The one thing the English will never forgive the Germans for is

Working too hard.

GEORGE MIKES

This statement was written by a Hungarian humourist who emigrated to Britain in 1938. He wrote it in the 196os, when the German economy was rapidly overtaking Britain's. Living standards in Britain have risen steadily since then, but not as fast, perhaps, as they have in other EU countries. Britain used to be one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. These days it is often, by most standards of measurement, poorer than the EU average. (In fact, in 1992 it was even poor enough to qualify for special EU funding for poorer member states, though national pride prevented it from applying.)

Earning money

The statement above is, of course, not literally true. However, it does reflect a certain lack of enthusiasm for work in general. At the upper end of the social scale this attitude to work exists because leisure has always been the main outward sign of aristocracy. And because of Britain's class system, it has had its effects throughout society. If you have to work, then the less it looks like work the better. Traditionally therefore, a major sign of being middle class (as opposed to working class) has been that you do non-manual work. The fact that skilled manual (or 'blue-collar') workers have been paid more highly than the lower grades of'white-collar' (i.e. non-manual) worker for several decades has only slightly changed this social perception. This 'anti-work' outlook among the working class has led to a relative lack of ambition or enthusiasm and a belief that high earnings are more important than job satisfaction.

These attitudes are slowly changing. For example, at least half of the workforce now does non-manual work, and yet a majority describe themselves as working class (see chapter 4). It would there­fore seem that the connection between being middle class and doing non-manual work is growing weaker. Nevertheless, the connection between class distinctions and types of work lives on in a number of ways. One illustration of this is the different way in which earnings

14 2 15 The economy and everyday life

> Top people In Britain, particular occupations are no longer as closely associated with particular classes as they used to be. The feminist movement, the expan­sion of higher education and an egalitarian atmosphere have reduced the influence of old-estab­lished, male-dominated institutions such as public schools and Oxbridge (see chapter 14). A popular claim is that in modern Britain people achieve their positions by exercising their abilities rather than as a result of their backgrounds. In the early 1990s it was true that even the Prime Minister (John Major) had been educated at a state school and had left full-time education at the age of sixteen. However, there is a limit to these changes. In 1992 The Economist maga­zine drew up a list of the holders of 100 of the most important positions in the country (in politics, the civil service, the armed forces, academia, the arts, business and finance). The backgrounds of these 'top' people were then compared with those of people in similar positions in 1972. Here are the results:

> How they are paid

In both years two-thirds of the top people had been to public school (to which less than ^% of the population goes) and an astonishing proportion to just one of these. It was more important in 1992 to be highly edu­cated than it was in 1972. But still half of all the top jobs were held by people from just two of the country's universities. And women are almost completely excluded (in both years' lists, one of those women was the Queen!).

are conventionally expressed and paid (> How they are paid). Another is the fact that certain organizations of professional workers, such as the National Union of Teachers (NUT), have never belonged to the Trades Union Congress (see below). The connection can also be seen if we look at those people who hold the most important jobs in the country (> Top people). Perhaps the traditional lack of enthusiasm for work is the reason why the working day, in comparison with most European countries, starts rather late (usually at eight o'clock for manual workers and around nine for non-manual workers). However, measured by the number of hours worked in a week, the British reputation for not working hard enough appears to be false (l> The industrious British). The normal lunch break is an hour or less, and most people (unless they work part-time) continue working until five or later. Many people often work several hours overtime a week. In addition, a comparat­ively large proportion of British people stay in the workforce for a comparatively large part of their lives. The normal retiring age for most people is sixty-five (sixty for some, including a greater propor­tion of women). There are three main ways in which people look for work in Britain: through newspapers (national ones for the highest-quali­fied, otherwise local ones), through the local job centre (which is run as a government service) and through privately-run employ­ment agencies (which take a commission from employers). The overall trend in employment over the last quarter of the twentieth century has been basically the same as elsewhere in western Europe. The level of unemployment has gradually risen and most new job opportunities are in the service sector (in communications, health care and social care, for example). This situation has led to an interesting irony with regard to the two sexes. The decline of heavy industry means fewer jobs in stereotyp­ical 'men's work', while the rise in service occupations means an increase in vacancies for stereotypical 'women's work'. In 1970 around 65% of all those in work in Britain were men. In 1993 men made up only 51% of the workforce. When the law against sex discrimination in employment was passed in 1975, it was intended

 

Average length of working week (1989)

• full-time employees ^B full-time self-employed hours

 

Work organizations 143

Percent of population in the labour force (1989)

Those either in work or looking for work

mainly to protect women. However, in 1994 nearly half of the complaints received by the Equal Opportunities Commission (which helps to enforce the law) came from men. In that year there were two-and-a-half times as many unemployed men as there were unem­ployed women. Many men now seek employment as nurses, child carers, shop assistants, secretaries and other kinds of office worker. But they often find that, for no justifiable reason, they are not hired. It seems that these jobs are still considered to be more suitable for women. One of the reasons for this may be the low rates of pay in these areas of work. Although it is illegal for women to be paid less than men for the same job, in 1993 the average full-time male employee earned about 50% more than the average full-time female worker. Work organizations The organization which represents employers in private industry is called the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Most employers belong to it and so the advice which it gives to trade unions and the government is quite influential. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a voluntary association of the country's trade unions. There are more than a hundred of these, representing employees in all types of business. Most British unions are connected with particular occupations. Many belong to the Labour party (see chapter 6) to which their members pay a 'political levy'. That is, a small part of their union membership subscription is passed on to the party, although they have the right to 'contract out' of this arrangement if they want to. However, the unions themselves are not usually formed along party lines; that is, there is usually only one union for each group of

> The industrious British The British may not like work very much. But they seem to spend a lot of time doing it. Look at the Euro­pean comparisons above. The figures show that in Britain, full-time employees work the longest,hours in Europe, self-employed people work longer than in most other European countries and more people between the ages of twenty-five and sixty, especially women, stay in 'the job market' than they do in most other European countries. Moreover, holiday periods in Britain are comparatively short and the country has a comparatively small number of public holidays (see chapter 23).

