Contemporary Britain A survey with texts John Oakland London and New York
Preface Acknowledgements xi xiii Contemporary Britain: the context 1 Decline 4 1 Britain in Decline, Andrew Gamble 4 The Establishment 10 2 'Large bottoms rule, okay?', Robert Harris 10 3 John Patten 12 4 Paddy Ashdown 13 Centralization and democracy 15 5 'Party of freedom has shackled us all to the state', Simon Jenkins 16 6 '"Cool Britannia" looks more like Fool Britannia', Philip Bowring 19 7 The Essential Anatomy of Britain: Democracy in Crisis, Anthony Sampson 20 Models of British society 21 8 Understanding Post-War British Society, James Obelkevich and Peter Catterall 21 Exercises 27 Further reading 28 Notes 28 Images of Britain 29 External images 30 1 'An Italian in London', Beppe Severgnini 30 2 'The making of cruel Britannia', John Lloyd 35 3 'Nothing cool about being coarse', Michael Elliott 38
Internal images 4 'Cool it', Philip Norman 41 5 'Rebranding rationale', Mark Leonard 43 6 'Britain is on a roll, whatever popstars say', Tony Blair 45 Contrasting images 7 'A tale of two nations', Stryker McGuire and William Underhill 48 8 'This insidious urge to reshape Britain', Stephen Glover 51 9 'The bit of politics that led Ben Elton astray', Melvyn Bragg 53 The people's images 10 'Going soft? Britain is still a nation of hard-headed people', David Smith 55 Exercises 57 Further reading 58 Notes 58 40 47 54 National identities Britishness 1 'British unity in diversity', Mary Ann Seighart 61 2 'Disunited we stand', Brian Deer 64 Tensions 3 'Hooked on hatred of the English', Fergus Kelly 70 4 The Wearing of the Green, Dion Boucicault 74 Change and reaction 5 'Unpeeling the Orange', Peter Taylor 76 6 'Scotland rouses the beast of English nationalism', Andrew Neil 78 7 'Mongrels not Angles', Matthew Parris 81 Public opinion 8 'Confident Celts put England in shade...', Mark Henderson Exercises 88 Further reading 88 Notes 89 84 60 61 69 75 84 Political ideologies The Labour Party 1 'The strangest Tory ever sold', The Economics 92 2 'Ideology: beyond left and right', The Economist 95 3 'Third Way, Old Hat', Ross McKibbin 97 90 92
v!i The Conservative Party 99 4 'Mods and Rockers: the real division in the Tory party: and the right course', The Times 100 5 'Hague pledges to remake Tories', Philip Webster 104 The Liberal Democrats 107 6 'Turn left for No. 10', Simon Jenkins 108 7 'Kennedy's dilemma. The Liberal Democrats' new leader cannot face all ways', The Times 112 8 'A sickness at the heart of our nation', Charles Kennedy 114 Exercises 116 Further reading 7 7 7 Notes 7 7 7 Constitutional reform 119 The British Constitution 121 1 'Reclaiming Britain's constitution...', The Economist 121 2 'Democracy's second age', Tony Blair 124 Devolution 128 3 'A house devolved against itself, Lord Mackay of Clashfern 129 4 'Devolution is not a revolution', Lord Irvine of Lairg 131 5 'Weakening the ties of a United Kingdom', The Daily Mail 134 6 'Blair's brave new Britain is a catastrophe', David Davis 134 7 'A federal Britain', The Economist 137 The House of Lords 139 8 'True peers are made not born', Jack Straw 139 9 'The secret enemies of democracy', Ivor Richard 141 10 'This House is built on solid ground', Geoffrey Howe 144 Civil liberties 146 11 'Why Britain needs a Bill of Rights', The Economist 147 12 'Need to know', The Times 150 Exercises 757 Further reading 752 Notes 752 Britain and the world 154 Foreign policy 155 1 'Nudging between Row and Kowtow', John Lloyd 156
viii Europe and the European Union 158 2 'Do we need Europe?...', John Lichfield 158 3 'Europe? Oh, don't mention it, Mr Blair', William Hague 162 The Euro (common currency) debate 165 4 'A big con', The Sun 167 5 'The wrong continent', Larry Elliott 168 The Commonwealth 171 6 'A dysfunctional family?', Magnus Linklater 172 Defence policy and NATO 175 7 'The army: over-stretched and over there...', The Economist 177 8 'Nato is still our sword and shield...', William Rees-Mogg 179 Exercises 782 Further reading 782 Notes 782 Central social institutions The welfare state 1 'Why Britain needs a new welfare state', Tony Blair 185 Social security 2 'Darling's anniversary', The Economist 189 Poverty 3 'Labour's crusade', The Economist 192 The National Health Service (NHS) 4 'The Health Service at 50', The Economist 195 5 'Blair is driving us out of the NHS, says doctors' chief, Jenny Hope 200 6 'An unhealthy state', The Sunday Times 201 Education 7 'Why schools must do better', Tony Blair 204 8 'Time's up for schools that fail', David Blunkett 207 9 'Education, education, education', The Economist 210 10 'Higher education - a fraud or worth every penny?', John O'Leary 212 Exercises 274 Further reading 275 Notes 275 184 185 188 190 193 204
. ; '" IX 8 Social behaviour and 'moral panics' 216 Teenage pregnancies and drugs 217 1 'Drug-taking Britain is "worst in Europe"', Victoria Fletcher and Ian Brodie 218 Crime and the fear of crime 219 2 'Bolt-down Britain', Tim Rayment 219 Marriage 223 3 'Pupils taught marriage is "just one option" for family life', Judith O'Reilly 224 Racism 226 4 'Is Britain really a nation of racists?', Stephen Bevan and Nicholas Rufford 226 5 'We should shut down the race industry', Melanie Phillips 234 Moral concern 236 6 'Our moral wasteland...', David Selbourne 237 7 'Teenage mums are all our business...', Tony Blair 240 Religious behaviour 242 8 'O go all ye faithful', Rebecca Fowler 243 9 'All God's children', Rebecca Fowler 246 Exercises 249 Further reading 249 Notes 250 Index 251