with folding blade were viewed as a handy tool and nearly every man, young or old, had one. Yet violent crime was rare in these small towns. Obviously there’s more at play today than just the availability of guns and knives.
Posted by: Ben | October 24th, 2008 at 7:12 pm | Report this comment