144 15 The economy and everyday life

> Labour relations: a glossary When there is a dispute between employees and management, the matter sometimes goes toarbitra­tion; that is, both sides agree to let an independent investigator settle the dispute for them. Refusing to work in the normal way is generally referred to as industrial action (even when the work has nothing to do with industry). This can take various forms. One of these is awork-to-rule, in which employees follow the regulations concerning their jobs exactly and refuse to be flexible or co-operative in the normal way. Another is ago slow. Finally, the employees might go on strike. Strikes can be official, if all the procedures required to make them legal have taken place, or unofficial (when they are some­times referred to as wildcat strikes). When there is a strike, some strikers act as pickets. They stand at the entrance to the worksite and try to dissuade any fellow-workers who might not want to strike (whom they call blacklegs) from going into work.

employees rather than a separate one for each political party within that group. Unions have local branches, some of which are called 'chapels', reflecting a historical link with nonconformism (see chapter 13). At the work site, a union is represented by a shop steward, who negoti­ates with the on-site management. His (very rarely is it 'her') struggles with the foreman, the management-appointed overseer, became part of twentieth century folklore. Union membership has been declining since 1979 (> The decline of the unions). Immediately before then, the leader of the TUC (its General Secretary) was one of the most powerful people in the country and was regularly consulted by the Prime Minister and other important government figures. At that time the members of unions belonging to the TUC made up more than half of all employed people in the country. But a large section of the public became disillusioned with the power of the unions and the government then passed laws to restrict this power. Perhaps the decline in union membership is inev­itable in view of the history of British unions as organizations for full-time male industrial workers. To the increasing numbers of. female and part-time workers in the workforce, the traditional struc­ture of British unionism has seemed less relevant. In an effort to halt the decline, the TUC declared in 19 94 that it was loosening its contacts with the Labour party and was going to forge closer contacts with other parties. One other work organization needs special mention. This is the National Union of Farmers (NUF). It does not belong to the TUC, being made up mostly of agricultural employers and independent farmers. Considering the small number of people involved in agri­culture in Britain (the smallest proportion in the whole of the EU), it has a remarkably large influence. This is perhaps because of the special fascination that 'the land' holds for most British people (see chapter ^), making it relatively easy for the NUF to make its demands heard, and also because many of its members are wealthy.

 

The structure of trade and industry 145

The structure of trade and industry The 'modernization* of business and industry happened later in Britain than it did in most other European countries. It was not until the 19605 that large corporations started to dominate and that a 'management class', trained at business school, began to emerge. Even after that time, many companies still preferred to recruit their managers from people who had 'worked their way up' through the company ranks and/or who were personally known to the directors. Only in the 1980s did graduate business qualifications become the norm for newly-hired managers. British industry performed poorly during the decades following the Second World War (some people blamed this on the above characteristics). In contrast, British agriculture was very successful. In this industry, large scale organization (i.e. big farms) had been more common in Britain than in other European countries for quite a long time. As in all European countries, the economic system in Britain is a mixture of private and public enterprise. Exactly how much of the country's economy is controlled by the state has fluctuated a great deal in the last fifty years and has been the subject of continual political debate. From 1945 until 1980 the general trend was for the state to have more and more control. Various industries became nationalized (in other words, owned by the government), especially those concerned with the production and distribution of energy. So too did the various forms of transport and communication services (as well, of course, as the provision of education, social welfare and health care). By 1980, 'pure' capitalism probably formed a smaller part of the economy than in any other country in western Europe. From 1980 the trend started going in the other direction. A major part of the philosophy of the Conservative government of the 198os was to let 'market forces' rule (which meant restricting the freedom of business as little as possible) and to turn state-owned companies into companies owned by individuals (who became shareholders). This approach was a major part of the thinking of Thatcherism (Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister at that time). Between 1980 and 1994 a large number of companies were privatized (or 'de­nationalized'). That is, they were sold off by the government. By 1988 there were more shareholders in the country than there were members of unions. In addition, local government authorities were encouraged to 'contract out' their responsibility for services to commercial organizations. The privatization of services which western people now regard as essential has necessitated the creation of various public 'watchdog' organizations with regulatory powers over the industries which they monitor. For example, Offtel monitors the activities of the privatized telephone industry, and Off Wat monitors the privatized water companies.

