Labour minister in UK says traditional England was a ‘far-right fantasy’ that ‘never really existed’
Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, a member of the British Labour Party, lawmaker, and minister of DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs), recently said that what we all think of when we think of quintessential rural England, “doesn’t exist.” The idea of “warm ale and a black labrador at your feet” is nothing more than a “far-right fantasy,” dreamed up by her political opponents.
This idea that anyone would embrace the idea of a quintessentially English England actually keeps Riddell-Carpenter “awake at night.” The Times reported this:
[Riddell-Carpenter] fears that the next election would be fought over competing visions of rural Britain.
She warned that unless Labour set out its own case for the countryside, its opponents would exploit a nostalgic image of rural life.
If that were true, and there were no such thing as the rural England we all know definitely did and does exist, then the Labour Party’s agenda to “diversify” the English countryside with hordes of third-worlders wouldn’t even be a thing.
Thomas Hardy and his intensely “English” novels, full of descriptive scenes of “Wessex” wouldn’t exist. If you were to watch Far From the Madding Crowd, or Pride and Prejudice, you shouldn’t know it’s actually filmed in England, based on Riddel-Carpenter’s claim, since the scenery theoretically wouldn’t be distinct. But it’s obvious the films were filmed in England, because the English countryside is distinct, and not a fantasy made up by conservative voters.
Ironically, Riddell-Carpenter wouldn’t even know to reference “black labradors” and pubs if they weren’t quintessentially England. This past spring when I visited England, as soon as I got settled into my accommodations the first night and went looking for food, in the countryside of Wrea Green…the best option was…a pub. And, patrons brought in their dogs, one of which was a Corgi (very English), the other of which was… a Labrador!
About a month or so ago during my Sunday afternoon lie-down, I decided to watch one of my favorite movies, The Royal Tenenbaums (this is the only time I actually sit in front of the telly). Anyway, The Beatles’s Hey Jude plays during the opening montage, and I’m not sure if it was the nostalgic vibe of the film or the fact that Hey Jude is just a really special song, but it made me cry, which I’ve continued to do so over the last month as I’ve continued to listen to the song.I don’t know if there’s a small part of me that’s a maladaptive daydreamer, but when I hear it, I see Paul leaving a recording studio in Liverpool (yes I know the song was recorded in London but this is how it goes in my mind), then heading toward the waterfront for a smoke, which is dotted with fish-and-chips shops and full of true (mostly white) Englanders all dressed like 60s Brits, and as I watch Paul walk, I can hear the gulls and smell the salt of the sea; everything plays in a sort of grainy, analog film style, and of course, it’s dreary. I get so lost in what I know 1960s England would have been like that I can feel the loss, because that England is disappearing. And naturally, it makes me cry. Yes, it’s a figment of my imagination, but it’s also based on video and photographic evidence of what England has in fact been.
Here’s my English dad, seated in the middle, with his younger sister and brother.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment