British Politics Guide

[alice]

Meanwhile in other news the media in this country has gone as bananas as we knew it would when Prince Philip shuffled off this mortal coil.

I've heard this resulted in a lot of complaints from people in Britain. Is that true?

There was this.

[Ares Land]

All news I have from Britain cross both the Channel and my social media bubble but I got a lot of excitement about the pubs reopening and very little about the royal burial.

[Frislander]

Part of the problem with the Royal coverage was not simply that is was long, but that it displaced normal programming across most of the main terrestrial channels for ages (not just the BBC but ITV as well, with Channel 4 being wise to take their slightly more left-leaning view and not jump on the bandwagon). Even the BBC's children's TV channel CBBC was stopped for ages, which frankly is kinda insane. We are at least back to normal programming now, but when you have people like the master of my old college (not exactly a heartbleeding republican himself), who spent most of his career in the Corporation, including being head of BBC2 for a few years, writing articles like this one in the New Statesman which unequivocally state that the amount of coverage was a mistake, you've got a problem.

[alice]

Oh, and BBC1 and BBC2 were showing the exact same things.

[Vijay]

Meanwhile in other news the media in this country has gone as bananas as we knew it would when Prince Philip shuffled off this mortal coil.

I've heard this resulted in a lot of complaints from people in Britain. Is that true?

There was this.

That sounds consistent with what I heard, thanks!

[Raphael]

As much as I dislike the whole Brexit thing, I think it's a bit over the top for France to threaten to turn off electricity to Jersey.

[Ares Land]

As much as I dislike the whole Brexit thing, I think it's a bit over the top for France to threaten to turn off electricity to Jersey.

I suspect that ridiculous Jersey business comes down to Boris Johnson wanting the media to focus on something else than the London election, and Macron wanting the media to focus on anything but Covid.

We definitely won't cut off electricity to Jersey, btw, this is I'm afraid an unknown junior minister enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame a little too much.

[Ares Land]

By the way:




Oh, how the mighty have fallen

[Raphael]

I suspect that ridiculous Jersey business comes down to Boris Johnson wanting the media to focus on something else than the London election,

Oh, while London itself might turn out poorly for the Tories, generally, most of yesterday's elections seem to be good news for them, starting with Hartlepool. Not sure how Scotland will work out, though.

and Macron wanting the media to focus on anything but Covid.

We definitely won't cut off electricity to Jersey, btw, this is I'm afraid an unknown junior minister enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame a little too much.

Ah, thank you, interesting take.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen

Lol, indeed!

[Jonlang]

Oh well. Looks like another five years of a Labour-led Welsh Government. More of the same doing whatever Westminster tell us to

[Raphael]

Since Jonlang brought up Wales - there is one thing about Welsh political geography that I don't understand, and I wonder if anyone could explain it.

Most of the political geography of Wales seems - I might get something wrong here - fairly easy to understand even for someone who, like me, knows little about the country: the densely populated post-industrial areas are Labour strongholds, the rural areas closer to the English border (where some people might not think of themselves as all that different from rural England) are Tory strongholds, and the rural areas farther away from the English border (where Welsh identity might be stronger) are Plaid Cymru strongholds. But there's one exception from that pattern: Pembrokeshire, which is Conservative despite being some distance from the English border. Why is that so?

[Richard W]

Parts of Pembrokeshire are ethnically English, even if historically there's a strong Flemish element. The terms Englishry and Welshry are used to refer to the English and Welsh parts respectively - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_En ... yond_Wales

[Raphael]

Ah, thank you!

[Jonlang]

Parts of Pembrokeshire are ethnically English, even if historically there's a strong Flemish element. The terms Englishry and Welshry are used to refer to the English and Welsh parts respectively - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_En ... yond_Wales

A more Welsh perspective is: "fucking rich English toffs buying up properties in Welsh beauty spots, driving up house prices and driving out locals and contributing to the decline of the Welsh language." But maybe it's better to not go down that rabbit hole.

[Linguoboy]

A more Welsh perspective is: "fucking rich English toffs buying up properties in Welsh beauty spots, driving up house prices and driving out locals and contributing to the decline of the Welsh language." But maybe it's better to not go down that rabbit hole.

While this is absolutely a major issue in Wales (especially in the North), that part of Pembrokeshire has been English-speaking since at least the 13th century.

[Jonlang]

A more Welsh perspective is: "fucking rich English toffs buying up properties in Welsh beauty spots, driving up house prices and driving out locals and contributing to the decline of the Welsh language." But maybe it's better to not go down that rabbit hole.

While this is absolutely a major issue in Wales (especially in the North), that part of Pembrokeshire has been English-speaking since at least the 13th century.

It doesn't really matter. In the 1970s there was a major backlash in West Wales, particularly Pembrokeshire, where locals actually burnt down houses owned by the English as second/holiday homes. It's not really anything to do with language but Welsh identity and Welsh language go hand-in-hand and when someone wants to make a political point, they'll use anything they can as leverage whether it's true or not (i.e. contributing to the loss of Welsh language in the area). I wasn't there, it was a decade or so before I was born, so it doesn't really affect me and I don't really jump on the anti-England bandwaggon (except when it comes to rugby). The same problem exists in beauty spots all over the UK, particularly places like Cornwall or Devon or the Lake District – locals being outpriced in the housing market because richer "toffs" have driven up house prices in those areas and forcing younger people to move away from their hometowns and their families. It's something which raises its head every so often in Britain and I doubt it'll change unless some law is passed capping the house prices, which is highly unlikely.

[MacAnDàil]

The SNP is planning to restrict second-home ownership: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/art ... t-hotspots

[Raphael]

This is not really about politics, but it is very much about Britain: does anyone else find it a bit weird that so many people, both British and non-British, keep calling the 9th-largest island and 13th-largest landmass in the world a "small island"? I just saw that phrase again in a book about Britain by a British author. Come on, people! I mean, Jersey is a small island. Heligoland is a small island. Elba and St. Helena are small islands. A place larger than Java and only slightly smaller than Honshu doesn't strike a as geographically "small" by any reasonable standard.

[Vijay]

During the colonial period, textbook maps in British India made Britain and South Asia look about the same size although South Asia is in fact much, much bigger. Compared to that, Britain is indeed a small island.

[Raphael]

True enough. It's just that I'm kinda used to thinking of "small" as meaning something more like Denmark-minus-its-colonies or the Czech Republic or Austria or something like that.