Dudearchy in the UK

[cakebelly]

Dudearchy in the UK slide-show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJwYJS3Xpyg

(a little on the negative side perhaps? Only Dudely contributions can help chase away the leaden-pall)

[Rev. Ed C]

Cakey, that is an awesome video!  I'd be more than proud to have that embedded in the final project

The problem with doing an expos? on any country that professes to be full of dudes is that, ultimately, no country really is that Dudely (unless you're talkin' 'bout Jamaica!).

Look at the USA, one of the biggest cleft arseholes on the planet, but one of the co-founders of the modern Dudely movement.  How many Dudes here are American, in spite of their massively undudely country??  Likewise, there's a lot of pomp and right-wingery that goes on in the UK, but it doesn't mean we can't find dudely things and dudely people if we look.

It's not about paining the UK as a Dudetopia, it's about finding what's great about us, from Jethro Tull (the band, not the farmer) to Sir Clement Freud.  From the Levellers (the movement, not the band) to forming an orderly and civilised queue.

Dudarchy in the UK is about finding the Dude within Britian, both modern and historical, can then highlighting its flaws.  Your video certainly highlights most of the questionable factors in modern British culture (those Daily Mail reading fuckheads!!), from four-class social system and the benefit state, to the dissolution of our once great public services, chavs and hoodies, etc...

If you'd like to contribute further, a second video using some examples of great Dudeliness would be great.  I know that's a stretch, so, don't bust a gut on it, take your time and build it piece by piece as it comes to you.

Look to our musicians, or comedians, and our musical comedians.  Your own Billy Bragg quote reminds me of what a Dude he is

What I do know about the UK is that people from that certain alternative scene that Meekon, Klaus, Kiteboysi and I belong to is choc full of laid back, pub-loving geeks who won't bow to the evils of being trendy clubbers and binge-drinking x-factor voters!

Stand up, stand tall, and then sit down for a bit of a rest and a pint of cider, for the United Dudedom!!

"Dude save our gracious Queen..." (and by that, I of course mean, Jennifer Saunders )

[cakebelly]

A slight misunderstanding, there, Dude - my bad (as they say over here); my comments (vid and comments on the vid) focused on the negative in the hope that it would inspire a Brit or two to set the record straight, as it were, with a more positive take of their own. It isn't exactly a contribution to the Dudearchy file, as such, just a bit of a promo - bit of a poke with a stick. I hadn't planned to do another video - I think the medium for this project will be primarily the written word; unless someone wants to make a dudeumentary. That ain't a bad idea for a Dude with a decent video camera.

I know where you are coming from  and I'm sure I can come up with some positive examples of my own - most of which would be from the past, though. Yeah, used to knock around with a few "laid back geeks" myself but every town in every country has a handful of 'alternative' types.  I was thinking more in national vibe/ movement terms. Anyway, glad you liked the vid - I probably won't be doing another (a documentary is the genre for that) - perhaps it might be an idea to set up a facebook page for Brit Dudes or something which may inspire more of a response. Maybe see if you can get hold of a video camera for the Dudestock visit and ask a few questions there.  

[Rev. Ed C]

Maybe see if you can get hold of a video camera for the Dudestock visit and ask a few questions there.   

Already going to get me a dictaphone so I can pretend to be an amateur journalist in training and do an article for the DP.  Me and the moving pictures don't get along

[Rev. Ed C]

Well, Dudes, it's that time of year again.  St. George's Day.  A day for national pride, or a day for petty-minded racism carried out by shaven-headed, slack-jawed bigots?

It's an interesting one, I'll say that for it.

When it comes to the UK and our four saints, St George, the patron saint of England is not really very different to his Celtic counterparts, but the day always seems marred, somehow.  I'm not sure this happens on any of the other saints days, to the best of my knowledge, but something about being a patriotic Englishman seems to reek of being an utter racist.

St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland - Lots of Irishmen get drunk and celebrate how great it is to come from the Emerald Isle.

St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland - Lots of Scotsmen get drunk and celebrate how great it is not to be English.

St David, patron saint of Wales - Lots of Welshmen get mildly merry and munch of cheese on toast whilst being proud they still have their own language.

St George, patron saint of England - Lots of BNP and EDL members wave the English flag around and celebrate the day we kick all the 'darkies' out of Boudicca's country.

I mean, that's a very narrow and stereotypical view of things, but, from the inside, as an Englishman, I've never been comfortable with the special brand of nationalism that we cultivate here in the south.  It's about as undude as you can get.

I've always been fine with national pride, but when zealousy and xenophobia take over it starts to pinch a bit.  I don't really see that in the rest of Britain.  The Irish, Scots and Welsh seem content to be proud of who they are (are proud we are of all of them) and reserve their animosity for the English (understandably), no one else.  Conversely, English national pride draws heavily on such ideals as "The British Empire" and "Boudiccia".  The first of which we've mostly grown ashamed of, hence the reason we let it slide and made peace with everyone.  The second is usually taken vastly out of context by ignorant nationalists.