> The decline of the unions In the 19805 the British government passed several laws to restrict the power of the unions. One of these abolished the 'closed shop' (an arrangement which employers made with unions to hire only people who belonged to a union). Another made strikes illegal unless a postal vote of all union members had been conducted. In 1984 there was a long miners' strike. The National Union of Miners refused to follow the new regulations. Its leader, Arthur Scargill, became a symbol (depending on your point of view) of either all the worst lunacies of unionism or the brave fight of the working classes against the rise of Thatcherism. Previous miners' strikes in the twentieth century had been mostly successful. But this one was not (the miners did not achieve their aims); a sign of the decline in union power. Here is another sign (the TUC is the Trades Union Con­gress, the national association of trade unions): Total membership of the TUC millions

 

146 > The widening gap between rich and poor

£0.50 -\

Source: Social Trends 1994 The graph shows that for every pound that the poorest 20% of the population in Britain had in 1978, most people had two pounds and the richest 20% of the population had three pounds. In 1994 the gap in wealth had grown. The richest people were about 50% richer, and most people were about 25'% richer. The poorest people had, however, become slightly poorer. > Collecting taxes The government organization which is responsible for collecting taxes in Britain is called the Inland Revenue. For employees, paying their income tax is not something they have to worry about. It is deducted from their pay cheque or pay packet before they receive it. This system is known as PAYE (= pay as you earn), The tax added to the price of something you buy is called VAT (= value added tax).

The distribution of wealth In the early 1970s Britain had one of the most equitable distributio: of wealth in western Europe. By the early 1990s it had one of the least equitable. The rich had got richer but the poor had not. Some surveys suggested that, by this time, the gap between the richest 10% of the population and the poorest 10% was as great as it had been in the late nineteenth century and that large numbers of house holds were living below the 'poverty line', which meant that they did not have enough money for basic things such as food and heating. Class and wealth do not run parallel in Britain (see chapter 4), so it is not a country where people are especially keen to flaunt their wealth. Similarly, people are generally not ashamed to be poor. Of course, they don't like being poor, but they do not feel obliged to hide the fact. This can sometimes lead to an acceptance of poverty which is surprising for an 'advanced' country. When, in 1992, new of its increasing extent came to wider public attention, the govern­ment neither pretended that greater poverty did not exist, nor promised to do anything radical about it. Instead, it issued, through the Ministry of Agriculture, a suggested diet which it claimed even the poorest could afford. There were, of course, public comments about the patronizing nature of this action, but criticism in the press concentrated on how unrealistic the diet was, on how the figures didn't add up (and on the mystery of how a person should prepare and eat the recommended half an egg a week!). One reason for the increasing disparity of wealth in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s is that rates of income tax changed. For a short period in the 1960s the basic rate was 40%. By the early eighties it was 30% and it then went down to 25%. During the same period, the top rate of income tax fell from a high of 98% to 40%. Of course, these figures do not mean that this is how much is deducted from a person s earnings. People in different situations are allowed to earn varying amounts before tax is deducted. People earning twice the average wage have about 25% of their gross income deducted. Some­body earning less than half the average wage pays very little tax at all. Nevertheless, there is, at the time of writing, a great disparity in different people's 'take-home pay'. During the 1980s, rates of pay for the best-paid jobs increased faster than those for badly-paid jobs. People in the best-paid jobs now take home about ten times as much as those in the lowest paid jobs. Many company directors, for example, take home seven times as much as the average wage.   Finance and investment Wealth (and poverty) are relative concepts. Despite its relative eco­nomic decline, Britain is still one of the wealthiest places in the world. The empire has gone, the great manufacturing industries have

 

Finance and investment 147

nearly gone, but London is still one of the centres of the financial world. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange (FT-SE) Index of the 100 largest British companies (known popularly as the 'Footsie') is one of the main indicators of world stock market prices. The reason for this is not hard to find. The same features that contributed to the country's decline as a great industrial and political power — the preference for continuity and tradition rather than change, the emphasis on personal contact as opposed to demon­strated ability when deciding who gets the important jobs — are exactly the qualities that attract investors. When people want to invest a lot of money, what matters to them is an atmosphere of stability and a feeling of personal trust. These are the qualities to be found in the 'square mile' of the old City of London (see chapter 3), which has one of the largest concentrations of insurance companies, merchant banks, joint-stock banks and stockbrokers in the world. As regards stability, many of the institutions in what is known as 'the City' can point to a long and uninterrupted history. Some of them have directors from the same family which started them perhaps over 200 years ago. Although there have been adaptations to modern conditions, and the stereotyped bowler-hatted 'city gent' is a thing of the past, the sense of continuity, epitomized by the many old buildings in the square mile, is still strong. As regards trust, the city has a reputation for habits of secrecy that might be thought of as undesirable in other aspects of public life, but which in financial dealings become an advantage. In this context, 'secrecy' means 'discretion'. Although more than half of the British population has money invested in the city indirectly (because the insurance companies and pension funds to which they have entrusted their money invest it on the stock market), most people are unaware of what goes on in the world of 'high finance'. To most people, money is just a matter of the cash in their pockets and their account with one of the 'high street' banks (> The high street banks). Not every adult has a bank account. In 1970 only about 30% used these banks. But with the increasing habit of paying wages by cheque and the advent of cash dispensing machines, a majority now do so. Many, however, still prefer to use their National Savings account at the post office or one of the country's many building societies (see chapter 19). An indication of the importance of bank accounts in people's lives is the strong dislike of the banks that has developed. During the 1990s the newspapers carried horror stories about their practices. In the years 1988 to 1993 banking profits rose by 50% while charges to customers rose by 70%. It is often difficult for people to do anything about bank charges — if they try to discuss them with their bank, they get charged for the phone calls and letters! So far, the one clear improvement has been in bank opening times. These used to be from nine-thirty to three-thirty, Mondays to Fridays only. Now, many banks stay open later and also open on Saturday mornings.

> The old lady ofThreadneedle Street This is the nickname of the Bank of England, the institution which con­trols the supply of money in Britain and which is located, of course, in the 'square mile'. Notice how the name suggests both familiarity and age - and also conservative habits. The bank has been described as 'fascinated by its own past'. It is also notable that the people who work there are reported to be proud of the nickname.

