Lecture 6. British Leisure

How the British Use Their Free Time

In Britain the question would be formulated in the following way: ‘As one travels by train past unknown towns and villages, or sits in a bus as it wanders along darkening streets, one must wonder what all those people in houses and flats behind lighted windows are actually doing. How do people spend their time when they are not actually working?’

Surveys can divide the population by age, or occupation, or education and come up with all sorts of results. For instance, we know that in both Britain and Russia, television is the most popular entertainment. Almost everyone has a television and in Britain they spend an average of 25 hours a week watching it – although the researchers are careful to point out that ‘watching’ is not always accurate: many people leave the television switched on to keep them company, even if they are not following the programme. And it is, for example, almost unknown to keep the television on while having a meal or enertaining friends, unless there is something specific that the group is choosing to watch. The point is that these are class differences. Leisure activities in Britain are immensely affected by class; too much affected, in fact, because some activities, though not forbidden, are simply not practised by some groups, which means that individuals who might have enjoyed them do not have the experience.

Theatre, opera and ballet, for example, are almost exclusively the pleasures of the educated middle classes. If we consider private leisure in Britain, their national enthusiasm is for gardening. A very high proportion of their homes have small gardens attached, and those people without much space but much enthusiasm can rent allotments (land owned by local councils for private cultivation), quite cheaply. About 44% of the population claim to spend time gardening. The cliumate is ideal. Most of them do not need to grow vegetables, but home-grown fruit and vegetables taste much better than those in shops which have been grown commercially. They also grow flowers, and, as everyone knows, have a passion for lawns of grass which stay green throughout the year.

The other popular home-based activity is ‘D-I-Y’ or ‘Do-It-Yourself’, that is, improvement of one’s home by decorating, making furniture, fitting in shelves, cupboards, or turning the roof space into a room – and other less ambitios but useful tasks like small-scale plumbing and electricity work. They now have excellent shops which supply the materials and tools; and books with detailed advice are everywhere on sale. Enthusiasts are always being advised not to undertake certain jobs – but some men with electric drill or saw in their hands will not stop until the house has been reconstructed. Many women join in D-I-Y but more concentrate on needlework – sewing curtains, and cushion-covers, as well as clothes. About half the women in the country spend time on needlework or knitting.

‘Reading’ means such different things to different people that it is extremely difficult to decide how important books are in the lives of British citizens. They have well-stocked book-shops and a good public library service. Books are available, brightly coloured, cheerfully designed – and expensive. The public libraries are spacious and attractive, and always have displays with information about what is going on in the town concerned, as well as free access to the books. In Britain the attractions of television and videos have reduced the enthusiasm for reading, which for many people is confined to glancing at a newspaper with a very limited vocabulary and range of expressions. Here is an unquestionable loss. On the other hand, children educated by watching television or Internet browsing know far more about, for instance, geography, natural history, and world politics than their parents.

Their TV dramas and documentaries, their cultural and scientific programmes, satirical programmes, practical and educational programmes and coverage of the world’s news are (at least, in general) excellent, by world standards. And of course there is lighter entertainment – games, family comedy, celebrity shows, soap-operas (drama serials which go on and on and on...). Although, of all TV channels, only two belong to the BBC and others to various independent commercial companies, the long tradition of the BBC to provide culture and serious objective programmes of a high standard has influenced the commercial companies. The BBC is paid for by a licence fee, and is free of the Government and of commercial pressures – in theory, at least; the commercial companies, which get their money through advertising, have drawn on this tradition, and produce many programmes which are not ruined by gross advertising and commercial pressure.

On the other hand, their newspapers are mostly owned by big financiers whose first concern is to earn a lot of money. At their worst, anything which makes money goes into the newspapers, anything which doesn’t is cut out. Huge headlines, nude photographs, gross distortions of what people said and did, and crude sensationalism can be justified by ‘That’s what the people want, and in any case, that’s how I make my money’. There are three or four fine independent national newspapers too, of a much more serious kind, which cover many different political viewpoints. But their popular press raises complicated questions about, for example, freedom, pornography, truth, intrusion into privacy, decency, lies and ‘giving the people what they want’.

Of course, they have youth organisations, of which the largest are the Scouts and Guides for young people up to the age of 18; and for adults they have all kinds of groups associated with work, with churches, with sporting and cultural activities, and with charity work. None of these are official, although some will get some support from central or local government through organisations like the Arts Council and the Sports Council. However, most of this money will go on helping professionals.

The chief characteristic of such group activity is that it is widespread, locally organised, and dependent on the enthusiasm of those taking part. For example, in a town of, say, 100,00 inhabitants, if we look simply at music-making, we can expect to find two or three choral societies, rehearsing for a major oratorio like Mendelssohn’s Elijah or Handel’s Messiah, or for a concert of shorter choral works and madrigals; a brass band will be warming up their cornets and tubas for their open-air summer concerts; after school or on Saturday morning, the best young instrumentalists will be practising in the youth orchestra – and maybe planning a summer tour in Europe. The music society will be rehearsing for the next series of concerts where amateurs and young professionals and students will perform together. If the town has a cathedral, the choir of boys and proferssional male singers will be singing evensong for most evenings in the year. Any colleges or institutes will have their own musical society, and, if they are ambitious, they may stage an opera as well. Every school will have its own choir. And at various pubs which have chosen to hold musical events you will find tonight, maybe, a folk club, and tomorrow, a blues band. Different ethnic groups have found their own place – a hall, a room, a pub – and are putting on concerts of their national music for each other and for the general public; and up and down the town, in garages and sheds and forgotten corners of old buildings, young people with guitars, drums, keyboards and anything else they can get hold of will be turning themselves into the next ‘greatest pop group of all time’. All of this is music-making which is or will be for public performance. The money comes from the members themselves: choirs, bands and orchestral societies are all supported by members’ subscriptions and by what can be earned through giving concerts and other fund-raising. Organising rehearsals, publicity, concerts and membership is the work of devoted volunteers. If nobody helps, nothing happens.

