Comments on: Ballardian Secession Theory

By: TimC

TimC — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:16:21 +0000

I suspect that our Mr B might at least be amused by the fact that this arbiter of ‘Britishness’ is a US financial group of rather dubious governance.

“Without the largely foreign-owned City of London the whole country would be a suburb of Longbridge, retraining as an offshore call-centre servicing the Chinese super-economy.”

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:23:47 +0000

Andy, I absolutely agree — however, as Jim and Tim suggest, the notion of JGB winning such an award would doubtless whack certain noses completely out of joint. Doubt whether he’d accept the award, though…

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:19:16 +0000

When you travel from country to country you see that the values are all about the same. In every society there are a wide range of values and people who behave in very different ways.

Appropriating ‘values’ and labelling them with ‘British’ or whatever is just Nationalism or perverted wishful thinking.

It ranks up there with the worst of nationalist myth-making – like, for example, that English is a uniquely beautiful or creative language, or that there is a Western Culture that can be traced back to Greece and viewed in glorious isolation.

Why would anyone with their own ideas or vision want to be associated with any of that?

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:25:01 +0000

alright john and tim, you’ve convinced me — i’m voting for the great jgb! spread the word, lads. it would be good timing for him to win, too, given that the award is announced the month before his autobiography is released.

By: TimC

TimC — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:39:32 +0000

Hell, yes! If only for the cognitive dissonance it would cause in some quarters. And the sponsor seems particularly fitting, given today’s news that they’re likely to be the next big casualty of the credit market going tits-up.

Some of the other suggestions seem a little modish. David Tennant, or James Mcavoy? Talented young actors, sure, but ‘Great’?

Perhaps ‘Britishness’ these days means a tacit acceptance that the notion of traditional British values doesn’t exist.
It’s one of the nation’s finer values that, on the whole, we don’t really go in for too much nationalist grandstanding. Your proper Brit just doesn’t really worry about all that sort of nonsense.

By: Jim Colquhoun

Jim Colquhoun — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:25:35 +0000

Yes! Vote for Ballard!
The spectacle of JG walking up to a podium to recieve a ‘Great Briton Award’ would be sublime! The fact that he has turned resolutely away from any notions of ‘britishness’ and that his work is an ongoing attempt to unpack the psychology of (particularly) the western male is obviously lost on the asses who concieved of this televisual stale fart.