> The high street banks The so-called 'big four' banks, which each have a branch in almost every town in Britain are: the National Westminster Bank (NatWest); Barclays Bank; Lloyds Bank; Midland Bank. The Bank of Scotland also has a very large number of branches. So does the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB).

 

 

> Currency and cash

The currency of Britain is the pound

sterling, whose symbol is'£', always written before the amount. Inform­ally, a pound is sometimes called a 'quid', so £20 might be expressed as 'twenty quid'. There are 100 pence (written 'p', pronounced 'pea') in a pound.

The one-pound coin has four dif­ferent designs: an English one, a. Scottish one, a Northern Irish one and a Welsh one (on which the inscription on the side is in Welsh;

on all the others it is in Latin).

In Scotland, banknotes with a Scottish design are issued. These notes are perfectly legal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but banks and shops are not obliged to accept them if they don't want to and nobody has the right to demand change in Scottish notes.

 

Before 1971 Britain used the 'LSD' system. There were twelve pennies in a shilling and twenty shil­lings in a pound. Amounts were written like this: £3 12s. 6d. (= three pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence). If you read any novels set in Britain before 1971, you may come across the following:

a farthing = a quarter of a penny

(not used after 1960) a ha'penny (halfpenny) = half of a

penny

a threepenny bit = threepence a tanner = an informal name for a sixpenny coin a bob = an informal name for ashilling a half crown = two-and-a-half shillings (or two and sixpence)

 

People were not enthusiastic about the change to what they called 'new money'. For a long time after­wards, the question 'what's that in old money?' was used to imply that what somebody had just said was too complicated to be clear. In fact, money provides frequent oppor­tunities for British conservatism (see a chapter ^) to show itself. When the one-pound coin was introduced in 1983, it was very unpopular. People said they were sad to see the end of the pound note, which it replaced, and that a mere coin didn't seem to be worth as much. Another example is the reaction to the European euro. Since 1991 this has had the same status in Britain as Scottish banknotes have in England. But the first signs were that most shops and banks were refusing to accept them.

> How much do you want? On tins and packets of food in British shops, the weight of an item is written in the kilos and grams famil­iar to people from continental Europe. However, most British people have little idea of what these terms mean (see chapter s). There­fore, many of their packets and tins also record their weight in pounds (written as 'Ibs') and ounces (written as 'oz'). Moreover, nobody ever asks for a kilo of apples or 200 grams of cheese. If those were the amounts you wanted, you would have to ask for 'two pounds or so' of apples and 'half a pound or less' of cheese and you would be about right. Shoe and clothing sizes are also measured on different scales in Britain. The people who work in shops which sell these things usually know about continental and Amer­ican sizes too, but most British people don't.

Spending money: shopping The British are not very adventurous shoppers. They like reliability and buy brand-name goods wherever possible, preferably with the price clearly marked (they are not very keen on haggling over prices). It is therefore not surprising that a very high proportion of the country's shops are branches of chain stores. Visitors from northern European countries are sometimes surprised by the shabbiness of shop-window displays, even in pros­perous areas. This is not necessarily a sign of economic depression. It is just that the British do not demand art in their shop windows. In general, they have been rather slow to take on the idea that shopping might actually be fun. On the positive side, visitors are also sometimes struck by the variety of types of shop. Most shops are chain stores, but among those that are not, there is much individuality. Independ­ent shopowners feel no need to follow conventional ideas about what a particular shop does and doesn't sell. In the last quarter of the twentieth century supermarkets began moving out of town, where there was lots of free parking space. As they did so, they became bigger, turning into 'hypermarkets' stocking a wider variety of items. For example, most of them now sell alcoholic drinks, which are conventionally bought at shops called 'off-licences'. They also sell petrol and some items traditionally found in chemists and newsagents. However, this trend has not gone as far as it has in some other European countries. For example, few supermarkets sell clothes,

 

Shop opening hours 149

shoes, kitchen utensils or electrical goods. They still concentrate mainly on everyday needs. An exception is the first warehouse shop­ping club in Europe, opened in 1993 in Essex by the American company Costco. Here, 'members' (who have paid a small fee) can find almost everything that a shopper could ever want to buy - at a reduced price. Shopping clubs of this kind have spread rapidly all over the USA. At the time of writing, it is too early to say whether they will do so in Britain. The move out of town, however, is already well established, with many of the country's chain stores following the supermarkets into specially built shopping centres, most of them covered. (Britain has some of the largest covered shopping areas in Europe.) In 1980 only 5% of shop sales took place in these locations. In 1994 this figure had jumped to 25%. The area in town where the local shops are concentrated is known as the high street (the American equivalent is 'Main Street'). British high streets have suffered from the move towards out-of-town shop­ping. In the worst-affected towns, as many as a quarter of the shops in the high street are vacant. But high streets have often survived by adapting. In larger towns, shops have tended to become either more specialized or to sell especially cheap goods (for people who are too poor to own a car and drive out of town). Many have become charity shops (selling second-hand items and staffed by volunteers) and discount stores. Many of the central streets are now reserved for pedestrians, so that they are more pleasant to be in. Even most small high streets still manage to have at least one representative of the various kinds of conventional food shop (such as butcher, grocer, fishmonger, greengrocer), which do well by selling more expensive luxury items. (Although the middle classes use them, supermarkets have never been regarded as 'smart* or fashionable places in which to shop.) The survival of the high street has been helped by the fact that department stores have been comparatively slow to move out of town. Almost every large town or suburb has at least one of these. They are usually not chain stores and each company runs a maximum of a few branches in the same region. Shop opening hours The normal time for shops to open is nine in the morning. Large out-of-town supermarkets stay open all day until about eight o'clock. Most small shops stay open all day (some take a break for lunch, usually between one and two) and then close at half-past five or a bit later. In some towns there is an 'early closing day' when the shops shut at midday and do not open again. However, this is becoming rarer. In fact, over the last twenty-five years, shop opening hours have become more varied. Regulations have been relaxed. It is now much easier than it used to be to find shops open after six. In some areas the local authorities are encouraging high street shops to

