Reghina Dascal British Course

Proiect cofinanţat din Fondul Social European prin Programul Operaţional Sectorial Dezvoltarea Resurselor Umane 2007-2013
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STUDII CULTURALE
BRITANICE
Reghina DASCĂL
Program de conversie profesională la nivel postuniversitar

pentru cadrele didactice din învăţământul preuniversitar
Specializarea LIMBA ŞI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ

Forma de învăţământ ID - semestrul I
2010
LIMBA ŞI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ
British Studies Course
Reghina DASCĂL
2010
© 2010 Acest manual a fost elaborat în cadrul "Proiectului pentru Învăţământul
Rural", proiect co-finanţat de către Banca Mondială, Guvernul României
şi comunităţile locale.
Nici o parte a acestei lucrări nu poate fi reprodusă fără acordul scris al

Ministerului Educaţiei, Cercetării, Tineretului şi Sportului.
ISBN 973-0-04114-8
Contents
Contents
Introduction to the British studies course 4

Unit 1 WHO ARE THE BRITISH? BRITISH IDENTITY – 6
A PROCESSUAL APPROACH
Unit objectives 7
1.1 CHAPTER I 8
Ten questions and answers about the British Isles
1.1.1 Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and 8
Great Britain?
1.1.2 What is the population of Britain? 9
1.1.3 Which are Britain’s largest ethnic minority groups? 9
1.1.4 Which religions are represented in Britain? 10
1.1.5 What does the Union Jack stand for? 11
1.1.6 Does Britain have a National Day? 12
1.1.7 What are Britain’s floral symbols? 12
1.1.8 How do the British celebrate traditional and religious 13
holidays?
1.1.9 How many people speak English worldwide? 17
1.1.10 Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own 17
languages?
1.1.11 British Identity between oneness and hybridity 17
1.1.12 “The way we never were”. Cultural icons and their value 20
Key concepts 23
Glossary 24
Answers to SAQs 30
1.2 CHAPTER II 31
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? 31
1.2.2 The Celtic past and its posterity 33
1.2.3 The Roman Conquest - a ‘blessing in disguise’? 35
1.2.4 The Anglo-Saxon invasion 39
1.2.5 The Viking invasion 42
1.2.6 The Norman Conquest and its consequences 44
1.2.7 A History of four nations? The major waves of immigration 46
Summary 49
Key concepts 49
Glossary 50
Answers to SAQs 53
SAA No.1 55
Selected bibliography 56
1 11
Contents
Unit 2 BRITAIN – A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY? 57
Unit objectives 58
CHAPTER I 59
2.1 Britishness / Englishness / Europeanness – hybrid,
plural identities vs. national identities
2.1.1 The resilience* of a term: Britain / British 59
2.1.2 The history of an idea: devolution 63
2.1.3 The legacy of the English revolution 63
2.1.4 The Glorious Revolution 66
2.1.5 Dissent and the industrial revolution 69
2.1.6 Home Rule 73
2.1.7 Devolution 76
Key concepts 79
Glossary 79
Answers to SAQs 84
2.2 CHAPTER II 87
Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain
2.2.1 From immigration to multiculturalism 87
2.2.2 A short historical survey of immigration in Britain 88
2.2.3 Racism 94
2.2.4 Racial relations in contemporary Britain and the fight against 96
racial discrimination
2.2.5 Factfile: The Lawrence case 99
2.2.6 Ethnic / racial / national / cultural identities in a globalised 101
world
Summary 103
Key concepts 104
Glossary 104
Answers to SAQs 105
SAA No. 2 107
Unit 3 BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM 108

Unit objectives 109
CHAPTER I 110
3.1 British monarchy – how valid an institution in the third
millennium?
3.1.1 Monarchy – “an oasis of aristocracy in a modern world” 110
3.1.2 Is the monarch a figurehead? 111
3.1.3 Functions of monarchy. Royal prerogatives 115
Key concepts 121
Glossary 122
Answers to SAQs 124
3.2 CHAPTER II 127
For or against the monarchy?
3.2.1 The tragic death of a princess and calls for the reform of the 131
monarchy
Summary 132
Key concepts 132
2 22
Contents
Glossary 132
Answers to SAQs 133
SAA No. 3 134
Unit 4 BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN ACTION 135

Unit objectives 136
4.1 CHAPTER I 137
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 137
4.1.2 Life of Parliament 140
4.1.3 The House of Lords in history 143
4.1.4 Functions of the House of Lords 145
4.1.5 Calls for the reform of the House of Lords 147
4.1.6 New Labour and the Reform of the Lords: 800 years of 148
history ends in 7 minutes
Key concepts 153
Glossary 153
Answers to SAQs 156
4.2 CHAPTER II 157

