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arena it is illuminating to note
that in the 1990s when John
Major was campaigning for a
classless society of warm fuzzy
niceness he was rather selective
in quoting George Orwell’s
1949 essay The Lion and the
Unicorn when he said;
‘Fifty years on from now,
Britain will still be the country
of long shadows on cricket
grounds, warm beer, invincible
green suburbs, dog lovers and
pools fillers and, as George
Orwell said, 'Old maids
bicycling to holy communion
through the morning mist”.
Mr Major skipped the bit where
Orwell had also included “the
queues outside the Labour
Exchanges” in his list of the
characteristics of English life.
The Cat’s Mother
Our first telephone arrived in
the 1960s and sat by the front
door at the bottom of the stairs
in the chilly hall on its own like
a naughty child. It brought into
our lives a party line but it
wasn’t ever as fun as it sounded.
We never knew who we shared
the line with, the anonymous
and rather bossy sharer was only ever referred to in our
house as
“she”.
If we were on it when
she
wanted to be
on it
she
would huff and puff and tut until we gave in
and ended the conversation.
Thankfully party lines are no more but it was the huge
demand for telephone services that revolutionized the
world of the queue and brought about a branch of
mathematics called
Queuing Theory
- the study of
The Political Queue
One of the most iconic political images of the
modern British era is the Saatchi & Saatchi poster
for the Conservative Party 1978-79 election
campaign showing a long snaking line of people
queuing at the Dole Office under the headline
‘LABOUR ISN’T WORKING’. The message struck
a powerful chord with the British electorate in May
1979 sweeping Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Party
into power. Of course it wasn’t a real dole queue in
the poster, it was members of the Hendon Young
Conservatives and their mums and dads called to a
photo-shoot in Hyde Park. Actually only 20 people
turned up so each person appears in the photograph
several times! According to the world view of Lady
Thatcher back then, to maintain good discipline in
the queue at the bus stop is essential and British but
to actually board the bus after the age of thirty is the
epitome of failure.
Look too closely at how politicians exploit the queue
for political mileage and we risk revealing that we
are not so much a nation that loves to queue but one
that loves to grumble. Before we leave the political
Agner Erlang