> The corner shop A shop by itself in a residential area is often referred to as 'the corner shop'. These sometimes sell various kinds of food, but they are not always general grocers. Usually their main business is in newspapers, magazines, sweets and tobacco products. It is from these that most 'paper rounds' (see chapter 16) are organized. Only in corner shops do shopkeepers know their customers personally. Only in them is the interaction across the counter often social as well as transactional. People working in other shops are often very helpful, but the conversation usually has some clear purpose. In the last few decades, many corner shops have been taken over by people from southern Asia who have delighted the neighbourhood by staying open very long hours.

 

> Some well-known names The best known supermarket chains are Sainsbury and Tesco, although there are others. Asda is the best known of many discount stores. There is only one department store with a large number of branches. This is Marks & Spencer. It is so well-known that it is often referred to as 'Marks and Sparks' or just 'M and S'. To the British, clothes at M and S are typical of the middle range: they are neither cheap nor expensive, fairly good quality and rather conservative. Unlike most other department stores, M and S also has a 'food hall', where items are more expensive than they are in supermarkets. In a category all by itself is Wool-worth's, which used to have a branch in almost every high street in the country. It sells mostly sweets, music, toys and children's clothes of the cheaper kind.

stay open very late on some evenings as a way of putting new life into their 'dead' town centres. But the most significant change in recent years has been with regard to Sundays. By the early 1990s many shops, including chain stores, were opening on some Sundays, especially in the period before Christmas. In doing this they were taking a risk with the law. Sometimes they were taken to court, sometimes not. The rules were so old and confused that nobody really knew what was and what wasn't legal. It was agreed that something had to be done. On one side were the 'Keep Sunday Special' lobby, a group of people from various Christian churches and trade unions. They argued that Sunday should be special, a day of rest, a day for all the family to be together. They also feared that Sunday-opening would mean that shop workers would be forced to work too many hours. On the other side were a number of lobbies, especially people from women's and consumer groups. They argued that working women needed more than one day (Saturday) in which to rush around doing the shopping. In any case, they argued, shopping was also something that the whole family could do together. In 1993 Parliament voted on the matter. By a small majority, the idea of a complete 'free-for-all' was defeated. Small shops are allowed to open on Sundays for as long as they like, but large shops and supermarkets can only open for a maximum of six hours.

 

 

QUESTIONS

1 What are the differences (if any) between the present role of trade unions in Britain and their role in your country?

2 How can banking be such an important part of the British economy when some British people don't even have bank accounts?

3 Here is an extract from a book written by a Frenchman who has spent a long time living in England:

Continentals are always disconcerted by the English attitude to work. They appear neither to view it as a heavy burden imposed by fate, nor to embrace it as a sacred obligation. Effort is a matter of personal choice, and payment simply a quid pro quo. (from Les Anglais by Phillipe Daudy) Do you find the British attitude to work confus­ing? In your country, do people see work as a 'heavy burden' or a 'sacred obligation' (or something else)?

 

4 In your country, do shops stay open for more or fewer hours a week than they do in Britain? Do you think the de-regulation of shop opening hours is a good thing?

The media

British people watch a lot of television. They are also reported to be the world's most dedicated home-video users. But this does not mean that they have given up reading. They are the world's third biggest newspaper buyers; only the Japanese and the Swedes buy more. The importance of the national press Newspaper publication is dominated by the national press, which is an indication of the comparative weakness of regional identity in Britain (see chapter 4). Nearly 80% of all households buy a copy of one of the main national papers every day. There are more than eighty local and regional daily papers; but the total circulation of all of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the national 'dailies'. The only non-national papers with significant cir­culations are published in the evenings, when they do not compete with the national papers, which always appear in the mornings. Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance of the national press is absolute. The 'Sunday papers' are so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of them are sisters of a daily (published by the same company) but employing separate editors and journalists. The morning newspaper is a British household institution; such an important one that, until the laws were relaxed in the early 1990s, newsagents were the only shops that were allowed to open on Sundays. People could not be expected to do without their newspa­pers for even one day, especially a day when there was more free time to read them. The Sunday papers sell slightly more copies than the national dailies and are thicker. Some of them have six or more sections making up a total of well over 200 pages. Another indication of the importance of'the papers' is the morning 'paper round'. Most newsagents organize these, and more than half of the country's readers get their morning paper delivered to their door by a teenager who gets up at around half-past five every day in order to earn a bit of extra pocket money.

>The national papers and Scotland There is an exception to the domin­ance of the national press throughout Britain. This is in Scot­land, where one paper, the Sunday Post, sells well over a million copies. Another weekly, Scotland on Sunday, also has a large circulation. There are three other notable 'Scotland only' papers, but two of these, the Glasgow Herald and the Scotsman, are quality papers (see page 152) with small cir­culations and the other, the Daily Record, is actually the sister paper of the (London) Doily Mirror. The other national British papers are all sold in Scotland, although sometimes in special Scottish editions.