British democracy in action: the House of Commons,
the thrust towards decentralization
4.2.1 Elections 157
4.2.2 Political parties 160
4.2.3 The House of Commons 163
4.2.4 Functions of the House of Commons 166
4.2.5 The decline of commons power and the movement for 171
reform
Summary 173
Key concepts 174
Glossary 174
Answers to SAQs 177
SAA No. 4 179
GALLERY OF FAMOUS BRITS 181
General Bibliography 184
3 3
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 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 socio-
cultural 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.
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Who are the British? Who are the British?
Unit 1
WHO ARE THE BRITISH? BRITISH IDENTITY – A PROCESSUAL
APPROACH
Unit Outline
Unit objectives 7
1.1 CHAPTER I 8
Ten questions and answers about the British Isles
1.1.1 Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and Great 8
Britain?
1.1.2 What is the population of Britain? 9
1.1.3 Which are Britain’s largest ethnic minority groups? 9
1.1.4 Which religions are represented in Britain? 10
1.1.5 What does the Union Jack stand for? 11
1.1.6 Does Britain have a National Day? 12
1.1.7 What are Britain’s floral symbols? 12
1.1.8 How do the British celebrate traditional and religious holidays? 13
1.1.9 How many people speak English worldwide? 17
1.1.10 Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own 17
languages?
1.1.11 British Identity between oneness and hybridity 17
1.1.12 “The way we never were”. Cultural icons and their value 20
Key concepts 23
Glossary 24
Answers to SAQs 30
1.2 CHAPTER II 31
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? 31
1.2.2 The Celtic past and its posterity 33
1.2.3 The Roman Conquest - a ‘blessing in disguise’? 35
1.2.4 The Anglo-Saxon invasion 39
1.2.5 The Viking invasion 42
1.2.6 The Norman Conquest and its consequences 44
1.2.7 A History of four nations? The major waves of immigration 46
Summary 49
Key concepts 49
Glossary 50
Answers to SAQs 53
SAA No.1 55
6 6
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
clichés 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 After you have completed the study of this unit, you should be
objectives 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.
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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.
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Figure 1.1 A Map of the United Kingdom
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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 Britain’s 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.
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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 on-
line 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
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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?

Scotland’s national day is St. Andrew’s Day (30 November),
although Burns’ Night (see section 1.1.8) has tended to overshadow
it lately. St. David’s 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. England’s national day is St. George’s Day
(23 April). The military saint’s 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 Patrick’s 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 Britain’s 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 (1455-
1485). 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 Year’s 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
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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 Year’s 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,
We’ll 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
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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
King’s 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 Figure 1.4 Guy Fawkes
victim (King James I)
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 nation’s 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
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country and when again wreaths of poppies are left at the Cenotaph
and other war memorials in the country.
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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 semi-
official language in over 60 countries. Over two thirds of the world’s
scientists write in English and over 80% of the world’s 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
language, can communicate with people from Wales to Kent. The linguistic
political culture unity is very much in favour of the idea of oneness and sameness:
and religion 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.
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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 self-
governing 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
King’s 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 Britain’s 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 clichés 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 50’s), 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 Fortnum’s*, 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 Family’s 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
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and crumpets traditionally served with tea are both Dutch words.
Toast and marmalade are French and Portuguese respectively.
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Britain is a multilingual country par excellence. Today

Londoners alone speak nearly 200 languages other than English,
with a quarter of London’s 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
• cliché
• 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 one’s mouth and not one’s 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 monarch’s 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 country’s 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.
cliché = 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
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political figure. He was a minister in Gladstone’s first government but

resigned over the issue of Irish Home Rule. This action helped to
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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
world’s 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.
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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.
Fortnum’s (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.
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hindrance = act of stopping, obstructing or delaying the

development of a person, activity, etc.
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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, Britain’s 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
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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
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tunes which the standing crowds sing along with. The programme
ends with Sir Edward Elgar’s 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 old-
fashioned, 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
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transmute = change from one form, nature, substance into another.
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Trooping the Colour = a ceremony held on the British Queen’s

