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Greggs sausage rolls, XL bullies, “cheeky” Tesco runs and a holibob to Magaluf: welcome to Keir Starmer’s miserable meal-deal Britain. This summer’s collective swoon over “Britishcore” — a wry celebration of the groaningly mundane aspects of British culture, which reached its nadir last week with a Guardian listicle — perfectly captures the cynicism which has come to define the early days of the new Labour Government. Gone is the hope of Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia; gloom is in, and our country’s leadership is as cheerful as a wet weekend.
Despite Starmer’s insistence at Labour conference that “the politics of hope is ours”, the pervading mood was one of trepidation. During his speech, he emphasised the hard times ahead, defensively dismissing protest as “mere glitter on a shirt”, in a sly reference to a stage invader who last year lobbed sparkles at him during the same event. But might that glittery shirt represent some of the dash, some of the razzle-dazzle, that Starmer’s government and the nation at large so sorely lack?
Earlier this month, a “trends specialist” for TikTok described “an explosion of British pop culture on the global stage”. Sparked by the success of Charli XCX, the Oasis reunion and the popularity of B&M-frequenting microinfluencers, Britishcore is an improbable international fetish for comfortable mediocrity, an opportunity for the terminally online to cleave to a vanishing sense of community through grunting about the dwindling size of Freddos. And there is an in-built sense of nostalgia, of reassurance in joking about the same bands, biscuits and television shows — Balamory is another New Labour-era revenant — that were around during a time of genuine prosperity and hope.
The critical trigger of Britishcore was Brat, Charli XCX’s year-defining hyperpop album, which did away with the aspirational, romantic affectations of American pop (see Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter) in favour of sulkily Estuary-accented lyrics about “sweat marks on my clothes”. The UK charts have long loved grit — Mike Skinner was on about “sex, drugs and on the dole” 22 years ago — but now American influencers, from the land of gloss and polish, want a slice of the stale Victoria sponge. Unlikely as it seems, Yanks are yearning for the Morrison’s salad bar, the delights of Home Bargains and the opportunity to wear the shirt of an underperforming provincial football team. It should be considered depressing that the cultural thrust of our hobbled kingdom is now relying on exporting ironic “icons” of shitness; if all we can offer is steak bakes and songs about chlamydia, let the tanks roll in.
If Britishcore rests on a principle of charming shitness — the vibe equivalent of a cheese-and-pineapple hedgehog at a children’s birthday party — then our politics at least has one of those qualities down pat. Shunning the cheeriness of freshly minted New Labour, Starmer and his Cabinet have spent their first months in power driving home the message that we are approaching an abyss. We’re told that every pillar of the state — policing, prisons, healthcare, education — is in terrible disrepair. Instead of signalling optimism and soft power, the message of Britishcore and its contingent Labour government is misery; a nation in unstoppable decline.
A case in point: this year’s Labour Party conference was infected by a glum keep-cautious-and-carry-on attitude, with both Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves using their speeches to emphasise the “broken” state of the country. Rayner’s opening speech was the clearest indication yet that this was no 1997: rather than centring on a hopeful vision of the future, it bitterly clung to Conservative crimes with dig after dig at “the lies, division, scapegoating, and the unfunded tax cuts”.
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SubscribeAll of this drudgery and mediocrity has long been celebrated by the great Half Man Half Biscuit. But they’re so Wirralean (or ‘Wools’ for Scouse readers) that you can’t really even call them English.
The Kinks were doing that long before Half Man Half Biscuit. It is a long standing ‘British value’ to celebrate the mundane.
As for hope era of hope and optimism under Blair – that directly led to the dire times since 2008. So I’m fine with the current dose of ‘pessimistic’ realism rather than pretending everything’s fine when it’s clearly going to the dogs.
For me, the Kinks were head and shoulders above their contemporaries (even though I didn’t exist when they were at their most popular). I’d also put a shout in for Mark E. Smith.
Blair essentially ruined popular culture by creating an illusion of prosperity and growth. Everything became bland and recycled. The internet didn’t help either. At least creative types had something to moan about under Thatcher and the music spoke for itself.
Before my time too, though personally I’d put The Kinks above the Stones, but not The Beatles. I’m not a fan of The Fall though – the musics too unpolished for me and I don’t like his singing (but that’s just personal taste).
Yes, an illusion of prosperity and growth through housing debt and immigration – most people probably still believe the illusion though.
Simon Cowell has a lot to do with the destuction if British music – he is the music industry equivalent of Blair.
They’re English. I’ve never even been to the Wirral but I’ve never struggled with any of their lyrics.
And what The Fall and HMHB (and several other post-punk bands) did was to take the banal and turn it into something brilliant. ‘English Scheme’ and ‘Dukla Prague Away Kit’ are works of genius.