 

The graphs above show the approxi- however, is an improvement on past mate average daily circulation decades. In 1950, for example, they figures for national newspapers in sold twenty times as many. Educa - the early 1990s. You can see that the tion seems to be having an effect on tabloids sell about six times as many people's reading habits. copies as the broadsheets. This,

The two types of national newspaper Each of the national papers can be characterized as belonging to one of two distinct categories. The 'quality papers', or 'broadsheets', cater for the better educated readers. The 'popular papers', or 'tab­loids', sell to a much larger readership. They contain far less print than the broadsheets and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. While the broadsheets devote much space to politics and other 'serious' news, the tabloids concen­trate on 'human interest' stories, which often means sex and scandal! However, the broadsheets do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amounts of attention to sport. The difference between them is in the treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence (> Different approaches, different subjects). The reason that the quality newspapers are called broadsheets and the popular ones tabloids is because they are different shapes. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids. It is a mystery why, in Britain, reading intelligent papers should need highly-developed skills of paper-folding! But it certainly seems to be the rule. In 1989 a new paper was published, the Sunday Correspondent, advertising itself as the country's first quality tabloid'. It closed after one year.

Different approaches, different subjects Here are some details of the front pages of some national dailies for one date (2 1; March 1993). For each paper, the first line is the main head­line and the figures in brackets are the height of the letters used for it. • The Sun I'VE MESSED UP MY LIFE (5.4 cm high) Topic: an interview with the Duchess of York Total text on page:155 words (one article) • The Daily Mirror £5m FERGIE'S HIJACKED OUR CHARITY (3.,5 cm) Topic: the activities of the Duchess of York Total text on page: 240 + words (two articles) • The Daily Express MINISTER URGES SCHOOL CONDOMS (3 cm) Topic: government campaign to reduce teenage pregnancies Total text on page: 260 + words (three articles) • The Times South Africa had nuclear bombs, admits de Klerk (1.7 cm) Total text on page: 1,900 + words (five articles) • The Guardian Serb shelling halts UN airlift (1.7 cm) Topic: the war in the former Yugo­slavia Total text on page: i,900 + words (four articles) • The Daily Telegraph Tory Maastricht revolt is beaten off (i. 5 cm) Topic: discussion of the Maastricht Treaty in Parliament Total text on page: 2,100 + words (five articles)

 

The press: politics 153

The characteristics of the national press: politics

The way politics is presented in the national newspapers reflects the fact that British political parties are essentially parliamentary organ­izations (see chapter 6). Although different papers have differing political outlooks, none of the large newspapers is an organ of a political party. Many are often obviously in favour of the policies of this or that party (and even more obviously against the policies of another party), but none of them would ever use 'we' or 'us' to refer to a certain party (d> Papers and politics).

What counts for the newspaper publishers is business. All of them are in the business first and foremost to make money. Their primary concern is to sell as many copies as possible and to attract as much advertising as possible. They normally put selling copies ahead of political integrity. The abrupt turnabout in the stance of the Scottish edition of the Sun in early 1991 is a good example. It had previously, along with the Conservative party which it normally supports, vigor­ously opposed any idea of Scottish independence or home rule; but when it saw the opinion polls in early 1991 (and bearing in mind its comparatively low sales in Scotland), it decided to change its mind completely (see chapter 12).

The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large multinational companies. This fact helps to explain two notable features. One of these is its freedom from interference from government influence, which is virtually absolute. The press is so powerful in this respect that it is sometimes referred to as 'the fourth estate' (the other three being the Commons, the Lords and the monarch). This freedom is ensured because there is a general

 

> Papers and politics

None of the big national newspapers

'belongs' to a political party. However, each paper has an idea of what kind of reader it is appealing to and a fairly predictable political outlook. Each can therefore be seen, rather simplistically, as occupying a certain position on the right-left spectrum.

As you can see, the right seems to be heavily over-represented in the national press. This is not because such a large majority of British people hold right-wing views. It is partly because the press tends to be owned by Conservative party sup­porters. In any case, a large number of readers are not very interested in the political coverage of a paper. They buy it for the sport, or the human interest stories, or for some other reason.

154 16 The media

> Sex and scandal Sex and scandal sell newspapers. In September 1992, when there were plenty of such stories around invol­ving famous people and royalty, sales of tabloids went up by 122,000. But in October, when stories of this kind had dried up, they fell by more than 200,000. Even the quality Observer got in on the act. On i i October 1992, its magazine section featured nine pages of photos of the pop-star Madonna taken from Sex (her best-selling book). That week, its sales were 74,000 greater than usual. The next Sunday, without Madonna, they were exactly 74,000 less than they had been the week before.

