It Ain't Country: Why is rural life forgotten in British politics, culture and media?
Ahhhh the countryside. The perfect place to project your own ideologies, fantasies and desires onto.
This might as well be texted to everyone who lives in a big city or town in the UK. Which is, to be fair most of the population.
Either the countryside is a cliche: rich farmers or inbreed 'yokals' or it is a smelly threat to house prices or a nice place for a holiday home.
It of course can not be a place of complex and varied communities with complex needs. That would give agency to the country and shatter people's projected ideologies and fantasies.
In the mainstream media, it does appear that the country is basically just rich farmers, inbred locals or a place for a holiday home.
Much like our seaside towns. The "Rural" is ignored, marginalised and politically taken for granted and stereotypes for city dwellers and suburbanites of Surrey.
Why is this?
Firstly: I believe it is because much of the UK's political, social and cultural elite all live or have fled to London at a young age and just do not come into contact with the countryside for a long time (if ever).
Secondly there is a snobbery around people "wanting" to live in the countryside, in the places they grew up. Which ironically is held by people who want to relocate and retire to another part of the countryside.
Thirdly farms have become "de-workered" as fewer and fewer workers are needed to run and manage farms, their political impact has diminished as capital increases have made large landowners more powerfully political through donations. This has served as the link between people and farms.
Fourthly the success of This Country shows that there is a passion and place for the countryside, but people in the media find it hard to tell these stories in a way that is authentic.
Fifth: as more farms have become mono-crop or mono-livestock due to the pressure from "BIG FOOD" as a conspiracy theories call Tesco's (other supermarkets are also to blame) they have lost the connection that used to exist in localalities become towns and the countryside. Those connections have been replaced by account managers at ARLA who chat to Purchasing managers at Tescos.
Both will live in Barret Homes's new builds in the commuter belt of London.
Those are my ideas anyway. They are still in progress and will hopefully be expanded on in the future.
What are your thoughts? Email me.