It's a real sting in the ideal of world peace and harmony and even just Britain as a multicultural nation to have such sentiments bandied about on a day where we're supposed to celebrate what's great about ourselves, not what we think is crap about everybody else.  There's no need to be competitive, or even comparative.

A friend of mine made a rather poigiant post on Facebook the other day, which went something like this:

In choosing whether or not to celebrate St Georges day I implore people to lean towards Charles Dickens, Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, Gustav Holst, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and not the BNP and EDL. The EDL are not England, they do not represent England. Remember, being proud to be something does not mean you have to think your better than anyone else.

So, I think this sort of sentiment should be followed, to turn our backs on the Undudely element in England for today.

What we want on a day like today is for everyone to go down to the pub, quietly sup on a pint of Devonian cider or real Kentish ale and enjoy being part of a nation of great dudely people, not to get shitfaced on Carling and then go out to smash the window of your local Pakistani-run corner shop, or firebomb the nearest mosque like a reactionary fascist.

I know I'm kind of preaching to the choir here, but I'm just really venting a sentiment about Dudarchy in the UK, or the lack thereof.  But of course, it never hurts to try and set a dudely example, does it?

ps, I love the fact that when I went to spellcheck this post, it suggested that shit-faced should be spelt shitfaced instead

[Rev. Ed C]

So, Dudes, electoral reform.

I'm here, watching the results come in for yesterday's referendum on using the Alternative Vote system (AV) to elect our members of parliment, and thereby our ruling govermental party.

I'm pretty fucking dissapointed, if you don't mind me expressing it that way.  The results are coming in as a pretty clear NO to change.  People have decided with about 65% or more projecteto keep our old, and as I consider it, antiquated system in place.

We currently use the most familair electoral system in the world, known as First Past The Post.  The Post is 50% of the seats available.  Once you get 1 seat beyond, you win.  And, in places like the USA, where there are only two actual options (seeing as US 3rd parties are shunned and ignore and the poltics are stuck in a switcheroo rutt) this works just fine.  Afterall, they inherited it from us, when we had two parties.  Alas, nowadays, like most other countries around the world, it's not a battle of two, it's not black vs white, good vs evil, conservative vs liberal, it's far more complex.  And, when ther's more than two options, it's not that easy to clinch 50% all of a sudden.

The UK has two main parites, two major parties, two minor parties and a smattering of other smaller parties, and that's without even including the major Scottish and Welsh national parties and the entirely seperate Northern Irish parlimatary/party sytem.  It's a complex thing indeed.

Last year we were headed for a hung parliment, as no one got past the post in the general election, so now we have a coalition government because the Tories were too afraid of being beat up on by the other parties with a weak minority government.

AV is a chance for more people to have their votes count.  As such, I was for it, as my vote never counts.  I vote for a party which has almost no chance of beating out the incumbent party here.  For all you Americans, it's like me being an Alaskan Democrat... I'm wasting my vote.  With AV, I can rank my preferences with more than one candidate, and if my first choice is knocked out my second choice might get more support.  Candidates gets knocked out in rounds until one has more than 50% in the final showdown.  Sound complex?  Well, yeah, it is more complicated than the old system, but it's fairer.  It's not ideal, not  like Proportional Representation (PR), but it's a step forward we have never had a chance to take before.

Now, what does all this have to do with being a Dudely nation?

Here are my thoughts:

This whole campaign on AV and the results reflect, in my opinion, pretty badly on the UK.

First off, the underhanded decipt operated by the goverment in planning this referendum was shoddy.  It was held in deliberately the wrong time when it could have waited for a year or two more.  At the moment, people don't want electoral reform, they want spending reform because of all the cuts and austerity that have been going on.

Secondly, the hypocracy of the Tories who say NO to AV.  David Cameron, the Prime Minister is only the PM because he was leader of his party at the time of the elction.  He was only the leader of the party because he won via AV.  Had it not been an AV vote for party leader, he'd not be leader or PM.  It's good enough for him and his party, and good enough to get them the mayor of London, but not good enough for the UK?  He'd a hypocrite and liar, man, plain and simple.

That aside, the govement ruling party than got staunchly behind the NO campaign, which operated a disgusting tactic of scaremongering, mudslinging and out and out lying to the public.  Conversely, the YES camp came out with lots of intelligent, pro-active and well respected celebrities, from Eddy Izzard, to Joanna Lumly, to Steven Fry and Tony Robinson saying how important a move forward this is.  The NOs ran such a scary and dishonest campaign that even the power of celebrity got quashed!

Beyond this, the results speak ill of us as a progressive people, where the pro-active youth are but a small number of the vote, where most youngsters are apathetic and disinterested in politics, and it's all the nation's elders who come out to vote en mass in their very tradional mindset.  Which, actually, is very ironic, as politics has shifted to a younger man's game these past 15 years, with all the party leaders now being men in their 30s and 40s, not 50s and 60s.  A lot of young MPs are also prominent, putting a lot of the older ones to the back, in the shadows.  gone are the days of Thatcher and Churchill, Gladstone and Disralei... now is the time of the nappy politicians, elected for by the incontinence pants voters.  So much for equality, eh?

