THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLAND

'"I've got a theory about the political structure of England...I believe that fundamentally it's a matter of Cavalier and Roundhead still. The argument ended when the king's head came off; but the attitudes remain. I believe that the two opposing attitudes are still the main sources of all our political thought and behaviour. Sometimes the pull is one way, sometimes another; but between them they dictate our policies and legislation....

It isn't a question of one side being better than the other," he went on. "In the long run I dare say there's been just as much courage, honour and political genius demonstrated by the puritan-nonconformist-dogooder Roundheads as by the easy-going-laissez-faire-romantic Cavaliers. Allegiance cuts right across Party and class. There are Roundheads on my side of the House and Cavaliers in Labour; there are costermongers and tarts who are Cavaliers like you, and peers who are Roundheads. Both side produce rulers and both sides produce rebels. England wouldn't be what she is if she didn't draw her inspiration from both sources.'"

John Moore, The Waters Under the Earth, p.159.

THE BBC

'...a cross between a civil service, a powerful moral force, and an amateur theatrical company that wasn't too sure where next week's money was coming from...'

Penelope Fitgerald, Human Voices, p.43. 

THE CHOICES AROUND IMMIGRATION

'The people of any nation will always want the right to control their own borders and decide on the direction of their culture, and England is no exception. But that majority has its own questions to answer, too. In a nation whose population is ageing, and whose people consistently demand more and cheaper stuff, who is going to do the heavy lifting? If you want a cheap nanny and your cut-price supermarket vegetables picked in all weathers for the minimum wage, then someone has to do it. There is no doubt that large-scale immigration changes the shape, texture and potentially the identity of a nation, but so do out-of-town retail parks, coffee chains, theme pubs, second homes, gentrified cities and privatised streets. If you don't want the population movement, you don't get the easy consumer lifestyle it facilitates. Which will you choose?' 

Paul Kingsnorth, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, p.206. 

ENGLISH WEATHER

'Why would anyone want to go to live abroad when they can live in several countries at once just by being in England? Yesterday was hot, clammy and humid, with sunshine and dramatic cloud. I might have been in Singapore, fighting for breath. This morning, it is another country, soft and damp after rain, cool and breezy. Last night we were in monsoon India, and, according to the weather forecast, we shall be in the sunny South of France this weekend.' 

Roger Deakin, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm, p.190.