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
Crăciun 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 kërcum 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,
We’ll 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
31 31
cultural osmosis*.
32 32
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
33 33
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.
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Thus the Roman Conquest, the barbarian invasions, the Viking

raids, the Norman Conquest, the Reformation*, Counter-
Reformation* 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 Indo-
European* 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.
35 35
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 în spiritualitatea şi cultura românească
(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;
36 36
a cult of sacred stones;
37 37
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.
38 38
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 don’t forget to
include it in your portfolio for further discussions during your
tutorials.
39 39
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.
40 40
Figure 1.12 The Great Bath
41 41
Figure 1.13 The Gorgon’s 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
42 42
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 Anglo-
Saxon 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 skin-
Impact of deep. It was a society riddled with feuds, and the succession to
Christianisation kingdoms was fluid and uncertain. The criterion of eligibility for kings
was gift-giving or potlatch*. The splendour of the great royal ship-
burial 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:
43 43
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 world’s 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 Anglo-
Saxons?
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: Offa’s 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,
44 44
Frisians etc); they cannot be judged as a monolithic entity, there

were great differences between their kingdoms. The sharpest
45 45
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 Bede’s 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).
46 46
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.
47 47
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 Anglo-
Saxons 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.
48 48
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 navy convent lady
peace wardrobe earl pardon
sovereign cupboard thane lord
house sheriff goal prison
regal castle scullery chain
kingly yard tea collar
pig cow tomato feast
farmer deer window breakfast
army hunting gate supper
abbey horse portal bacon
lesson stone mercy mutton
ham beef veal royal
chamber book court duke
prayer parliament curtain borough
pity reign battle cushion
prince city war woman
servant town mother man
brother hamlet prince child
wife clerk sir pork
priest parson church
After you have identified each, group them under the following
headings:
• administration and law:
• manners and courtly life:
49 49
• home, household:
50 50
• 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*.
51 51
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.
Although Britain was most encouraging towards immigration, from

Dutch and which it benefited immensely. It granted no rights to immigrants, who
Flemish could be summarily expelled from the country. This happened with the
immigrants 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 Hadrian’s Wall in the 3rd century). John Hawkins, one of
those picturesque courtiers cum pirates in Elizabeth’s 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.
Gypsy and Even before the formal abolition of slavery in 1833, there was tolerance,
Black which enabled freed and escaped slaves, servants and other black
immigrants 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 XIV’s persecutions in
the 1680s, were the only significant wave of immigration in the 17th
century. Dutch Protestants likewise found a safe haven from religious
French and persecution at home. For the next two centuries there was no more
large-scale immigration into the country. In fact Britain was exporting
Dutch
more and more people herself, mainly to North America and expanding
Protestant colonies worldwide. The growing attraction of North America towards the
immigrants 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
52 52
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 40’s 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
53 53
transport, manufacturing and the National Health Service. The first

group of 492 Jamaicans arrived at Tilbury Docks in 1948.
54 54
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 ship’s 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?
55 55
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
56 56
• slave trade
• xenophobia (-ic)
57 57
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 King’s
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 9th-

11th 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.
58 58
Flemish = native of Flanders, a region of the Low Countries in what

is now part of Belgium and Holland.
59 59
fosterage = tradition of severing children’s 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 Lübeck 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 one’s 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.
60 60
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 gift-

giving 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 ‘bull’s 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.
61 61
totem = animal, plant or object adopted as emblem of clan or

individual on grounds of kinship.
62 62
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, moş, brad,
copac, buză, grumaz, gard, strugure, mazăre, balaur, viezure, a
răbda, a speria, tare, mare, bucuros. The suffixes –esc and –eşte
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 (Dunăre), Argessos (Argeş), Samus (Someş), Maris
(Mureş), 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
63 63
the Celtic
influence:
scrolls,
spirals,
horsemen,
solar
symbols
(such as the
wheel), etc;
64 64
• 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
King’s 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 one’s 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;
65 65
• religion: abbey, convent, prayer, priest, lesson, parson, mercy,