Brit-Pop was the beginning of the end: Blur were too self-conscious and well, too London, and Oasis were just a Mott the Hoople tribute band.
Downhill all the way since then.
I read that Guardian article. Toe-curling stuff.
I had a job keeping my bacon and eggs down.
So you were having the Full Britishcore Breakfast?
Toe-curling is what that awful rag does best
“Earlier this month, a ‘trends specialist’ for TikTok described ‘an explosion of British pop culture on the global stage.’”
So it must be true, then.
Writing from an Anglophone country outside the UK, I can assure Ms Sowerby that nobody here gives a rodent’s rear end about “Britishcore.” And I’d venture to suggest that this indifference is world-wide – and perhaps even extends to most people in the UK itself.
hmm another non article. This is sort of the level of a Facebook post from a media studies student
This author writes ok-ish articles, but they really need editing down. I’m currently rewatching Fresh Meat, and I can’t help imagining that Oregon is the author.
Just like the “special relationship” of which only one participant is aware.
This navel-gazing over the signifiers of British identity was fashionable last time Labour were in power too. I think Gordon Brown even commissioned a study to discover a set of “British Values”.
Yes, as I recall he did. No idea what, if anything, came of this. I don’t know whether we need a study on this, but in my view we urgently need a discussion of British/European and/or Western values in order that we might go about defending them.
Isn’t defending them illegal ?
Apparently so on recent evidence
Life’s a tragedy or a comedy’ or rather it’s full original was ‘the world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.’
Shouldn’t we see more of the comedy in much of this and delight in it? You can find humour in the absurdity of human behaviour or the incongruities of daily life. And what a brilliant British trait.
Now do we think the Autocrats and Theocrats allow political satire and fun-poking of leaders on Friday night TV?
I mean even my American and German friends struggle a bit with good old British irony. Good. Only works if not everyone gets it.
There’s Sir Kier’s light at the end of the tunnel. “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Though that was the vision of the anchoress, Lady Julian of Norwich, it is evident that Sir Kier is a man of faith. He just doesn’t recognise it.
But for the moment we will have to wear the hair shirt of ‘broken’ Britain and Labour’s ascetic remedies. That will kill off the complacent comfort and the limited horizons of ‘Britishcore’. Chastise those members of the British body that the Guardian detects as those of little faith, all to free the British soul.
I don’t think I understand Britain anymore: before the election I thought I detected a wish to be treated like adults and be told the truth by your politicians instead of the fluffy Boris boosterism and Truss-like harakiri stunts.
Now Labour is telling you like it is (and I have no reason to doubt that the current situation is rubbish and miserable) and now there’s complaining that they are “too miserable”.
What is it that you want?
As for the yearning for a collective identity to converge around – that is going to require the British to have an actual, serious nationwide conversation and divest yourselves of certain characteristics which are firmly anchored into the British brain.
The dislike of direct communication, for example. The tendency towards understatement. The reflex of scoffing at anything that is serious or – God forbid – intellectual (“Come off it, mate!”) and making it all into a bit of a joke. The social media obsession which has abridged the national attention span to 130 characters.
If you can’t get over that, then “conversations” along the lines of Dave and Very British Problems are what you’re going to be stuck with.
What do we want?
Is it to be ‘great again’? Which was the psychology behind leaving the EU: the vainglorious need to pose as standing alone, 1940-style; a retreat into our core narrative.
Unfortunately, though, in 2024, that leaves us standing alone under the unforgiving glare of a Morrisons fluorescent light, cheeky steak bake in hand. Not a good look.
Hence ‘Britcore’: aka making the best of a bad job.
Your confusion with Britishness is easy to explain. When there was no internet and people worked longer hours, instructions came from London and were obeyed. London was all powerful; London was synonymous with Britain. Now there is a major swing away from London and I would venture to add that the swing away from London-ness was occurring at the time you left the country.
Historically, London-ness is what you describe. London-ness dislikes any contact between people. For educated people in London, litotes was a way of life, as was the cheeky-chappie, “Come off it, mate!” Perhaps Liverpool developed these habits, as well. In fact, you are describing Britishness from the outsider’s point of view. Ask someone in Britain to define German-ness or Austrian-ness.
You might be right about the London-ness on a general level, but the things I describe are what I observe from interacting with my family and friends back in the UK – all of whom are outside of London.
Obviously it’s a bit of a leap to transfer my experience in my own surroundings to the entire country but as a once-insider-now-outsider kind of person (I admit it), then I do notice certain common modes of behaviour. And despite the 20 years away, I think I can still claim to have more of an idea where they spring from as opposed to an “always outsider”.
