The Alphabet of Britishness
The A-Z of ‘What is Britishness’, with topics supplied by the listeners of this podcast - by far the most popular series!
Let’s start with ‘A’…
Thank you to listeners from around the world for helping me with suggestions for 'The Alphabet of Britishness'. The podcast series began a few years ago, and there are many long audio episodes detailing the points I mention in the video. It is a summary, but with an element of reflection as well.
If you’d like to hear the original (audio only) episode, just scroll down and enjoy!
B is for… Bloody Hell!
To be honest, I was very surprised that my listeners picked this title over ‘B is for… James Bond’. In fact, many ardent Bond fans I know didn’t even suggest it once! So, maybe I need to save that one for ‘J’…
C is for… Crumpets
Everywhere I go, from China to the USA, people tell me that British food is ‘terrible’. But when I ask people what they think British food actually is, and if they’ve tried it, they always tell me how much they’ve enjoyed it!
Crumpets, afternoon tea, fish n’ chips, a full English breakfast, there’s a lot to recommend British cuisine. Perhaps as with our clothes, we see our culture as ‘good for day-to-day’, rather than ‘high culture’?
D is for… Democracy
The House of Commons in London has often been described as ‘The Mother of all Parliaments’, in the longer podcast episode below I talk about some of that history, including influences of the ancient Greeks, the Anglo-Saxons, and the medieval ‘model’ parliament of Edward I.
In the video, I talk simply about how our democracy functions, at the town level, city level, and national level.
To be continued…