pity, pardon;
66 66
• 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

The major causes of immigration are: political and religious

persecution, poverty, illiberal, totalitarian regimes, the need to join
members of one’s family.
SAQ 8
The Prince of Wales’s 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.
67 67
Selected Bibliography
1. Cartianu,V. 1972. Urme celtice în spiritualitatea şi cultura
românească. Bucureşti: Editura Univers, pp.45-46; 155-174
2. Dascăl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timişoara: Eurostampa, pp.22-35;
62-64
3. Irimia Anghelescu, M. Dicţionarul universului britanic, Bucureşti:
Humanitas
4. McDowall, D. 1991. An Illustrated History of Britain. Harlow:
Longman,
5. Nicolescu, A. 1999. Istoria Civilizaţiei Britanice. Volumul I. Iaşi:
Institutul European, pp.19-32
6. Room, A. 1996. An A to Z of British Life. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
68 68
Britain – a multicultural society Britain – a multicultural society
Unit 2
BRITAIN – A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY?
Unit Outline
Unit objectives 58
CHAPTER I 59
2.1 Britishness / Englishness / Europeanness – hybrid, plural
identities vs. national identities
2.1.1 The resilience* of a term: Britain / British 59
2.1.2 The history of an idea: devolution 63
2.1.3 The legacy of the English revolution 63
2.1.4 The Glorious Revolution 66
2.1.5 Dissent and the industrial revolution 69
2.1.6 Home Rule 73
2.1.7 Devolution 76
Key concepts 79
Glossary 79
Answers to SAQs 84
2.2 CHAPTER II 87
Inter-racial relations in contemporary Britain
2.2.1 From immigration to multiculturalism 87
2.2.2 A short historical survey of immigration in Britain 88
2.2.3 Racism 94
2.2.4 Racial relations in contemporary Britain and the fight against 96
racial discrimination
2.2.5 Factfile: The Lawrence case 99
2.2.6 Ethnic / racial / national / cultural identities in a globalised world 101
Summary 103
Key concepts 104
Glossary 104
Answers to SAQs 105
SAA No. 2 107
69 69
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 union’s 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:
• challenge an anglocentric* view of Britishness;
Unit • identify the stages in the development of the idea of
objectives 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.
70 70
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
71 71
view that Britishness is undergoing a slow but definite process of

dissolution.
72 72
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 English…Yet 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.
73 73
SAQ 1
In the image below you can see the cover of a very important book
debating the future of Britishness: Andrew Marr’s 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. Marr’s 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
74 74
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’.
75 75
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 you’ll 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.
76 76
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 Britain’s 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 squire’s 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.
77 77
Imperial dominance manifested itself vigorously: Scotland was

conquered by Cromwell’s armies and parliamentary union was
achieved in 1707 through the Act of Union. An important factor
78 78
leading to the Union was John Knox’s* 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 people’s knowledge of the classical languages (Greek,
Latin).
Write your answer in no more than 100 words and compare it to that
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 VIII’s 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
Figure 2.2 those who demanded more than conformity in ritual and external
John Wycliffe
79 79
assent. Whilst this polarisation was held at bay during Elizabeth’s**

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 government’s 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. King’s 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 king’s prerogatives).
80 80
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 1688-
1689. 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.
81 81
The Bill of Rights* overrode the hereditary rights of the

monarchy, which had formed the basis of the restored constitution of
82 82
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 III’s* 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,
A clash of embraced Methodism*. For Scotland the dominant culture was
cultures in Lowland Presbyterianism reinforced by the Act of Union, reflected in
Wales 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
83 83
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84 84
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
A cultural in the Lowlands, Episcopalianism on the East Coast and
mapping of Catholicism. The real struggle was between the Episcopalians, on
Scotland 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.
85 85
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 1830’s.
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;
86 86
• 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 well-
known 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*.
87 87
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
88 88
views found a home in the Liberal Party - very much the party of the
North against the South.
89 89
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 Stephenson
Wedgwood Brunel
Brindley 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
90 90
memory of this social tragedy was taken with them by many Irish
emigrants.
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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
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
Britain’s 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.
92 92
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 60’s many Catholics (who made up more than
a third of Ireland’s population) first organised peaceful
demonstrations for civil rights;
93 93
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;
94 94
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 IRA’s 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

Home Rule in Welsh Home Rule made its appearance in the 1880s. There are
Wales 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
were the Highlands which during the century saw their population
Home Rule in
drop substantially, with the balance shifting in favour of the
Scotland 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-class’s 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
95 95
paradoxically,
a romanticised
version of
Highland
culture was
making
headway in the
Lowlands too.
Due to the
Ossian
forgeries of
96 96
James Macpherson* and of the novels of Walter Scott*, the cult of

the Highlander achieved extraordinary success.
A product of the Ossian poems and Scott’s 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 Scotland’s 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*.
97 97
For 50 years the politics of Northern Ireland has remained

frozen in an ethno-religious mould with two-thirds of its Protestant
98 98
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 working-
class 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.
99 99
Although long-standing historical patterns continue to manifest

themselves culturally, politically and economically, the affairs of
Scotland and Wales remain intertwined with England’s. Although
many of the leading figures in English literature -- Yeats, Joyce,
Synge, O’Casey 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, Anti-
Catholic 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.
10 100
0
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 England’s 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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1
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
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2
and capital and the development of joint and reciprocal policies on

labour, social welfare, agriculture, transport, and foreign trade.
10 103
3
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 (1533-

1603) - ‘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 1860’s 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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4
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 Blair’s 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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5
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. Marr’s 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 60’s. 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 70’s when Britishness started to
feel oppressive. In the 70’s Scottish and Welsh nationalism were on
the rise and the troubles in Northern Ireland took a dramatic turn. In
the 90’s 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
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have become independent in the early 15th century. On the contrary,

