The British Are Coming!

In the normal way the universe does these sorts of things, I’m having soft power and cultural diplomacy thrown at me from every angle. So, as the law dictates, I have to write about it! It's probably just because I’m thinking about it so I’m seeing it more but still.

It started a couple of months ago on the Metro in Rome…

I saw a poster advertising English language lessons offered by The British Council. This pleased me to some extent as a couple of years before I had seen American-English lessons advertised on the Parisian Métro - yes, I take a lot of trains - and then that was it, I thought no more of it during my trip.

And then a few weeks ago, I heard a broadcast on the wonderful BBC Radio 4 which brought The British Council (BC) crashing back into my mind. The programme was called “Analysis: Cultural Diplomacy”. It discussed two projects funded by the Foreign Office of HM Government of the United Kingdom: the BBC World Service and the British Council. The purpose of these two institutions? “To promote Western liberal values [and] British values”.

Both of these are independently run, the World Service (WS) has “editoral autonomy” and the BC decides how it does what it does. However, they must clear their “objectives, priorities and targets” with the Foreign Secretary, currently William Hague.

The British Council was set up in 1934 by Sir Reginald Rex Leeper under the guise of “cultural propaganda”, a phrase which I'm sure the BC would now like to eschew, now preferring “cultural relations”. The WS was originally the Empire Service and broadcast, unsurprisingly to the British Empire. The WS has branched out and now broadcasts all over the globe, especially to those countries whose media outlets are influenced by their governments; this allows impartial news coverage as well as helping to bring about political change.

It is this last point which can be quite contentious; it can be seen as British and Western meddling. The BC in Iran were even forced to shut down their operations.

As the WS helps with the freedom of the press, the BC helps in educating people, especially in English, and shows forms of British culture, through art and noted people thoughout history, such as William Shakespeare. It is in this way that the main role of these institutions is to sell 'UK plc'. A job done, rightly or wrongly, by many others, such as the Royal Family, the Armed Forces and even Harry Potter.

One thing both of these institutions have gone to great lengths to stress over the years is their independence from the government, something which they have struggled with, especially in Iran. However, with the funding of the WS moving in 2014 from the Foreign Office to the licence fee payers - i.e. the British public - this may become easier for them to say...

My American readers should have no trouble with the week's title. I'll post the prize ;)

Much of this is based on information taken and quoted from the BBC here.