And honestly – when the chronic awkwardness (which LL correctly mentions below) means that it’s hard to have conversations about even the most uncontroversial of things (my family WhatsApp group is a pretty excellent example of how this aversion and the classic British passive aggressive silence as a tool of relationship diplomacy manifest themselves in the virtual sphere) then I honestly don’t know how you are going to get out of this rut.
Good reply. Thank you.
The main problem is the narrative from the “centre”. There’s whole swathes of the UK that don’t buy into it and are temperamentally averse to the kind of schtick that PS writes about.
This has probably been as true in past eras, perhaps stretching back as far as the Norman Conquest, as it is now. The narrative is, of course, controlled and always has been; whether by your local Norman baron, the Anglican church or their modern-day equivalents in the media. The aim: compliance.
The voices you may hear in Comments are more indicative of how we feel about ourselves. We’re an awkward lot, and proud of it.
Jonathon Coe wrote a plangent piece on the decline of seriousness in British political life back in 2013 in the London Review of Books.
He traced it’s genealogy from the Cambridge Footlights Revue through Peter Cook and Beyond the Fringe, That Was the Week That Was, on to Have I Got News For You.
The article is now free to read
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n14/jonathan-coe/sinking-giggling-into-the-sea
I am sorry, but Labour is not telling us as it is.
It is mostly telling lies and even if telling the truth, having no plan to fix the problem because of their voting base.
So, Labour won mostly because of Muslim vote and split on the “right”.
Are they going to fix immigration?
Of course not. They will flood country with more incompatible immigrats to increase pool of their voters, while jailing people who tweet against it.
Labour told us the truth about NHS in prof Darzi report.
So stuff level are up by 19% but productivity down by 12%.
Meaning 30% productivity drop per employee.
But Labour gave huge pay rise to junior doctors.
What private business would award this level of failure with huge pay rises.
What about not implementing free speech act?
But introducing Online safety Bill to shut down critics of left dogmas.
Then final nail in Labour coffin is basic greed and corruption at the top starting with Starmer.
Already many of my lefty acquintences are saying they regret voting Labour.
Polls say 17% of voters.
I bet in year time it will be at least 30%.
Turning this around will be Starmer’s great challenge.
Unfortunately, Starmer doesn’t think so. Starmer thinks his great challenge is to revive the zombie institutions of the British state by showering more money on the vested interests within them and the hangers-on outside whilst throwing anyone who complains in prison. Putney, Chiswick, Highgate and Oxford will continue to get richer, the North and West will continue to crumble and the mass of people will continue to be depressed.
Just a reminder that despite its many glories, an awful lot of the 1990s was also unmitigated naffness and trash …
At least it was an era of humour and hedonism. Far less of a nanny state and even the politically correct, who were almost universally mocked, were nowhere near as influential as the now ubiquitous and terrifyingly powerful Wokeists.
What nonsense. British stoicism and humour will get us through the next five awful years . “Always look on the bright side of life” will become our anthem as we wait for electorate’s crushing verdict on this mob. Let’s hope the right of centre has reunited by then and we can return to sane government.
I am sorry but how unification of right of centre would happen and if it did then on what terms?
We had Conservative government for 9 years (I discount coalition years) and they refused to implement wishes of British people about Brexit (real one) and immigration.
So either Conservatives swallow Reform (unlikely) or Reform swallows Conservatives with One Nation Tories joining Labour or LibDem.
Either way, I can not see how Reform wins enough votes to change the course of the nation.
Unfortunately (I am immigrant myself) British people decided to commit ethnic and cultural suicide even when still great majority.
Obviously woke left takeover of all levers of state (including MSM) end their alliance with Big businesses globalised elite does not help.
People of Estern Europe eventually defeated communist idiocy.
But it was not before great damage to the countries and much violence.
I think the same awaits the West.
The votes cast in the last election show the centre of political gravity of this country is just right of centre. It most certainly is not left – see the fall in Labour votes with only circa one in five of those entitled to vote actually voting for them. The Election was lost to Labour because the right was split. There was no surge in support for Labour- although Starmer likes to pretend there was. After the coming five years of misrule I have no doubt that Labour will lose yet more votes and could be reduced to a small dump – provided the right gets its act together under a credible leader.
Don’t forget that the Left is also split between Labour, Liberals and Greens… and the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
Thanks – and whilst that’s true the Nationalists will always remain so .
There can be no optimism in a Blairite Britain. Broon ‚n Bliar screwed the UK full on. Hope will come only when all their works are comprehensivley undone.
Sorry Poppy, I must be on a different planet or certainly in a different era. Apart from the gloom I don’t have a clue what you are banging on about.