Henry IV was a devout Catholic.
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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 king’s
prerogatives). In 1642 Charles gathered his army. King’s 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
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His name is Isamabard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859).
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SAQ 9

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 film’s 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
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 cross-
cultural 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 Re-
inventing 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 today’s 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?
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 Britain’s 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 Norman Conquest a. 17th century
2 Beginnings of slave trade b. 3rd century
3 Gypsies c. 8th century
4 Celts d. 5th century
5 Huguenots and other e. 1066
persecuted protestants
6 Black community of London of f. 1656
about 15.000
7 Romans g. 1st millennium BC
8 Jewish community expelled h. 43 AD
9 First Jewish community i. 16th century
10 Caribbeans j. after 1066
11 First black people (the African k. 19th and 20th century
Division of the Roman army)
12 Anglo-Saxons l. 1290
13 Irish workers fled starvation m. 1960’s and 1980's
14 Resettlement of Jews n. mid 18th century
15 Asians expelled from East o. 19th century
Africa
16 Jews fled pogroms in Russia p. the 1970s and 1980s
and Poland and later the rise of
Nazism in Germany.
17 Seafarers from India and China q. 22 June 1948
settling in such ports as
London, Liverpool and Cardiff.
18 Immigrants from India, r. throughout the
Pakistan and Bangladesh 1950s and early
60s
19 Hong Kong Chinese and s. 16th century
refugees from Vietnam
20 Vikings t. the 1970's
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21 The first group of 492 u. Mid 19th century

Jamaicans arrived on the MV
Empire Windrush
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This history of immigration to Britain has produced today’s

uniquely diverse nation. Ethnic diversity has shaped Britain’s 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 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
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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
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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 Kureishi’s 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 children…As 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)
“Christianity’s 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
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have felt swamped by immigrants. They’ve seen the whole character

of their neighbourhood change…
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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 Thatcher’s*
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
Immigrant
few limited exceptions. It also imposes a statutory duty on listed
rights 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
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Crime and
Disorder
Act of
1998. The
Football
(Offences)
Act of 1991
makes
racist
chanting at
football
matches an
offence.
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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 women’s 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
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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 Ageism a a false assumption of intrinsic
superiority and value in able bodies
and minds
2 Heterosexism b a false assumption of intrinsic
superiority and value in the white
race
3 Racism c a false assumption of intrinsic
superiority and value in men
4 Sexism d a false assumption of intrinsic
superiority and value in
heterosexuality
5 Institutional e a false assumption of intrinsic
racism superiority and value in youth
6 Transphobia f a variety of practices and systems
operating within an organization
subordinating groups or individuals
because of their culture
7 Ableism g prejudice against transsexuals
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
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institutions: “They are en route but there is still another two miles to
go… This is a marathon, not a sprint”.
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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
Lawrence’s 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 Britain’s 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
Macpherson’s 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 Britain’s 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

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 Lawrence’s parents to sue
42 officers involved in the failed investigation of their son’s 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 Macpherson’s 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 capital’s 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 Britain’s 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 Britain’s 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
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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 don’t 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
50’s, 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
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themes of the masquerade including English monarchs, the novels

of Dickens and scenes from Victorian England.
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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 1970’s 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
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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 one’s
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

Kingdom’s first woman prime minister (1979–1990): 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
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;
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13/u; 16/k; 21/q;

10/r; 18/m; 15/t
19/p
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SAQ 3

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 Britain’s 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 country’s 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 Powell’s speech) Margaret
Thatcher’s 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.
your grade while your linguistic accuracy accounts for the
remainder.
1. Bhabha, H. K. 1997. “Re-Inventing Britain. A Manifesto” in British

Studies Now. 9/ April 1997. pp.9 - 10
2. Brînzeu. P. 1997. Corridors of Mirrors. The Spirit of Europe in
Contemporary British and Romanian Fiction. Timişoara: Amarcord,
pp. 37-62
3. Dascăl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timişoara: Eurostampa, pp. 36-88
Humanitas
5. Kureishi, H. 1991. London Kills Me. London: Faber & Faber, pp.
27-37
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6. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 1999. Ethnic Diversity in

Britain. London
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Unit 3
BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
Unit Outline
Unit objectives 109
CHAPTER I 110
millennium?
3.1.1 Monarchy – “an oasis of aristocracy in a modern world” 110
3.1.2 Is the monarch a figurehead? 111
3.1.3 Functions of monarchy. Royal prerogatives 115
Key concepts 121
Glossary 122
Answers to SAQs 124
3.2 CHAPTER II 127