Holidays: Cottages, Caravans and Packages

Nowadays, virtually every full-time emploee is entitled to four weeks or more of paid holiday (excluding Sundays and any half or full free days included in the contract). Much of this free time will be spent at home or visiting relatives, especially at Christmas. ‘Taking a holiday’ means going away from home for at least a few days. About 80% of their managerial and professional classes have at least one holiday of five days or more a year, but less than half the manual working class will spend their savings on this pleasure. Older pensioners and families with young children find ‘going away’ particularly difficult.

By ‘holiday’ we mean in fact the organisation of holidays and consequently the kind of holidays you take. Big factories in Britain will often close for two weeks in the summer; shops, offices and businesses will sometimes arrange to close for a period, but more often, individual employees will have to work out a rota for taking holidays so that work can continue while they are away. There are no ‘rest homes’, virtually no trade-union holidays, no rights to a particular holiday centre, no sanatoria.

Some people hire a caravan on the sea-shore. It is cheap and convenient. It is possible to buy a tent and camp in various campsites around Wales, for example. Many of these are in very beautiful places, and they allow more privacy than caravan sites. Showers, toilets and a shop are normally available. People walk, explore mountains and streams, take picnics on boating expeditions on lakes, and visit castles, caves and historic sites. This is a kind of holiday which assumes that you have a car – to reach the campsite. The caravan sites are less dependent on individual transport and tastes.

It is possible to rent a cottage – in Scotland, for example. Throughout the depopulated parts of the country small houses, cottages, barns and even old mansions used to stand empty, falling into ruin. Many of them have now been bought by a private owner who has adapted them for holidays. Since they are normally only let for a few weeks a year, the rents are high; but an old stone cottage with an open fire, beauty and privacy is the dream of many people, especially among the professional classes. These are outdoor, hill-walking holidays, interspersed with huddling round the fire, trying to keep warm, and cooking whatever vegetables can be found in the local distant shop (not much, to tell the truth!)

Some people can afford to go to France, for a camping holiday. Travelling ‘abroad’ is both easy and something of an adventure in a foreign country where language, culture, climate and daily habits are different. The nearest holiday area of France is only three or four hundred kilometres away, but travel, especially on the ferry boat, is never cheap. The British families drive to the warm south, camp in comfortable French campsites, explore France and occasinally eat in cheap French restaurants.

It is possible to buy a ‘package holiday’ in Spain, for example. By paying a single payment to the travel agent you receive a ‘package’ of an air fare, hotel reservations, and sometimes excursions and a group guide. You know before you start exactly how much the holiday will cost. Spain is popular because it offers a wonderful climate. Package holidays are cheap and very convenient, but they are organised for groups (hence the cheapness) and you have to have similar tastes to those of the people on holiday with you.

Students can buy a European ‘Railcard’ for a month, and travel wherever they wish on the European railways. They meet hundreds of other young people, wander round half a dozen famous European cities, get extremely dirty (not many showers) and live on buns and pies bought on station platforms, sleep on Greek beaches, spend a week-end in a small Dutch town, etc.

Young people sometimes spend a holiday working in a home for mentally-handicapped children. A group of volunteers take the children on excursions to the seaside, to the country, and to a special performance of a children’s play. Under supervision from qualified staff they cook, feed and help to care for the children. During the second week, the volunteers, the children and one or two extra ‘normal’ children from the village produce their own play for the parents and staff. This takes much energy but is very exciting. Young people relax each evening in the village pub where they become very friendly with some of the ‘locals’ (regular customers of the pub).

If you want to be extravagant, you may fly to Italy. Book a hotel in Florence, spend a week in the art galleries and churches there, and then spend another week visiting nearby smaller but beautiful Italian towns. Since you have to spend money on airfares, hotels, meals out and travel, the holiday is very expensive. But it is wonderful.

These are typical ‘middle-class’ holidays. Holidays at the seaside, in boarding houses (much cheaper than hotels), caravans, and holiday camps were the traditional holidays of working class people. Now many of them fly on package holidays to Spain. Group holidays, whether in holiday camps in Britain or in hotels in Spain, are much cheaper, and therefore offer the possibility of a proper holiday to people with less money.

As for our ‘dachas’, the nearest term would be ‘country cottage’. But they are owned by a small minority, and most of them are too far away to be visited more than three or four times a year. A dacha culture makes sense if you have much land, a depopulated countryside and urban dwellers in flats. But there is very little spare land in Britain, a populated countryside and urbam dwellers in small houses with their own gardens. Apart from poverty, age, and other circumstances, this may explain why significant numbers of people have no ‘holiday’. Truly enthusiastic garderners never want to go away at all!

Examination cards

 

1. Citizenship, nationality and passports in Great Britain.

2. England.

3. Ireland.

4. Scotland.

5. Wales.

6. A mixed population.

7. The history of Great Britain (in short).

8. The land.

9. Industrial Britain.

10. Houses and homes.

11. Interviews, estate agents.

12. Families and their behaviour over the last years.

13. Britain as a class society.

14. Priveleged élites and democracy.

15. Political parties.

16. Elections.

17. Government.

18. Education.

19. The military.

20. How the British use their free time.

21. How the British spend their holidays.