feeling in the country that 'freedom of speech' is a basic constitu­tional right. A striking example of the importance of freedom of speech occurred during the Second World War. During this time, the country had a coalition government of Conservative and Labour politicians, so that there was really no opposition in Parliament at all. At one time, the cabinet wanted to use a special wartime regulation to temporarily ban the Daily Mirror, which had been consistently critical of the government. The Labour party, which until then had been completely loyal to the government, immediately demanded a debate on the matter, and the other national papers, although they disagreed with the opinions of the Mirror, all leapt to its defence and opposed the ban. The government was forced to back down and the Mirror continued to appear throughout the war. The characteristics of the national press: sex and scandal The other feature of the national press which is partially the result of the commercial interests of its owners is its shallowness. Few other European countries have a popular press which is so 'low'. Some of the tabloids have almost given up even the pretence of dealing with serious matters. Apart from sport, their pages are full of little except stories about the private lives of famous people. Sometimes their 'stories' are not articles at all, they are just excuses to show pictures of almost naked women. During the 198os, page three of the Sun became infamous in this respect and the women who posed for its photographs became known as 'page three girls'. The desire to attract more readers at all costs has meant that, these days, even the broadsheets in Britain can look rather 'popular' when compared to equivalent 'quality' papers in some other countries. They are still serious newspapers containing high-quality articles whose presentation of factual information is usually reliable. But even they now give a lot of coverage to news with a 'human interest' angle when they have the opportunity. (The treatment by The Sunday Times of Prince Charles and Princess Diana is an example see chapter7.) This emphasis on revealing the details of people's private lives has led to discussion about the possible need to restrict the freedom of the press. This is because, in behaving this way, the press has found itself in conflict with another British principle which is as strongly felt as that of freedom of speech - the right to privacy. Many journalists now appear to spend their time trying to discover the most sensa­tional secrets of well-known personalities, or even of ordinary people who, by chance, find themselves connected with some newsworthy situation. There is a widespread feeling that, in doing so, they behave too intrusively. Complaints regarding invasions of privacy are dealt with by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). This organization is made up

 

of newspaper editors and journalists. In other words, the press is supposed to regulate itself. It follows a Code of Practice which sets limits on the extent to which newspapers should publish details of people's private lives. Many people are not happy with this arrange­ment and various governments have tried to formulate laws on the matter. However, against the right to privacy the press has success­fully been able to oppose the concept of the public's 'right to know'. Of course, Britain is not the only country where the press is con­trolled by large companies with the same single aim of making profits. So why is the British press more frivolous? The answer may lie in the function of the British press for its readers. British adults never read comics. These publications, which consist entirely of picture stories, are read only by children. It would be embarrassing for an adult to be seen reading one. Adults who want to read some­thing very simple, with plenty of pictures to help them, have almost nowhere to go but the national press. Most people don't use news­papers for 'serious' news. For this, they turn to another source — broadcasting.

The press 155   > The rest of the press If you go into any well-stocked newsagent's in Britain, you will not only find newspapers. You will also see rows and rows of magazines catering for almost every imaginable taste and specializing in almost every imaginable pastime. Among these publications there are a few weeklies dealing with news and current affairs. Partly because the national press is so predictable (and often so trivial), some of these periodicals manage to achieve a cir­culation of more than a hundred thousand. The Economist is of the same type as Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel and I/Express. Its analyses, however, are generally more thorough. It is fairly obviously right-wing in its views, but the writing is of very high-quality and that is why it has the reputation of being one of the best weeklies in the world. The New Stotesman and Society is the left-wing equivalent of The Economist and is equally serious and well-written. Private Eye is a satirical magazine which makes fun of all parties and politicians, and also makes fun of the mainstream press. It specializes in political scandal and, as a result, is forever defending itself in legal actions. It is so outrageous that some chains of newsagents sometimes refuse to sell it. Although its humour is often very 'schoolboyish', it is also well-written and it is said that no politician can resist reading it. The country's bestselling maga­zine is the Radio Times, which, as well as listing all the television and radio programmes for the coming week, contains some fifty pages of articles. (Note the typically British appeal to continuity in the name 'Radio Times'. The magazine was first pub­lished before television existed and has never bothered to update its title.)

 

156 16 The media

The BBC

Just as the British Parliament has the reputation for being 'the mother of parliaments', so the BBC might be said to be 'the mother of information services'. Its reputation for impartiality and objectivity in news reporting is, at least when compared to news broadcasting in many other countries, largely justified. Whenever it is accused of bias by one side of the political spectrum, it can always point out that the other side has complained of the same thing at some other time, so the complaints are evenly balanced. In fact, the BBC has often shown itself to be rather proud of the fact that it gets complaints from both sides of the political divide, because this testifies not only to its impartiality but also to its independence.

Interestingly, though, this independence is as much the result of habit and common agreement as it is the result of its legal status. It is true that it depends neither on advertising nor (directly) on the government for its income. It gets this from the licence fee which everybody who uses a television set has to pay. However, the govern­ment decides how much this fee is going to be, appoints the BBC's board of governors and its director general, has the right to veto any

> High ideals and independence The reference to one man in the inscription on the right, which is found in the entrance to Broad­casting House (headquarters of the BBC), is appropriate. British politi­cians were slow to appreciate the social significance of'the wireless' (this is what the radio was generally known as until the 196os). More­over, being British, they did not like the idea of having to debate culture in Parliament. They were only too happy to leave the matter to a suit­able organization and its director general, John (later Lord) Reith. Reith was a man with a mission. He saw in radio an opportunity for 'education' and initiation into 'high culture' for the masses. He included light entertainment in the program­ming, but only as a way of capturing an audience for the more 'import­ant' programmes of classical music and drama, and the discussions of various topics by famous academics and authors whom Reith had per­suaded to take part.