For or against the monarchy?
3.2.1 The tragic death of a princess and calls for the reform of the 131
monarchy
Summary 132
Key concepts 132
Glossary 132
Answers to SAQs 133
SAA No. 3 134
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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, well-
established values in the existence of the British nation.
able to:
• compare the monarchy to other forms of government;
Unit • re-interpret tradition as reflected in the institution of the
objectives 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;
terminology.
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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 Cornea’s article?
Write your answer in the space below and compare it to that
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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 Cornea’s 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: Cromwell’s 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 Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act I,
scene III):
“His will is not his own,
For he himself is subject to his birth
He may not, as unvalu’d 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 Queen’s head – a primordial national emblem. Also all
major institutions bear the queen’s imprint: the post is carried by the
Royal Mail, the ships in the Royal Navy are Her Majesty’s Ships, Her
Majesty’s Government is made up of Her Majesty’s Ministers, official
letters are sent On Her Majesty’s Service (OHMS).
On the other hand, all these institutions that append the prefix
‘Royal’ or ‘Her Majesty’s’ 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
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the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a ritual that gathered up a

number of aspects of the non-coercive kinds of power.
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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 don’t 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 king’s 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.
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Figure 3.1 HM Queen Elizabeth II’s

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 twenty-
five 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 five-
year 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 monarch’s 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
A) the Imperial State Crown;
B) the Sovereign's Sceptre;
C) the Ampulla;
D) 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 Thatcher’s rule after 1983, when William Whitelaw, a
loyal supporter of Thatcher’s, 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?
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 Majesty’s 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.
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In the conduct of foreign policy the Royal prerogative was used

in the past in less formal situations, in fact in such a very
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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 Diana’s 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 Edinburgh’s Award
Scheme (awards made to
young people between the
ages of 14 and 21 for
enterprise, initiative and
achievement)
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince’s Trust (recreation and
leisure facilities for deprived
young people)
Princess Anne president and patron of 700
organizations
Charles, Prince of Wales Save the Children Fund
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
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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 world’s 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 ain’t broke why fix it?”
SAQ 6
What is the Commonwealth? When was it set up and what was it
meant to replace?
The Queen’s 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
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Remembrance Day ceremony and national services at St Paul's

Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
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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 Victoria’s 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
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invasion of Poland, Chamberlain was forced to declare war on

Germany.
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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 former’s 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
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impact of French on the vocabulary of English, the consolidation of

the British Empire, the waves of immigration in the 20th century.
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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. the Imperial State Crown 2

B. the Sovereign's Sceptre 3
C. the Ampulla 1
D. the Orb 4
SAQ 4

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 King’s 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 King’s 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 president and patron of 700

organizations
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award
Scheme
Princess Anne Save the Children Fund
Charles, Prince of Wales Prince’s Trust
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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 Australia’s 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 world’s
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 o’clock in the whole country as a tribute to
the nation’s 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 Thatcher’s 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 sovereign’s 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 VI’s 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 Bogdanor’s 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 monarch’s
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 sovereign’s 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 ten-
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year 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
Queen’s 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
Queen’s 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 Minister’s 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 Charles’s 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 didn’t cause this. She was a force of
nature, but hardly El Niño. 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
Diana’s 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 that’s what we’re 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 Diana’s 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
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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 monarch’s 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 Diana’s 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.
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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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British British
monarchymonarchy
in the third
in themillenium
third millenium
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.
your total grade while your linguistic accuracy accounts for 30% of
it.
1. Bogdanor,V. 1997. The Monarchy and the Constitution. Oxford:

Clarendon Press, pp. 185-194
2. Dascăl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timişoara: Eurostampa, pp. 101-
128
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
Longman
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British democracy in action British democracy in action
Unit 4
BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Unit Outline
Unit objectives 136
4.1 CHAPTER I 137
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 137
4.1.2 Life of Parliament 140
4.1.3 The House of Lords in history 143
4.1.4 Functions of the House of Lords 145
4.1.5 Calls for the reform of the House of Lords 147
4.1.6 New Labour and the Reform of the Lords: 800 years of history 148
ends in 7 minutes
Key concepts 153

Glossary 153
Answers to SAQs 156
4.2 CHAPTER II 157

British democracy in action: the House of Commons, the
thrust towards decentralization
4.2.1 Elections 157
4.2.2 Political parties 160
4.2.3 The House of Commons 163
4.2.4 Functions of the House of Commons 166
4.2.5 The decline of commons power and the movement for reform 171
Summary 173
Key concepts 174
Glossary 174
Answers to SAQs 177
SAA No. 4 179
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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
able to:
objectives
• 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;
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 elder’s 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
Montfort’s ‘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 monarch’s
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
Speaker’s 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 Stephen’s 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
Figure 4.1 King inclusion in one chamber. But the increasing might and authority of
Edward I 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
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the most critical moments of its history, during Cromwell’s

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 king’s 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
‘Queen’s Speech’ is misleading as it is not really the Queen’s
Speech at all, but her government’s. It is prepared by the Prime
Minister and his or her colleagues and it is only read by the queen.
The Queen’s 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
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Gentleman Usher or the Black Rod, to summon MP’s (Members of

Parliament) to the Lords. As the Black Rod approaches the
Commons chamber across the Central Lobby of the Houses of
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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 King’s 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 Queen’s 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.