So, I'm sad that we're a stagnent nation of apathetic nay-sayers and crusty traditionalists who fall for scaremongers and liarswho are only out for themselves, not the people.  Where are the laid-back, free-thinkers?  Oh yeah, they were all out on the road trying to get people to vote YES.  Great effort guys, sorry the nation didn't live up to that dudely ideal.

[TheOlivant]

Erm...........yeah what he said !

So to throw positive and relevant thought to the subject, what would constitute symbols (cos folk like em) of Englishness that would bond the populous in thier pride of this great country they call England ? Or even on a broader aspect Britishness ?

I have a few to throw tot he forum:

The Wombles and quality TV in general (coronation street for example, now im not cool with soaps but have tollerated it in the name of keeping the peace and come to 'like' it, much like 'Adventure Time' and 'The Regular Show') - hmmm...drug of the nation ! just realised the error of my ways...........arse!

Tea (even though it's not English) - maybe it shold be the act of drinking tea ?

Cricket and football - even though everyone else get better than us at it.

Bottom Jokes, especially farting

A ruling Monarchy (note that I didnt specify anyone, although my favourite is Egbart - he had a cool name)

We do seem to be quite good at fighting - is that Dudely ? I think we have always done it in defence to be fair, so maybe so !?

Did I miss the boat here ? it's been such a long thread, it is cool to bring up randoms from the bygon thread pasts, isnt it ?


...eDude

[cckeiser]

Did I miss the boat here ? it's been such a long thread, it is cool to bring up randoms from the bygon thread pasts, isnt it ?


...eDude

Fuckin' a yeah, dude.  When we say "any rug in the place dude" we mean any rug in the place dude. Welcome to our nice quiet beach community dude.
This is where I would say "any rug in the place dude", but I see you already found one!
Have at it dude.

[ThatEnglishDude]

I'm keen to get involved in this, i'm from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk in England which is pretty dudey.

I'll read through the thread later today when I have time, and begin from there

x

[Rev. Ed C]

First article that will at some point merge into the Dudarchy in the UK project:  http://dudespaper.com/when-in-york.html/

After 18 months... it's going somewhere??  Slowly, so sweetly slowly

[ThatEnglishDude]

That article was pretty rad
Well if you ever wished to visit Bury St. Edmunds then i'm sure myself and my fellow dudes will welcome you! It's quite a dudely place, not to mention that it is the home of Greene King with many many pubs, and has a higher percentage of alcohol purchase than the rest of the UK!
It also has a pretty chilled out place called The Abbey Gardens which is based in the ruins of the old monastery, where people like to hang out and spend their days chilling in the sun. Can't go wrong there.

x

[Rev. Ed C]

Ah, Bury St. Edmonds.... or as it once came up in a pub quiz as the answer to the cryptic clue: "Interred Holy Blackadders".

I got that one, the one that I can't believe I missed was: "Plate still full".  Answer.... Nuneaton!  Gah!

[Rev. Ed C]

Dang, it's been a while since I tried to kickstart this thing... *rubs temples with the mantra "die beat, die!"*  Thanks, btw, to TheOlivant for your contribution there, sorry it got missed in my forum-blind haze, just read it and smiled   Haha, farting!

The monarchy point is a good one, because I did want to cover it during the Dudarchy thing (which is looking like it mind end up being a column, rather than a large multi-page article, the way things are panning out, and with the York article up and running).

The monarchy is certainly a pretty undude in general, but without babbling, I will say one thing in its defence:  I did cover what the Levellers did for the dudely state of play in the UK, but the sad thing was that they did pave the way for Cromwell, the history's most infamous super-puritan, who ruled England with a cast-iron fist until his death, paving the way for the monarchy to return with a bang in the form of the Reformation.  After Cromwell's ban on all things ungodly, including the theatre and all forms of singing, the newly rebuilt and now once again Catholic monarchy sparked a short era of partying and pissing about to spite those Puritan ideals for generations and leave a lot of dudely glee across the land.

Alas, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the overwhelming tyranny and nobheadedness of the monarchies we've had, but, isn't that always the case?

[ThatEnglishDude]

That's fucking interesting man.
Any thoughts about establishing a separate Dudeism UK branch-off site or something likewise.   Just somewhere for the UK dudes to establish all this information, to help the "Grand Old Dude of York" promote Dudestock, etc.

Just an idea man.

[Rev. Ed C]

That's fucking interesting man.
Any thoughts about establishing a separate Dudeism UK branch-off site or something likewise.   Just somewhere for the UK dudes to establish all this information, to help the "Grand Old Dude of York" promote Dudestock, etc.

Just an idea man.

Well, there is a "Dudes UK" facebook group, which at the moment is mostly Mother Duderior posting jokes and random crap, but, y'know...