Jekyll and Hyde are, after all, British

Dears,

To understand this article, I think I need to give you a bit of personal background.

England and I

Born in Colombia in 1962, I moved to England for my studies in 1980 and left for Switzerland in 1987, with two British degrees and, among other things, my “O” Level English Grade “B”. For those who don’t go out much, the “O” Level English is an exam that native Brits (aka native speakers) need to take when they leave school and is part of the requirements to enter University. Most of my friends got a “C” … I myself achieved a “B” after only one year in the country, which I have not let anyone forget. My English teacher told me I had missed an “A” by inches, because of the oral exam, as my Hispanic accent was (and has remained) pretty strong.

These seven years are only part, the most visible part, of a life-long association (or should I say “love affair”?) with England. Love Affair? Perhaps not. No passion, we are British … well, sort of, remember Edward VIII and the Abdication …

As a child in far-away Colombia, I grew up on a healthy diet of “Commando” comic books and films where dashing Brits (sometimes speaking with American accents because they were Hollywood productions) were always facing incredible odds. At times when my contemporaries were playing football, I was shooting German planes over the channel, defending Khartoum with Gordon, marching into Central Asia with Sean Connery and Michael Caine (aka Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan of Kipling’s fame) or fighting the Zulus at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift. As my mentor and teacher John Hart wrote in a review of my essays, “my heroes were British”. My dear departed uncle, Andy Koppel, once said that I had an English heart, whatever he might have meant by that. Nothing very healthy, I imagine, if one feeds oneself on “The English breakfast”. Thus, by the time I made it to England in 1980, I was already an Anglophile (aka, a gullible foreigner). In more ways than one, I was coming home.

My seven years in England (Oxford, Hatfield, Birmingham) were successful. As I mentioned, I achieved the qualifications I had come to obtain. I also made many friends and was, as they say, “fully integrated”. On my last year in the country, when starting an M.Sc. at The University of Birmingham, I was asked to take a test of English. I pointed out that just a month before I had been awarded a BSc, and also had an “O” Level English. “Mr. Rodriguez, we are only trying to help. We would like all non-native speakers to take a test, and then depending on the results we will provide free English language tuition, to ensure that you do not fail your M.Sc.”.

So, I did not argue and took the test. A few days later, I was asked to pay a visit to the Dean of the School of Languages. I was quite bemused, and later most amused. The man said: “Mr Rodriguez, according to these results, you are a native speaker! I would like to know how that is. Were you raised in the United States, was your mother English?”.

No, no, officially I am not a native speaker. I was brought up in Spanish and my English only became strong at the age of 16, after a 3-month language course at the University of Southern Mississippi. But in my seven years in the UK I spoke English all the time (virtually no Spanish since telephone calls were very expensive) and to this day in many situations I am more comfortable in English than in my native Spanish or any other language. French should be my strongest, after 25 years in French-speaking Switzerland, but comes a close second.

I left Britain in 1987 because, as a student, I was not allowed to stay. Three companies (SAP, ICI and Pilkington) and (believe it or not!) the European Commission were interested in me but the paperwork involved to get me a work permit was too complex and they said no. “Get your own work permit and we will have you”, which was a Catch 22 situation.

Fortunately, I was offered a job in Switzerland, where I have been for the last 32 years: 25 in the French-speaking part, 7 in the German-speaking part. I still read a lot of British history, but have been out of touch with the country and my only source of information is what we get in the international news. Contact with British friends is not frequent anymore.

You never know what would have happened had I stayed in the UK, or gone back to Colombia, but I have had a good life in Switzerland. It is probably the richest, safest and nicest place on earth … and don’t believe what sour foreigners tell you, the Swiss are great people, at both sides of the Sarine/R?sti barrier.

Fast-forward to 2019

Last weekend, I visited the UK for the first time in six years. Since 1987, I had been back several times, but only for a few days. This visit, like the previous ones, was too short to reflect on what has changed or not ... have things got better, worse, etc ... Here I cannot comment.

What triggered this article was the news I heard last Monday. The Swiss radio commented on a UN Report which points out to horrid living standards in the UK, in terms of education, health, food, etc. Apparently, as much as 20% of the population lives in pretty bad conditions. What amazed the observers was that the UK is now the 5th economy in the world ... and the economy is kind-of flourishing or has flourished since the reforms started by Margaret Thatcher in the now distant 1980s-1990s. As a nation, the UK is rich, but it has now gone like the United States ... massive differences between the wealthy and the underclass. If these things are happening in such a wealthy country, concluded the journalist, it is because it is a society choice. You are not talking of a basket case country; you are talking of a major nation. Austerity and cuts in social services are the source of this. Britain is a democracy. If this is happening, it is because the British want it this way!

This made me think of the advanced state of automation I saw in London. You move around with just a credit card, there are very few underground or shop or airport staff. What do we do with people who are not very "intelligent"? There is less and less place for manual or administrative labour. How does society deal with these people? How can we provide them with a decent standard of living, and also with the opportunity of pulling their weight and contributing to society? Welfare handouts cannot be the answer, and on top of that, in the UK these handouts have become inadequate.

And then it got me thinking, and it made me very sad ... In 1945, there was a General Election which got Clement Attlee and the Labour party to power. It was a landslide. The British embraced the dream of building a society fit for the heroes who endured and won the war. What happened to that dream? What about the welfare state ... free health and education for all? These are the basic preconditions for equal opportunities in life. It used to be axiomatic that a full-blooded Englishman would always stand up for the underdog. Probably not so in today’s London, I fear.

In the 1980s, when I studied in the UK, University education was free for British subjects, and they would even get a maintenance grant to finance them during their courses. I was dismayed to realise that many students would opt out of courses because “they were not enjoying them”. Obviously, if something is free you probably don’t appreciate it. However, after reflexion I concluded that the British model, as it then was, was probably best. Today, my understanding is that this is gone and that University students have to pay horrendously expensive fees, even if they are British. The old country has gone colonial (sorry, I mean American) also in this respect.

Englishmen will always believe that "the country is going / has gone to the dogs". Historians studying medieval texts will tell you that this has been the case since the beginning of English history, irrespective of the nation’s true state. Today, the UN confirms that Britain has gone to the dogs for at least 20% of its population.

When I arrived in the UK, in 1980, Margaret Thatcher had been in power for a year. The country had been in chaos in the 1970s (the Winter of Discontent and all that), the Labour party had become an embarrassment (too far to the left) and it was clear that something had to be done. Thatcher turned the ship around, and I admired and supported her at the time. However, we have gone too far. We have gone Jekyll and Hyde ... from one extreme (over-protection) to the other (the survival of the fittest). Darwin was also British (but he only reported on “the survival of the fittest”, he did not advocate it!).

The success (and I would say, the greatness) of a civilization is measured not only on economic achievement but also on how it takes care of its weakest members.

When I look at England, I feel like the middle-aged man who meets his childhood sweat-heart after many years. Gosh … what happened to this girl? She now looks old, fat and ugly … just like me!!! I guess in middle age I have become a bit like General De Gaulle, who used to love France but despise the French. In my case, I worship England as an ideal and my heroes will always be British, but as for the real UK … well, that’s another matter. Happy to be in Switzerland.

The country might have gone to the dogs for a sizable minority, but one must be fair. Britain wants to leave the EU mainly because thousands of European citizens have immigrated in the last few years. Whatever its limitations, the UK still attracts scores of foreigners. If you are strong, you will succeed … 

Cecil Rhodes used to say that “To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life”. I would not go that far, but one must never lose sight of some basics. It is a known fact that God is an Englishman … and very upper class.

Be seeing you,