Travel styles
I finally got on my plane to London and found myself face-to-face with the Foreign Secretary, returning from his time at the his in the locker above him.
How wonderful and democratic and low-key and BRITISH it is that this is I must admit I felt a real British pride as we hobbled late into London Heathrow and on the tarmac for a place to be found to park the plane... and all these inconveniences were suffered by all of us together, albeit at different ends of the plane - like the Royal Family staying in London during the Blitz.
I am a great admirer of the White House and State Department travel arrangements - I love it that they have big planes and they bring all their own fuel and they close down airspace and all the rest of it. I particularly like the US arrangement of journalists travelling with the pool not having to show passports to any foreigners on any occasion.
But there is still room for the low-key British way of doing things.
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The Brits have had hundreds of years of travelling etc, during the days of the Empire.
However, like us Joe Public, the thought of business trips abroad and staying in hotels sounds great, once done many many times and travelling several times zones in one day and flying all the way back again...the gloss tends to fade.
I thinks the US are still in the "wow this is neat" stage....perhaps after several hundred years of globle trotting and dealing with local and global issues at a moments notice, they may take a similar stance.
Or perhaps they just like to put "on a show"...which is more in keeping with their character.
American school kids are "exposed" to being in the lime light far more than UK kids. Consequently they are more confident in public and like to express themselves more, and do so without fear. How many UK school children would like to get up on stage and perform or make a speach...very few i doubt, unlike the US. I do admire their "built-in" confidence.
We Brits are still conservative, even after hundreds of years of trying not to be.
Ergo, it is just simply a cultural thing...lucky if you can 'adopt' both at will.
The luxury of being anonymous is that when you travel in public, people won't know you from a bag of sour apples. I'll bet if David Miliband introduced himself to strangers at the airport, most would have shrugged their shoulders and wondered who the hell he is? On the other hand, if his "opposite" Condi Rice were to travel in public, most people would recognize her and sooner or later someone would probably try to assassinate her. Better for her and the rest of us that she travel in government secured arrangements with plenty of Secret Service personnel to guard her.
Now how do you suppose someone whom you would assume is anonymous to the public like Nick Robinson, chief political editor at Â鶹Éç whose face is hardly known outside his office would be confused with someone of public importance and responsibility at a London bar to the extent that he'd have a plate of curried chips thrown at him by a drunk for not having brought the troops home from Iraq already? (That's the way he told the story on his blog site.) There must have been more than a little bit of bragging and bravado there somewhere maybe after about the third or fourth round of drinks that day.
From what I've read of the debate in Britain over recent events including the Lisbon treaty, Miliband's delayed presence would not be much cause for concern to many. Anyway, perhaps you'll also run into him on a London bus...or the underground. Nah, on second thought on his home turf, he probably has a chauffeured limo at his disposal. Egalitarianism only goes so far. Still it seems rather odd that someone from a land where pomp and ceremony of the head of state, a reigning Monarch, is unsurpassed anywhere in the world would describe the pedestrian mode of travel of the foreign secretary as "wonderful and democratic and low-key and BRITISH" unless they refused to acknowledge that in their society, that person is considered as lowly as the rest of the rabble not born to The Purple no matter what their temporary responsibilities are in life.
PATHETIC!!! To feel pride for such an incredibly mediocre experience.
TYPICALLY BRITISH!
LOSERS!!!!!
I'm a Brit who's lived in the US for ten years now. You know, it's odd that the country which penned the phrase, "all men are created equal", is now so driven by gauche displays of personal status. The admirable egalitarianism which once defined American society, seems to have vanished completely - driven out by a seemingly obsessive need for the individual to prove himself better than all the rest. I sometimes wonder it really betrays declining self-confidence. That would be a shame. Hope I'm wrong on that.
In Britain, on the other hand, I think it's lovely that the Queen still travels around in a rickety old diesel train. It's so wonderfully understated in a 'nothing-to-prove' sort-of way. So British. Now, some of my anti-royalist American acquaintances have always had this odd notion that the Queen travels everywhere in her own jewel-encrusted, gold-plated, jumbo jet! They have a hard time believing me when I tell them that no, that sort of pretentious nonsense is more of an American thing!