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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 end-
October. 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 King’s 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
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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 Wilson’s government,
Lord Carrington was Defence Secretary in the Heath Government
and Foreign Secretary in Thatcher’s 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
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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 two-
thirds 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 Blair’s ideas for a reformed Upper Chamber
are strangely similar to Cromwell’s 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
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
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Labour backbenchers were in favour of an upper chamber with more

than half of the members elected.
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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 government’s 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 legitimately-
elected 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
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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? Shouldn’t 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, wouldn’t most of these be the
cabinet’s and the Prime Minister’s yes-men Wouldn’t 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
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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 Thatcher’s 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
• Elder’s council
• Prorogation
• Oueen’s 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).
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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.
Elder’s 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
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peers who have held high judicial office or have themselves been
Lord Chancellor.
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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 king’s fiercest enemy and after capturing him (and the king’s 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.
Queen’s 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 government’s 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 government’s 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

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 two-
line 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.?
Don’t 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
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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?
• Don’t 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.
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• 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,
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. Britain’s 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
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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.
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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
Figure 4.7 Robert Peel
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 ‘Thatcher’s 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 Britain’s ties with
the European Union
• No rights without responsibilities
Margaret Thatcher:
Tony Blair:
Compare your answer to that provided in the “Answers” section,

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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 Speaker
Minister front Cabinet
bench Foreign Home Secretary
Secretary Chancellor of the Exchequer
ministers backbenchers
casting ballot Leader of the Opposition
Deputies budget
tied Shadow Cabinet
front benchers Whips
Crown
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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 party’s 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
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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 House’s 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 Blair’s 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 Minister’s 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 Wales’s 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
country’s 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
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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
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bill very quickly (e.g. bills that deal with civil disorder, terrorism, etc);
sometimes the process has to be completed within 24 hours.
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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. Close scrutiny, detailed analysis
the bill to go and examination of the bill
through in the
Lords
2. First Reading b. House considers the amendments
made in the committee, deciding
whether to accept or reject them.
New amendments and clauses
may be introduced.
3. Committee Stage c. Debate is restricted; the only
amendments allowed are verbal or
drafting amendments. Whipped
vote taken.
4. Third Reading d. Becomes Act of Parliament. Queen
signs it.
5. Twelfth Stage e. Green paper, White Paper, bill
ordered to be printed and
circulated, no debate
6. Report Stage f. Minister in charge of the bill
explains its policy and major
features; debate.
7. Royal Assent g. The Bill scrutinised, amendments
made; then discussed in the
Commons and accepted, rejected
or themselves changed.
8. Second Reading h. 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

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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 Minister’s 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
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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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1
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 government’s 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,
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2
much of which currently passes relatively unscrutinised; and the

reducing of the ceremonial procedures often criticised as time-
consuming 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
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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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4
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 word-
for-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 1830’s 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 electorate’s 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
one’s real choice and one’s 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 Britain’s ties with the European Union, No
rights without responsibilities.
SAQ 4
(1) Speaker;
(2) Deputies;
(3) tied;
(4) casting ballot;
(5) Opposition;
(6) Prime Minister;
(7) front bench;
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(8) ministers;
23 239
9
(9) Cabinet;
(10) Foreign Secretary;
(11) Home Secretary;
(12) budget;
(13) Chancellor of the Exchequer;
(14) Leader of the Opposition;
(15) Shadow Cabinet;
(16) front benchers;
(17) Whips;
(18) Crown;
(19) backbenchers
SAQ 5
Your attendance is requested - one line whip

Your attendance is necessary - two-line whip
Your attendance is essential - three-line whip
SAQ 6
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 right-
hand 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 Labour’s 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.

your total grade and your linguistic accuracy for 30% of it.
24 241
1
1. Bromhead, P.A. 1958. The House of Lords and Contemporary

Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 10-25
2. Dascăl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timişoara: Eurostampa, pp.130-
155
3. Garner, R. and R., Kelly. 1998. British Political Parties Today.
Manchester: MUP, ch.I
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.
24 242
2
GALLERY OF FAMOUS BRITS
Edward I Edward III Elizabeth I

