Watched this, and thought it quite eye-opening, in that I didn't know England had, as the wrap concluded, such a 'rich anti-social history'! The documentary maker's list of England's Seven Sins were, in order:
1 Binge drinking
2 Consumerism
3 Hooliganism
4 Slaggishness
5 Rudeness
6 Violence
7 Bigotry
Each was addressed in historical and current terms by 126 Romford raucous night-outers and townsfolk of today. Not very much has changed over the centuries, the documentary opined.
In 1604 Parliament enacted a statute concerning drunkeness, 1657 there were tut-tuttings about heavy-drinking women with loose morals, Parliament made another valiant effort to control the sozzled with the Gin Act in 1736, all too no overt effect.
Social commentators noted in 1719 that if two street urchins began a scuffle, passersby would form a ring around them, urging them on to a full-scale fight, and wagering on the winner. Boswell wrote in 1762 that 'insolence was part of the democratic process' - in other words, the slow rise of the lower classes was marked by a decline in automatic deference. A writer in 1899 huffed and puffed about 'the young hooligan'.
Our bigoted side showed as early as 1593 when an anti-immigration tract likened immigrants 'like the Jews you eat us up as bread'. (A warm welcome there, then.) Throughout the late 1890s, Jews were blamed for stealing 'English' jobs and reviled as 'this foreign flood'. The 'alien invasion' came from 'the scum of Europe', and at the turn of the 19th and 20th century there were physical attacks on refugees and destitute aliens, with a strong stepping-up in anti-immigration propaganda.
Boswell might be pleased to note that the democratic process seems to be continuing in full swing on any Friday or Saturday night in any town, while one of the Romford residents ventured "Why are we like it? Because it's our culture." And it probably is, just as are scones and strawberry jam, roast beef and Yorkshire pud, and Morris dancing.
1 Binge drinking
2 Consumerism
3 Hooliganism
4 Slaggishness
5 Rudeness
6 Violence
7 Bigotry
Each was addressed in historical and current terms by 126 Romford raucous night-outers and townsfolk of today. Not very much has changed over the centuries, the documentary opined.
In 1604 Parliament enacted a statute concerning drunkeness, 1657 there were tut-tuttings about heavy-drinking women with loose morals, Parliament made another valiant effort to control the sozzled with the Gin Act in 1736, all too no overt effect.
Social commentators noted in 1719 that if two street urchins began a scuffle, passersby would form a ring around them, urging them on to a full-scale fight, and wagering on the winner. Boswell wrote in 1762 that 'insolence was part of the democratic process' - in other words, the slow rise of the lower classes was marked by a decline in automatic deference. A writer in 1899 huffed and puffed about 'the young hooligan'.
Our bigoted side showed as early as 1593 when an anti-immigration tract likened immigrants 'like the Jews you eat us up as bread'. (A warm welcome there, then.) Throughout the late 1890s, Jews were blamed for stealing 'English' jobs and reviled as 'this foreign flood'. The 'alien invasion' came from 'the scum of Europe', and at the turn of the 19th and 20th century there were physical attacks on refugees and destitute aliens, with a strong stepping-up in anti-immigration propaganda.
Boswell might be pleased to note that the democratic process seems to be continuing in full swing on any Friday or Saturday night in any town, while one of the Romford residents ventured "Why are we like it? Because it's our culture." And it probably is, just as are scones and strawberry jam, roast beef and Yorkshire pud, and Morris dancing.