THIS TEMPLE TO THE ARTS AND MUSES IS DEDICATED TO ALMIGHTY GOD BY THE FIRST GOVERNORS IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1931 JOHN REITH BEING DIRECTOR-GENERAL AND THEY PRAY THAT THE GOOD SEED SOWN MAY BRING FORTH GOOD HARVESTS THAT ALL THINGS FOUL OR HOSTILE TO PEACE MAY BE BANISHED HENCE AND THAT THE PEOPLE INCLINING THEIR EAR TO WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY AND HONEST WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE OF GOOD REPORT MAY TREAD THE PATH OF VIRTUE AND OF WISDOM

BBC programme before it has been transmitted and even has the right to take away the BBC's licence to broadcast. In theory, therefore, it would be easy for a government to influence what the BBC does. Nevertheless, partly by historical accident (> High ideals and independence), the BBC began, right from the start, to establish its effect­ive independence and its reputation for impartiality. This first occurred through the medium of radio broadcasts to people in Britain. Then, in 1932 the BBC World Service was set up, "with a licence to broadcast first to the empire and then to other parts of the world. During the Second World War it became identified with the principles of democracy and free speech. In this way the BBC's fame became international. Today, the World Service still broadcasts around the globe, in English and in several other languages. In 1986 the Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indhira Ghandi, was assassinated. When her son Rajiv first heard reports that she had been attacked, he immediately tuned to the BBC World Service to get details that he could rely on. The BBC also runs five national radio stations inside Britain and several local ones (> BBC radio). Television: organization In terms of the size of its audience, television has long since taken over from radio as the most significant form of broadcasting in Britain. Its independence from government interference is largely a matter of tacit agreement. There have been occasions when the gov­ernment has successfully persuaded the BBC not to show something. But there have also been many occasions when the BBC has refused to bow to government pressure. Most recent cases have involved Northern Ireland. For a brief period starting in the late 1980s, the government broke with the convention of non-interference and banned the transmission of interviews with members of outlawed organizations such as the IRA on television. The BBC's response was to make a mockery of this law by showing such interviews on the screen with an actor's voice (with just the right accent) dubbed over the moving mouth of the interviewee! There is no advertising on the BBC. But Independent Television (ITV), which started in 19^4, gets its money from the advertise­ments it screens. It consists of a number of privately owned companies, each of which is responsible for programming in differ­ent parts of the country on the single channel given to it. In practice, these companies cannot afford to make all their own programmes, and so they generally share those they make. As a result, it is common for exactly the same programme to be showing on the ITV channel throughout the country. When commercial television began, it was feared that advertisers would have too much control over programming and that the new channel would exhibit all the worst features of tabloid journalism. The Labour party, in opposition at the time of its introduction, was

Television organization 157   > BBC radio Radio 1 began broadcasting in 1967. Devoted almost entirely to pop music, its birth was a signal that popular youth culture could no longer be ignored by the country's established institutions. In spite of recent competition from independ­ent commercial radio stations, it still has over ten million listeners. Radio 2 broadcasts mainly light music and chat shows. Radio 3 is devoted to classical music. Radio 4 broadcasts a variety of pro­grammes, from plays and comedy shows to consumer advice pro­grammes and in-depth news coverage. It has a small but dedicated following. Radio 5 is largely given over to sports coverage and news. Two particular radio programmes should be mentioned. Soap operas are normally associated with televi­sion, but The Archers is actually the longest-running soap in the world. It describes itself as 'an everyday story of country folk'. Its audience, which is mainly middle-class with a large proportion of elderly people, cannot compare in size with the television soaps, but it has become so famous that everybody in Britain knows about it and tourist attrac­tions have been designed to capitalize on its fame. Another radio 'institution' is the live commentary of cricket Test Matches in the summer (see chapter 21).

 

158 16 The media

absolutely against it. So were a number of Conservative and Liberal

politicians. Over the years, however, these fears have proved to be unfounded. Commercial television in Britain has not developed the habit of showing programmes sponsored by manufacturers. There has recently been some relaxation of this policy, but advertisers have never had the influence over programming that they have had in the USA.

Most importantly for the structure of commercial television, ITV news programmes are not made by individual television companies. Independent Television News (ITN) is owned jointly by all of them. For this and other reasons, it has always been protected from com-

 

 

Advertising Early weekday mornings Mornings and early afternoons Late afternoons Evenings

Weekends

Much of weekend afternoons are devoted to sport. Saturday evenings include the most popular live variety shows.

Channel 5 Started in 1997. It is a commercial channel (it gets its money from advertising) which is received by about two-thirds of British households. Its emphasis is on entertainment (for example, it screens a film every ni^ht at peak viewing time). However, it makes all other types of programme too. Of particular note is its unconventional presentation of the news, which is designed to appeal to younger adults.

There is also a Welsh language channel for viewers in Wales.

mercial influence. There is no significant difference between the style and content of the news on ITV and that on the BBC. The same fears about the quality of television programmes that were expressed when ITV started are now heard with regard to satellite and cable television. This time the fears may be more justified, as the companies that run satellite and cable television channels are in a similar commercial and legal position to those which own the big newspapers (and in some cases are actually the same companies). However, only about a third of households receive satellite and/or cable, and so far these channels have not significantly reduced the viewing figures for the main national channels. Television: style Although the advent of ITV did not affect television coverage of news and current affairs, it did cause a change in the style and content of other programmes shown on television. The amount of money that a television company can charge an advertiser depends on the expected number of viewers at the time when the advertisement is to be shown. Therefore, there was pressure on ITV from the start to make its output popular. In its early years ITV captured nearly three-quarters of the BBC's audience. The BBC then responded by making its own programmes equally accessible to a mass audience. Ever since then, there has been little significant difference in what is shown on the BBC and commercial television. Both BBC1 and ITV (and also the more recent Channel 5) show a wide variety of programmes. They are in constant competition with each other to attract the largest audience (this is known as the ratings war). But they do not each try to show a more popular type of programme than the other. They try instead to do the same type of programme 'better'. Of particular importance in the ratings war is the performance of the channels' various soap operas. The two most popular and long-running of these, which are shown at least twice a week, are not glamorous American productions showing rich and powerful people (al