(1272 - 1307) (1327 - 1377) (1558 - 1603)
James I Charles I (1603

- 11625) (1625 - 1649)
George III Queen Victoria Elizabeth II

(1760 - 1820) (1837 - 1901) (Coronation 1953)
181 181
John Wycliffe Oliver Cromwell John Wesley
(1329 - 1384) (1599 - 1658) (1703 - 1791)
Robert Walpole (1676 - 1745) Robert Peel Benjamin Disraeli

(generally regarded as Britain’s (1788 - 1850) (1804 - 1881)
first Prime Minister)
William E. Gladstone Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill

(1809 - 1898) (1869 - 1940) (1874 - 1965)
182 182
Harold Macmillan Edward Heath Harold Wilson
(1894 - 1986) (1916 - 2005) (1916 - 1995)
Betty Boothroyd (up to 2001 Speaker of the House of Commons)
Margaret Thatcher (born in 1925, Prime Minister 1979-1990)
183 183
Tony Blair (born 1953, Prime Minister since 1997)
184 184
General Bibliography
1. Bhabha, H. K. 1997. Location of Culture. London and New York:

Routledge
2. Brînzeu. P. 1997. Corridors of Mirrors. The Spirit of Europe in
Contemporary British and Romanian Fiction. Timişoara: Amarcord
3. Brown, I. 1966. A Book of England. London: Collins
4. Colley, L. 1992. Britons. London:Verso
5. Dascăl, R. 2000. British Topics. Timişoara: Eurostampa
Humanitas
edition. Manchester: MUP
8. Kearney, H. 1989. The British Isles. A History of Four Nations.
Cambridge: CUP
Longman
10. Nicolescu, A. 1999. Istoria Civilizaţiei Britanice. Volumul I. Iaşi:
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.
185 185
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Specializarea LIMBA ŞI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ

British Studies Course

Nici o parte a acestei lucrări nu poate fi reprodusă fără acordul scris al

Introduction to the British studies course 4

Unit 3 BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM 108

Unit 4 BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN ACTION 135

4.2 CHAPTER II 157

GALLERY OF FAMOUS BRITS 181

General Bibliography 184

Introduction to the British studies course

This introductory unit assumes the form of a questionnaire in its

1.1 Ten questions and answers about the British Isles

1.1.1 Is there any difference between the United Kingdom and

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

1.1.2 What is the population of Britain?

1.1.3 Which are Britain’s largest ethnic minority groups?

The largest ethnic minority is that of the Afro-Caribbeans (over

1.1.4 What religions are represented in Britain?

Several religions are represented in Britain. One British citizen

Figure 1.2 The Union Jack

1.1.5 What does the Union Jack stand for?

1.1.6 Does Britain have a National Day?

1.1.7 What are Britain’s floral symbols?

1.1.8 How do the British celebrate traditional and religious

Holidays in England are either common law holidays such as

Halloween which falls on 31 October is thought to be derived

In some villages and market towns Christmas waits (carol

First footing is another old tradition. At midnight on 31

In Scotland the New Year remains the greatest of all annual

Burns’ Night commemorates the birthday of the great Scottish

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

Some villages have won some fame as pancake race

Several weeks before Remembrance Day, which falls on the

1.1.9 How many people speak English worldwide?

1.1.10 Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own

1.1.11 British identity between unity and diversity

This basis for oneness is however not absolute, and the

A common religious culture does exist despite the intricacies

The British identity is predominantly conceived as imperial. The

As someone once said, Britain is a house with many

Some of the cultural icons that surfaced were: vicars on

When the British have a traditional Christmas Dinner, they eat

Shakespeare, an institution in himself, a supreme celebrator of

Britain is a multilingual country par excellence. Today

Angevins and Plantagenets = royal family of England from 1154 to

Beefeater = soldier who wears a special old-fashioned uniform

bobbing (apple-) = trying to pick up apples floating on water using

Caernarfon = a small holiday town on the coast of NW Wales which

Canterbury = a small city in SE England, famous for its cathedral,

Cerdic = (in Anglo-Saxon tradition) the first Germanic king of

census = an official counting of a country’s total population,

cliché = an idea or expression used so often that it has lost much of

Chamberlain, Joseph = member of the Liberal Party, a leader of

political figure. He was a minister in Gladstone’s first government but

bring down the Liberal government. Chamberlain became leader of

Churchill, Sir Winston (1874-1965) = English politician who was

coat of arms = set of patterns or pictures usually pained on a shield

The Commonwealth = a loose association of states with no formal