72 Baps Connie

Baps!
Originally uploaded by moonnio

There's an old Victoria Wood sketch that shows just how emotionally distant the British are as a race. Two women talking and it becomes apparent that one has just (and only just) had her husband die

"What are you going to do?" asks the friend

"72 Baps Connie, I'll slice you butter" says the recently widowed one.

It's a better sketch than that - but not a truer one. As a race the British tend to true to solve a related problem rather than deal with the emotion of the issue at hand. It's about control of course. I think. So maybe not 'of course'

It's this emotional distance that gives us the famed "stiff upper lip" and it's why the world was stunned when Diana's death was greeted with an outpouring of emotion and a bashing for the one person (the Queen) who behaved like a Brit through it all. It's why the world wasn't stunned when 9/11 sent America into therapy but the British bombings sent Londoners determinedly to subway stops accross the capital complaining only about the delays.

Why am I wittering on about this. Because being British is fine until disaster after disaster heaps upon you - then reserve and resolve become quiet desperation and emptiness and you end up in the potting shed with your wicker work and a bottle of Barbiturates.

So I've decide to take Ikea's advice to "Stop being so British" and instead to be a little more in touch, if no more touchy feely. So watch out all you may find me strangely connected to the world.