La moitié de ma famille étant irlandaise, je n'y vois pas tant de mérite. C'est pourquoi je le propose en exclusivité sur ce forum qui a été par période, pour moi comme pour tant d'autres je présume, une planche de salut.
C'est le sujet 2011, déjà quelques peu dépassé, mais les thèmes sont récurrents et je recours à des formulations assez idiomatiques qui peuvent peut-être servir aux préparationnaires futurs, qui passeront à leur tour des centaines d'heures de leurs deux ans sur ce forum ! ^^
Venom a écrit:Question 1
According to the author, how does the British government intend to deal with the country’s current difficulties?
Over the last few years, Britain has run up a most flabbergasting deficit as the financial system that has long seen it prosper crumbles. The country can no longer live up to its erstwhile glorious standards. The ensuing changes, explains the Financial Times, will be threefold.
First, the budget. Cameron’s slashes in almost all areas of public spending will usher in a new era. No longer can Britons have their cakes and eat them: European-level welfare means European-level taxes. While risk-happy investors go scarce, the billions to be borrowed will now be charged. But if that does mean a U-turn from Washington’s policies, Britain is only one in scores to fall in pace behind German austerity, and Keynesianism is flushed from view.
The army’s dressing down is the corollary. What once was a world peacekeeping force will be pulled out of Afghanistan, the long-sought second carrier left to rust after completion; and overall, strike force is to be superseded by prestige brought by foreign aid.
The third evolution follows logically: British diplomacy will wilt. Ambassadors, shrines of a country’s grandeur, are to be turned into peddlers in the hope of thus opening new markets. Any market at all. Meanwhile, the forthcoming world will be left to bridge the discrepancies between political and actual economic power, leaving the ruling to the real giants. And small Britain will further belittle itself by giving in to xenophobic popular demand to salvage any government popularity left.
When the going gets tough… the British turn round. A budget-balancing scheme must be considered, but in the long run, does Britannia want to be looked back on as the country than ran off and skimped?
(278 words)
Question 2
In your opinion, to what extent can the United Kingdom retain its influence in the world?
Last month, in the wake of ever-diminishing public funding, BBC India radio closed its doors permanently. The 80 year-old institution was unable to compete with the new Hindi broadcasting start-ups. It was the station from which Lord Mountbatten granted the country independence in 1947. Can the United Kingdom still claim worldwide cultural stardom?
Naturally, Britain’s impact will at least live on through its language. In this America proved a worthy companion; sticking to its former colonists’ tongue in its 1787 Constitution, it went on to make British pronunciation (RP) a mark of distinction through 19th century modifications. Coupled to the triumph of a single tongue on markets, it is no wonder Shakespeare’s plays are even regularly played in Japan.
Paradoxically, the Special Relationship with the US could also be the biggest threat. Partly because Americanisation is erasing specificities such as the “fish & chips” shops. Partly because the Iraqi disaster has mired the US in hatred, and Britain is seen as an obedient sidekick. Last week’s decision to finally extradite Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, has in some eyes definitely branded Britain an underdog.
Luckily, having had an empire covering a quarter of the world’s population has left remains, above all the Commonwealth, founded in 1931. It is now feared it might collapse under the weight of its 55 member, 3-billion human structure. The UK must not let this happen, lest one of its last close bonds outside Europe dwindle.
The opposite goes for Europe. The United Kingdom’s insularity, if it hasn’t enabled megafauna to appear, has at least seen a remarkable adaptation of European dogmas, to such an extent that Blair’s “New Labour” became a world model for a few years.
Finally, the United-Kingdom is … a kingdom. A king, gentle, turn-off-the-lights-at-night sort of kingdom, and hence one that prestige-craved individuals across democracies and tyrannies alike can look up to: allegedly, 2 billion people watched the royal wedding (and the cartwheel), something no other regent could hope for.
In his 1946 novel How to be an Alien, George Mikes describes Great-Britain with amusement such as “On the Continent, they have good food; on the Isles, they have good table manners.” Through the humour remains the notion that the country is one of remarquable uniqueness, which it can and should preserve through promoting its hotbed of cultures… which are the Remains of the day (K. Ishiguro, an English writer!) of its erstwhile glory.
(402 words)
A la relecture je suis frappé par de nombreuses maladresses ainsi que quelques fautes dues à l'empressement, mais c'est aussi la preuve qu'une copie, pour peu qu'elle soit illustrée et originale, peut assez bien s'affranchir de certaines restrictions.
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