I wonder if you're mainly talking about London and the home counties, which I find increasingly blase about unkind behaviour. And I'm always pleasantly surprised by the kindness and warmth of places further north, where there seems to be more sense of community. I grew up Glasgow, which has a gritty kindness that is missing in the affluent South. You find it in most places in Scotland and the North of England (can't speak for Wales) . It may not run to free nuts with a drink, which is more of a cultural thing, but it's there in other ways. It's there in the affluent South too, but you have to look hard for it. That's my experience anyway.
I did find Glasgow a friendly place when I visited. Wales is certainly friendly enough when it comes to tea. But I still think what I'm talking about is a product of a country experiencing relatively straitened economic - though of course there are poorer countries than Britain which maintain greater hospitality in public life
I love the Brits, the UK is my adopted homeland, but I have to agree that the tightness and lack of generosity extends to more than just feelings. I always assigned this to the fact that communities are not as tight knit, everyone has to move flats every other year and you have to buy everything. In Greece it is very common for people to have family members who grow some kind of vegetable or raise chickens or whatever and share those goods liberally. My mom is an accountant and does the accounting of old people in our neighbourhood for free. It is also common for people to live with family which has its ups and downs. Before I came to the UK Greek students shared amongst ourselves the “horror” story of British parents charging their offspring rent to live in the home they grew up in after they graduated but a quick scan of the Times comment section makes you realise it’s very much a normal thing for many people here. Having said that, as mean as Brits can be they can be just as grateful and giving once you make the first move. I like to view them as grumpy little onions, and my job as a seasoned Greek cook is to pull the layers back till I get to the sweet middle. The juice is worth the squeeze. Great piece x
Proud to be a grumpy little onion! One thing I meant to say in the piece was that Brits are quite generous in terms of charity, supporting good causes, fundraising etc. But that’s in part from a slightly different conception of the state and what it does for its citizens. Keep squeezing out the juice!
I don’t think charging the graduate kids “rent” is a bad thing at all ... and it’s usually not rent as such, more expecting them now they are adults to contribute to and share the heating, lighting and food bills.
Hi James thank you for articulating this - made me think.
I've thought the meanness was due to the English being pummelled into submission by English hierarchy and inequality - especially in the last 30ish years. It gets internalised, normalised.
But I'm old now. It's more than that. The meanness is a byproduct of the control mechanism that is English capitalism.
The socialism is reserved for the rich, capitalism is for the poor.
It's at the point now that even readers of the runes for the elites, such as Rory Sutherland, are asking the powerful to think again about this version of capitalism.
He words it carefully for his audience:
"What worries me about free market capitalism is that economists and management consultants like it for entirely the wrong reason… I would argue that most of the appreciation of capitalism is driven by the idea of its efficiency, not its inventiveness… What we should have been doing is optimising capitalism for inventiveness.”
What doesn't get spelt out is why mean capitalist efficiency gets prized over inventiveness.
I'm being too simplistic, but I think the pervasive meanness - the idea of capitalist efficiency - is politically expedient for the rich and powerful (when expressed as austerity, for example), as it helps to maintain inequality, social hierarchy, social control and elite status quo.
I wonder if you're mainly talking about London and the home counties, which I find increasingly blase about unkind behaviour. And I'm always pleasantly surprised by the kindness and warmth of places further north, where there seems to be more sense of community. I grew up Glasgow, which has a gritty kindness that is missing in the affluent South. You find it in most places in Scotland and the North of England (can't speak for Wales) . It may not run to free nuts with a drink, which is more of a cultural thing, but it's there in other ways. It's there in the affluent South too, but you have to look hard for it. That's my experience anyway.
I did find Glasgow a friendly place when I visited. Wales is certainly friendly enough when it comes to tea. But I still think what I'm talking about is a product of a country experiencing relatively straitened economic - though of course there are poorer countries than Britain which maintain greater hospitality in public life
I love the Brits, the UK is my adopted homeland, but I have to agree that the tightness and lack of generosity extends to more than just feelings. I always assigned this to the fact that communities are not as tight knit, everyone has to move flats every other year and you have to buy everything. In Greece it is very common for people to have family members who grow some kind of vegetable or raise chickens or whatever and share those goods liberally. My mom is an accountant and does the accounting of old people in our neighbourhood for free. It is also common for people to live with family which has its ups and downs. Before I came to the UK Greek students shared amongst ourselves the “horror” story of British parents charging their offspring rent to live in the home they grew up in after they graduated but a quick scan of the Times comment section makes you realise it’s very much a normal thing for many people here. Having said that, as mean as Brits can be they can be just as grateful and giving once you make the first move. I like to view them as grumpy little onions, and my job as a seasoned Greek cook is to pull the layers back till I get to the sweet middle. The juice is worth the squeeze. Great piece x
Proud to be a grumpy little onion! One thing I meant to say in the piece was that Brits are quite generous in terms of charity, supporting good causes, fundraising etc. But that’s in part from a slightly different conception of the state and what it does for its citizens. Keep squeezing out the juice!
And also despite of everything, Brits can be some of the most tolerant and open minded people on the planet
I don’t think charging the graduate kids “rent” is a bad thing at all ... and it’s usually not rent as such, more expecting them now they are adults to contribute to and share the heating, lighting and food bills.
Hi James thank you for articulating this - made me think.
I've thought the meanness was due to the English being pummelled into submission by English hierarchy and inequality - especially in the last 30ish years. It gets internalised, normalised.
But I'm old now. It's more than that. The meanness is a byproduct of the control mechanism that is English capitalism.
The socialism is reserved for the rich, capitalism is for the poor.
It's at the point now that even readers of the runes for the elites, such as Rory Sutherland, are asking the powerful to think again about this version of capitalism.
He words it carefully for his audience:
"What worries me about free market capitalism is that economists and management consultants like it for entirely the wrong reason… I would argue that most of the appreciation of capitalism is driven by the idea of its efficiency, not its inventiveness… What we should have been doing is optimising capitalism for inventiveness.”
What doesn't get spelt out is why mean capitalist efficiency gets prized over inventiveness.
I'm being too simplistic, but I think the pervasive meanness - the idea of capitalist efficiency - is politically expedient for the rich and powerful (when expressed as austerity, for example), as it helps to maintain inequality, social hierarchy, social control and elite status quo.