Britishcore. Blimey…. misery and chips indeed. I’m going to have to watch an episode of Miss Marple just to get over it. OK some people got improbably murdered but gorgeous scenery in those days.
Never heard of “Britishcore” – and glad of it…
‘Greggs sausage rolls, XL bullies’
Greggs cheese and bacon’s are better. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with Greggs. It’s very successful for a reason.
‘Earlier this month, a “trends specialist” for TikTok described “an explosion of British pop culture on the global stage”. Sparked by the success of Charli XCX, the Oasis reunion and the popularity of B&M-frequenting microinfluencers, Britishcore is an improbable international fetish for comfortable mediocrity’
I don’t think you can describe Oasis or Charlie xcx as ‘mediocre’. B & M is excellent cheap and cheerful shopping therapy for ladies like me that get high on scented candle purchases (to overcome the smell of greggs, dogs, house rabbits or cats) or new rugs or that thing you never knew you needed but it’s only a fiver so why not.
Britain has always been very good at exporting our weird and wonderful culture, this should celebrated, not slagged off.
‘) in favour of sulkily Estuary-accented lyrics about “sweat marks on my clothes”.’
This is at least a realistic reflection of how most women return from their working day. It’s much easier for me to get behind these lyrics than those of taylor Swift. My seven year old likes Taylor Swift. I prefer Charlie xcx.
‘the delights of Home Bargains’
Again. Home bargains is delightful. I go to b and m though because it’s closer.
‘the vibe equivalent of a cheese-and-pineapple hedgehog at a children’s birthday party’
I actually consider this an essential to any family gathering. They are actually fun to make with kids too. I think this lady has her vibes all wrong.
,’ not even a frisson of fascism was enough to lift the mood: Ann Widdecombe, another Nineties throwback, launched into a diatribe about setting up heavily euphemistic “secure reception centres” for migrants’
Ah, the author must be a Labour voter. Probably one that has never done any actual ‘Labour.’ Drowning in liberal white guilt. I don’t think Anne widdecombe is a fascist. It would be refreshing if the authors that frequent the London press scene could stop labelling people concerned with immigration as fascist. I’m thinking of turning into a fascist just to demonstrate what fascism really looks like.
‘It should be considered depressing that the cultural thrust of our hobbled kingdom is now relying on exporting ironic “icons” of shitness; if all we can offer is steak bakes and songs about chlamydia, let the tanks roll in’
You are very ungrateful for all the fabulous things Britain has to offer. I think there is a fair amount more on offer than steak bakes and our music has always been excellent. The article is beginning to sound slightly snobbish. You really have it in for greggs.
‘We’re told that every pillar of the state — policing, prisons, healthcare, education — is in terrible disrepair’
It always is. That’s because the fascist Tony Blair destroyed your services.
.’ For now, we must watch spectres of the Nineties return, zombified, to the national conversation — the same jokes, the same bands, even some of the same MPs, but none of that critical sense of hope or humour.’
The author lacks hope and humour I feel. A renewal of British culture should be celebrated. The nineties were brilliant.
B-
The hoo-ha over British values tends to be cyclical and seems to coincide with a Tory defeat at the general election. This was not much in evidence when the bowler hat and umbrella still held sway and individuals with a darker skin tone were not much in evidence in the environment. Now that more of them are here, with the prospect of even more in future, getting politically involved raising placards protesting foreigners being decimated on one pretext or another, with active encouragement of the politically ascendant coteries, the man on the Clapham omnibus can’t quite make up his mind whether to go for British values of standing up for the underdog and fairness or to uphold the imperial prerogative of letting the fuzzy-wuzzies have it in the neck. It is a sort of schizophrenia which periodically takes hold of the population that necessitates some soul searching, and cries of British values and the need to redefine them goes up throughout the land.
Unherd introducing non articles to align with the filler often seen at the Spectator
Culturally there really isn’t a ‘British’ identity any more. The Welsh are Welsh, the Scots are Scots, and the English probably more and more regionalised. And London is another country. This all sounds like a joke at the expense of Britpop (which wasn’t even that popular outside the UK I think – the most successful British music act worldwide at the time was the Spice Girls)
Poppy, I hadn’t seen that Guardian list until you pointed it out, but I wish I hadn’t now. So cringeworthy.
dull waffling article.
There’s nothing cool or worth celebrating about teachers who can’t be arsed, delayed health care.due to lost records, rotting teeth, shoddy homes, cancelled trains, shit in the rivers, replacing tyres due to potholes, and every basic service requiring an upselling option to do the basic job.
The solution needs to take a psychological approach. To change, first we have to want to change.
Hanging on in quiet desperation won’t do.
A new government should hire an army of psychiatrists, psychologists starting on itself