A battle has been raging in Britain. The fight against terrorism? Right against left? Royalism against republicanism?
None of these.
This is the battle for the voice of Britain in the 21st century.
Up until quite recently the authoritative voice in the UK was RP, which stands for Received Pronunciation. This is the accent you used to hear on the BBC, and which is still used by some senior royals and by others - like art critic Brian Sewell - who want to sound important.
RP was generally considered a mark of authority, in the sense of feudal authority, and presumably had its roots in the French speaking court of the Norman conquistadores. When Professor Higgins learned Eliza Doolittle to speak proper, it was RP wot she spoke. Unfortunately, RP has been largely discredited by people like Mr Sewell, who The Impressionist believes to be an agent sent to undermine the old order.
RP has been replaced as the voice of Britain by a new universal known as Estuary English, or Estuarine. Estuarine is an amalgam of patoises from around the Thames and its estuary, that part of Britain which dominates the rest of the country politically, economically and culturally. It was promoted during the «Cool Britannia» period when senior members of the government tried to pretend they were concerned with reaching a wider cross section of society.
When krypto-estuarine Alan Sugar spits «you're fired» on his reality TV show to the latest hapless apprentice, its connotations with power are clear.
To those 40 million of us Brits who don't inhabit the south east of England, estuarine sounds like a slightly upmarket version of Cockney, the dialect that Dick van Dyke crucified in the movie Mary Poppins. In fact it's sometimes called Slockney to connote a bastard offspring of Sloane Square (posh) and Cockney (not).
Its major drawback is that non-Londoners associate Cockney with fly-by-nights, wheeler dealers, Del Boy Trotters ... a problem that has been amplified by Blair's ubiquitous dissembling.
It's ironic that an attempt to level off historic class differences has had the effect of providing an identifiably distinct subgroup whose perceived ethical behaviour is well below the standards of the group it replaces.
As a rallying point for a united Britain, Estuarine is a failure. In fact, it's worse than that. Its widespread exposure in the media and amongst the movers and shakers in London is likely to accelerate the drive for regionalism and nationalism.
An interesting and authoritative summary of estuary english can be found here
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