Kids in the UK *are* quite reserved. Ours got a lot of disapproving stares from older women, particularly, when we were there. Being Australian their voices are quite distinctive.
We were also surprised at the number of people who observed how confident our children seemed, presumably by comparison with British kids. There are definite cultural differences that shape the adults they become, between countries.
I travel regularly, internally in Australia, and I often notice very senior government figures travelling in business class on normal, scheduled domestic flights here. I suspect the difference between ours and politicians in the US has a lot to do with the trappings of power that are assumed to be the right of politicians in the US... that they "require" massive fleets and convoys to go anywhere.
Then again, they do have an enviable record of assassinating their very senior political figures. Perhaps it's just a commonsense survival urge, in their case?
There is another angle to all this travel by the press aboard with the politicians in that they have become complacent and often follow the official line and never ask hard questions. The so called secret and unnamed sources are often the one and the same that misled and spread to propaganda. Prime example is the Bush fraud war on Iraq and the propaganda of terror hype, fomentation of hate, fear and republican patriotic feeding frenzy to control the hearts and minds of the misled and the gullible. The press that travels with Bush always buy this BS line sink and hook.
Yes indeed that is the American way of captive audience.
oh by Jingo, is this satire or is he serious..
I assume both the Â鶹Éç and the Government, ever eager to save taxpayer's money, had you and Milliband travelling by cattle class.
Next time you see Milliband, ask him if he's ever flown on the Queen's flight. and I'll not hold my breath that much will have changed.
The Brits should never lose their conservatism. It's what makes them such great level-headed allies.
I was beginning to worry that the Brits were going wobbly on us...
OK - the big question: were our government and Â鶹Éç employees at the back of the plane, in the middle, or in the front?
AGB
@ John Kecsmar: I'll bite that it's a cultural thing, but to call America "young" is ridiculous. After all, compared to China, Britain is a mere whippersnapper.
@Chui: I agree totally -- proximity is not the same as "access." Still less does it seem conducive to meaningful reporting.
I also suspect that British ministers are safer than American secretaries -- planes of your own means huge targets, and closing down airspace is a klaxon blaring "here we come!"
The razzamatazz of closing air space - own fuel ( in case the terrorists sabotage it) etc. is reminiscent of a circus and on the inside are a bunch of clowns; jugglers; bareback riders; with of course the ringmaster. Circus's are far better observed from the outside where they seem entertaining - inside they can be overpowering.
Glad to hear the Brits appreciate riding in cattle cars. Makes more room for us American boobs.
Methinks it is only truly democratic if you and Miliband were both sitting in coach.
Actually, the cool way to travel within Europe is increasingly by High Speed Train. That way you get from city centre to city centre quicker, cheaper and with room to move around. You also avoid airports altogether, which suites me just fine - especially the British ones. Thats where you get treated like cattle.
Having given it some further thought and considering that beyond the fact that with a Royal family, an aristocracy, an upper chamber of Parliament being the House of Lords, an official Church and all of the members of these institutions having privileged status while the government by the rabble, of the rabble, and for the rabble sits in the back of the bus with the rabble they govern (if you don't believe they are rabble, just watch Prime Minister's Question Time and they will leave no doubts they are all out of the gutter showing no more respect to each other or for their own dignity than sewer rats) there is one more reason why they should travel in and among the general public and that is....that their disappearance through any mishap would be of no great loss to their society, their individual value to it being of little importance. :-)
BTW Mr. Webb, did you and Mr. Miliband travel together in coach with the lowest caste of untouchables or were you upgraded to business class ? Did you have a nice chat during your flight discussing the issues of the day, you giving him the benefit of your wisdom on how to save the world....from Â鶹Éç's perspective of course?
Oh one last impertinent question, do the judges in British courtrooms still wear their horse hair wigs and Santa Claus suits and are they still addressed by everyone as "My Lord?" Guthrie Featherstone, QCMP my stereotype of the quintessential enlightened British judge :-)
"But there is still room for the low-key British way of doing things." I noticed that the last time I saw TV news footage of drunken British soccer hooligans breaking up Spain after a soccer match.
As a US citizen, I would never fly in a jewel encrusted plane. Who would see them 7 miles up? Jewels are made to be worn - not locked away in some silly damp tower. :)