Convenience Big Store: Are the Germans the new Brits?

6 October, 2021

In the headlines

Boris Johnson told the Conservative party conference this morning that Britain needs to stop yanking "the same old lever of uncontrolled immigration" and wean itself off cheap foreign labour. "The party of business is just walking off the pitch," says the Federation of Small Businesses. A former member of the Chinese security forces has revealed details of torture against Uighurs, including women and children. We would hang them from the ceiling, beat, rape and electrocute them, he told CNN. The Afghan girls' football team, who fled the Taliban to Pakistan, have been issued with visas by the Home Office – they'll be allowed to come to the UK with their coaches and families. "Get in!" says The Sun.

Comment of the day

SPD leader Olaf Scholz on the campaign trail in August. Omer Messinger/Getty Images

Are the Germans the new Brits?

When Margaret Thatcher and her advisors discussed Germany's national character ahead of reunification in 1990, they settled on "angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex, sentimentality". Thirty years on, says Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times, these stereotypes "have completely reversed". While the US and the UK are beset by "angst" and "aggressiveness", Germany is characterised by virtues on which the British traditionally pride themselves: "calm, restraint, rationality and compromise". Take the recent German elections. The result was close, but no one claimed it was rigged or called their opponents "scum". The favourite to become chancellor, the SPD's Olaf Scholz, won over voters "with his quiet demeanour, long experience in government and pragmatic politics". What a contrast to Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

"This reversal of roles is not simply one of the ironies of history. It is the product of history." Germany built a memorial for its "greatest national disgrace", the Holocaust, "right at the heart of its capital". Politicians are "allergic to the cult of the leader" precisely because "they know where demagoguery can lead". And unlike in the UK, the US and France, "high levels of immigration have not radicalised the mainstream right". German politics is "exceptional. But this time for a good reason."

Universities are breeding sensitive souls not self-starters

The latest wave of "woke intolerance" sweeping British universities is chilling, says Clare Foges in The Times. Newcomers at St Andrews must now pass compulsory modules on unconscious bias. Students at the University of Kent must take a four-hour course on diversity that invites them to accept white privilege means being able "to dress in second-hand clothes". Cambridge students have been encouraged to report micro-aggressions such as "raising an eyebrow while a black student is speaking".

This way cultural intolerance creeps. Nervous 18-year-olds, "anxious not to displease", are warned to correct their thinking from the off. And it comes at a cost later. Employers are looking for self-starters and problem-solvers, "not sensitive souls and problem creators". This year a magazine editor told The Wall Street Journal he was no longer hiring from Ivy League universities: "If students can be traumatised by 'insensitivity' on that leafy campus, then they're unlikely to function as effective team members." It puts students off as well. A 2017 "day of absence" at Evergreen State College in the US saw white students and staff asked to leave the campus. The following year there was a "catastrophic" drop in student enrolment – and the college's budget was cut by $6m. This isn't good for business or for the young people clamouring for it. "It is the nature of young people to push the limits." But it is the responsibility of academic institutions to push back.

Film

When it comes to "the disfigurement villainy trope", James Bond is a repeat offender, says Jen Campbell in The Sydney Morning Herald. In No Time to Die, Safin has pitted skin, while Blofeld and Primo are each missing an eye. This association between evil and physical imperfection is "outdated" and gives audiences a bad impression of disability. In Ian Fleming's books, Bond has a scar on his right cheek. "Can we put that in the films? It matters."

Gone viral

Adele has released a teaser video for her latest single, Easy on Me – due out on October 15, it's her first new music since 2015. The clip was watched more than 12.5 million times within 20 hours on the 33-year-old singer's Instagram feed and prompted an online debate about her "witchy" nails. "Love the fact that Adele's nails are so epic, she can hardly turn the volume up," one fan tweeted.

Noted

The Oxford English Dictionary has embraced Korean, says The Guardian. It has added more than 20 Korean words to its latest edition, including bulgogi (thin slices of beef and pork) and chimaek (fried chicken and beer). Aegyo, a cute display of affection, is now in the OED, as is mukbang, which refers to people eating vast amounts of food while chatting to an online audience.

Snapshot

Zeitgeist

The National Monument Audit of nearly 50,000 statues across the US found 22 depicting mermaids and just two depicting congresswomen.

Snapshot answer

It's Eve Jobs, daughter of Steve, making her catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week. The 23-year-old Stanford graduate is one of the late Apple founder's four children. When Jobs died, he left most of his fortune to his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs. She's now worth more than $20bn, but last year revealed that her children wouldn't get a penny. Luckily, Eve has her own career options – as well as being a model, she's the fifth best American showjumper under 25.